Guides.
Practical writing about the work people do in their notes, from daily notes, tasks, and links to moving years of notes out of another app and keeping them private on every device.
Writing and organizing guides
Writing and finding notes in plain Markdown: the syntax, tables, daily notes and tasks, converting PDFs and web pages, search by meaning, and getting an earlier version back.
- How to convert PDF and Word to markdown: six tools tested
- How to convert PDF to markdown and Word docx to markdown, with real output from pandoc, MarkItDown, Docling, Marker, MinerU and PyMuPDF4LLM on the same files.
- Daily notes and todo lists in plain markdown
- Daily notes in markdown: date-based file names, a short daily note template, shell shortcuts, and a markdown todo list you can search across every file.
- Markdown table syntax: how to make a table in Markdown
- Markdown table syntax with copyable examples: pipes, the separator row, alignment, escaped pipes, line breaks in cells, and where tables render.
- How to save a web page as markdown
- How to save a web page as markdown with a browser extension, trafilatura, pandoc or a reader service, with tested commands and what each tool gets wrong.
- Semantic search for your notes, offline and without the cloud
- How to run semantic search for notes offline with a local embedding model in Jotura, Obsidian, Joplin or the command line, plus a test that proves it.
- Version history for markdown notes: recover lost edits and files
- Version history for markdown notes: how long git, editors, Jotura, Obsidian and cloud drives keep versions, and how to undo an overwrite, delete or agent edit.
- Wikilinks, callouts and extended markdown syntax, explained
- Wikilinks, callouts and extended markdown syntax explained: how a wikilink finds its note, wikilinks vs markdown links, embeds, and where each one renders.
Sync and privacy guides
Getting the same notes on every device without handing them to a provider that can read them.
- How end-to-end encrypted note sync works, and who can read your notes
- How end-to-end encrypted sync works for notes: keys made from your password, what the server still sees, recovery phrases, and which apps can read your notes.
- How to sync markdown notes across devices: every option compared
- How to sync markdown notes across devices with Jotura Sync, iCloud, Dropbox, Syncthing, git or Obsidian Sync, compared on phones, encryption, merging and cost.
Migration guides
Moving your notes out of Notion or Evernote into plain Markdown files, and checking nothing was lost on the way.
- Evernote to Markdown: export ENEX and convert your notes
- Evernote to Markdown, step by step: export ENEX from the desktop app, convert it with Yarle, evernote2md or Obsidian Importer, then check links and files.
- How to export Notion to Markdown, and what you lose
- Export Notion to Markdown step by step: the settings that matter, what databases and links lose, stripping IDs from filenames, and checking nothing was lost.
Comparison guides
Choosing a Markdown notes app or a notes app with a command line, including the places where each one wins.
- The best markdown note apps in 2026, and why we pick Jotura
- The best markdown note apps in 2026 compared on files, phones, sync, encryption and price, why we pick Jotura, and where another app fits you better.
- Notes apps with a CLI: ten terminal note tools compared
- A notes app with a CLI, compared: nb, zk, iwe, jrnl, dnote, Joplin, the Obsidian CLI, NotesMD, Basic Memory and Jotura, with platforms and JSON output.
AI agent guides
For people who also use Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Copilot: agent memory, what goes in CLAUDE.md, MCP servers versus a CLI, and working in an Obsidian vault.
- CLI vs MCP for AI agents: context cost, auth and when to use each
- CLI vs MCP for AI agents: what tool definitions and results cost in Claude Code's context, how auth and sandboxes differ, and when MCP is the better pick.
- How to give AI agents persistent memory, and what each agent remembers
- Why agents forget between sessions, what Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and Copilot keep natively, and how to give AI agents persistent memory across tools.
- How to use Claude Code with your Obsidian vault
- Use Claude Code with your Obsidian vault: run it in the vault folder, add a CLI for hash-checked edits and link-safe renames, and set permission rules.
- How to sync CLAUDE.md and Claude Code settings between machines
- How to sync CLAUDE.md between machines with skills, settings and plugins: what to move, what never to copy, Windows symlink traps and a setup for teams.
- Vector database vs markdown files for agent memory
- Vector database vs markdown for agent memory, plus SQLite FTS5, MCP memory servers, Mem0, Letta and Zep: what each stores, who can fix it, what it costs.
- What to put in CLAUDE.md, with a full example and MEMORY.md explained
- What to put in CLAUDE.md, where every file loads, an annotated example, a bloated file trimmed down, and how Claude Code's MEMORY.md auto memory works.