The Zettelkasten Zkn3 User Manual: Part 1 covers just the various Menu items (see Zettelkasten Zkn3 English Language Manual )
The aim of part 2 is to explore some key working practices and to give a practical guide to using the Zkn3 features. Also I want to use this blog post to record some of the more advanced features that I find useful and other tips I picked up from the GitHub Forum or web searches. This is a ‘live’ blog and I will add to it as I go along.
Later I will add Part 3 which is where I will record how I get along with using a Zettelkasten and what benefits I gain from using in both in my research work and in turning the writing cycle.
Let’s hope the ‘little index cards’ bring me luck.
Adapting the Zkn3 Workflow to Luhmann's working practice
The temptation is to leap straight in and start adding Notes and Keywords to your brand new Zettelkasten, however first it might be best to understand Luhmann's original ideas which you can do here:
Introduction to Luhmann's Zettelkasten thinking and its technical implementation - lecture slides
It is clear from this essay (see slide 34 onwards) that the real driver behind Luhmann's Zettelkasten was Note Sequences (Folgezettel) where Notes were linked as Themes which branched and divided as the Theme developed. This connection was much more powerful than simple Keywords or Manual Links. In your Zettelkasten you should aim for the majority of Notes to be formed into Note Sequences along any number of branching and interconnected Themes. Minimum number of keywords to give them proper weight and use of links to join Themes together
When reading a source or even multiple sources, it might be obvious which Notes form a common Theme, however this is not always the case, so it would pay dividends to be able to go back and construct these themes later on. Although it is easier to create Notes Sequences as you go along, nonetheless a review process to turn individual Notes into Note Sequences can work just as well, especially with complex Themes. Luhmann reckoned that working on the Zettelkasten was more work than reading the sources.
Also the workflow for using the Zettelkasten needs to be as seamless as possible, so that Notes can be created quickly and easily with little effort.
The result of these considerations makes my workflow look something like this:
Physical documents: books, printed journals, paper or photographic documents
Read the book to find relevant paragraphs for including in the Zettelkasten. Perhaps mark up the book with arrow markers for later incorporation into the Zettelkasten.
Capture these using Microsoft Lens (for Android) on my phone using Action/Text capture to utilise the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to convert the image into digital text. (Using the Document option and then saving the document as a PDF, I found after about 10 goes that I received a message "You have exceeded the number of service requests")
Save the resultant text document in either OneDrive or Google Drive as a .txt document. The small file size helps with rapid transfer. Name the .txt document with the page number of the source.
Open the .txt document and copy and paste the text into a Zettelkasten Note
Alternative methodology
Take a photograph using the Microsoft Camera on my Surface Go (Windows 10) tablet, usually in a library or archive. Using the 'Document' format means that the programme with automatically deskew and crop to the printed text. To extract the digital text from the image, the easiest way is to use Abbyy Screenshot Reader and you can then paste it directly into your Zettelkasten.
Another method with a book containing a lot of references is to mark them with paper stick on arrow markers and then use a book scanner to scan the pages and turn them into a PDF, from where you can copy/paste them into the Zettekasten.
Digital documents: books, journals, archival material in digital formats such as PDF
Before reading confirm that the PDF has a text file behind it. If not run the document through Abbyy FineReader 15 to produce a PDF with text
Read through the material to find relevant paragraphs
Copy and paste the text into a Zettelkasten Note, adding Author, Keywords, Links and References.
Note Sequences - Constructing a Theme as you read a source
As you read your source, you come across references that you want to add into the Zettelkasten as a new Theme. To do this:
Create the first Note of your new Theme using Ctrl+N or the button on the Toolbar. This is the Parent Note.
To add the first Child Note, select the Parent Note so that it appears in the Text Box and then use Ctrl+I to create the next Note in the Sequence
To add another Child Note AT THE SAME LEVEL select the Parent Note and use Ctrl+I (I find it useful to do this in the Note Sequence Tab of the Data window) or use the Note Sequence Button on the Toolbar.
To add another Child Note AT A LOWER LEVEL (i.e. branch off) select the Child Note where you want the branch and use Ctrl+I
Keep adding Child Notes at the appropriate levels using the methods above.
Note Sequences - Constructing a Theme from existing Notes
You might select a Note to be the Parent Note or you might make a new Note as a Register Note, and put into the Text box the outline of the Theme.
The next step is most important as you need to focus Zkn3 on the new Parent Note. In order to do this, go to the Data window, select the Titles Tab and select the Note which you want to use as the parent, so that appears in the Text window. Next move to the Note Sequence Tab and right click on the Note. Select 'Insert Note Sequence' (Ctrl+Alt+I) and input the next few Child Note numbers, separated by a comma and a space. Click OK. The Child Notes should appear underneath the parent.
The focus of Zkn3 is now on this new Note Sequence, so now you can use the Note Sequence button on the Toolbar to add further Child Notes which will appear in the Note Sequence Tab underneath the existing Child Notes.
To change the order of Child Notes, view the Parent Note in the Note Sequence Tab in the Data window. In here you can click and drag Notes to change their order. You cannot move between Levels using this method, so instead right click on the Note, select 'Remove' and the Note is removed from the Note Sequence. Now select the Parent of Branch Note for the Level you require and insert the Note again using the Note Sequence Button on the Toolbar.
If you want to create a branch, in the Note Sequence Tab, select the Child Note to be the head of the Branch, right click and select 'Insert Note Sequence' or use Ctrl+I. Add in the Note Numbers required. To add in further Child Notes on this Level, use the Note Sequence Button with the Branch Head Note selected. Using 'Insert Note Sequence' or Ctrl+I a second time will add in another branch to a lower level.
If you not ensure that the Zkn3 'focus' is established before inserting your Child Notes (see step 2) you will find that using the Note Sequence Button will insert Notes in odd places, usually the last Note you were working on. Even selecting the Note in the Title Tab of the Data Window and double clicking on it, so that it appears in the Text window is not sufficient to shift the focus.
To remove Parent status from a Note, go into the Note Sequence Tab in the Data window, right click on each Child Note until they are all removed. A Note with no Children will lose its Parent status. If you remove a Higher level Child Note it will also remove all the Lower Level Child Notes as well, unless you specify otherwise in the pop-up menu.
In the Title view in the Data window, Note Sequences are shown as blue bars to the right of the title. Parent Notes have dark blue to light blue boxes while Child Notes on lower levels have light blue to dark blue boxes.
The idea behind the Note Sequence is to replicate Luhmann's branching Note structure however I find that it needs to be used with care, otherwise much time is lost in repairing the mistakes.
Creating a new Zettelkasten
Creating a New Zettelkasten
From Menu select File / Create new File
From Toolbar select Save and name file and location
Personally I like to create a separate folder for each Zettelkasten so that all the files, backups and other items are all grouped together.
Open or switch between Zettelkasten
From Toolbar select Open or Ctrl+0
From the window select the .zkn3 file for the relevant Zettelkasten
Navigation around the Zettelkasten
In upper right hand Data window select Titles Tab to view list of Notes
Access most sub-menus by going to upper right hand data box, select relevant Tab and right click on an item to access the sub-menu for Authors/Keywords/etc
The bottom section of the box contains the search bar
Type a term into the box and press Enter to display the results in the window above.
Roll over the box with the cursor to reveal further commands for each specific Tab displayed
Authors: Importing bibliographic data
In Zotero :
Right click on collection that you want to export and select 'Export Item/Collection/Library'
Select 'BibTex' as Export File Type and tick Export Notes box with character encoding UTF-8
Save file in your Zettelkasten folder
In ZKN3
Select File / Import
Select 'Authors from a BibTex file'
Select radio button 'Append the imported data to the open data file and press Finish
In the next Menu Box select from Encoding of BibTex file as Zotero
Citation style Zettelkasten
Source: BibTex file
Tick Automatically Import Keywords (this will bring over Zotero 'Tags' as 'Keywords')
Select All BibTex Entries for first data upload. Later ones can use the Only New BibTex Entries option or to refresh the data use Only Used BibTex Entries
It will show you how many records of the dataset will be uploaded
Press Select All and it will select the requisite files. Click Next
In the next Menu Box decide whether to Replace, Combine or Add New Authors and Notes as described
Click Finish
If you now click the Authors Tab in the Top Right Hand Data Window you will see all the Authors that you have just loaded
When using Create Note or Edit Note, clicking on the Author list will add that bibliographic data to the Note.
Working with your Zettelkasten
Creating a New Note (Zettel)
From Toolbar select New
Opens New Entry window
Type directly into 'Title' box the Note Title
Type directly the Note details into 'Entry' box
From Menu use 'Format' items to change the look of text (see further details below)
From Toolbar use formatting items to change the look of the text
In the 'Data' window click on 'Author' and Keywords' tabs and double click on relevant entries to enter them into their boxes. New keywords can be added by typing into the text bar underneath the Keywords box
Use the 'Remarks' box to record page numbers and other information about the source
From Toolbar use 'Attachments' to insert files into the Attachments box
Similarly from the Toolbar select "Links" to add a manual link to another Note(s) using their ID Number. This link can be named
When complete, press "Apply" in bottom right hand corner
Editing a Note
From Toolbar click Edit button
Opens the Edit Window and from here you can change the note as required.
When finished press 'Apply' in bottom right hand corner
Note if you just want to add a Keyword to an existing note, select the keyword in the Data Screen and right click, selecting "Add Keyword" and it will be added without the need to open up the Edit screen.
Note Sequences - Constructing a Theme as you read a source
As you read your source, you come across references that you want to add into the Zettelkasten as a new Note Sequence or Theme. To do this:
Create the first Note of your new Theme using Ctrl+N or the button on the Toolbar as described above. This is the Parent Note. For what might be a major Theme you can make this a Register or Index Note where you can record details about the Theme.
To add the first Child Note, select the Parent Note in the Title Tab of the Data Window so that it appears in the Text Box and then use Ctrl+I to create the next Note in the Sequence
To add another Child Note AT THE SAME LEVEL select the Parent Note and use Ctrl+I. To add another Child Note AT A LOWER LEVEL (i.e. branch off) select the Child Note where you want the branch and use Ctrl+I
Keep adding Child Notes at the appropriate levels using the methods above.
Alternatively select Parent Note and then the Note Sequence Tab in the Data window so that the whole Note Sequence is displayed. Then right click on a relevant Note to create the next one in the sequence.
Note Sequences - Constructing a Theme from existing Notes
This methodology assumes that you have created a number of Notes while reading a source(s) but have not attempted to connect them at this stage.
You might select a Note to be the Parent Note or you might make a new Note as an Index/Register Note, and put into the Text box the outline of the Theme.
The next step is most important as you need to focus Zkn3 on the new Parent Note.
In order to do this, go to the Data window, select the Titles Tab and select the Note which you want to use as the parent, so that appears in the Text window.
Next move to the Note Sequence Tab and right click on the Note.
Select 'Insert Note Sequence' (Ctrl+Alt+I) and input the next few Child Note numbers, separated by a comma and a space. Click OK. The Child Notes should appear underneath the parent.
The focus of Zkn3 is now on this new Note Sequence, so now you can use the Note Sequence button on the Toolbar to add further Child Notes which will appear in the Note Sequence Tab underneath the existing Child Notes.
To change the order of Child Notes, view the Parent Note in the Note Sequence Tab in the Data window. In here you can click and drag Notes to change their order. You cannot move between Levels using this method, so instead right click on the Note, select 'Remove' and the Note is removed from the Note Sequence. Now select the Parent of Branch Note for the Level you require and insert the Note again using the Note Sequence Button on the Toolbar.
If you want to create a branch, in the Note Sequence Tab, select the Child Note to be the head of the Branch, right click and select 'Insert Note Sequence' or use Ctrl+I. Add in the Note Numbers required. To add in further Child Notes on this Level, use the Note Sequence Button with the Branch Head Note selected. Using 'Insert Note Sequence' or Ctrl+I a second time will add in another branch to a lower level.
If you not ensure that the Zkn3 'focus' is established before inserting your Child Notes (see step 2) you will find that using the Note Sequence Button will insert Notes in odd places, usually the last Note you were working on. Even selecting the Note in the Title Tab of the Data Window and double clicking on it, so that it appears in the Text window is not sufficient to shift the focus.
To remove Parent status from a Note, go into the Note Sequence Tab in the Data window, right click on each Child Note until they are all removed. A Note with no Children will lose its Parent status. If you remove a Higher level Child Note it will also remove all the Lower Level Child Notes as well, unless you specify otherwise in the pop-up menu.
In the Title view in the Data window, Note Sequences are shown as blue bars to the right of the title. Parent Notes have dark blue to light blue boxes while Child Notes on lower levels have light blue to dark blue boxes.
The idea behind the Note Sequence is to replicate Luhmann's branching Note structure however I find that it needs to be used with care, otherwise much time is lost in repairing the mistakes.
Use of Index Notes
Often at the start of a major Note Sequence it is useful to follow Luhmann's principles and create an Index Note for that Theme. This is an ordinary Note which holds details of the Theme and links to various Child Notes. The Note should be properly referenced and with appropriate Keywords for the entire Theme. Topisc within the Theme can be listed here and linked by right clicking in the Index Note Text box and inserting a Cross Reference, by adding in the relevant Note Numbers. In this way the Index Note acts as a Gateway into the Note Sequence and is easily found with the larger Zettelkasten. Ultimately a Zettelkasten might consist of mainly a top level of Index Notes all leading to various Themes.
Links (Cross references)
Links or Cross References are used to record a link between two or more Notes where there is a definite connection but where the Notes are not linked by a common Theme or Note Sequence
In the Main Screen, navigate to the first required Note - the parent
From the Toolbar select Links and enter in the number of the other Note(s) to be linked
The links will appear in the grey information bar at the top of the Note window and will be listed in the Links Tab in the Data Window.
Keywords
In the Data window select the Keyword Tab or from the Menu Bar select 'View / Keywords' or press Ctrl+F3
Most menu items to control Keywords can be selected by right clicking in the Data window or from the Menu Bar select 'Keywords'
This will allow creation of new Keywords, editing of existing ones, removal, opening searches including all the Notes linked to that Keyword
In the Note Edit screen, new Keywords can be added by entering them into the little box at the bottom of the Note Keyword box in the centre of the screen.
It will allow all the Notes associated with that Bookmark to be added as a Note Sequences or Links to the current Note shown in the Main Screen
Also adding that Keyword's Notes to the Outliner
Keywords also appear on the Cluster tab which shows the Note number associated with that Keyword at the bottom of the Data window
Clicking on these numbers display the Note in the Main Screen
Editing Keywords across several Notes
“Search/Replace function (Edit menu) is your tool of choice. Just enter the keyword (or search term) and its replacement. Then specify what to search for (text, author, keyword ...) and confirm the entry.”
Clusters
When you have a specific Note open, you see its keywords listed in the central box. In the Data window, select 'Clusters' and you will see the list of Keywords. Select any Keyword and it will show the Notes containing that Keyword in the box at the bottom right.
Tick the "Note's cluster keywords only" at the bottom and you get a shorter list. These are all Keywords of either the Note itself and associated Notes.
Click on any Keyword and it opens up a list of other associated Keywords and lists the notes at the bottom. This tree of keywords keeps on going with an ever decreasing number of notes. Click on any Note in the box at the bottom and it will open that Note in the Text box.
The aim seems to be another way of finding associated Notes and a means of focussing on a few using a sequence of Keywords.
How do I assign keywords?
"General keywords are unmarked. To structure the keywords, there are also special markings that should be used as far as possible on the notes in the note box. These labels create groups in the slip box. This has the following advantages: The keyword list is clearer. Words that may have a double assignment are specified by the groups. A multidimensional view of the data is possible.
Disadvantages: The "Add Keyword" function in the context menu cannot always be used. The keywords are not yet highlighted (at the moment).
Keyword indicators These indicators are placed behind them!
/ a Document type (document type), example: Invoice / a, FAQ / a
/ f Document form, examples: PDF / f, email / f
/ g place / geographical area
/ k classification / category
/ o Object msel, 10/13/2005 Do I even need it?
/ p person
/ s program / software
/ t book title / title keyword
/ v Author / Writer0
/ z date / time
These indicators are set in front of it!
AH = work instruction
PRIO = priority
STAT = status
TASK = task
From <https://github.com/erjel/zettelkasten-manual/blob/main/70%20Wie_vergebe_ich_Stichw%C3%B6rter_.md> "
Bookmarks
Bookmarks allow you to group together any Notes under a common heading, either to view the Notes, create a Note sequence from them or to load them into the Outliner
To create a new Bookmark (category) press the Bookmark button on the Toolbar, write your new Bookmark into the the New Category box and press Apply
To add a Note to this Bookmark, press the Bookmark button on the Toolbar, select the right Bookmark category from the dropdown box, enter in any notes for this Note and then press Apply
To view the Notes for each Bookmark, select the Bookmark Tabs in the Data Window or from the Menu Bar select 'View / Bookmark' or press Ctrl+F7. All the Notes with their Bookmarks are displayed in the Data Window. Use the button at the bottom of the screen to display only those Notes for one Bookmark.
Most menu items to control Bookmark can be selected by right clicking in the data window or from the Menu Bar select 'Bookmark'
The menu items are 'Edit Bookmark', 'Remove Bookmark', ‘Edit category’, ‘Remove category’, ‘Add cross reference’, ‘Add Note Sequence’, ‘Add to Outliner’.
It will allow all the Notes with that Bookmark to be added as Note Sequences or Links to the current Note shown in the Main Screen
Also adding that Bookmark's Notes to the Outliner
Authors: Adding Authors manually
Select the Authors tab in the right hand Data window
The Authors Menu item will appear on the Menu bar
Select 'Edit' and then 'New Author' to open the manual entry screen
You can add a BibTex key for the author in this screen
The bottom section of the screen will search within the Author list
Note the Menu item "Add Author" does not create a new Author, rather it adds the currently selected Author to the currently shown Note
Search strategies
Searching for a word, keyword, author, etc
Simple search: type word into search bar, multiple terms can be added, separated by commas. Acts as OR expression.
Crtl+F opens up advanced search box for multi-word expressions
Either insert regular expression (regex) into search box and tick box (see Regular Expressions: The Complete Tutorial (princeton.edu))
Or insert search terms into search box, clear tick box and select expression from bottom section of search window
Click 'Finish' to search
Searching for a Word AND a Keyword
Conduct search as above for the word
In search results screen, select 'Filter' from the Menu bar and select keyword, author, etc to filter these result
Searching within a Note
Ctrl+Shift+F will allow a complex search term as above within the text of a Note
Secondary Filter using drop down menu Filter Menu
Search results explained
Build an expression in Advanced Search Box
Extracting information from the Zettelkasten - Using the Outliner
From the Toolbar in the Main Screen select the Outliner button
This will either open the current Outline or create a new one
A new one can be started from the Menu bar 'File / create new outline'
For a new Outline, you will be asked to name it and this will become the top Section in the file structure on the left hand side of the screen
Further Sections (or Bullet Points) can be added by pressing the Section button on the Toolbar
This will allow a hierarchical structure to be created for your Outline document
Sections can be moved by clicking and dragging them on the screen
Selecting a Section and then clicking the Comment button on the Toolbar allows a comment to be added to that section and this can be displayed beside the Section in the final Outline document
Selecting a Section and then clicking on the Note button on the Toolbar and entering the Note(s) numbers adds those Notes to that section. The can be moved by Cutting and Pasting or by clicking and dragging
Groups of Notes can be added all at once by
Searches
Bookmarks
Note Sequences
Keywords
Keyword Clusters
Authors
The way of working is usually to have three windows open 1) Main Screen 2) Search Results 3) Outliner arranged so that they can be seen as overlapping windows. Start in the Outliner window, selecting the Section that you want to work on and then going back to the Main Screen to find the requisite Notes using one of the above categories.
Remaining in the Main Screen either:
Add the current Note shown by selecting Menu Bar 'Edit / Add to Outliner'
Run a search and then in the Search Result window, select the Notes required and then go to either the Toolbar and press the Outliner button or the Menu Bar and select 'Edit / Add to Outliner' or use the F9 shortcut
For Links, Note Sequences, Keywords, Authors, Titles, Bookmarks:
To add entire item, such as 'Bookmark: Key sources': right click on the highlighted Notes, selecting Add to Outline to add all of the Notes from that Category to the Window.
For Keyword Clusters:
Select it in the Data Window, go to the Menu Bar and select the relevant Tab button (remember that this changes with the Tab selected in the Data Window,) in this case Cluster and select 'Export as search…'. This will open all the Notes for that Cluster word as results in the Search window. From here you can select the Notes that you want and add them to the Outliner
Return to Outliner window to re-order the imported Notes
Notes can be edited from inside the Outliner window and these changes will be reflected back in the Main Screen
Outliner in use, explained
Advanced techniques
Insert Table
Took me a while to work out how to use this feature. This is how I think it works.
Open the Edit Window for a Note. Select the location for the table or find the text that you are going to use for the table.
From the Toolbar press the Table button and this opens a small window. You need to add: a Table Title and maybe headers for each column. Press Paste to insert the Table. This add Table makers for the start [Table] and end of the [/Table] into the text and markers for the Table Title [tc] TITLE [/tc]. So this is what you will see:
‘[table][tc]Table Title[/tc]
[/table]
Table entry pop-up menu
First stage of creating a table
Copy your data from Word or Excel or another data source. Now move your cursor between the [/tc] amd [/Table] markers and press ‘Paste’ so that the data is included in the Table.
Data now added inbetween the Table markers
There are two ways of converting the raw data into the correct table format:
Bulk entry
Now enter a '|' symbol (on my keyboard it is Shift + bottom left key) in between each piece of data to mark the start of a new cell. This would give you something like this for each line of data:
Rifle cartridges | 3.0 | 1.8 | 3.2 |
When you ‘Apply’ the Table, this translates into:
2. Individual entry
Once you have the Table markers inserted, place the cursor within them and press the Table button on the Toolbar again to re-open the Table edit window. Now you can enter data into each cell individually, extend the number of columns and rows within the Table Edit window. Close the window to apply your changes.
Using either method this is a quick and easy way to translate a table in a text format into a visual table.
Insert Image
You will find the menu item greyed out when you first try and insert an image along with many other options. If you select some text in your note in the Edit Window, these options become available and you can then insert your image.
When Inserting Images or adding Attachments
Best to name the file correctly so that when it is copied and saved in the Zettelkasten file location, it is easy to identify if the link gets broken. Always Copy images, etc when inserting and keep the folder next to your Zettelkasten files.
Indent text in the text field
“In a text editor you can use the tab key to indent text. In Zettelkasten tthis does not work. The tab key makes the cursor jump to the next text field. To indent text you have combine the tab key with the control key (Tab + Ctrl).”
Backups and recovering data
Normally if you Open, Save and then Close Zkn3 it will just close without any notification. However if you try and close Zkn3 without pressing the Save button at the end of your work, a notification will appear asking if you want to save it. At this stage if you press 'No' then Zkn3 will save a backup version of your current work. When you re-open Zkn3 you will be asked if you want to use this file or the original one. It may be that you were experimenting with something and did not want to save it so you can go ahead and open the original file.
Now we can use this feature to create backups, to ensure that your data is kept safe. So step 1) save your work, 2) open a search window by clicking on a keyword in the Data window and then close it. 3) close Zkn3 4) When the close dialogue window opens answer 'No' so that it creates a backup.
To use a backup file, move the file into a new location using File Manager. The name of the backup will be in this format: [zettelkasten name].zkn3.backup-1 so remove the .backuo-1 part. Now open Zkn3 and you will be able use the Open command to open this file. Check that it has the data that you want and then use the command File/Save As to restore this copy in the original file location.
Exporting and Importing Zettelkastens
Exporting from or importing to a Zettelkasten can be done from the Main Screen or exporting from the Outliner window.
Exporting and printing
In order to use the Export feature you must have Pandoc installed. See Pandoc - Wikipedia and Pandoc - About pandoc
To Export from Menu Bar, select 'File / Export'
Select 'Current outliner' or 'Multiple outliners' or 'As search result' or 'Non-used notes as search result'
'Current outliner' will open an export menu so that you can select which parts of your outline are exported and whether to produce a table of contents at the start
Press finish and the document will be created
Obviously the most user friendly versions are the XML and ODF version but the other file types have specific uses
Exporting your Notes
Exporting as Markdown files to transfer to another Markdown programme such as Obsidian
You can open the Markdown files with Notepad and each Note has the following fields shown and if empty this is marked by ##Null:
Note Number and Title
Text (inserted Images as shown as "[img]image title"
?
Remarks
?
Author
?
Keywords
?
Attachments
Links to other Notes
Creation date and modification date
Synchronise a Zettelkasten between different computers
“When working with a Zettelkasten on different computers, it is beneficial to automatically synchronize the files on the different machines. This can be done with the Import/Export function in the File menu. Just select the Zettelkasten file you want to import and select the option "Filter out duplicates" in the import filter. Only new, not yet existing entries are newly created. Repeat the process on the other computer. Congratulation! You just have synchronized the Zettelkasten files.
With a cloud drive (i.e. Dropbox, Google Drive, or a self-hosted OwnCloud instance) this process can be further automated. Just synchronize the save location of the Zettelkasten file and close the program after you have finished your session. The files are synchronized over the network. Keep in mind that the Zettelkasten version has to match on both machines.”
Niklaus Luhmann