Author Topic: Help with finding accurate software. (Read 17679 times)

Got Milk? · « **on:** September 20, 2007, 11:37 AM »

Hi guys, been a while since i posted here, but now when i find myself in somewhat of a distress i once again turn to the very source of knowledge and skill.

I do a lot of writing on different subjects, politics, computer related stuff, film, music, litterature and so on, and during my search for information on the Internet i sometimes stumbles upon pieces of information that i would love to save for future projects, like code snippets, pieces of text, URL:s and such. Usually i fire up Notepad and add the text or URL to a document and the saves it, but this is not really a convenient way. In the long run you tend to end up with a plethora of text documents with only a few words on each. So i need some kind of software that i can instantly fire up (with a press of a button maybe?) from lets say the system tray, and where i can add all those little pieces of information instead of creating a document for each entry. I then want to be able to save and at a later moment retrieve the information by searching keywords. I guess it sounds like a small and simple local database or sumthing. Does anyone know of such a software? Maybe one of the distinguished programmers here has come up with such a solution?

Greetings from Sweden (where the winter very soon are upon us

)

Nighted · « **Reply #1 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:44 AM »

Firefox + ScrapBook + MinimizeToTray

Dirhael · « **Reply #2 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:47 AM »

It sounds like you're in need of some good note-taking software

Got Milk? · « **Reply #3 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:52 AM »

Firefox + ScrapBook + MinimizeToTray
-Nighted (September 20, 2007, 11:44 AM)

Jeez, you are the one that gived the words "quick answer" a totally new meaning! Thanx a million for that, im a hardcore Firefox user so this will eventually suit me just fine. I´ll check it immediately!

It sounds like you're in need of some good note-taking software
-Dirhael

Indeed, nice thread, i´ll go through it right away!

sri · « **Reply #4 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:57 AM »

ScrapBook (Firefox add-on) or EverNote.

PhilB66 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 20, 2007, 12:21 PM »

Opera has a right click Copy to Note option.

sri · « **Reply #6 on:** September 20, 2007, 12:27 PM »

Opera has a right click Copy to Note option.
-PhilB66 (September 20, 2007, 12:21 PM)

which is very weak compared w/ ScrapBook or EverNote.

(Not taking anything credit away from Opera, it's a super fast browser...but not a good candidate for the original poster's needs in my opinion)

Got Milk? · « **Reply #7 on:** September 20, 2007, 12:33 PM »

ScrapBook (Firefox add-on) or EverNote.
-sri (September 20, 2007, 11:57 AM)

EverNote seems pretty nice!

patthecat · « **Reply #8 on:** September 20, 2007, 12:52 PM »

MemPad seems like it fits your requirements; it's basically a text based hierarchical tree outliner.
http://home.mnet-onl...e/horst.muc/wmem.htm

I have it minimized on startup on my system tray and if I want to save a URL or copy/paste text to save for later review it's there at an instance. Small program size, portable, can use windows encryption, search capabilities, auto save, etc.

Got Milk? · « **Reply #9 on:** September 20, 2007, 03:07 PM »

MemPad seems like it fits your requirements; it's basically a text based hierarchical tree outliner.
http://home.mnet-onl...e/horst.muc/wmem.htm

I have it minimized on startup on my system tray and if I want to save a URL or copy/paste text to save for later review it's there at an instance. Small program size, portable, can use windows encryption, search capabilities, auto save, etc.

-patthecat (September 20, 2007, 12:52 PM)

Have to check that one out, evaluating EverNote at the moment, extremely competent program, but in my opinion way to bloated. Also eats a whopping 30 mb memory just by sitting in the system tray....

Very versatile though.

nontroppo · « **Reply #10 on:** September 20, 2007, 03:20 PM »

If you want something more streamlined, for some writers having the research within the application you write in is a great workflow advantage; no need to keep juggling different apps around. In this case there are a couple of programs that may be worthwhile:

Liquid Story Binder: http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/

Idea Mason: http://www.ideamason.com/

And though it is for screenplays, this seems to allow research and document import / management for free: http://www.celtx.com/overview.html

If you have access to a Mac, there are a number of of IMO superior writers tools, my favorite being Scrivener http://literatureand...e.com/scrivener.html which allows full keywording / searching in a beautiful writers interface. The "workflow" (yes, horribly overused word) is just astounding, and writing and researching within really makes a difference compared to juggling writing program + note taking for me...

Got Milk? · « **Reply #11 on:** September 20, 2007, 03:36 PM »

If you want something more streamlined, for some writers having the research within the application you write in is a great workflow advantage; no need to keep juggling different apps around. In this case there are a couple of programs that may be worthwhile:

Liquid Story Binder: http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/

Idea Mason: http://www.ideamason.com/

And though it is for screenplays, this seems to allow research and document import / management for free: http://www.celtx.com/overview.html

If you have access to a Mac, there are a number of of IMO superior writers tools, my favorite being Scrivener http://literatureand...e.com/scrivener.html which allows full keywording / searching in a beautiful writers interface. The "workflow" (yes, horribly overused word) is just astounding, and writing and researching within really makes a difference compared to juggling writing program + note taking for me...
-nontroppo (September 20, 2007, 03:20 PM)

Great pieces of software both of them, especially Liquid Story Binder seems very impressive. Not exactly what i am looking for right now, but i will surely keep them in mind if the need arise. I´m a nobrainer when it comes to Mac, i should have mentioned that in my initial post. Thanks for the information though.

Getting to like EverNote more and more, even if the "bloatiness" is pretty overwhelming

But if it sits in the system tray and keeps quiet its not a big problem. Luckily im equipped with a very decent amount of RAM so the memory consumption is bearable.

Grorgy · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2007, 03:57 PM »

If you use firefox, zotero is an interesting extension, will take snap shots of pages, build, libraries, bibliographies and so on http://www.zotero.org/ you may find it useful

cranioscopical · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2007, 03:59 PM »

Depending on what you like, Surfulater can be useful.
I found it through recommendations here, on DonationCoder,and its developer drops in sometimes.
http://www.surfulater.com

Have you ever lost valuable information you've seen on the Web?
Do you need to collect, organize and manage lots of information?
With Surfulater you can permanently save anything you find on the web, in other applications and on your hard drive, and organize it in ways you haven't dreamt of yet.
For starters you can categorize, cross reference and do full text searches. Plus annotate and edit whatever you have saved to make it all the more valuable.
And of course you can find anything in a flash.
Surfulater - the super smart way to build a permanent, personal reference library, one you can even carry around with you.

Armando · « **Reply #14 on:** September 20, 2007, 04:08 PM »

[BTW : instead of going through the whole "note Taking" thread, you could read SuperboyAC's summary and review : https://www.donation...Archive/NoteTakers1/ ; it's not entirely up to date anymore (many apps have added new features since then) but still an excellent read ]

Yes, I think : Evernote, Surfulater or OneNote. Of course there are many other great possible solutions like Zoot, MyBase, AM-Notebook, ndxCards, Textnotes Pro (GemX : be carefull... possibly dying soon), TiddlyWiki, Ultra Recall, etc. Depending on how your needs will evolve.

I use Evernote. Fire it up with ctrl+alt+N. Paste selected text with win+a (or "right click" --> add to evernote). etc. the good thing with evernote is you can start typing as soon as the window appears -- your note will have a date, a title, and even a category.

I'm not sure what you find bloated about EverNote : it's quick, stable, and does what it's supposed to do well.
EverNote's forum is pretty active too, and lots of good advices and knowledgeable people there.

nontroppo · « **Reply #15 on:** September 20, 2007, 04:52 PM »

Just to emphasise (I dare not look in that other mammoth thread but I expect it is covered there): don't use anything that doesn't store you data in an easy-to-export format. That is as important as anything else...

nevf · « **Reply #16 on:** September 20, 2007, 06:45 PM »

Our program Surfulater is definitely worth spending time evaluating to see if it fits your needs. Surfulater enables you to quickly and easily capture content from Web sites and from any Windows application. It lets you organize your information in a tree, add links between articles to build a web of related information, edit the content, add notes and attachments and much more. It is under continual development and our users think very highly of it.

Version 2.20 has recently been released, which you can read about on our blog.

If you have any questions ask away, either here or on our support forums.

Lashiec · « **Reply #17 on:** September 20, 2007, 07:28 PM »

Another app you could try as well is Local Website Archive, which saves webpages and maintains an index of them. Your other options are either Surfulater or EverNote, at least IMO. AM-Notebook, while an excellent choice (it's what I use) may not be that featured to do the kind of almost industrial work the other ones do.

Armando · « **Reply #18 on:** September 20, 2007, 09:36 PM »

Our program Surfulater is definitely worth spending time evaluating to see if it fits your needs. Surfulater enables you to quickly and easily capture content from Web sites and from any Windows application. It lets you organize your information in a tree, add links between articles to build a web of related information, edit the content, add notes and attachments and much more. It is under continual development and our users think very highly of it.

Version 2.20 has recently been released, which you can read about on our blog.

If you have any questions ask away, either here or on our support forums.
-nevf (September 20, 2007, 06:45 PM)

Nice Work Neville!
Is it possible to trial that new version considering I've already trialed a previous version ?
Just wondering...
Thanks!

nevf · « **Reply #19 on:** September 20, 2007, 09:46 PM »

Our program Surfulater is definitely worth spending time evaluating to see if it fits your needs. Surfulater enables you to quickly and easily capture content from Web sites and from any Windows application. It lets you organize your information in a tree, add links between articles to build a web of related information, edit the content, add notes and attachments and much more. It is under continual development and our users think very highly of it.

Version 2.20 has recently been released, which you can read about on our blog.

If you have any questions ask away, either here or on our support forums.
-nevf (September 20, 2007, 06:45 PM)

Nice Work Neville!
Is it possible to trial that new version considering I've already trialed a previous version ?
Just wondering...
Thanks!
-Armando (September 20, 2007, 09:36 PM)

Thanks.

Yes you can start a fresh free trial at any time by following the instructions "Can I restart my free trial period?" on our FAQ page. Note that you probably also need to do the following:
- Start|Run|Regedit
- Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Soft As It Gets\Surfulater and delete same. ie. The Surfulater section.

If you haven't looked at Surfulater for a while you should browse or read the What's New section of my blog.

Armando · « **Reply #20 on:** September 20, 2007, 11:06 PM »

Yes you can start a fresh free trial at any time by following the instructions "Can I restart my free trial period?" on our FAQ page. Note that you probably also need to do the following:
- Start|Run|Regedit
- Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Soft As It Gets\Surfulater and delete same. ie. The Surfulater section.

If you haven't looked at Surfulater for a while you should browse or read the What's New section of my blog.
-nevf (September 20, 2007, 09:46 PM)

Great! Thanks a lot!