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Ideamason on special

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Grorgy:
There has been some mention of a program called ideamason as a notetaker, organizer etc.  I thought it looked good and have been trying it out. 

It has many features, most of which I haven't found yet, but what I have seen so far, it looks like the program i've been after.  I'm a student (undergraduate liberal arts) and find the idea of being able to organize notes and research material directly in one place which will also help put it into a structured written format really appeals. You can import stuf from endnote, link files web pages create citations lists export to word (and other word processors tho word is specifically supported) and much besides.

I found the user support area very responsive, I couldn't get it to work, odd things happened and I'd uninstalled it but still sent off a message to them thinking I wont get a reply, and a few minutes later they responded, and after a few email returns, mostly caused by attachments not appearing i got the thing to work.

For those interested, its not compatible with window blinds, so you need to set window blinds to ignore it, works a treat.

Ohh I have no material interest in this I'm just a guy looking for something useful.

The good news is that they have it on special until June 30, Regular price is now $69 for a single licence and for students $59 with other options for 2 or more licences (one licence per computer not per user unfortunately)  So while i haven't decided if I'm going to buy it or not yet, this price reduction brings it more within my budget.  (Upgrade protection is included for 12 months, but looking at the website the upgrade there is free so i have no idea what the policy is long term but the guarantee is for upgrade protection for 12 months

http://www.ideamason.com/default.htm

Armando:
Grorgy, you seem to really like this program (I've seen it's in your top 3...).

Have you found anything you especially don't like after these 4-5 months of usage? Any criticism?

Darwin:
Yes - I'm curious as well. I can't help thinking that Ideamason is a great app, if you give yourself time to learn it...

Darwin:
PS Looks like the offer is still on!

Grorgy:
Well, yes, I do run into difficulties with it, I find it complex and not very intuitive, and because of this I have been using it mainly as an outliner, note taker, a place to add suggested books movies,  tv shows of interest, a journal and that sort of thing.  The help is quite detailed but lacks pictures and the website has some videos which are great, but I haven't worked out how I can skip around in the video to what i want to see, or quickly rewind to the bit i want to see again, so i have had to kill the video and start again, given they run up to 10 minutes this can get tedious to say the least lol.     

Every time I use it though I'm going through different sections of it to learn more about it and its getting easier to use and more usefu with each use, (just as well).  I'm using it a fair bit, but not nearly at the potential it has at this stage. 

Darwin s point about giving yourself time to learn it, is in my case anyway, very valid, of course some people may just pick it up no trouble at all, unfortunately i'm not one of them.  But the IdeaMason website does say its complex and has a steep learning curve, so i was certainly forewarned.  But each day brings new discoveries for me in it and so long as i don’t get to frustrated and give up, the help is all there and in the end i get what i want.

I would not recommend starting to use it i for a time critical task though.  In my opinion it is best to ease your way into it, and I will start using it to write up my notes from lectures and so on as my next step, before starting to write something that needs to be submitted on a set date.

So overall:
I like it but:
* Its complex with a steep learning curve
* Help resources are not always that friendly to use, but they do exist and are comprehensive as far as i can tell so far.

Think that’s about it, I'll go get another cup of coffee and think about it some more  :)

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