Hi SuperDuperBoyac.
I have to say you've done an excellent job of pulling together your review from what was the longest forum thread I've ever been involved in. I haven't checked recently and wouldn't be surprised if it is still going. ;D

I've been torn between being extremelly busy and having two short breaks this past month and have only just read your entire review. I'm also a bit behind in posting on my blog and want to mention your review asap.

A few comments.

• The Feature Matrix. Surfulater uses HTML Templates for all of its articles. These can be edited or new ones added. It is a little involved at present, but will become easier in future. I figure SUL should get a tick for its templates.
  
• In the next release (V1.99.0.0 out any day now) you can edit the Style Sheets and add new ones. Two are provided.
  
• Tags are planned
  

.
Thanks again for a job well done.

I just want to let everyone know that there is a new Surfulater release now available. Download from http://www.surfulater.com and read the Blog post about this release at http://blog.surfulater.com/2006/07/08/elusive-no-more-surfulater-v19830-is-waiting-for-you/ and the Release notes here.

Surfulater V1.98.3.0 addresses some specific issues that superboyac has raised, including the new 'Content
Elements' filters which let you hide elements in the content window such as the Pencil cells, the layout of the content window has been tightened up, the content window no longer scrolls when you edit an article and more.

I've put together a short movie showing the content elements filters in action here.

The next release will enable easier creation of article templates along with some interesting new layouts that move the Label column so it is on top of the field contents. I'll be blogging about this when it is released. It also includes a major update to the content display to use multi-threading. This makes a dramatic difference when you are displaying a folder which has many large articles.

And finally I've just e-mailed mouser with a new discount for DC Members.

PS. willyram, excellent post. I look forward to hearing more of your ideas.

....
  Also, Evernote and Surfulater use scrolls, while Zoot does something completely different, which is to organize the notes like an 3-pane email program.  It's all a matter of preference.  For some situations, I prefer the scrolling, and for others, I prefer not scrolling.

-superboyac (June 09, 2006, 08:36 PM)

IMO the reason three panes work very well for e-mail is that you have a continuing stream of new items coming in and the "list" pane clearly shows what's new, which is pretty important.

For note-taking programs the user is in control and knows precisely when new content is added, so this need for a list to see what's new is diminished and the screen space can be used for other purposes, such as showing more content.

The 3 pane style could be changed to 2 panes, with the list items expanding and collapsing to show either their full content or a brief summary. This gives you the best of both approaches and might work well for some folks and programs. This is in fact the model Surfulater uses. I have yet to see any e-mail programs that work this way though.

My 2.5C.