Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
General brainstorming for Note-taking software
kfitting:
End of thread? Why? How could you summarize? In just the last page new programs were brought up and nevf brought up the article on information display.
Also, another good site with info on information display (not just related to hierarchies though) is http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a?topic_id=1
Kevin
rjbull:
End of thread? Why? How could you summarize?
-kfitting (March 20, 2006, 07:29 AM)
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Perhaps you can't summarize it, after all. Going back to Superboyac's original post, it looks like this thread is in place of a review because the field is too large. But anyone coming here from cold is going to have a lot of reading to do.
rjbull:
@rjbull: Keynote revolutionized the way I work and organize things. I totally understand that note-taking is slightly different from the writing end of things... but I dont think the two are mutally exclusive!-kfitting (March 17, 2006, 07:22 AM)
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It's just that the notes I might keep are not necessarily oven-ready for any particular use, they'll generally have to be "massaged," in which case not having them in the same application seems to matter less. If they were all more or less ready to go, then I wonder if a single-pane ECCO-type outliner might be better.
for the type of writing I do, Keynote 1.6.5 is fine. For notetaking, Keynote was fine, until I saw Opera's email approach.
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What are you using at present? I'm thinking that even abandoned, and lacking features some people want, Keynote is still the most highly-developed freeware of its kind, and able to compete with quite a few paywares. It didn't quite float my boat, but I might have persevered if it had had Boolean search.
kfitting:
At present I use Keynote. At this particular moment I am leaning towards TreeDBPro. Mainly because it is Keynote with full table support, pictures... basically the things that I really would like in Keynote. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be going the tags route. But, for the forseeable future I will continue with Keynote. I have been keeping my eye on NeoMem and Novo (though Novo has yet to come out of vaporware, and the author does not give much feedback as to how things are going.).
So for now I use Keynote. And will continue to do so until a substantial improvement is made. The hard part is finding a program that fits your style and makes sense! (Cost does factor in... I cant afford to spend $100 on this!) But, we'll see. Someday someone will pull ahead (according to me... other people may think other programs are already ahead! Thats fine!) and I'll have to figure out how to convert all my Keynote files over. Oh well.
Kevin
PS - regarding your comment about this thread: I kind of agree with you, sifting through this is going to be hard for a newcomer. But, part of the problem is that forums are not great places for storing data (in this case opinions on software). They are too linear and their search is usually poor. Sometimes I even use the "site:" feature in google and still cant find the post I'm looking for! But this problem will not go away by stopping the thread, because now you have multiple threads with the same data... arrggh! Looks like someone needs to develop better software for forums too!
thomthowolf:
@ thomthowolf.
-be easy to get information into[evernote]
-be easy to locate information in and get information out of [evernote]
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Could you elaborate on where you see Surfulater falls short here and what you'd like to see done to improve it. -nevf (March 18, 2006, 05:18 PM)
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As regards getting information into, I find Evernote is a more stable platform. I have had Surfulator force a BSOD on a couple of occasions, while Evernote has not crashed my system since the very early beta days. Also, Evernote can grab tables and maintain the formating. Also, if I have to keep an app open, Evernote has a 3 meg footprint versus Surfulator's 12 meg. This is not to suggest that Surfulator doesn't do a respectable job in many ways, only that Evernote has an edge in collecting information.
As far as getting information out, Evernotes search is lightning fast and limits the content as I type. Also, evernote offers me tags, which means that I can easily connect the information to a sort of outline. Evernote also has the intersection frame, which allows me to limit my search by successive approximation. Also, the Evernote database is just so small that I keep everything in it, secure in the knowledge that I can easily find and organize it later. Also, I can choose a template with a hot key combination and then paste or type into it. Surfulator's ability to apply a template is a bit clunky for me. I grew up in MS-dos and I am still addicted to the keyboard.
All that having been said, where Surfulator shines for me is in its ability to cross connect and to re-organize material into a coherent form. I also love the ability to title my entries. The see also feature is wonderful. While I can certainly find a particular clip faster in evernote, I have to copy and paste it somewhere else in order to actually work with it.
Surfulator also offers Boolean searches, which Evernote does not. This is offset, however, by its inability to search across Knowledge bases.
So, improvements.
First, I would love to be able to search across knowledge bases
Second, I would love to be able to apply a template with a hot key combination. Better yet, if I could apply a formatting template to a clipping after the fact, that would really be cool. In fact, Evernote can't do it, and I have often wanted to be able to do that.
Third, I would like to have Surfulator retain original formatting better than it does now.
We've been discussing these notetaking software for a while now, and this thread has become quite lengthy.
Maybe it's time for an executive summary and <END OF THREAD> ??-superboyac (March 18, 2006, 03:07 AM)
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End of thread?!! Don't end this thread, I love this thread! :-* \
Seriously, I have been introduced to some really great software, and I am always finding new things here. I know a new person will find it a little daunting, but I also think there is enough meat to keep them reading.
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