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General brainstorming for Note-taking software
mouser:
anagram for brothers: HERB ROTS
online anagrams: http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html
nevf:
I wonder if it would be useful or even practical to combine the typical heirarchical system with the labeling system somehow? Or have both options available in the same program? Does anyone think that's even possible, without causing mass confusion, or a breakdown of the organizational system?
-superboyac (February 25, 2006, 10:45 PM)
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High on the todo list for Surfulater is the addition of tags/keywords in addition to the existing tree, and a range of ways to view content based on tags. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out use wise, but I have high hopes. Time and users will tell. :) I certainly don't expect mass confusion. Some folks will use tags, others the tree, and some both.
FYI Surfulater has the ability to store the same article in as many folders as you want, with there only ever being one physical instance of the article. This resolves the common problem of what folder should something go in.
I've written several pieces on my blog and the Surfulater forums about the limitations of tree's, especially as they get larger and larger. I've also spent quite some time looking at alternative ways of displaying tree's such as 2D & 3D graphs but IMO they don't help much. If you had 21 inch or bigger monitors it might be a different story.
kfitting:
Tags are what note taking programs need most! I use Opera M2 for email and they use a database approach to email also. It's awesome to just create a filter and look at the mail that fits the criteria... no moving, no hassle. Note taking software ought to allow the user to throw stuff in, make a few connections, then allow the user to go back edit those relationships and create new ones. The same bit of information should be able to be viewed from anywhere the user determines it's useful. That's the biggest problem with Keynote now (though i still use it everyday!). I have posted on this subject so much I'm probably boring those who have seen it before, but this is one feature that note-taking programs should implement soon! Take a look at Novo Libero, or Neomem for examples of programs going this route. TreeDBNotes has a limited function called password/contacts which mimics in those two special cases... they ought to expand it. They already use a database backend, let's use it!!
Kevin
Kevin
nevf:
i was certainly impressed with surfulater but after some use i do miss features that i would have thought basic requirements.
-nudone (February 22, 2006, 01:45 AM)
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nudone, could you please elaborate - thanks.
nevf:
Hi nevf, I hope I didn't offend you with any of my comments...
Let me ask a couple of questions:
1) Could you provide a more detailed description of what Surfulator is specifically designed for? It would help us sort out it's role among all these information collection programs.
...
-superboyac (February 24, 2006, 10:43 AM)
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superboyac, I'm not easily offended and have been in this business far too long to let things get to me. And anyway there was nothing to offend in the first place.
Surfulater's prime goal is to allow information from the WWW to be captured, permanently saved, and then easily found again. It is a tool that anyone who spends any time using the Web to research information would find usefull. On top of that it lets you annotate, edit, and link related content together to build a web of related information. It includes a very fast full text boolean search engine, so you can find information quickly and easily.
On top of that Surfulater comes with a variety of Article Templates such as Contact List, Music Catalog, Todo List, Code Snippet etc. which enable it to be used as a PIM. End users can add their own templates or modify the ones we provide. Down the track we'll be include template editing capabilities within Surfulater. In essence this enables Surfulater to be used as a flexible free form database.
Surfulater also enables content to be gathered from other Windows applications via. the Windows Clipboard. You can create new records using a Hotkey or easily append clipboard content to existing records. And you can attach or link to any files on your PC. Attached files are stored within the Surfulater database. These can be Word documents, ZIP files, PDF files etc. Click on the attachment and it is opened in its native application.
This range of capture and gather capabilities make it easy to bring together diverse content from a variety of sources, to one place where it can be managed, organized and found.
Surfulater is built on top of a very powerful and extensible engine that enables us to develop the product into new areas and add new capabilities we may not have even thought of yet. Part of this is its use of XML for the main database and HTML for presentation. XML means your data is open and accessible vs. locked away in a proprietary database. And of course HTML is very good for presenting information. You can read more about this in "Surfulater, Under the Hood and Down the Road" http://blog.surfulater.com/2005/11/21/surfulater-under-the-hood-and-down-the-road/
I've been writing and using Software for a long time and am sick of all the developers who seem to think that the more features they add and the more ways of doing something the better. Another goal with Surfulater is to keep it as simple and as uncluttered as possible. I've written about this in my "Creeping Featuritis" blog post at http://blog.surfulater.com/2005/06/17/creeping-featuritis/ and other places.
An important factor for software developers is that they have to have a need for their product in their own lives. They have to be using it on a daily basis and have to intimately understand their users needs. They also need a long term commitment to their products and customers.
I have lots of plans for Surfulater and you will see it build on its existing core to open it up to new uses and enable more ways to access and organize information. Stay tuned.
For more information visit the Surfulater web site http://www.surfulater.com, the blog http://blog.surfulater.com and the support forums http://www.softasitgets.com
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