Does this exist?

[dhj]

I'm looking for a Rightnote, Allmynotes, Mynoteskeeper portable sort of program but with the facility to drag and drop text and/or image anywhere on the screen ('ala Onenote, Powerpoint or DTP software) I've tried loads of apps but can't seem to find one that fits the bill. Does such a beast exist? Scribus was close but took ages to load and I gave up when using it on a USB stick. Anybody think of any others?

[MerleOne]

Did you try UltraRecall, I think it supports most drag&drop actions.

[dhj]

Many thanks for the heads up but no, this doesn't do what I want either.

Thanks anyway

[MerleOne]

As mentioned elsewhere here on DC, there is a simple yet powerful solution : clipcachepro (goto www.xrayz.co.uk).  All you have to do is copy text or picture and voilà, they are saved in the database.  Not quite drag and drop but close to.

[barney]

Might I suggest MyInfo? 

I've been using it for a few months, now, and it surpasses anything I've used since InfoSelect. 

My primary usage is to select Web pages, or parts of pages, then drag'n'drop into the program.  It copies the highlighted elements visually intact, including most graphics, with a reference to the originating page at the bottom of the paste.  Does a pretty intelligent job of putting an appropriate headline as the reference header, as well. 

Might take a look.

[dhj]

Thanks for the input everybody but, unfortunately, none of these work. It might help if I explain what I want and why. I am a IT tutor and travel to clients houses to offer tuition. Often, I need to produce a step by step hand-out, on the fly, which I can leave with customer. At the moment I am using one-note and/or word to do this at home and the sending the document on but I am looking for a portable replacement, preferably with an outliner similar to the usual suspects  Allmynotes, Rightnote, MyNoteskeeper, Myinfo and so on. This is proving to be an impossible requirement as I can't find anything that offers the functionality I am looking for, namely, the ability to drag and drop screen captures into a drawing space that I can move anywhere on the canvas and put text instructions around the picture. At the moment all I seem to able to find is a linear approach, similar to word text input but without the drawing capabilities.

Thanks again for your help.

[bob99]

Here are two you might want to look at.

http://www.clarify-it.com/
Off their web site:
"A better way to work with screenshots
Capture, sequence and annotate screenshots to create documents that are a great alternative to screen recordings"

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/
Off their web site:
"Creating documentation doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. ScreenSteps combines everything you need, screen capture, image editing and documentation authoring, allowing you to create better documentation in less time."

These are both by Blue Mango Learning but have separate web sites.  Both are paid apps. Clarify-it is a little less $$ and not as many features.  I have Clarify-it and it lets me take a screen shot and then add text.   And export as a PDF.

Edit:
Also take a look at their blog.  It's been a while since I have and they have some good info on creating manuals. 
http://www.bluemangolearning.com/blog/

I'm all about companies putting out GOOD manuals for their products.  I used to work with a gentleman that said "Manuals should be written like a 1st grade reader. This isn't meant as an insult to a person's education. Just that typically (and naturally) the person that writes the manual is the person that knows the MOST about that product.  And the one that in many cases reads it is the one that knows the LEAST about the product. It should be written with that person in mind."

[dhj]

Many thanks for the response. I have used screensteps and it is an excellent product. Unfortunately, I was looking for a bit more functionality. For example, screensteps works on a text then graphics then text then graphics, linear style which, although great for manuals, is a bit too 'big' for what I am looking for. Often I produce a process and try to keep it to two sides of A4 as it is my experience the students (I mainly teach older adults) prefer a single sheet of paper (or 2 at most). The statement your colleague made is entirely true and I am trying to get as much pictorially as I can onto 2 sides of A4 and add instructions as well, hence the requirement to use as much of the space as I can without being too cluttered. That's why, at the moment, I am using the 'drawing' approach to have, say, some text and a small screen capture in a line on the screen as opposed to one on top of the other. Also, and this is the deal breaker, screensteps isn't portable. I also felt a bit restricted by the lack of proper outlining in that I was restricted to manuals and steps and would have liked a bit more flexibility (although that is a personal preference and no reflection on the software). In summary then, a great piece of software but not portable.

Many thanks again for your input.

[MerleOne]

I second the "Clarify" suggestion, it is excellent, very intuitive to use yet powerful.

[bob99]

I looked for something similar to what you describe a while back but didn't need portable or the free form and used Clarify.  I remembered seeing two others in my journey but didn't try.  I found my old notes.

Hypernotes
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hypernotes/
Hard to tell if this is still in development since the last update was 5-2-2011 and it's alpha.  But from the one screenshot they show it looks interesting and kind of onenote looking.

Freeplane
This one looks interesting too and according to one of the posts in their forum I think it may be portable. Freeplane also has a fairly active forum http://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freeplane/viewforum.php?f=1
They may have some suggestions.

http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
From the web page:
Why Freeplane?
Freeplane aims for maximum ease and speed of use. Occupying the middle ground between an editor and a diagramming tool, Freeplane allows the user to add content as quickly and naturally as they would in a text editor, yet producing structured content that can be manipulated as easily as a diagram"

Not sure if it takes screenshots but might be able to use it along side Mouser's Screenshot Captor since it can be portable.

It was also mentioned once in this old DonationCoder thread on mindmap programs:  https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=5801.msg40627#msg40627

Let us know how it goes and what you finally decide on.

[dhj]

Hi and thanks for the feedback. I am a long time user of mindmapping software and am familiar with freemind/freeplane/xmind. This sort of software is great but isn't really what I am looking for. Hypernotes looks interesting but no sign of a portable version and, as you say, doesn't look to be in active development. Ah well, keep looking.

Thanks again for your input

[Curt]

hey dhj. Forgive me for speaking freely without first asking ;-) However, I think you may want to re-think what feature you are requesting. Drag & drop is not the 8'th wonder of the world. It is really good, when it works, but there are so many situations when it doesn't. Mouse-mat dirty or even missing, mouse-button broken, mouse unstable, laptop newbie, etcetera. And many programs don't support Drag & drop. For these reasons I urge you to test the >"simple yet powerful solution : clipcache pro"< ( http://www.xrayz.co.uk/clipcache/ ) mentioned byMerleOne. Your mouse may be quicker when things are going your way, but in so many other situations your clipboard is just so much more stable and trustworthy than your mouse!

[dhj]

HI, many thanks for the input. I tried clipcache and, as you say, a great piece of software but still isn't what I am looking for. It isn't the capturing I am having problems with it is the manipulation of the pasted object in the document. For example, all (as far as I can tell) PIM type software will only let you paste an item into a document in a linear fashion. When it is in the document you can't position it where you may need it. Word, OneNote and any DTP package lets you do this. What I am looking for is portable software which will enable you to to the same. It's possible to find software that will do this but not with a tree like outline interface as well. So what I am looking for is the capability of Word/One-Note/DTP drag and drop (move a shape anywhere on the canvas) in a portable outliner such as Allmynotes/Mynoteskeeper/Rightnote and so on.

Many thanks for your input though.