Re: Getting it OUT! - Idea!

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2081

Posted by daly_de_gagne
2004-07-29 20:06:30

Steve Zeoli wrote:
“I share Alexander’s sense that the ergonomics/aesthetics of a program matter. And I concur with his assessment of the Idea! environment… nice features but the screen’s a mess. This is also one reason I’ve avoided InfoHandler…”

I used to think the same way about InfoHandler http://www.mdesoft.com/eng.htm when I first saw it. Rather than actually try to work with it, I tried to understand it by reading the help files. I used to complain to myself that it was too difficult, that the screen was too cluttered.

Several weeks back I actually tried to start putting in some data. As I went step by step through the process I saw the intrinsic logic and elegance of the program, and quickly realized that InfoHandler would allow me to store and retrieve information with far more precision than any outliner I had yet tried. I have more confidence than I have ever had that I can squirrel away thousands of articles, quotes, references, running log entries, personal journal writings, etc. and get back exactly what I need with more ease and speed than with other programs because of the use of key word categories, which are gathered into groups, and which reflect my specific needs.

I also discovered that InfoHandler’s word processing is among the best that I have seen in any program other than a dedicated word processor. The presence of a ruler is one of the factors that is very helpful.

I have become accustomed to the group boxes along the bottom and at the top, and depending on what I am doing, expand or contract the text area. Now that I understand how the program operates, and the role of each element on the screen, I find I rather like how IH appears. And I love how it works.

For planning and getting an overview of structure I still use and like ADM and Ariadne very much. But I believe that InfoHandler’s sophisticated approach to key word management has made the outliner obsolete for managing information, especially on a larger scale.

Daly

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