Re: Interesting new software with really bad name

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 2215

Posted by zeoli
2004-10-05 22:04:05

Stephen,

I haven’t used ndxCards much, just trialed it at one point. I liked the concept, but thought it still was a little too limited for the money… I’m looking forward to checking out the new version when it comes out. You are certainly correct that Lonely Notes and ndxCards have a similar metaphore and functionality. To me, there is a significant difference in the two programs which stems from their intended usage. Lonely Notes (I like the way you left off the “Miss” part) is intended to focus on writing/composition, while ndxCards is more of an all-purpose data/info storage and retrieval program with some outlining capability.

This isn’t to say that LN has fully achieved its goal. To me the major flaw of LN is the weak editor, not just because it lacks RTF functions… I can understand why they might leave that out (although highlighting would be a nice function to have). But I have found that the screen response in the editor lags behind the keyboard… always annoying. Also, it lacks some extended selection functionality. In a program intended to aid composition, the editor needs to be nimble and virtually transparent. I have written to the developers to ask if they are planning to make the editor more robust, but I have not received a response as yet.

You are also correct in your guess that LN provides drag and drop re-organizing of note cards, which is a nice feature. LN does remind me of Writer’s Blocks too. In fact, I wonder if that is what they are referring to when they claim “writing without the games.” (I tried the latest version of WB and found it to be very awkward to use, primarily because it seemed kind of bloated.)

In short, LN is a good idea, one with great promise, but still in need of fine-tuning… doesn’t that seem to always be the case?!

Steve Z.

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