Re: Writing methodologies

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

Outliners.com Message ID: 4004

Posted by francis.morrone
2005-08-30 02:10:14

I’m a longtime listener, first time caller.

Peter, as others have noted, Zoot synchs to the Palm via Outlook. It is the only reason I have Outlook on my computer—I don’t use it for e-mail. On the Palm side, I would strongly suggest two things. First, acquire and learn FitalyStamp, an alternative keyboard arrangement that is not only a brilliant piece of programming but that also works. It has enabled me not only to take notes easily on my Palm, but also to write whole pieces on the Palm. (I write a weekly column for a New York newspaper, and I do it entirely on the Palm while riding the subway.) Fitaly (http://www.fitaly.com) takes some getting used to, but is worth the investment of time. I’d also use a program called Memoleaf that works with the Memopad. It performs lightning-fast full-text searches on your memos, and also allows you to set up a sophisticated keyword system that can easily be mirrored in Zoot, while Zoot will allow you to do a million things besides.

Zoot is where I store notes and snippets, and what I use for synching to my Palm memos. My main writing environment is Nota Bene (yes, I am an academic), and I can also synch my Nota Bene works in progress to the Palm via the Palm word processor Wordsmith. Finally, I use EndNote 7, which has a flawless Palm synch. I then export my EndNote bibliographies to Nota Bene’s Ibidem, again a flawless process.

I can’t stand Nota Bene’s outliner, so I use NoteMap, but I don’t use it to outline essays or books, only to prepare lectures. These eventually get sent to Nota Bene so they can “Orbisized.” I love Brainstorm but have not figured out how to integrate it into my system, which works well enough.

The real point I wish to make is that the Palm (or the Pocket PC) can be a very effective writing instrument with the right add-on software.

Francis

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