Software for archiving articles and other documents?

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 17, 2011 at 12:16 PM

If the information I collect is very miscellaneous or random, I will put it into Zoot (when at my office PC) or DevonThink on my Macbook. But if it fits neatly into existing categories of interest, it goes into my Commonplace Book “Brain” in PersonalBrain. There are two reasons I use PB: 1. As a Java application it runs on my office PC and on my Macbook, and with the webBrain sync feature, I can keep my “Brains” in sync; and 2. I find the visual linkage helpful in conceptualizing my information. PersonalBrain also has a deceptively effective search tool, so it’s fast an easy to find anything in a Brain, even if it is buried deep down in the hierarchy.

It does sometimes take more work to use PB in this manner, as it does not have a quick capture feature (like the Zooter). But it isn’t too difficult. If I want to capture a web page for future reference, I just drag the URL from the address into the open Brain and drop it under the parent thought most appropriate. If I don’t know where to put it immediately, I keep a thought called “In Box” available and can drop it there. That creates a new thought with the web link. I can then cut and paste any of the text into the thought’s note. A nice feature of PB is the ability to clip a screenshot and associate that with a thought, which opens when you mouse over it—that’s a fast way to capture, say, an address. However, unlike OneNote, PersonalBrain does not perform an OCR on the image.

I’m not recommending PersonalBrain for your solution, just pointing it out as another option.

Steve Z.