Software for creating writing project dashboard with links to files

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 2, 2013 at 10:58 AM

A few more thoughts about your search for the perfect dashboard.

Dr Andus wrote:
>The main criteria would be:
>- light enough for it to start quickly (I’d want to have it open automatically at Windows start-up and keep it open);

TheBrain takes a few moments to open, but I’ve got it launching at Windows start-up and keep it open all day.

>- drag and drop of any file from file explorer creates a link to the file (ideally with an icon of the app and the file name)

TheBrain excels at this, especially on a Windows PC. The default setting is to create a link to the file, but you can also choose to have the file embedded (either copied to or moved to) TheBrain database.

>- easy to rearrange, collapse, zoom in and out of branches.

Again, this is what TheBrain does better than any app I’ve tried. And there are several ways to move thoughts around. You can use the selection box for capturing and moving a lot of thoughts at once. Or manually move them in several ways.

>- easy to duplicate branches.

No problem. Just create a new “thought” and begin typing the name. A list of already created thoughts with similar wording present themselves for you to select from or create a brand new thought.

>- alternative visualisations (e.g. outline, mind map).

In some ways very good, as in the expanded views. Outline mode is a little funky, although technically, I suppose it is an outline. Definitely the weakest performance of your criteria.

>- internal linking between items;

The visual links of TB are obvious. What appeals to me about how TB works is that these links indicate relationships depending on where they sprout from the active thought. What is not so obvious is that you can create hyper-links to other thoughts within the notes panel—not a strong implementation of this wiki-style linking, but nevertheless available if that is of use.

>- ability to add additional icons, colour-coding, highlighting.

Again, TB does this very well. You can capture screen shots to serve as icons. You can set up thought types that will change the color of the thought font or background and/or use a specific icon. You can also tag thoughts, which show up right on the screen as sub script.

There is one more thing I want to mention about TB that might be useful: It has an excellent search feature, though it is hidden by the fact that the search box is so innocuous. Type in the search box and you get a pop up list of thoughts that have names that match your search (this is a bit of a fuzzy search, as they do not need to match perfectly). But if you hit enter after typing in your search criteria, you get a list of matches in the search tool pane—and these are organized by how they match: name of thought, note body, and attached file (but only if the file is embedded in the database, not if it is a link to an external file).

I know it must seem that I’m desperate for you to use TB, but I’m not. It is just that I found myself thinking how well TB matches what you’re looking for. TB is a bit of an outlier as to how it works, so it would be understandable if it just doesn’t feel right.

Steve Z.