MyInfo 8 - New review

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Posted by Tumbleweed
Apr 11, 2024 at 03:26 PM

After much deliberation and experimentation with LogSeq and Obsidian, I’ve decided to go back to a more traditional outliner. They allow me to view a much larger amount of information. They also can support the Zettlekasten methdology via links.

I found that deliberately linking things was fatiguing, and I couldn’t get the behavior I wanted (2 links on the same block linking together). Also, the links to a topic quickly became unwieldy, and thus of low value. Lastly, adding scientific PDFs created a mush of co-authors in the graph that overpowered my own notes. Hence, I decided to document scientific research in Citavi, which IMO is unparalleled for this task. For email/contacts/meeting notes/CRM, I am using EssentialPim, although I have previously had stability issues and have Outlook/NEOPro on standby.

With licenses to UltraRecall, Zoot, RightNote, InfoQube, DoogiePim (V3), Heptabase, EssentialPim, Obsidian/Logseq (free), why did I CRIMP and fall in love with MyInfo 8? Two reasons: speed and functionality.

My main use case is a notebook of work, which requires a good canvas to copy/paste results. Here MI excels - the doc panel has features missing in a lot of other tools. It pastes in pictures and scales them to the window size, something UltraRecall doesn’t do. It has headings in the doc pane that can be viewed in a “Note Structure” pane, so long form writing and navigation is easy. It shows tags and backlinks for an entry. It also has a code format for source code, which makes its use as a notebook of work and results outstanding for those who program.

Furthermore, it has both editable attachments and linked documents, although the behavior is not consistent between PDFs and Word docs when dragged to the tree. It has “Perspectives”, which are viewing filters for the current notebook something like Saved Searches in UltraRecall - however, they do not apply across notebooks which is a weakness.

A huge benefit is that columns can be added in the tree directly, saving huge time when compared to other programs. This is amazingly flexible, as more traditional entries can be made on the fly. Or omitted if not needed. The search is very fast, but does not search-as-you-type and needs wildcards for incomplete matches. A hair below RightNote’s best in class but still extremely powerful. It allows for export, which is crucial if development should discontinue. And of course there are many other features which are too numerous to mention, such as history and revisions, cloning, hoist, nested tags, linking to paragraphs, locking notes, encryption, etc.

But the best feature is SPEED. It is lightening fast, only RightNote has a similar speed of execution. RN is also an amazing program, but it lacks some features such as columns/attributes, visualization of PDFs, etc. In short, it improves the user experience from UltraRecall a lot and has many additional features, while for me lacking only the “Saved searches” since I stopped using things like Outlook sync.

Some quibbles:
-There are no notebook wide saved searches or similar, so using your notes to create a new document via Zettlekasten requires using Global Search and then cloning or linking notes into a new note. RN allows multiple trees open which facilitates this process. Personally, I like to write and just link in the relevant notes. The reason for no Saved search seems to be that notebooks can be treated individually, so they can be open or closed and thus not searchable.
-Word documents dragged to the tree are converted into a viewable note, which is quite cool but doesn’t allow editing of the original document.
-Pictures and PDFs dragged to the tree are linked, and documents that are attached to the database (and possibly edited) need to be added via Insert-Attachment.
-Email attached to the tree will made a linked note and be non-viewable (and supports msg but not eml) - however, I have come to start clipping out the important contents of email to avoid just dumping useless info into my database.
-Using for tasks is a bit weak - the percent complete doesn’t inherit so any serious project management is not really possible. As mentioned, I am using EPim for tasks which ironically doesn’t have this functionality either.
-No adjustable views like InfoQube or even UltraRecall. We’re stuck with the default 3-paner - which for me is optimal anyway.

These minor quibbles aside, MyInfo 8 is an incredibly fast and efficient program. Changes are saved instantly, there is not even a save button. For creating notes on work as an “electronic notebook” it is truly outstanding. The main weakness is no Saved search or similar, which is understandable given the design structure into different notebooks which may be opened/closed.

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Apr 11, 2024 at 05:04 PM

I appreciate your review on MyInfo 8, Tumbleweed. I find MyInfo a good, solid program, but unfortunately, and somewhat unfairly, it seems to have been overshadowed by some of the newer note taking programs such as Logseq and Obsidian.

However, Petko, MI 8’s developer, has done good work over the years keeping MI relevant and a worthy contender for those people seeking a robust notetaking program.

For me, the strongest attribute of MI has traditionally been the columns. However, as you note, Petko has introduced many new features to MI which has kept it contemporary and worthy of consideration in the ever-growing and changing notes marketplace.

Daly

Tumbleweed wrote:
After much deliberation and experimentation with LogSeq and Obsidian,
>I’ve decided to go back to a more traditional outliner. They allow me to
>view a much larger amount of information. They also can support the
>Zettlekasten methdology via links.
> >I found that deliberately linking things was fatiguing, and I couldn’t
>get the behavior I wanted (2 links on the same block linking together).
>Also, the links to a topic quickly became unwieldy, and thus of low
>value. Lastly, adding scientific PDFs created a mush of co-authors in
>the graph that overpowered my own notes. Hence, I decided to document
>scientific research in Citavi, which IMO is unparalleled for this task.
>For email/contacts/meeting notes/CRM, I am using EssentialPim, although
>I have previously had stability issues and have Outlook/NEOPro on
>standby.
> >With licenses to UltraRecall, Zoot, RightNote, InfoQube, DoogiePim (V3),
>Heptabase, EssentialPim, Obsidian/Logseq (free), why did I CRIMP and
>fall in love with MyInfo 8? Two reasons: speed and functionality.
> >My main use case is a notebook of work, which requires a good canvas to
>copy/paste results. Here MI excels - the doc panel has features missing
>in a lot of other tools. It pastes in pictures and scales them to the
>window size, something UltraRecall doesn’t do. It has headings in the
>doc pane that can be viewed in a “Note Structure” pane, so long form
>writing and navigation is easy. It shows tags and backlinks for an
>entry. It also has a code format for source code, which makes its use as
>a notebook of work and results outstanding for those who program.
> >Furthermore, it has both editable attachments and linked documents,
>although the behavior is not consistent between PDFs and Word docs when
>dragged to the tree. It has “Perspectives”, which are viewing filters
>for the current notebook something like Saved Searches in UltraRecall -
>however, they do not apply across notebooks which is a weakness.
> >A huge benefit is that columns can be added in the tree directly, saving
>huge time when compared to other programs. This is amazingly flexible,
>as more traditional entries can be made on the fly. Or omitted if not
>needed. The search is very fast, but does not search-as-you-type and
>needs wildcards for incomplete matches. A hair below RightNote’s best in
>class but still extremely powerful. It allows for export, which is
>crucial if development should discontinue. And of course there are many
>other features which are too numerous to mention, such as history and
>revisions, cloning, hoist, nested tags, linking to paragraphs, locking
>notes, encryption, etc.
> >But the best feature is SPEED. It is lightening fast, only RightNote has
>a similar speed of execution. RN is also an amazing program, but it
>lacks some features such as columns/attributes, visualization of PDFs,
>etc. In short, it improves the user experience from UltraRecall a lot
>and has many additional features, while for me lacking only the “Saved
>searches” since I stopped using things like Outlook sync.
> >Some quibbles:
>-There are no notebook wide saved searches or similar, so using your
>notes to create a new document via Zettlekasten requires using Global
>Search and then cloning or linking notes into a new note. RN allows
>multiple trees open which facilitates this process. Personally, I like
>to write and just link in the relevant notes. The reason for no Saved
>search seems to be that notebooks can be treated individually, so they
>can be open or closed and thus not searchable.
>-Word documents dragged to the tree are converted into a viewable note,
>which is quite cool but doesn’t allow editing of the original document.
>-Pictures and PDFs dragged to the tree are linked, and documents that
>are attached to the database (and possibly edited) need to be added via
>Insert-Attachment.
>-Email attached to the tree will made a linked note and be non-viewable
>(and supports msg but not eml) - however, I have come to start clipping
>out the important contents of email to avoid just dumping useless info
>into my database.
>-Using for tasks is a bit weak - the percent complete doesn’t inherit so
>any serious project management is not really possible. As mentioned, I
>am using EPim for tasks which ironically doesn’t have this functionality
>either.
>-No adjustable views like InfoQube or even UltraRecall. We’re stuck with
>the default 3-paner - which for me is optimal anyway.
> >These minor quibbles aside, MyInfo 8 is an incredibly fast and efficient
>program. Changes are saved instantly, there is not even a save button.
>For creating notes on work as an “electronic notebook” it is truly
>outstanding. The main weakness is no Saved search or similar, which is
>understandable given the design structure into different notebooks which
>may be opened/closed.
> >

Posted by Tumbleweed
Apr 12, 2024 at 12:40 PM

Daly, thanks for your comments!

Indeed, I neglected to emphasize the power of MyInfo’s columns. When the program added them (in Version 6 I believe) is the time I first looked at it. However, having been a user of UltraRecall and Infoqube, the columns seemed less powerful since they are in-line. And in many ways the columns/forms are more powerful in UR and IQ. However, the ease of use and speed of columns in MyInfo is unparalleled. It is just frictionless to add them on the fly - although there aren’t more steps per se in UR, it just seems much faster. Even adding templates, in MI can put new attributes in that pane without building forms. So being in-line is actually a great strength to overall usability.

Web notes are also fast and easy, with formatting on par with RightNote but much, much faster. And one can add these as URLs to save space which seem to be cached as they load without any visible delay. Again, the SPEED of everything is really amazing. RightNote is also blazingly fast and that is a fantastic program as well - which adds multiple trees, built-in spreadsheet and journal, etc - and if one doesn’t need columns, ease of attached/editable files, embedded PDFs, Note Structure (outline), then I highly recommend RightNote. But for me, MyInfo hits every point and only lacks Saved Searches or similar.

The idea of a self-forming Zettlekasten was probably incorrect. Instead, I realized that looking at all one’s notes periodically and manually creating the links will give much more signal and less noise. Hence, one can avoid the endless linking that gives excessive results that I experienced in Logseq, as well as the friction in manually creating links in every note. At least that’s my thinking now. There is still the need to put notes in the “correct” place in the tree, although with periodic review, one can clone them where needed or link to them in summary notes. And as mentioned, I’ll use EPim for email/calendar/meetings/tasks and Citavi for PDF notes and citations.

Summary: MyInfo 8 combines the best features from UltraRecall with the speed and ease of use of RightNote. For me it is absolutely a winner, and I am kicking myself for not seeing this sooner!

Posted by Tumbleweed
Apr 17, 2024 at 05:31 PM

I realized that MyInfo 8 does indeed have saved searches, which are pinned under Global Search.

These include logical operators, as well as access to any and all attributes!

The only thing missing would be to allow these searches to be saved into the note tree - of course, this would require a different structure since the tree columns are also in the tree. Probably an additional results pane appearing in the bottom half of the note tree pane would do the trick.

This is literally my only quibble with the program, as tree based saved searches would allow quick access to things like “Papers to review”, “Manuscripts for all projects with certain status”, etc.

Posted by Tumbleweed
Apr 19, 2024 at 03:56 PM

So I emailed Petko, and after a brief conversation I realized that there is no need for a note tree saved search!

MyInfo 8 has “Filters” and “Perspectives”, which handle all the example use cases I personally had for Saved searches, such as keeping project files that need to be revised handy with their statuses.

Furthermore, both Global search and “Go to anything” (Ctrl-G within a notebook) provide ample tools to search for items of interest.

So, basically all of my quibbles are not relevant either due to functionality I wasn’t aware of, or the way I am using it. I’m actually going to try using it for Tasks as well, as it is certainly as powerful as EPIM - in fact I’ll probably ditch EPIM for a basic Outlook experience and move everything else to MyInfo 8.

Really a fantastic program!!!!!

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