I am just about to start the dissertation stage of a MSc in Project Management. I have already done some preliminary research and collected a number of reference documents together with associated notes. At the moment this material is contained in a MindManager map. I already have a number of information management applications - Treepad, InfoHandler, PersonalBrain, WikidPad...., but I am looking for something is designed specifically for this sort of task which will help me organise my research and write a draft.

I had a quick look at ndxCard and have just downloaded Idea Mason to check out.

I would be grateful for any user experiences with above software or suggestion re alternatives.


Regards,
Nigel

Nigel

IdeaMason appears to be generally held in high regard, as much for the potential of its new version which is previewed extensively on its site and is due to be released this month (December), as for its current incarnation.

ndx cards approaches the task from a different direction. Preference may be a matter of taste. Both programmes have been extensively discussed on this forum and its predecessor in the past, and a search will tell you more about what people think.

Nigel,

I agree with Hugh. IdeaMason is looking especially useful, although I haven't trialled it extensively. Another option might be Nota Bene - http://www.notabene.com/ - which also provides what you are looking for, and has been in the business for a long time. Your choice partly depends on your future plans; Nota Bene always seemed to me to be a career academic's tool, though, and requires a lot of investment in terms of time and money.

Given the stage you are at, I'd probably plump for IdeaMason, as much to avoid the procrastinating allure of CRIMP as anything else...

Derek

Hugh & Derek,

Thanks for the replies.

ndxCards - this software has a "Windows 3.1" feel about it. Functionality is OK, but when it draws up the cards on my monitor it seems to resize them a few times before it 'settles down' and even though it happens quickly, I find it really annoying.

Notabene - One look at the price list was enough to stop further investigations.

IdeaMason - The current version is 'useable', but it looks like the additional features & UI chnages in the next version due this month would be necessary to convince to think seriously about it. I check it out out again when the new version becomes available.

With new versions of OneNote & PersonalBrain due in the new year, it seems like my 2007 CRIMP budget is under pressure already! So IdeaMason will have to convince me that it can really make life alot easier for me, to make me fork out the money for it. I have managed to complete a couple of smaller projects for my MSc without it, which maybe says my search is another symptom of CRIMP, rather than an actual requirement for another piece of software!

Derek Cornish wrote:

Nigel,

Given the stage you are at, I'd probably
plump for IdeaMason, as much to avoid the procrastinating allure of CRIMP as anything
else...

Derek

Hi,
The only application on the market with a reasonable price for academic (and even non-academic) writing is IdeaMason.
The interface of version 2.2 looks old fashioned and a bit childish but it is a very capable application.
Version 3 will be released by the end of December or beginning of January and will a have an interface similar to Ultra Recall and will include keyboard shortcuts and a lot of very interesting and useful features. I myself rate IdeaMason as the best company so far in regard of customer responsiveness. All the features I have requested (rtf export, smaller Icons, keyboard shortcuts etc.) will be in the coming version 3.

ndxCards is very nice but I personally don't like the interface and the strict card metaphor.

Notabene is the rolls royce but too expensive and complex for me.

I can't imagine how it would work to use ADM, Ultra Recall or any other Outliner/PIM application for serious academic research and/or writing because these tools are not designed for that purpose.

Who I am:
I am a software developer (OO, Java, .NET, C#) living in Austria.

Regards,
Softwareguru

For writing (not academic research) I use WhizFolders (www.whizfolders.com). It has a fairly standard tree-based structure but with wiki-type linkages within topics and to files external to it. It suffers from limited editting power (based on WordPad with some improvements), but it will output trees in a number of formats as a completed manuscript. Also, it's author has been extremely supportive in making improvements to the package as requested by the users (if other packages were as responsive I wouldn't have to adopt a new one every couple of months ....).

I have used it to write and publish a book of over 1000 pages, and also use it for all my software manuals.

Graham Rhind

Softwareguru wrote:

I can't imagine
how it would work to use ADM, Ultra Recall or any other Outliner/PIM application for
serious academic research and/or writing because these tools are not designed for
that purpose.

I've owned a license for WhizFolders for several years. It is an attractive program in many ways, but I find all the windows that open as I work through a project very annoying. So it is interesting to hear that you've written a 1000-page book with WF. Perhaps I need to try it once again.

Steve Z.

Graham Rhind wrote:

For writing (not academic research) I use WhizFolders (www.whizfolders.com). It
has a fairly standard tree-based structure but with wiki-type linkages within
topics and to files external to it. It suffers from limited editting power (based on
WordPad with some improvements), but it will output trees in a number of formats as a
completed manuscript. Also, it's author has been extremely supportive in making
improvements to the package as requested by the users (if other packages were as
responsive I wouldn't have to adopt a new one every couple of months ....).

I have
used it to write and publish a book of over 1000 pages, and also use it for all my software
manuals.

Graham Rhind

Softwareguru wrote:

>I can't imagine
>how it would
work to use ADM, Ultra Recall or any other Outliner/PIM application for
>serious
academic research and/or writing because these tools are not designed for
>that
purpose.
>

WhizFolders can open a number of windows, and navigating between them was one of my bugbears about the program until I discovered some of the neat keystrokes which ease the process. I see being able to split projects and information in that way a great strength - programs such as Ariadne which only allow organisation within a single outline are too limiting to me. WhizFolders allows me to access outlines created separately on any of the computers in my network, also resolving another issue that I had, which was information spread over different PCs and in different folders.

I was managing the book in Word, and editing it was a nightmare - just navigating to the point I wanted to edit was very time consuming. By splitting the book up into about 300 topics in WhizFolders, I can not only go straight to the point I want to edit, I can also output the book immediately in a format which (to me) is superior to Word's. Keeping the book updated is now a breeze, and for that I'm willing to make a few compromises!

Graham

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I've owned a license for WhizFolders for several years. It is an attractive program in
many ways, but I find all the windows that open as I work through a project very
annoying. So it is interesting to hear that you've written a 1000-page book with WF.
Perhaps I need to try it once again.

Steve Z.

I think currently the best software for doing academic research is Notabene. I think once IdeaMason 3 appears, that might change. Most of folks I know use Word and Endnote combination since both are most popular programs in each respective area.

Ideal academic writing requires several components: good bibliographic software, information management and retrieval, outlining and writing.

I don't think any of PIM we discuss here can offer all three features, and thus, doesn't qualify for good academic writing tool.

However, it does not mean they are not good writing tools by any means. Whizfolder has a new version (version 6) that offers a lot of improvement over the previous version.

Ken

Softwareguru, I agree with your positive hopes for IdeaMason.

I would disagree with your assessment of Notabene as the Rolls Royce. I have NB, and have played with it a little bit, as well as monitoring the NB list for a couple of years. My sense is that other software, including pretty good hard drive indexing and search programs, have passed NB by. Meanwhile, NB seems to have never fully made the transition from DOS, or at least early Windows, to today's Windows. As well, its note-taking capability, presented as something special by the developers, is not really that special.

I have Biblioscape, which has been taking a very long time to come out with its new version. There are things I like about Biblioscape, but my sense is that it may also be struggling to regain a cutting edge position.

IdeaMason's developers seem to have taken a hard look at the various frustrations and problems many of us have had with most of what is currently available, and single mindedly tried to overcome them all. I hope fervently that IdeaMason is successful in this quest.

Daly

Softwareguru wrote:

Hi,
The only application on the market with a reasonable price for academic (and even
non-academic) writing is IdeaMason.
The interface of version 2.2 looks old
fashioned and a bit childish but it is a very capable application.
Version 3 will be
released by the end of December or beginning of January and will a have an interface
similar to Ultra Recall and will include keyboard shortcuts and a lot of very
interesting and useful features. I myself rate IdeaMason as the best company so far in
regard of customer responsiveness. All the features I have requested (rtf export,
smaller Icons, keyboard shortcuts etc.) will be in the coming version 3.

ndxCards
is very nice but I personally don't like the interface and the strict card metaphor.


Notabene is the rolls royce but too expensive and complex for me.

I can't imagine
how it would work to use ADM, Ultra Recall or any other Outliner/PIM application for
serious academic research and/or writing because these tools are not designed for
that purpose.

Who I am:
I am a software developer (OO, Java, .NET, C#) living in
Austria.

Regards,
Softwareguru

Thanks for the various observations about Whiz Folders. I haven't had a look at it for quite some time and it seems to be coming along nicely.

It reminds me of a cross-between Treepad Biz and Brainstorm - not a bad place to be!

Jack

Hi!

NW wrote:

....but I am looking for
something is designed specifically for this sort of task which will help me organise
my research and write a draft.

Has anybody tried GoBinder
http://www.gobinder.com/
in this context? It is basically note-taking software with some additional capabilities. I learnt about it some time ago but had no time to check it out.

Wojciech

Wojciech,

Gobinder offers similar facilties to OneNote, but is a more 'all in one' package by having calendar and tasks included, whereas OneNote, not surprsingly replies on integration with Outlook for these features. The big advantage that GoBinder had when I looked at it when it first came out was the ability to 'print' documents into it. This was subsequently addressed by PowerToys for OneNote 2003 and is included in OneNote 2007.

PS For those interested a 60 day trial on OneNote 2007 is available but at the moment available to US citizens only. According to one the OneNote developer's blogs this should be extended to more countries 'soon'.

GoBinder/OneNote are good as a 'reference system' for collating documents and I already have most of my MSc notes for the taught module stored in OneNote.


Nigel

Wojciech wrote:

Hi!

NW wrote:
....but I am looking for
>something is designed specifically for
this sort of task which will help me organise
>my research and write a draft.

Has
anybody tried GoBinder
http://www.gobinder.com/
in this context? It is
basically note-taking software with some additional capabilities. I learnt about
it some time ago but had no time to check it out.

Wojciech

The problem with many of these types of programs such as TreePad, and from a quick look at Whizfolders it may suffer from the same issues, is that the User Interface (menu system, toolbars and shortcut keys) is overly complex and not intuitive. I recently revisited some of these types of basic outliner programs and it seemed that ActionOutline would be my choice, if I was selecting one. The downside is that it isn't as feature rich as some of the others.

Nigel

Jack Crawford wrote:

Thanks for the various observations about Whiz Folders. I haven't had a look at it for
quite some time and it seems to be coming along nicely.

It reminds me of a
cross-between Treepad Biz and Brainstorm - not a bad place to be!

Jack

It has become clear to me during my exploration of these packages that intuitiveness is very much a property of the user rather than the software itself. I find WhizFolders completely intuitive, along with Ariadne, for example; whereas Zoot and ADM are purgatory to me. I think the user needs to find a package that not only does what they want it to do, but suits their way of thinking and working.

Graham

NW wrote:

The problem with many of these types of programs such as TreePad, and from a quick look
at Whizfolders it may suffer from the same issues, is that the User Interface (menu
system, toolbars and shortcut keys) is overly complex and not intuitive. I recently
revisited some of these types of basic outliner programs and it seemed that
ActionOutline would be my choice, if I was selecting one. The downside is that it isn't
as feature rich as some of the others.

Nigel

So...any bets on just when in December IdeaMason 3 will be out?

Must admit I am kind of excited in a crimpish sort of way.

Daly

This is what the IM site says: "Right now we are at looking at releasing Version 3.0 towards the end of December/early January."

Nigel,
thanks for your reply. As I see from their web page, there are some hints concerning various methods of note-taking and organising. Can be helpful.
Best regards,
Wojciech