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Software for dissertation research & writing
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Posted by Graham Rhind
Dec 5, 2006 at 03:52 PM
For writing (not academic research) I use WhizFolders (http://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.
>
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Dec 5, 2006 at 06:46 PM
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 (http://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.
>>
Posted by Graham Rhind
Dec 5, 2006 at 07:52 PM
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.
Posted by Kenneth Rhee
Dec 5, 2006 at 08:15 PM
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
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Dec 6, 2006 at 12:52 AM
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
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