UltraEdit for day-to-day note taking, writing, to do lists. Considering buying emEditor because I really like it's outline plug-in, which lets you create nested outlines from a text file and easily move nodes up and down.

Firefox add-ons Shelve and UnMHT for dumping online articles and Web pages to disk.

UltraRecall for organizing documents, notes, PDFs, email, etc. for projects.

Outlook (work) and Gmail (personal) for email.

Archivarius for desktop search.

Clipmate for the occassional heavy-duty cutting and pasting.

Keeping an eye on upcoming versions Zoot and OneNote, which I've used in the past.

shatteredmindofbob wrote:

I was reading through the November 2008 thread where folks were listing off what they
were using and for what purpose and learnt about a few new programs.

Thunderbird - Email
InfoQube - everything else: writing, project planning, clipping, ToDo;s, Diary, Calendaring, research

Life is simple.

--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

Jan Rifkinson wrote:

InfoQube - everything else: writing,
project planning, clipping, ToDo;s, Diary, Calendaring, research

Life is simple.

Hello Jan

Would you care to say a little more on how you are using InfoQube - especially your writing and task management workflows? Are you storing everything inside IQ as well?

Like many here, I am attracted to the notion of using only one app for most PIM needs. I'm interested in InfoQube (I have a licence) but am not prepared to commit my dynamic knowledge base to it just yet.

TIA

Jack

Jack Crawford wrote:

Would you care to say a little more on how you are using InfoQube -
especially your writing and task management workflows? Are you storing everything inside IQ as well?

Writing:
- I create a project folder name & a boolean (y/N) field w the same name
- I create a grid with the project name as it's source of all data (this automatically collects all the data that is identified with the boolean y/n field of the same name)
- I use IQ's excellent clipper to import research as I find it. IQ faithfully reproduce web data including graphics very easily in MHT or HTML formats except when the data is hidden behind passwords as in HTTPS sites. Then a different procedure can be used.) I tend to favor MHT because it keeps all the data in one place -- yes, within IQ
- If I get a random idea, I can quickly jump to my journal, make a note & tag it with the project name field
- I re-arrange (drag/drop) research items & notes into some kind of pre-lim order. From there I can either print outline to html (children are collapsable) or join items in the outline, etc.
- I create a sub-folder called Drafts - Project NAME
- I create a new sub-item called draft 1, etc

So my writing project grid may look something like this:
Project Name Due Date Publication # Words DoneDate
clipping # 1
clipping # 2
note # 1
note # 2
DRAFT Folder
draft # 1 325 words
draft # 2 300 words
FINAL 298 words done date
With this grid I can easily
change the order of columns (drag / drop) (or hide them all)
change the order of the clippings / notes (drag / drop)
edit the clippings in MHT or HTML
edit the notes in either MHT or HTML
Join some of the items together
clip / drop from note or clipping to draft etc.
write in html or MHT window
I can easily arrange it just to have a full screen to work with while I write

When I'm finished I can email it directly out of IQ. I can then mark the project name (parent done) In my case this changes the color of the font to grey & adds a done date. I can then archive the project, leave it, export it as a separate IQ file & delete it in the main dB or leave it alone.

BTW, I also created a form in which contains the following fields
Publication:
Publication date:
Due date:
# of words
Done date:

I can also mark any item as priority, pending, follow up, etc so if
I've got a call into a source but waiting for them to call back, it can be listed as pending with telephone # & any notes

TASKS
Import email w one click / enter / add / clip an item by any means in any grid & mark it as a task, pending, followup or whatever name you want to give it. Give it a due date or priority color or font style, i.e. bold, etc. inject a color into the background to attract your attention for different priorities. Example: red= important, Yellow = pending, Green = ready to go, Grey = done.

The choices are pretty much endless.

Jack, there's much I've left out. But I hope / think I've provided enough info so you can see that your choices of how to organize data in InfoQube is probably limited only by your imagination. It is completely flexible. It is also completely stable. Getting data into the program couldn't be simpler. It's fast & accurate. There are extensions available both for Firefox & Thunderbird. There is also an outlook style calendar available in the program. It can be used now w reminders, recurring dates, etc. The data shows up in the grids but currently you cannot upgrade the calendar from the grid. This is coming as the developer knows this is a priority for many users.

The manual as such has been written by users so it is more user friendly than many manuals written by devleopers, i.e. it is less techie & more user friendly since, by definition, it is written from a user's POV.

Being so flexible is like working w a 2 edged blade. You can do anything with it but you have to learn how to do it & that may take a little longer. There are some quirks to the program (some expected, some un-expected) but by and large -- IMO -- and I have used a lot of this type of program going all the way back to Lotus Agenda -- once you understand a few building blocks & how they interact, the rest of it falls into place.

For a # of months I kept 2 programs going simultaneously so I could see how to organize what I was doing in program 1 with program 2.

For a while I was using Ultra Recall which is a fine program but since the developers announced they were ceasing further development except for compatibility issues & bugs, I moved on. Recently they released a version 4 which is not really a major upgrade IMO. Nevertheless, it is out there & worth a look.

However -- again IMO -- when IQ V.1 is released, it will probably have more going for it than many other programs of this ilk (including UltraRecall).

No, I have no commercial interest in IQ. Yes, I've had unpleasant experiences with the UR developers who expelled me from their forum for insisting on clarification about their development plans but that has not colored my feeling about IQ. What I've posted here is my honest appraisal. Others many disagree & that's fine. I think a lot of which program one chooses depends on the use one has for it. Like you, I want to dump everything in one place & then organize it for different uses. IQ does this for me in spades. UltraRecall does a fine job of it too, is slicker in many ways but I don't believe it has as open an architecture as IQ which is my preference anyway. And, to date, it does not have the development commitment that IQ has.

Up and coming is Zoot 6 which according to Tom Davis will be out in a few months. It will have a lot of the elements that many in zootland wanted including RTF. I have dipped in and out of Zoot from V.1 & will license 6 when it comes out but I suspect my heart & my data willl still belong to IQ @ the end of the day.

Regards,
--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

Jan,

many many thanks for this presentation; I've been trying for some time to get to grips with IQ (though I admit that the time I have devoted has been off and on) and what you just wrote summarises most of the needed concepts for a beginner and/or evaluator. I would suggest that Pierre Paul points to your post as an initial resource.

The program's flexibility and learning curve go hand-in-hand, much like in Zoot, a program that I have only used to the minimum of its potential.

Alexander

Jan, I second Alexander's thanks for the comprehensive overview of IQ. It does sound like a program worth attempting again. I'll probably wait and check out Zoot 6 before trying to get my arms around IQ again, however. One promised feature of Z6 is especially intriguing: The ability to create an outline item... essentially it sounds as if one might be able to create a single-pane outline within Zoot's three-pane user interface. That could be quite revolutionary if it works well and exports conveniently.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Jan, I second Alexander's thanks for the comprehensive overview of IQ. It does sound
like a program worth attempting again. I'll probably wait and check out Zoot 6 before
trying to get my arms around IQ again, however. One promised feature of Z6 is
especially intriguing: The ability to create an outline item... essentially it
sounds as if one might be able to create a single-pane outline within Zoot's
three-pane user interface. That could be quite revolutionary if it works well and
exports conveniently.

It is definitely wise to first look at a Version 6 software, especially when created by such a guru as Tom Davis. IQ being not yet at Version 1, some features are a "work in progress" and it does need some polishing and some simplification.

Thanks Jan for a user's perspective on IQ. As a complement (@ Jack Crawford), an insider's perspective can be found here:
Demystifying InfoQube: http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/781

Pierre, designer of IQ
http://www.InfoQube.biz

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

[snip] One promised feature of Z6 is
especially intriguing: The ability to create an outline item... essentially it
sounds as if one might be able to create a single-pane outline within Zoot's
three-pane user interface. That could be quite revolutionary if it works well and
exports conveniently.[/snip]

Steve Z, If I understand your interest, this can be accomplished now in IQ. The GUI allows for all other panes, i.e. html, properties, etc to be docked on any border as a tab, thus leaving the user w the outline (item) pane full screen. The other panes can be opened simply by mouse-over & pinning in position (if desired), else they retreat to their place on the border when you go back to the outline.

This is only in explanation, not to take anything away from Z6 nor URp which -- as I remember -- has a similar GUI to IQ & can do a similar trick.

--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

Thanks Jan, Pierre et al for the detailed responses. I'll work my way through them as soon as I get an opportunity.

One final question, if I may ..

Jan, I may have missed this in your earlier post, but what do you do with the data you have collected in IQ - store it inside the prog, archive elsewhere etc? I would be moving to IQ from OneNote, which has good storage capabilities.

Thanks again

Jack

Jack Crawford wrote:

[snip]One final question, if I may .. [snip] what do you do with the data you have collected in IQ -
store it inside the prog, archive elsewhere etc? I would be moving to IQ from OneNote,
which has good storage capabilities.

Jack, I don't know a damn thing about OneNote or its capabilities so I'm not sure how to respond here relative to that program. As far as IQ is concerned, you can keep your work stored within IQ (for later searches) or archive your in several formats.

I personally keep everything in a single dB for search purposes as IQ does not currently search across dBs as Zoot does (altho this is slated for the future). Incidentally, UltraRecall doesn't search across dBs either.

The only other consideration may be some kind of slow down in processing if your file gets too big but I haven't experienced that yet which doesn't mean that it might not occur. I don't believe IQ has any limitations & I don't know if there is a 'magic' size beyond which some performance degradation is experienced.

Permit me a suggestion, Jack.

I'd suggest you start playing w IQ along side OneNote for a while. Try to do whatever it is you do in OneNote in IQ (or duplicate your efforts). That way, when you transfer your OneNote data over, you will already be familiar w IQ's methodology & quirks & be able to pick up where ever you left off in OneNote.

IMO, it will be much easier for you to absorb IQ w limited data than working w a slew of data that you may be nervous to experiment w for fear of losing it.

--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

Jack:

InfoQube is a wonderful effort, but as Pierre so honestly and objectively put it, some areas are works in progress. I have found the program to be sluggish at times and some of its quirks (like the need to refresh views, close and re-open grids, or re-start the program) to be maddening and intrusive. Yet the program has fantastic potential.

When you asked about storage, I thought you meant something along the lines of Ultra Recall. With UR, you can either link, store, or both. I think IQ only allows linking so far.

Jon