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Infoselect 9 Preliminary Version
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Posted by Dominik Holenstein
May 15, 2006 at 08:42 AM
Daly,
IS 9 is definitely not a revolutionary redesign.
Some users in the IS 9 Yahoo Groups are very disappointed with the new features added.
My experience so far is between very good and some mixed feelings.
The good:
-Context Tab and Smart Folders. Not really new or innovative features but very helpful for organizing information.
-IS 9 is very stable (no crashes so far) and has very good backup system
-Interface: I was one of the hardest critics of the interface so far but I have to change my opinion: it works and is useful
-Word processing: Much improved compared to IS 7 (I don’t know IS 8)
-Printing: no issues so far (except when printing forms…)
-Task/Tickler/calendar system
-Search Engine -> it is so well and offers that many features that a metadata and categrization system is not really necessary (this is just my opinion)
-Outlining: you can add numberings and bullets in the selector where you outline your content. Further, if you just add a note without a title in the topic then this note is not counted in the outliner when you are using numberings. Very interesting to draft and write concepts, texts etc.
the less good:
-OLE is not working (at least on my laptop)
-Some issues with the Swiss Keyboard layout (minor ones but they have to be addressed)
-No Metadata / Keyword / categorization system (but the approach of IS is different the the ones of ADM and UR)
-The build in browser (IE) does not allow to show several websites intabs
-Not easy to learn. Using IS 9 is not a quick hit - it is more a long term journey (you can work with IS 9 after one hour. But for the whole benefit you need to invest time)
I agree with you Daly that for academic work IS 9 might not be the perfect application. ndx Cards, ADM or UR are better for these purposes.
More experiences with follow.
Regards,
Dominik
PS:
Pricing: $249 are not in my budget but I have a nice company paying the one year subscription for me (for one year at least and then we have to discuss it again).
Posted by Kenneth Rhee
May 15, 2006 at 09:07 AM
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>I agree
>with you Daly that for academic work IS 9 might not be the perfect application. ndx
>Cards, ADM or UR are better for these purposes.
>
I beg to differ on this issue. I think IS9 is superior to ADM, Ndx cards, or UR when it comes to managing information given its superior search capability, outlining, and database function, etc. The only thing it’s lacking is bibliographic tool, but you can create the database within IS to keep track of that if you want. I tried to use ADM, ndx cards, and UR for my academic work, but after a few days, I give up on those programs given their limitations on one thing or another. Ndx Cards showed the most promise, but its limitations on searching, bibliographic tool, and outlining left much to be desired in my experience. The combination of Endnote and IS9 is a great combination for doing academic research if you want a separate bibliographic software.
However, for me the best still remains Notabene when it comes to my academic research. If I weren’t using Notabene, I would be using IS 9 and Endnote for my research. As it is now, I use IS 9 to supplement Notabene. I keep all my research meeting notes, ideas, and miscellaneous stuff in IS 9. In fact, I also keep my interview transcripts in IS 9 as well (I do use Nvivo or Maxqda for my final analysis) . Oh, I forgot to mention that I still use Inspiration 8 for mind maping or concept mapping when it comes to brainstorming or generating new ideas for my research. I discovered that there is not one software that does everything I need to do my research, but with a few well-designed software programs right now, I can accomplish my goal.
Of course, others may have different experiences and YMMV.
Posted by Franz Grieser
May 15, 2006 at 09:21 AM
Hi Dominik.
>The good:
>-Context Tab and Smart Folders.
This and the improved Transporter are the reasons why I started using IS again more extensively. In fact, the context tabs alone are worth the upgrade for me. I have such a huge number of folders (or Topics in Micrologic speak) that inserting new data always meant first digging through the folders to open the right one. Now, I defined a number of context tabs (e.g. one for my novel, one for the new business I am just starting, several for current customers, etc.) opening the corresponding folders/topics. This means just 2 or 3 mouseclicks to get to the place where I want to start typing or pasting info I just copied elsewhere.
>-Some issues with the Swiss
>Keyboard layout (minor ones but they have to be addressed)
What exactly is wrong? I have no problems with German umlaute and the “ß” (but you don´t use that ;-) in Switzerland).
Servus, Franz
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
May 15, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Franz
The problems I have are with the signs ] and {.
I need them to write Java code.
I have a good workaround with Quick Text in Info Select.
Regards,
Dominik
Posted by Franz Grieser
May 15, 2006 at 12:13 PM
Hi Dominik
>The problems I have are with the signs ] and {.
>I need them to write Java code.
That´s strange: Here pressing AltGr plus 7, 8, 9 or 0 works.
Bye, Franz