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InfoQube versus UltraRecall versus Zoot 6
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Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Feb 11, 2010 at 10:06 PM
Graham Rhind wrote:
>
>I desperately want InfoQube to be the answer to every prayer I have ever had, but I am
>finding it frustrating to learn and completely counter-intuitive - everything I
>think is logical, like tabbing between items or clicking a URL to open it, doesn’t work
>the way I expect it to. And though I understand that IQ is item-based and works on
>creating grids to view data, maybe I’m just a tree man at heart and need some structure
>that IQ can’t provide.
>
>I had a look back at UltraRecall today and it felt immediately
>right, and I understand (after some digging in the past) how it works. But I remember
>also all the niggling annoyances of it, poor documentation, unfriendly support
>(unlike Pierre’s) and so on.
>
>And I wonder which way I should be looking. So I thought
>I’d ask the experts: how would you ladies and gentlemen compare IQ, UR and Zoot 6 - what
>do you feel are the strengths and (remaining) weaknesses of each? I’d love to be
>reminded.
Graham, like you I have been searching for the all in one program as the thing I hate most during my day is moving data to & from various programs, i.e. I want it all in one place. Over the years I’ve tried them all. All of the programs that fit into this category are idiosyncratic IMHO. The more open the architecture, the more idiosyncratic.
I’ve followed Zoot since v1 & still it doesn’t quite do it for me
ADM (now defunct) was getting very close but went south
UltraRecall is excellent but not for me. If you feel comfortable w it, that’s definitely your tool.
InfoQube I use every single day for everything & I do mean everything from daily log, grabbing data from email, the web, researching / writing articles, using the graphic outlook like calendar for scheduling & reminders, GTD, creating Gantt charts for longer term projects, etc.
I am no techie—not by a long shot—so if i can figure InfoQube out with some help & a little patience, anyone can IMHO. The InfoQube issues you’ve listed seem pretty straight forward to me. Probably a few minutes of explanation would clear them up. I’d be happy to help as I’m sure others more expert than I would as well. One thing I’m sure of: InfoQube can structure any data you have probably in any form you can dream up.
Does IQ have quirks? Yup.
Can it be used as a single outline? Yup.
Can you add conditions to those items in the outline (Yup—as many as you want)
Can you find stuff quickly (yup… by filter, source or search—simple or advanced).
Can you link item to item, etc? Yup.
How is tech support? Excellent, friendly up to personal telephone calls w the developer.
Is development consistent? It has been moving along at a pretty fast clip. Don’t let the version bother you, ie. beta 9.25 pre release 18 (the latest) is probably equal to ver 2-3-4 in other programs.
The GUI is not as polished as it could / will be but is being improved daily.
The stability is 99.999999999% as nothing is 100% IMHO.
Does it have a learning curve? Yup… until you learn the trick of how it works. Then everything else falls into place.
License is reasonable, free until v1 is released (unless you feel like contributing)
It is totally portable; no admin rights needed
Is it worth investing the time to learn it? Yup… if you are really looking for an excellent all-in-one
It answered my prayers.
—
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA
http://janrifkinson.blogspot.com
http://www.bogartsdaddy.com
janrif@gmail.com
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Feb 11, 2010 at 10:21 PM
Franz Grieser wrote:
>As you also use
>Tinderbox: Do you exchange data between Zoot and Tinderbox?
>
>Would it be possible to
>enter data plus meta data in Zoot and move it to Tinderbox? And have Tinderbox use the
>meta data as attributes? Similar to what you do with the spreadsheet you import into
>Tinderbox (see Tinderbox Chronicles, part 3)?
>
>I am asking because I plan to restart
>using Tinderbox for 2 projects. I will, however, often be using a Windows PC or tablet
>PC for entering data, which will be processed in Tinderbox.
Franz,
That’s an excellent idea. I haven’t tried it yet, but theoretically it should work. I will give it a try and let you know how it works.
Steve
Posted by Franz Grieser
Feb 12, 2010 at 02:49 PM
Thanks Steve.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Feb 14, 2010 at 07:31 AM
Re MyInfo: my main reason for using it is its excellent HTML exporting. I can build a project outline in MyInfo with all relevant files linked, and it will build a website with everything, including the linked files. I can then upload this via FTP to my website and give my clients acceess to all the information. If a file is updated, I can simply replace the uploaded version.
Derek Cornish wrote:
>MyInfo is another casualty of Zoot
>beta’s rft editor; it IS an attractive program, but I can never come up with a really
>good reason to use it.
Posted by Graham Rhind
Feb 16, 2010 at 10:14 AM
Thanks for all the input up to now.
MyInfo - I downloaded the trial and had another look. It seems very intuitive and easy to use, but it strikes me as being more of an information manager than a (structured) data manager, which is what I’m currently looking for. For example, you can’t create a data-entry layout as you can in UR - it’s either in a table (as per Zoot), or via the attributes window, where the attributes are ordered alphabetically and don’t seem to be re-orderable. Also, as mentioned, the export features are fine for information but definitely not for structured data, and this is clearly shown in the very primitive csv export functionality. For exporting to html so that my customers can view my information bases I use The Brain, though I can see MyInfo would be a good alternative.
Graham