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InfoQube versus UltraRecall versus Zoot 6
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Posted by Graham Rhind
Feb 11, 2010 at 01:27 PM
Hmmm, not the storm I had expected - we must all be becoming more placid in our dotage!
@Alexander - Unlike you I consider the three programs very similar. They’re all built on underlying SQL-based data repositories, they all have the attributes panes, they all allow user definition of the data, all have built-in browsers and so on. But your comments are useful for me - I realise that, having hived off most of what these programs used to do for me to other programs, I need to evaluate them in terms of what I now do and not what I did do when first using them.
@Ian - yes, I’ve been beta testing Zoot 6 too, but without your positive feelings. It’s added features have made its idiosyncrasies more apparent (for me), and, as it’s been rebuilt from scratch it’s full of bugs which affect data in a way that I’m not too happy with! I think it’s moving in a direction that I don’t need, so I could stick with Zoot 5, but the idionsyncrasies are there too, so ...
@Quant - I know you’re a great UR fan. For the record, my comments about the help file and unfriendly support are based entirely on my own experiences. Some of my support requests went unanswered. Others were responded to in a language which might as well have been a dialect of Mongolian for all that it meant to me (and I’m no slouch - I’ve been working with databases for over 20 years). Requests for clarification mostly went unanswered. They just seem completely incapable of providing a simple step-by-step explanation of how to work around the bugs that the program certainly had when I used it. I have to compare their support to the way I support my customers, and I found it severely wanting. Perhaps things have improved ...
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Feb 11, 2010 at 04:20 PM
Graham,
Like you I use OneNote and Zoot to manage most of my information organization needs at the office, where I work on a PC. I have been eager to get my hands on Zoot 6.0, but have not really tested it in real life with my precious information. But what little experience I have with it does make me a little concerned. I will hold off judgment until the final release candidate becomes available. Nevertheless, I am a bit nervous.
I bought a license for Ultra Recall many years ago, but became disenchanted by the complexity. It took me a long time to get used to Zoot, and maybe I just wasn’t willing to devote that much time to another application—which is also why I have so far not been moved by InfoQube, which I recognize is packed with features, but remains overly convoluted for me.
If Zoot 6 proves not useful to me, I will be in a similar situation, with the options being to stick with Zoot 5 or to move to another application. I think my first choice after Zoot might be MyInfo. I like its clean interface. The developers are responsive and continue to improve it. The biggest issue, for me, will be how easily I can import my Zoot data into MyInfo, which has so far had a less-than-satisfactory import function.
Still Zoot does things that no other application I’ve seen can do. It allows me to view my data in tables. Allows for importing text with delimiters that instantly make that data table-worthy (i.e. if you create a delimited column based on the prefix “Title:” and you import content with text that includes the word “Title:” at the start of the line, all that follows will be included in that column in the the grid/table). Smart folders, rules and actions, mean the information I capture in Zoot is almost endlessly malleable. I never have to worry about categorizing the information as I capture it, unless I want to. In short, I am hoping that Zoot 6 will prove more useable than it currently feels to me.
Steve Z.
Posted by Tom S.
Feb 11, 2010 at 04:20 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.
Someone else will have to confirm this because its been a while since I used Windows, and therefore IQ, regularly. But as I recall, IQ is just like Ecco in that the columns you create do appear in the organizational tree. The grid can be eliminated entirely and you can use it as a strictly hierarchical tree-based organizer if you wish.
Tom S.
Posted by Franz Grieser
Feb 11, 2010 at 05:24 PM
Stephen.
>Still Zoot does things that no
>other application I’ve seen can do. It allows me to view my data in tables. Allows for
>importing text with delimiters that instantly make that data table-worthy (i.e. if
>you create a delimited column based on the prefix “Title:” and you import content with
>text that includes the word “Title:” at the start of the line, all that follows will be
>included in that column in the the grid/table). Smart folders, rules and actions,
>mean the information I capture in Zoot is almost endlessly malleable. I never have to
>worry about categorizing the information as I capture it, unless I want to. In short, I
>am hoping that Zoot 6 will prove more useable than it currently feels to me.
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.
Thanks, Franz
Posted by Ian Goldsmid
Feb 11, 2010 at 06:50 PM
Graham
I’ve been using Zoot 6 now for several months, but most intensively for the past few weeks and haven’t encountered and data issues. Not unexpectedly there are some quirky application & UI issues, but no data loss or anything serious like that.
Ian