I have received an assignment at work that requires me to report back to our web master of any needed changes to web pages belonging to our work division of approximately 35 people. While this assignment only happens twice a year, it is a bit like herding cats as I need to farm out the pages and links to staff so they can review their respective pages and report back any needed changes. Now, I can print out the pages and the linked pages, and their linked pages, to track progress and responses, but I thought that I would try to save a tree if possible. I do not believe that my employer will give me any tools to track this assignment (other than the common components of MS Office), and while I am certainly not a Luddite, I am not versed in web page maintenance. So, as I am on a tight deadline, can anybody recommend any basic software that does not need to be installed on a PC (i.e. cloud-based or "no-install") that will allow me to attach note or comments to copies of each web page. From past posts, I am guessing that Surfulaltor might work, but it needs to be installed on a machine. Also, I am a bit loathe to spend funds for a work project, but might consider doing so if a program really made a difference. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

--Ken

Ken wrote:

From past posts, I am guessing that Surfulaltor
might work, but it needs to be installed on a machine. Also, I am a bit loathe to spend
funds for a work project, but might consider doing so if a program really made a
difference.

I could imagine Surfulator working well for this, even if you need to install it. It would be easy to create a folder for each employee, and then create sub-folders with dates, where you could store the captured web pages, so various versions can be compared and progress can be tracked. Each folder and article can be annotated. But I'm not an expert in this area either. I suppose Ultra Recall could also do these tasks, but I generally found Surfulator just more intuitive and easier to use.

Well, I am home from work now, and have had a few minutes to do a bit more research. There appear to be several options, but I am not sure if any one specific one will fully meet my needs. The programs that seem to have caught my attention are Surfulater, MyInfo, WebResearch (and to a lesser degree, LinkStash, which I already own). LinkStash and MyInfo will run off of a USB drive, and that makes them easy to use at work, but LinkStash is really a bookmark program, and MyInfo does not have a trial version of its portable program. Surfulater and WebResearch seem best suited to the task, but both will require a machine on which I can install them. My biggest issue for selection right now, however, is time. This project needs to be completed by Jan. 25, and that means I need to get to work immediately, so the learning curve on whatever I choose has to be very short and easy. In short, I am willing to trade off features for ease if necessary. If I had tot he time to research this a bit more, it would be an enjoyable assignment. As it stands, it feels a bit like a burr under my saddle.

--Ken

Ken,

[1] I would suggest using Evernote (the free version should be more than enough):

- It is cloud based with a local client. You can work only in the cloud without installing anything if you so wish.

- There are extensions for IE/Firefox/Chrome/Safari but you don't even need to install these. You can use the bookmarklet (scroll to the end of http://www.evernote.com/about/download/web_clipper.php ) which is a javascript link --keep it in your browser's bookmarks and, when browsing a page, select what you want and click on the link. If you don't select anything, you'll be given the choice to capture the whole page and/or the URL.

- You can organise your collections in separate notebooks (just a flat list, no hierarchies) and/or use tags.

- If you use separate notebooks for your coworkers, you can share each notebook with the person responsible; they will then need to create their own free Evernote account to view/edit/annotate the pages.

- Alternatively, you can create a public notebook where you transfer the pages that you want them to view, in which case don't need accounts. They won't be able to edit the pages but they can simply copy the content to MS Word and annotate them there. A downside is that your public notebook will be available to anyone on the internet at www.evernote.com/pub/your-account/notebook-name but you can use a fairly complicated name for the notebook to avoid people reaching it by chance.

- Evernote will do a good job of capturing the content of pages as far as text and images are concerned, but not the styles (then again, most web collection software may have trouble with complicated layouts). If the layout is important, you may simply use Evernote in the same ways as above but without clipping anything, so only the links to the original pages are circulated.

Find below a couple of alternatives:

[2] MyInfo http://www.milenix.com/ is a classic and powerful two pane outliner which has been discussed here in the past. It can capture web content (I can't vouch for its layout accuracy) and it can run from a USB stick. It can also export its content as HTML maintaining the hierarchical structure.

[3] Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com/ is an online file backup/sharing solution. As with Evernote, it has a local client which you don't need in order to use the service (you should install it once, e.g. at your home PC, in order to create your account). You can save pages as .mht files in Internet Explorer, upload and share them with specific coworkers using just the web interface.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Sorry, I mentioned MyInfo, forgetting that you already referred to it in your own post. The portable version is practically identical to the installable one. You can try the installation at home and, if you purchase a license, this will be valid for both versions.

Hi Alexander,

Thank you for the detailed reply. I had considered Evernote (as well as Springpad), but did not know if would be easy to track and organize the pages like WR or Surfulater. I had initially thought that I could use my netbook, but that would mean that I would have to bring it to work every day until this assignment was finished. I am also considering a web-based program called Notable ( http://www.notableapp.com/ ), but Evernote may be easier to manage and work with. I will try to give this some additional thought tomorrow.

--Ken

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

[3] Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com/
is an online file backup/sharing solution. As with Evernote, it has a local client
which you don't need in order to use the service (you should install it once, e.g. at
your home PC, in order to create your account). You can save pages as .mht files in
Internet Explorer, upload and share them with specific coworkers using just the web
interface.

I had not considered Dropbox for this type of assignment, but then again, I will not be responsible for actually editing the web pages. I am only gathering the changes from staff. But, it is a moot point, as our network will not allow us to connect up with Dropbox for some unknown reason. Box.net is fine, but not Dropbox. I have asked the powers that be, but have not received any kind of detailed answer. And, one of our key IT security officers uses Dropbox himself. Go figure!

--Ken

In addition to Notable, there is another web-based program I just found called Denote: http://www.denoteapp.com/ . I wish these programs offered a hierarchical structure like Surfulalter, then they would be very useful to me.

--Ken

Evernote does not provide hierarchical organisation of notebooks in folders, but tags can be organised hierarchically with no apparent limitation (other than each tag only appearing once). I have found this to be a very powerful system.

Just another thought, in case it had not occurred to you. If your team has access to the common MS Office applications, does that include OneNote? If so, you can set up a public notebook on a server that everyone can access. I haven't tried this, so I could be wrong, but I think it would be relatively easy to set up a notebook to reflect the web pages, then have people make notes there. The beauty is more than one person can contribute to any single page, and each person can see what others are writing.

Steve

I don't know if you've discussed iCyte before, but I've been using it to good effect. Web-based, installs in your toolbar, and very good at clipping and organizing web pages, by both project folders and topic tags. They just went to a paid model, but it's still free for academics.

Jon

In view of your requirements, Ken, I'd suggest using something like "Awesome Screenshot" (an extension for Google Chrome), which allows you to take complete screenshots of a web page (including the bits that aren't on-screen), then mark them up/annotate them, then save the resulting image out as a PNG file.

So, the benefits: it's free, and it runs in a standard web browser (Google Chrome). And it doesn't just create screenshots, it allows you to annotate them.

On the downside, it only creates PNG files rather than files with editable text. But OneNote or another OCR application (e.g. EverNote) could be used to extract text subsequently. Of course you could (as somebody else has suggested) use OneNote to take screenshots (Windows key + S) and then share and annotate them, but OneNote's screenshot feature isn't as powerful as Awesome Screenshot's.

I'm sure similar extensions are available for Mozilla Firefox. I have no idea whether they are for Internet Explorer.

On a slight tangent - to track web pages you could do worse than try out Martin Aignes's Web Watcher application, which also allows you to annotate them (it's payable software, unfortunately). His Local Website Archive application allows you to save web pages locally, but you have to pay for the version capable of annotations.

Hope one or more of those helps!

Cheers,
Bill

Sorry, quick self-correction here: Website-Watcher, is the name of the app. Local Website Archive would probably be more relevant, and isn't expensive. You can highlight and edit text in saved web pages too! But you'd need a version for each one of your 35 colleagues - not good!

Website-Watcher and Local Website Archive interact, and can be found at www.aignes.com (I know I keep recommending this guy's stuff, and hasten to add that I have no commercial, personal or other interest in Martin Aignes's affairs, I just use his programs!).

One final suggestion for a solution - have you considered using something like HTTrack (www.httrack.com) to download the entire website, put it on a network folder so all your colleagues have access to it, then providing them with a Word template (including crucial fields such as e.g. page title, author etc.) and opening another (neighbouring) network folder into which they can put their notes? Okay, it's not super-sophisticated, but it may prove more conventionally convenient (and I speak as one with years of attempts at training in-house staff on relatively straightforward IT systems behind me!).

Cheers,
Bill

Hm - your quandary has got me thinking, and of course I'm forgetting the wonderful ScrapBook extension for Mozilla Firefox, which you can use to save entire web pages exactly as they are, then add annotations etc. That's another option!

Cheers,
Bill

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Just another thought, in case it had not occurred to you. If your team has access to the
common MS Office applications, does that include OneNote?

Steve,

I had asked if we could have OneNote when they deployed the new version of Office, but was told that it would not be installed. I wish I knew why, as it would be very useful for many projects I work on.

--Ken

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Evernote does not provide hierarchical organisation of notebooks in folders, but
tags can be organised hierarchically with no apparent limitation (other than each
tag only appearing once). I have found this to be a very powerful system.

I did not know this. Thank you, Alexander.

--Ken

Jonathan Probber wrote:

I don't know if you've discussed iCyte before, but I've been using it to good effect.
Web-based, installs in your toolbar, and very good at clipping and organizing web
pages, by both project folders and topic tags. They just went to a paid model, but it's
still free for academics.

Jon

I am going to check out iCyte today, Thanks for the reference, Jon.

--Ken

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I only have IE7 installed as my browser. I use Chrome at home, but it is not part of the "image" for our machines at work. I will take a look at the programs that you mentioned, but my browser is being blocked from the HTTrack site, so that is off of the list.

--Ken

Given Ken's criteria, this probably isn't a perfect match, but for good measure I'll add Zotero to the mix:

www.zotero.org

It's designed as a scholarly reference manager, but it's flexible and powerful enough that it could probably handle the sort of thing Ken discusses as well. You can take snapshots of webpages, add notes, organize with tags and hierarchical folders, create shared libraries, etc. It's runs as a Firefox add-on and syncs everything to the cloud. It's free for up to 100 MB (you can use your own WebDAV server for more storage if you like).

Lucas,

I had given it consideration, but as I can only use IE7 at work, I ruled it out.

As a side note to my previous post above, it also appears the iCyte needs to install itself, so that is also ruled out. We are not granted administrative rights on our machines, so I cannot install any software. Very frustrating!

--Ken

I think it's time to put some serious pressure on your IT department! In this day and age, it's perfectly ridiculous to expect a department of 35 people to comment efficiently on a website without providing them with suitable tools. They must be able to see that - and if they can't, it's probably time to bring it to the attention of senior management (IT not providing you with the appropriate support to make your/your department's work more efficient). Why on earth you aren't able to adjust your own website in any case, I really don't know (I don't suppose they know what the acronym CMS means...?)...

Cheers,
Bill

Hi Bill,

While I agree with you, in fairness I need to explain a bit more. My division is only 35 people, but I work for a large municipal government with over 10,000 employees, and IT security tends to trump many issues. I used to have a bit more freedom with software, but given the types of security issues that we face on a daily basis, I can somewhat understand their approach. I still think there is some middle ground, but getting there is not quick or easy.

--Ken

Ah! Fair 'nuff, guv, that's certainly quite a lot of people to manage - sounds like an IT nightmare! Also sounds like you could do with your own departmental intranet, though - maybe you could blag a cheap server and set something up (a combination of a Synology DiskStation and cheap PHP/MySQL CMS should do the trick very nicely - much more on that on the Synology website, including hardware details:
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/index.php
and details of approved CMS applications:
http://www.synology.com/enu/apps/index.php

Then you could do your own thing without bothering anybody else!

But I recognise that doesn't exactly solve your immediate needs! You could try saving pages to Google Docs (copy and pasting, since you don't have access to Firefox extensions such as gdocsBar) and asking people to comment there? But of course your IT department have probably barred Google Docs, as well...

Given this reality, you're probably better off printing off hard copy and working from that.

It's really too bad you don't have OneNote, though.

Steve

Ken wrote:

Hi Bill,

While I agree with you, in fairness I need to explain a bit more. My division
is only 35 people, but I work for a large municipal government with over 10,000
employees, and IT security tends to trump many issues. I used to have a bit more freedom
with software, but given the types of security issues that we face on a daily basis, I
can somewhat understand their approach. I still think there is some middle ground,
but getting there is not quick or easy.

--Ken

Ken wrote:

Lucas,

I had given it consideration, but as I can only use IE7 at work, I ruled it
out.

Ah, I see. For what it's worth, I think you could use Zotero with Portable Firefox running on a USB (http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable but I'm guessing that won't be a suitable collaborative solution.

(As for iCyte, I checked it out and registered, and it didn't ask be to install anything as far as I could tell, but perhaps I didn't proceed far enough...)

Lucas