Perfect organizer found! Need personal planner/diary?

< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >

Posted by Pavi
Aug 10, 2011 at 08:40 AM

Hi, I have been lurking around this forum for a while, looking for the perfect system. I have CRIMPed several times, and am glad to discover that there is a term for it!

About me: I do academic research, and need to keep all my documents organized, as well as my research progress. This includes office documents, PDFs, web clippings, and so forth. I also desire to use GTD and have personal notes, and am locked into Outlook (MS Exchange). Previously, I tried using Mybase, UltraRecall, OneNote 2007/2010, KeyNote, Maple Pro, AskSam, etc. without too much success finding that perfect system. I had been trying to use EPIM Pro on USB to keep all my mail, etc, with me until my license expired, and I realized that it lacks even basic features (like global mail search). My workflow up to about 2 weeks ago was pasting everything into OneNote, and using Outlook for schedule/tasks, as they sync to my Android phone over exchange. Web Research 3 was used to clip web pages (a fantastic program, BTW) and Mendeley to read and comment on PDFs.

Now, however, I realize one I passed over program seems to be ideal to do pretty much everything, namely UltraRecall. I had read how it is hard to learn and customize, but skipped it over for Mybase which is easier to dive right into. I finally spent several hours evaluating it, and I am amazed at how well it works. With Outlook sync, I can archive my mail, use tasks to have my current @Work and @Home updated, as well as both copy and link to my PDFs and documents. The firefox tool copies into imported items, which I then drag to the correct “Research” topic, and then logically link to other relevant categories. When I read a PDF, I copy it and link in a similar way, and use the “Notes” section to write a summary or opinions on the paper/webpage. I think there are several things that need to be done with UR when trying it for the first time: 1) Optimize the layout to your preference. I use a 4 pane layout, with the main tree on left vertically, child items vertically just to the right of that (showing the title and if they have children only - this way it serves as a kind of hoisting method to browse the tree and works extremely well), main window, and the Item Notes vertically on the right (with small calendar below to enter dates). 2) The default toolbars are way too cluttered, and I cut them down to the essentials that don’t repeat functionality (like copy/paste, etc.) so that there is only a single row of toolbar both on a laptop screen or when docked to a 24” monitor. The search feature is killer, especially when doing GTD reviews. In Outlook, I flag things for follow up, etc., so that they sync in and can be searched by due dates. E-mail from all my accounts can now be permanently archived. I plan to split up into a few data files when the single one i am using now gets big, since Kinook has said that search across databases is upcoming.

Having said that, there are a few weaknesses. For personal information, I find it to be lacking as there are no table like forms that allow for entry of useful items. An example of what I mean is MSD Organizer, which has several items, namely “Diary” and “Health” that have tree-like menus pre-defined with items (ie. doctor’s visit, vaccinations, gifts, movies, phone call, trip, etc.) which can be used to keep track of things and when they occurred. This then adds a table like entry with editable columns, so for example, you can have a list of all contact you have had with a certain person, and then sort by date. This would be very useful for keeping track of business contacts, etc. You can view these subcategories or the whole tree, and for each entry you can enter notes in a frame at the bottom of the screen - it’s a bit hard to explain, but they have a portable version that can be unzipped and run. It has export to html format, but this gives an ugly looking table, and I am not excited about using a program that locks my data down, hence the urge to skip MSD Organizer. To have a similar system in UR, you could just write what you did in text, but this is a bit limited. Additionally, you could make forms, but that is wasting a lot of space for simple entries, and it would be hard to see the overview of something (like doctors visits). Another approach I tried was to create an excel file that is internally edited that has the desired categories and drop down menus of information to enter, adding the years/months/days since the item was entered. This works, but is a little unwieldy as you always need a new node/file for a new application; also, each entry may need individual notes (for movie reviews, for example). Is there another way to do this in UR that I don’t yet know about?

So my question is: Should I consider a dedicated software to do this, and are there any recommendations? I am pretty happy with the UltraRecall + Outlook 2010 combination, which really does work for 95% of things. But for this other 5%, keeping good personal archives could be valuable down the road.

Thanks for any advice,
/Pavi

Posted by $Bill
Aug 11, 2011 at 10:14 PM

Pavi wrote:
> >So my question is: Should I consider a dedicated software to do this, and are
>there any recommendations? I am pretty happy with the UltraRecall + Outlook 2010
>combination, which really does work for 95% of things. But for this other 5%, keeping
>good personal archives could be valuable down the road.

No, you can get most of that last 5% out of UltraRecall, it really is that versatile.

Everything that I keep track of is in UR, except if it requires calculations like finances.

For example, I was just entering a new ‘toy’ in my home inventory within UR. I have created attributes for the manufacturer, model, date purchased, cost, room, etc. I have a “inventory_item” template, and a custom form. I link to email or scanned receipts and manuals. The item details or item notes hold misc information like where I hid the spare parts for the lawnmower or when I last changed the oil.

For an “overview” - all the inventory items are child items of a folder so I can select the folder (or a saved search item) and see the overview in a table in the Related Items pane, where I can select the columns I want to see and sort. For the “table-like form” as you noted, UR does not (yet) have editing of cells in the horizontal Related Items pane…and so I select an item and edit the attributes in the vertical-Item Attribute pane or I create a custom form.

Hope this gives you some ideas and encouragement. I realize that my narrative is short on technical details and heavy on terminology specific to UR- adjourning to the UR forum would be a better place to pursue the UR way to do it….

I advocate selecting one general purpose database and learning to use it very well…but, if you want a pre-customized database silo—as they say, there’s an app for that….

Posted by Pavi
Aug 12, 2011 at 09:27 AM

$Bill,

Thanks for the reply. I am indeed reading the UR forums and their 225 page manual, as the learning curve is quite high. Many people have asked for better table support so that data entry can be made easier, so fingers crossed.

Your inventory example is quite interesting, as certainly that is the kind of thing I am think of. The only drawback I see is that each item has it’s own node, which would work well for some things, but perhaps less well for others (like fast data entry). Although it seems “wasteful” for simple items to make a complete form which only has a few fields, your method of navigating using the parent folder seems to bridge the gap, so thanks for the info! It also means I have to resize the child items window, or perhaps use it more traditionally at the bottom of the screen, so I may modify my default usage to accommodate this.

Getting the hang of templates and form customization to display exactly what you want is a little tricky. In the end, I will probably end up with exactly the fields, drop down menus, etc. that I want. The guys at Kinook REALLY need to make it easier to understand all UR’s applications. Like many others, I recommended “use cases” as opposed to their sample files, and I do hope they follow it up as the power and flexibility of the application is unmatched, but learning it can take time.

Best, /Pavi

$Bill wrote:

>No, you can get
>most of that last 5% out of UltraRecall, it really is that versatile.
> >Everything
>that I keep track of is in UR, except if it requires calculations like finances.
> >For
>example, I was just entering a new ‘toy’ in my home inventory within UR. I have created
>attributes for the manufacturer, model, date purchased, cost, room, etc. I have a
>“inventory_item” template, and a custom form. I link to email or scanned receipts and
>manuals. The item details or item notes hold misc information like where I hid the
>spare parts for the lawnmower or when I last changed the oil.
> >For an “overview” - all
>the inventory items are child items of a folder so I can select the folder (or a saved
>search item) and see the overview in a table in the Related Items pane, where I can
>select the columns I want to see and sort. For the “table-like form” as you noted, UR
>does not (yet) have editing of cells in the horizontal Related Items pane…and so I
>select an item and edit the attributes in the vertical-Item Attribute pane or I create
>a custom form.
> >Hope this gives you some ideas and encouragement. I realize that my
>narrative is short on technical details and heavy on terminology specific to UR-
>adjourning to the UR forum would be a better place to pursue the UR way to do it….
> >I
>advocate selecting one general purpose database and learning to use it very
>well…but, if you want a pre-customized database silo—as they say, there’s an app
>for that….

Back to topic list