In one of the recent previous topics, someone mentioned writing tools... as opposed to information/note management. Whizfolders seems to be gaining in popularity. No one has mentioned SuperNoteCard or Writer's Blocks. I'm wondering if anyone uses these applications, and how useful they find them to be.

For actual composition, I still find myself using the plain text editor NoteTab. It's clean look helps me focus on writing, and it has a very nimble editor -- by nimble I mean it has full extended selection capability, making it easier to re-write and re-organize. I tend to do a lot of revising as I write, which is why I appreciate a nimble editor. But NoteTab is really a default choice, because I have not found any other editor that I like better. I have to say that I was drooling over the screen shots of Scrivener... If I were in the Mac world, I'd definitely give Scrivener a try. It seems to combine several different tools into one... with its notecard and outline functions. This is why I asked about SuperNoteCard and Writer's Blocks, which are the two "index card" type programs that come to mind for the PC.

Steve Z.

I'm giving IdeaMason a try (again) for writing. I tried it earlier for note/knowledge management and it was way too restrictive and cumbersome for that. But I think it may work really well for writing. It forces you to categorize and organize your snippets of writing with a final composition in mind, and allows you to reorganize your writing while keeping snippets with their citations and sources intact.

I have a major paper due in 4 weeks. We'll see how it works.

There are few comments regarding SuperNotecards on http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/

It seems nice and simple. Unlike IdeaMason, it has a visual mode (cards on the desk), and is simpler to use.
IdeaMason is generally more flexible (more ways categorization), allows easier reuse of various text snippets between similar projects.

SNC is written in Java, and generally I wouldn't use Java software as it tends to be terribly slow, but SNC somehow isn't affected by this problem on my machine (while IdeaMason, written in .net, is slow slow slow).

SNC doesn't seem to allow images, IdeaMason allows them (but is size limited thus larger pictures can't be included directly from IM).

For those in need of references, IM is obviously winner, but SNC can also output them, in MLA format.

Disclaimer: I have only spend a short time with both so far, and I'm not a writer by trade.

Steve Z

I've used IdeaMason 3, SuperNoteCard, Scrivener and Writer's Blocks.

All of them are writing tools, of different kinds and comprehensiveness.

IMO it would be a mistake to try to use any of them for knowledge-management. Other than for short-form work they should be used in conjunction with a knowledge-management database such as Zoot, UR, MyInfo, or (on the Mac) DevonThink, and probably also a word-processor for final polishing.

I had a licence for Writer's Blocks 3 and trialled SuperNoteCard. Neither is a complete writing or drafting tool; I wouldn't use them for that purpose. They are essentially "outliners-plus", and fit into the workflow as such with other tools. Both use cards as a visual metaphor for outlining, although they do it in slightly different ways. The real-world equivalent is of course the screenwriter's index card deck and the corkboard; rows or columns of cards are top-line items, with their children subsumed as cards alongside or below them.

I think Writer's Block 3's index cards can be transformed into an outline that will export to MS Word; I can't remember whether SNC will do the same. WB3 is "of its time"; I don't think it has been developed for a couple of years and its functions, capabilities and UI have been overtaken. SNC is more up-to-date and very Maccish in appearance (it is in fact cross-platform); decks can subsume other decks, and they can be "flattened" and colour-coded. SNC has been designed with the fiction and screenwriting markets in mind and has a number of bells and whistles to support this. Yet for some reason I personally cannot engage with it. Perhaps it's the design, which comes across to me as pale and passive.

Both IdeaMason and Scrivener are ideal for drafting "long-form" documents, put together in a non-linear way. (For linear, soup-to-nuts writing, or short-form I think there's still little to beat MS Word.) Both IM and Scrivener actually need Word or a similar word-processor for styling, despatching or printing.

IdeaMason IMO is the best pure writing tool under Windows. Its recent upgrade was a huge step forward. It's particularly good for long and complex academic or non-fiction documents where citations are needed. It's very satisfying to knock out a passage and slot it away in the IM materials dashboard, not knowing quite where it will fit into the final documment but confident that IM's search and metadata facilities will enable it to be retrieved plus any comments whenever required. But IM is not ideal for fiction, and it costs.

Scrivener is IMO yet another step upward, especially for fiction, and definitely droolworthy. It is best summed up as a drafting tool. Its website gives an idea of the completeness of its functionality, the care of its developer and the enthusiasm of its users (who include a number of playwrights, screenwriters and published authors): http://www.literatureandlatte.com/ Some of these users also deploy it for academic writing and factual reports. It's relatively cheap - if of course you already have a Macintosh.

H

SuperNoteCard and Writer's Blocks, which are the two "index card" type programs that
come to mind for the PC.

I would add ndxCards to this list. I use it to store various bits of information and ideas when I do not for what particular project or paper I can need them in the future. And the developers respond to my questions and request immediately.

W.

Given low traffic on the forum and low price, I was surprised by very prompt support of SuperNotecard.
(Asked them about adding bullets to the editor, they said it's already planned.)

The most prominent feature common to SuperNoteCard, Writer's Blocks, and Scrivener is their cork board metaphor - although that metaphor is explicit only in Scrivener, which also is the one you like best. The concept of moving blocks of text around in a plane until you get them right is elegant and alluring, but it seems favored only by writers of fiction. Some of them continue to use the technologies they're accustomed to when they add non-fiction to the mix. Scrivener has outlining too; usually the outliner's are rather puny in these programs that emphasize contiguous organization - any writing, I suppose, that follows a timeline.

I don't think I recall you're writing any fiction. If not, I'd guess the appeal of these programs comes partly from the modular approach to writing, which I haven't used in a while. If I were to use a modular approach to writing--drafting sections of text initially without regard to order--I think I would implement it in OneNote. The main reason, apart from the obvious ones shared with other programs, is noteflags. It seems to me they would be extremely powerful in pulling together snippets initially produced in haphazard order.

To spell it out, one would write the snippets using whatever organization suited you; outline a structure; assign a unique noteflag to every first level outline heading; apply the noteflag to the snippets, one by one; collect noteflags; move the items with the corresponding noteflags under the corresponding outline headings; repeat at deeper levels if necessary; sequennce the snippes in each category.

I think that's the way I would now write a book.



Stephen Zeoli wrote:

In one of the recent previous topics, someone mentioned writing tools... as opposed
to information/note management. Whizfolders seems to be gaining in popularity. No
one has mentioned SuperNoteCard or Writer's Blocks. I'm wondering if anyone uses
these applications, and how useful they find them to be.

For actual composition, I
still find myself using the plain text editor NoteTab. It's clean look helps me focus
on writing, and it has a very nimble editor -- by nimble I mean it has full extended
selection capability, making it easier to re-write and re-organize. I tend to do a lot
of revising as I write, which is why I appreciate a nimble editor. But NoteTab is really
a default choice, because I have not found any other editor that I like better. I have to
say that I was drooling over the screen shots of Scrivener... If I were in the Mac world,
I'd definitely give Scrivener a try. It seems to combine several different tools into
one... with its notecard and outline functions. This is why I asked about
SuperNoteCard and Writer's Blocks, which are the two "index card" type programs that
come to mind for the PC.

Steve Z.

I have to agree that Scrivener looks incredibly appealing for fiction writing. I would probably be using it if I used a Mac.

I own Writer's Blocks 3, and I have tried using it in storyboard fashion to help structure fiction writing. I also wanted a program that allowed me to print out my outline so that I could study it without scrolling around a computer screen. Given the same amount of information, I personally found that the printouts from either NoteMap 2 or Mind Manager were more useful to me as a view of the whole.

The rub with all of these programs is where to do the writing itself. Writer's Blocks 3 tries to address this with a writing pane, but I don't remember being impressed by it (I should try it again). In this regard a two-pane outliner is very handy, providing the writing pane has the editing tools you need, and that the outline tree can be marked up in various ways. I find various means of marking up the outline in a two-pane outliner a handy way of keeping track of various aspects of the work process.The latter is a feature I find appealing in WhizFolders Pro 6. The soon-to-be-released MyInfo 4 will add spell-checking, group-selected keyword editing, tree text font editing, more and easier to use tree icons, and rtf export (according to the blog). These features might make it a useful writing tool as well.

I'll no doubt try OneNote 2007 at some point, given its high praise from forum members, but I am in the middle of two projects that have deadlines, not a good time to experiment with new approaches. It's interesting to notice what programs I rely on when deadlines create an absolute demand to produce new work. It's during such times that you sometimes imagine features that you wish the software had, and, lately, various means of tracking progress have become increasingly important to me.

Randall Shinn

Hello,

I'm a big fan of SNC. I'd even say it's the only tool worth using to structure a novel. I tried Writer Blocks, ndxCards and a few others and I just can't see them help me in any way. Scrivener looks great, it has more bells and whistles, but I don't think it comes close to SNC when dealing with fiction writing. For example, SNC has 3 major features which are crucial to me (I asked for them to the author of SNC, and guess what : he *did* them):

1) associations : you can associate a character (or whatever) with a card and add a comment (in a kind of footer note) about *why* you did this association. It's very helpfull to quickly check the consistency of the story.

2) The flatten mode : you have all your cards in folders ("deck" in SNC), and at any time you can "flatten" all your card hierarchy. It's great to have an overview of the story, and quickly re-order cards and modify them.

3) Colored plot symbolized by *stickers* on the cards. When you want to know how often a sub-story is developed in the main frame, these stickers are heaven !

Of course, I forgot millions of things, the flags, the metrics, the keyboard shorcuts (how many writing tool allow you to forget the mouse ?)...
I simply think SNC is a giant step in the field of writing tools, and I feel lucky I've found this gem that early.

Sebastien