Check out the new features at http://www.wjjsoft.com/

I've been beta testing for months now and it seems very stable.
-- Glen

I keep confusing MyBase and MyInfo!

anyway, thanks for the update, I downloaded the trial and will give it a spin.

I've just started looking at myBase 6 and already THINK I have some concerns. I'll post my comments on this thread after I've looked at it a bit more. Perhaps other users might wish to do the same?

I'd love to hear your feedback Cassius. As many others here, I've purchased almost all of these types of products in the past (looking for that "perfect" outlining/notetaking application.) Here is what I've found:

- UltraRecall: difficult to realize/access the power without a deep dive; never really could get it to fit my workflow -- too many options, templates, etc. that just seemed like it was trying to do too much through a "programmer's" interface (remember that this is my perception of the product, rather than an objective review)

- MyNotesKeeper: inexpensive, easy-to-use, and one of the nicest and cleanest outliners/notetakers with good handling of images and file attachments; however, developer is unresponsive and updates are far and few between. Difficult decision to use as a "trusted system" given questionable development.

- MyInfo: great use of columns in the tree/navigation pane, but only basic image handling and only one file attachment allowed per new node; for my purposes (academic/professor-researcher), I regularly attach 3 or 4 file versions to a single node, so MyInfo never worked for me as the tree became too cluttered with multiple "child" attachments displayed.

- myBase: nice file management and attachment capabilities, and allows for multiple windows to be open at a single time (which I like); also, the best "web capture" capabilities I've come across aside from Surfulater and Macropool's WebResearch products. In fact, the web capture and other plugins for importing/exporting to HTML and Word are the key reasons I first evaluated myBase. I also find the whole Javascript API plugin development platform very intriguing -- what can't you do with that type of openness and a few smart developers?

- ConnectedText: not fair to mention here, as it is not a 2- or 3-pane outliner/notetaker, but this is my GoTo application for writing and referencing content; but mentioned because any application has to transfer information back and forth nicely between/with CT (and PersonalBrain)

So, currently, I am using ConnectedText as my personal wiki, WebResearch for my web clipping and link storage, PersonalBrain for processing and organizing local and web content, and MyNotesKeeper (MNK) for drafting and laying out articles (because of its image and file attachment capabilities.) Currently, I am evaluating both myBase and Amode as alternatives to MNK - both seem quite powerful and extensible.

Well, that's it in a nutshell.
Glen

Glen,

I'm now retired, so my comments are from someone who now uses PIMs mainly to save personally useful information (e.g., info on good plumbers) and items of personal interest.

In DOS days, I used GrandView for everything. When it became difficult to use, I switched to TreePad, but Henk discontinued developing it for some time while developing an enterprise version. I later started using the Business version, but found it a bit slow, so I switched to a very user-friendly product, Jot Plus, which was rtf-based and one could paste in images from the clipboard. I have a lot of information stored in Jot Plus so hesitate to give it up, but development of it has essentially ceased.

I occasionally use Inspiration, which is a bit quirky and has some limitations, but also has advantages. It has never lost data or committed other "crimes," unlike NoteMap of which I had high, but then dashed, hopes.

I looked at UltraRecall when it first appeared. As I believe you feel, it seemed overly complex/"computer geeky." I offered to revise the user manual to replace the technical, computerese & database jargon with more user-friendly language. The developers were not interested.

I have only looked at myBase 6 for a very short time. One problem with version 5 was that it had no Boolean search options (e.g., "x" and "y" , "x" or "y"). It seems that the developers have decided to remedy this by introducing "regular expression" search, which I believe is overkill and will turn off a lot of potential users (like Ultra Recall does).

I also looked at MyInfo, but found its import of Web pages inferior to myBase, Surfulater and WebResearch.

While still working, I found a very worthwhile use for Personal Brain, which could have been improved with a simple addition. The developer wasn't interested, although I think that it may have since added my suggestion. The idea was to use Personal Brain to map a large organization with all the connections between the organization's parts. Each part could then place itself at the "center" of the organization's universe and see how it linked to other parts. (This would also be useful for management, which usually has little, if any accurate knowledge of what is really going on.)

I have Surfulater, but so far, it just doesn't "feel right."

As I explore MyBase 6, I'll post more comments in this thread.

If you have any insights with respect to comparing myBase and WebResearch, they would be appreciated.

-cassius

============================
Glen Coulthard wrote:

I'd love to hear your feedback Cassius. As many others here, I've purchased almost all
of these types of products in the past (looking for that "perfect"
outlining/notetaking application.) Here is what I've found:

- UltraRecall:
difficult to realize/access the power without a deep dive; never really could get it
to fit my workflow -- too many options, templates, etc. that just seemed like it was
trying to do too much through a "programmer's" interface (remember that this is my
perception of the product, rather than an objective review)

- MyNotesKeeper:
inexpensive, easy-to-use, and one of the nicest and cleanest outliners/notetakers
with good handling of images and file attachments; however, developer is
unresponsive and updates are far and few between. Difficult decision to use as a
"trusted system" given questionable development.

- MyInfo: great use of columns
in the tree/navigation pane, but only basic image handling and only one file
attachment allowed per new node; for my purposes
(academic/professor-researcher), I regularly attach 3 or 4 file versions to a
single node, so MyInfo never worked for me as the tree became too cluttered with
multiple "child" attachments displayed.

- myBase: nice file management and
attachment capabilities, and allows for multiple windows to be open at a single time
(which I like); also, the best "web capture" capabilities I've come across aside from
Surfulater and Macropool's WebResearch products. In fact, the web capture and other
plugins for importing/exporting to HTML and Word are the key reasons I first
evaluated myBase. I also find the whole Javascript API plugin development platform
very intriguing -- what can't you do with that type of openness and a few smart
developers?

- ConnectedText: not fair to mention here, as it is not a 2- or 3-pane
outliner/notetaker, but this is my GoTo application for writing and referencing
content; but mentioned because any application has to transfer information back and
forth nicely between/with CT (and PersonalBrain)

So, currently, I am using
ConnectedText as my personal wiki, WebResearch for my web clipping and link storage,
PersonalBrain for processing and organizing local and web content, and
MyNotesKeeper (MNK) for drafting and laying out articles (because of its image and
file attachment capabilities.) Currently, I am evaluating both myBase and Amode as
alternatives to MNK - both seem quite powerful and extensible.

Well, that's it in a
nutshell.
Glen

Glen,

A question only partly linked to MyBase: I'm surprised that as an academic you have not turned to more specialised software which would support footnotes and the like. Have you tried them and been turned off in terms of complexity, or lacking in useful features?

Glen Coulthard wrote:

So, currently, I am using
ConnectedText as my personal wiki, WebResearch for my web clipping and link storage,
PersonalBrain for processing and organizing local and web content, and
MyNotesKeeper (MNK) for drafting and laying out articles (because of its image and
file attachment capabilities.) Currently, I am evaluating both myBase and Amode as
alternatives to MNK - both seem quite powerful and extensible.

Cassius wrote:

..........
>While still working, I found a very worthwhile use for Personal Brain, which could have been
improved with a simple addition. The developer wasn't interested, although I think
that it may have since added my suggestion. The idea was to use Personal Brain to map a
large organization with all the connections between the organization's parts. Each
part could then place itself at the "center" of the organization's universe and see
how it linked to other parts. (This would also be useful for management, which usually
has little, if any accurate knowledge of what is really going on.)

Yes, it would appear that your idea has been implemented. See http://www.thebrain.com/products/personalbrain/apps/operations


Jack

Hi Alexander,

To be honest, I also use academic software for writing formal papers and for collecting articles relevant to my current/ongoing research. However, I don't typically use this software when trolling for web content or for storing/managing personal information. Specifically, I use:

- Atlas.ti for qualitative coding of Word documents and OCRed PDFs; I prefer Atlas.ti over NVivo (even though NVivo has a sexier interface)
- Biblioscape for reference management and quotation gathering; although some of my work is still in EndNote
- PDF Annotator for marking up PDFs (but really I use this program for grading student papers more than making my own annotations.)

As selecting a biblography and reference manager, EndNote has always lacked PDF annotation and note-taking capabilities (beyond rudimentary mark-up). IdeaMason was a great concept, but it seemed like simple tasks always took 3 or 4 steps (or screens) to complete. Currently, I am evaluating Citavi, which is a Dutch?/German? software that seems to be a better/cleaner implementation of IdeaMason functionality. And, lastly, I have tried using the free version of Mendeley, but prefer Biblioscape's richer handling of PDF, RTF, and note-generation capabilities.

Once my "collecting/gathering/annotating/processing" phase is complete, I then move to MyNotesKeeper to layout my article or ConnectedText to organize the information snippets.

Have you used any academic software that you prefer?

-- Glen


Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Glen,

A question only partly linked to MyBase: I'm surprised that as an academic you
have not turned to more specialised software which would support footnotes and the
like. Have you tried them and been turned off in terms of complexity, or lacking in
useful features?

> I also looked at MyInfo, but found its import of Web pages inferior to myBase, Surfulater and WebResearch.

Hi Cassius,

Personally, I have found no better product for saving, organizing, searching, and retrieving web pages/snippets than WebResearch. Surfulater probably does a better job of organizing content, but I feel that WebResearch is the better all-around product (i.e., better capture fidelity and nicer printing/exporting capabilities.)

MyInfo's web page capture isn't even in the running; MyNotesKeeper doesn't have capture (other than screencaps); UR is okay, but not great; myBase is quite nice as it attempts to reproduce the actual web page by downloading the individual elements (or scraping the html.) Still, these products don't match WebResearch's capabilities, so I won't be giving it up anytime soon.

-- Glen

Glen Coulthard wrote:

Have you used any academic software that you prefer?

Not much, but then my writing is mainly non-academic. However, I use a lot of references in my work, often needing to faithfully summarise complex concepts from a variety of sources. I have thus tried some academic software in the hope that it could support my workflow --the verdict was actually disappointing, but then I am not known for my patience and perseverence.

I did my whole MBA with two programs: Surfulater for organising my background material, and Brainstorm for organising my writing; I only turned to Word when I had a final draft. Early on, I tried several other tools and purchased licenses to Endnote and IdeaMason; soon enough I dropped them though, which was a good thing; thereon I focused on the actual job.

I am now also trying out Citavi --which is Swiss, incidentally, and I've always had some kind of attraction to Swiss products...

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Early on, I tried several other tools and
purchased licenses to Endnote and IdeaMason; soon enough I dropped them though,
which was a good thing; thereon I focused on the actual job.

This is also my feeling - I always invest more time managing program like the two you mentioned than save benefiting from using them.

I am now also trying out
Citavi --which is Swiss, incidentally, and I've always had some kind of attraction to
Swiss products...

That's right, Citavi is Swiss (like another nice productivity tool, i.e. NoteTab). I've just bought the licence (CRIMP) and try to figure out what is what and will be happy to learn your impressions.

BTW, another smart tool for academic writing was Scholar's Aid but it's development stopped a couple of years ago. It was also very good for storing web captures. Unfortunately, now I have plenty of information saved in SA with no idea how to export it to some other program.

Greetings!

Hi, just wanted to give my quick impressions of myBase 6. I tried a lot of the betas until the one prior to release (17?), but didn't purchase a license, although I was tempted by the Bitsdujour offer. I just downloaded the v6 release to refresh my memory and see if any new features were implemented. I may have missed or misinterpreted some features due to the short time I spent with the program.

In the end I chose UltraRecall, and here is a quick rundown of what I thought of myBase 6:

Pros:
- Fast, simple interface, low learning curve
- Attach files to window without being child nodes (one drawback to UR), high compression
- Labels tree removes the need to multiple link items
- Can view files within main window
- WebCollect functions from Chrome (I didn't test this)
- Can edit web pages
- Can have multiple windows, BUT it seems like it is impossible to have different nodes open (they both change to current item!)
- Quite a few more that were in 5.5.1 and standard for this category

Cons:
- Search is still lacking, can't make multiple Boolean constraints
- File viewing within main window takes an extra step
- Attachments, Item links, Symbolic Links and Labels are tabs in the same pane (relationship pane). This is very annoying, as in 5.5.1 item links were in a separate window under the tree. Having to click tabs constantly reduces the strength of information overview
- No "Notes" pane: this is pretty handy to write a quick synopsis of a PDF, for example
- The look is very 1990s, and the calender is particularly old school
- No forms or attributes as in UR, this limits the type of data one might enter
- View changes based on action, but doesn't reset to default. ie, after a search

I chose UR due to several factors: better search, forms/attributes allows for more types of data, 2-way Outlook sync (e-mail archival, GTD tasks), saved searches, better support including forums, and just more power and flexibility. I wanted all my main data to be cross-referenced, and cross-database search is on their near-future road map. Of course, there is a lot more learning curve!

MyBase 6 would be idea for research projects where you dump in data and a lot of files that might need compression, using the standard tree structure/linking. For me, though, the extra benefits of UR for GTD, mail archiving, file search, and customized forms make it the better solution.

Best, Pavi


Cassius wrote:

I've just started looking at myBase 6 and already THINK I have some concerns. I'll post
my comments on this thread after I've looked at it a bit more. Perhaps other users might
wish to do the same?

Pavi, very good review, thanks very much.

Pavi is correct about the lack of Boolean logic searching. The myBase developers probably thought that the inclusion of regular expression searching would cover this, but I expect that most users, me included, don't know the regular expression syntax. Yesterday, I emailed them about this. I also noted that in version 5, one could search just the tree. That seems to have disappeared in version 6.

Wjjsoft, the developers of myBase, has answered my first comment to them. They intend to add more search options, such as Boolean search and tree search, in future versions/updates. The regular expression search was added because many programmers requested it.

For those thinking of updating to version 6,, note that if version 5 was installed as
c:\Program Files\wjjsoft\nyfedit5,
version 6 will probably be installed as
c:\Program Files\wjjsoft\nyfedit6.

Which means that you have your choice of using either one. (I can.)

I recently purchased a copy of myBase 6 and am working with it but encountered several problems. I accidently put my post here: http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3169
I hope my posting can be moved to this thread.

Carrot wrote:

I recently purchased a copy of myBase 6 and am working with it but encountered several
problems. I accidently put my post here:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3169
I hope my posting can be
moved to this thread.

-------------------------------------------------------------
from cassius:
1. Carrot, copy and paste your comment from the other topic into this topic
2, You may not be able to move multiple nodes at the same level in one operation. I've never tried it. When I have time, I'll see if I can find a way.

Here's a re-posting of the problems I am having with MyBase.
--------

I?m a long-time user of TreeDBnotes. I originaly purchased it because I needed an outlining app that would run on Linux in WINE. TreeDBnotes was one of the few apps that ran properly.
Owing to bugs and problems, I was about to abandon TreeDBnote for MyBase. But recent updates to TreeDBnotes has left me quite impressed.

Now, with regard to MyBase 6. After reading many reviews, it seemed the best choice would be Ultra Recall, or MyBase 6. I was attracted to MyBase because of reviews, and because the interface is more similar to TreeDBnotes than UltraRecall.

But after using MyBase 6 for a few days, I?ve found the interface to be quite awkward. I cannot figure out if there is a way to move around multiple nodes, or subtrees. Unlike other note-apps like TreeDB, I cannot use CTRLfor a selection of items, or SHIFT and CTRL for a range of items) or use cut/copy and paste in the conventional fashion.
WJJsoft?s advice was to press ESC to bring up ?Query Results? and then drag and drop (or copy -paste) into here. But this is also a very awkward way of doing things. There is no easy way to select multiple nodes and drag them into Query Results.

The user should be able to select multiple nodes, or trees or subtrees, (by holding down CTRL for a selection of items, or SHIFT and CTRL for a range of items) and perform functions directly (copy, paste, delete) in the conventional way used by other applications.

Am I missing something,or is this simple feature really missing in MyBase?

MyBase update 6.01u is available at http://www.wjjsoft.com/download.html .

WARNING: BUGS in search and display in version 6.01. I'm going back to Version 5 for now. I've notified developer.

myBase 6.02 is now available. There are several bug fixes and new features, including new plugins, which are included in the 6.02 download. The changelog for 6.02 can be found at
http://www.wjjsoft.com/mybase_changelog.html

Notes:
1. After I notified wjjsoft of problems with the 6.01 search function, it sent me a revised .zip version. When I unzipped the new version and installed it over the 6.01 version, the program crashed. wjjsoft told me to install the revised version in a new folder. It seemed to work and the search bugs seemed to be fixed.
2. As 6.02 is newer than the revised version I was sent, I assume the search bugs I found in 6.01 are fixed.
3. I downloaded the zip file for 6.02. Based on what wjjsoft had told me about using a new folder, I decided to delete the existing nyfedit6 program folder and create a new, empty nyfedit6 program folder. I then copied everything from the extracted 6.02 zip file into the new nyfedit6 folder. This seems to work (at least so far).

1. myBase 6.04 is available.

2. I just learned that some changes were made in the myBase data structure for version 6. Version 5 databases are automatically converted when used in version 6, but may experience problems if later used in version 5. From wjjsoft:

"V6.x has changed some internal data structures in the .nyf database,
editing a v5.x .nyf database within v6.x automatically upgrades the
data structures, if you then downgraded back to v5.x and modified the
.nyf database, it would cause confusion to the internal data
structures, especially for the internal item links and identification
info."

myBase 6 continues to have bugs. This time the problem is in the Advanced Query in version 6.04. [I have found other bugs, but have not described all of them here.]

As I said in my last post, I just learned that the developer, wjjsoft, made some changes in the database structure. When you open a myBase 5 file in myBase 6, the database structure is automatically changed, which MAY cause problems if you then reopen the file in myBase 5.

Personally, I have decided to stop using myBase 6 for the present and am returning to using myBase 5, with the hope that the database structure changes have not caused too much damage.

Good Luck!

-cassius

Hi, are there many uses of myBase out there? It seems to have been a 'hot' outliner a few years ago, now eclipsed by many other faster-developing products.

I recently purchased myBase 6, but now feel that perhaps UltraRecall would have been a better choice.

I've found the myBase interface to be quite awkward, even 'duncy'. Perhaps it is I who is the dunce, and not the software.

For example, I cannot figure out if there is a way to move around multiple nodes, or subtrees. Unlike other note-apps like TreeDB, I cannot use CTRLfor a selection of items, or SHIFT and CTRL for a range of items) or use cut/copy and paste in the conventional fashion.

WJJsoftss advice was to press ESC to bring up 'Query Results' and then drag and drop (or copy -paste) into here. But this is a very awkward, unintuitive way of doing things. There is no easy way to select multiple nodes and drag them into Query Results.

The user should be able to select multiple nodes, or trees or subtrees, (by holding down CTRL for a selection of items, or SHIFT and CTRL for a range of items) and perform functions directly (copy, paste, delete) in the conventional way used by other applications. No?

Am I missing something,or is this simple feature really missing in MyBase?
Does anyone like the menu structure? Its quite unconventional and does not follow a standard menu-order and seems poorly thought out.
I really do want to like this application, but am struggling :)

Carrot