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Reflexive outlining with several outliners
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Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 20, 2011 at 06:15 PM
Fascinating. I’m glad to find I’m not the only one who uses multiple outliners/applications to write things - I’ve always been rather embarrassed by this, because I often find myself playing around with ideas in several different programs (my favourites - currently - being TreeSheets, UV-Outliner, Noteliner and a number of different iPad applications, including OmniOutliner, Numbers and MagicPad). I usually end up by transferring the text into a single application, and from there into Word for final formatting/client output.
I save web data in a number of different places, too: again, my current favourites are (on the PC) Local Website Archive - I use the free version - and (on the iPad) Notebooks, which can import pages from URLs. I also save web pages to an intranet set up in Plone, which has some powerful search functions (and is now very easy to install, thanks to some great work by the developers of version 4.0). We also run an intranet based on Kerio Workspace (you may remember we were early beta-testers), but the search function in Workspace is still rudimentary, so it’s not a great place to run fast searches (no hit highlighting, apart from anything else!). I’m toying with the idea of experimenting with Microsoft SharePoint for storing bitexts - you can install the 2010 version on Windows Home Server 2011, apparently, which would make for a cheap but very powerful solution if it all does what I think it does (Search Server Express comes with SharePoint built-in, I’m told, plus hugely enhanced search features - I’ve not had a chance to experiment with this yet, but will certainly report on it when I do).
I used to use the Scrapbook extension for Mozilla Firefox for storing web pages - it’s very, very good - but now use Chrome almost exclusively. Which means I’ve tried to like Evernote, but for some reason find it very annoying.
Another powerful search engine for personal use, capable of searching through and displaying many different types of documents as web pages, is the IBM Yahoo version of OmniFind. We use it to index e-mails internally; the only negative is the need to trigger indexing manually. The search results are Google-like, and as I say, you can preview documents in HTML format directly from the server, which saves a lot of time.
Sorry, this has turned into more of a general ramble. But I’m encouraged that the CRIMP mentality may actually have some creative value, too!
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by critStock
Oct 23, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Franz, if I understand you correctly, you are stating a principle that I have learned the hard way: there is a limit to how productive automation can be in *writing* projects. The CRIMPer in me has long wanted software to do everything. But no software can *write* or *think* for you. Retyping is in fact a time-honored method of learning. (Former teachers of mine have talked about how, in their student days, they would retype their lecture notes—on something apparently called a typewriter—as a way of assimilating the knowledge.) No matter how helpful digital technology can be in capturing, organizing, and finding information, only writers can write.
Cheers,
David
Franz Grieser wrote:
>
>I made the experience that retyping (not copying)
>the outline elements can also help getting more clarity.
Posted by JBfrom
Oct 24, 2011 at 05:47 AM
Actually, Supermemo does an interesting job of thinking for you via its cloze deletion process of continually refining text down into key memory hooks. It’s an iterative process that improves analysis.
The BrainStormWFO sorting procedure is another iterative process that allows analysis and also synthesis, leading to a complete mindmap from a series of extremely simple decisions.
Writing can’t be iteratively automated because it’s too r-mode, but you can strengthen the neural pathways, so to speak, by frequently “downloading” essays from brain to digital, and efficiently filing them to alleviate fear of loss that they’ll be forgotten. This regular downloading increases the r-mode’s writing ability on the given subject. And there are lots of tricks one can use to bypass the various friction points that arise while writing.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Oct 24, 2011 at 09:36 AM
My personal experience is that nothing works better for memory and concept development than handwriting. Actually, not having used a typewriter, I am unable to conclude whether the problem lies in the typing or in the PC screen, but I know that the combination of pen and paper works best for me.
critStock wrote:
>Retyping is in fact a time-honored method of learning.
>(Former teachers of mine have talked about how, in their student days, they would
>retype their lecture notes—on something apparently called a typewriter—as a way
>of assimilating the knowledge.)