Hi,

I was going to suggest that Carrot check out IdeaMason in his search for an academic writing solution, but decided to check in with the developer first. Seems the IdeaMason web site is no longer available at its previous URL. Anyone here know if it just moved, or did the new developer abandon the project altogether?

Steve Z.

Ah, I found it. New URL:

http://www.myideamason.com/purchase/buy.htm

Glad to know it is still under development.

SZ

Actually, IdeaMason looks rather amazing. Is it? It looks like it can do everything.
Its only $25?

The major drawback that I can see is that it doesn't seem to import from Zotero. Would I have to copy all my citations manually?

It looks very intriguing and I'll keep an eye on it. Even if it were used only as a web-page archiver, it seems like a good deal!!

I haven't used it in a long time,* so my referencing IdeaMason should not be taken as an endorsement. However, I thought it was a pretty powerful tool that felt a bit clunky -- that was five or more years ago. It uses the .NET framework, I believe, which is why it felt clunky. New computers handle that better, I've noticed. As for handling Zotero references, I do not know. There is a 30 day free trial, which should help answer some of those questions.

*As an explanation, I do most of my writing on a MacBook. If I were using Windows, I'd definitely look at IdeaMason again.

SZ

There's probably more info in the archives here, but a quick reply while I've got a moment:

A few years ago I spent a couple weeks diving into IdeaMason, but I didn't stick with it. The major drawbacks:

--Limited import and export of references (I use Zotero as well, and I had to put everything into IdeaMason manually. But you may have more success --- I think there were some import options, and you might be able to figure out a way.)

--Limited import and export of data more generally (again, there are options, but too limited)

--Only one footnote per note. Like many here, I was looking for an option that included referencing. But I found it discouraging that I could only include one footnote per note.

--Outdatedness/clunkiness overall.

That said, there's not a whole lot of competition, and IdeaMason has some unique features (such as the composition module). On Windows, Citavi is where I would look for something comparable.

But who knows, maybe IdeaMason will actually be developed further?

Carrot wrote:

Actually, IdeaMason looks rather amazing. Is it? It looks like it can do
everything.
Its only $25?

IdeaMason 4.0 was released this year. Development has resumed by the new company that became the owner of the original rights. Here are the new features http://www.myideamason.com/products/version40.htm

The new company also dropped the program's price significantly. Search for IdeaMason in the forum, the relevant info was published early summer I believe.

IdeaMason does have import http://www.myideamason.com/products/features.htm#import mainly from Endnote. I am not familiar with Zotero, but I expect that it should be able to export to Endnote format and then IdeaMason import that information.

Whoops, sorry for my uninformed reply. I had heard about version 4 but then forgot. My reply above regarded version 3. -Lucas