I just noted from a giveaway sites that one of the "selling" points for one outliner software is "all your notes in one place"

I could not agree less, preferring to break it/them all into tiny re-useable bits. I have trialed many (very many!), evernote 2.0 being the best ? up-to to a point in time, then Keynote NF (and it would take me a long time to explain the why!).

For me it is not about all your notes / data in one place, but all your notes / data in the right place(s) ...the (s) is very deliberate.

I have now managed to arrange my build structure, data and notes in such way to achieve this (nearly!).

I do have aspiration to (one day) make this a product, but it appears that I need to (even get to the point of proving the principal) get hold of a win 32 developer, as I have (for thi PoP) a need to mess with Windows background services ?.and cannot (as yet) get hold of one (with such talent/knowledge) in the North of Scotland!

For now, I will console myself with that what I do works for me! It is for now a method of working, incorporating structure, notes and data?..and cloud (like GTD on heat).

We will see if I?m lucky enough to, one day, turn it into a project!

skylark

sorry for the question marks ? in funny places on the post...I wrote it late last night on word (to try to ensure my spelling was reasonable) and then simply pasted onto the post window and pressed send (post).

skylark

skylark wrote:

For me it is not about all your notes / data in one place, but all
your notes / data in the right place(s) ...the (s) is very deliberate.

I couldn't agree more. I have made a related point in the past here http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3097/0/holy-grail-or-holy-grails

It would be great to know more about your approach.

Alexander

I will now look at your posting to see if I can tell how you work/think.

The problem I have expanding on my "system" is I genuinely would like to make a product (not for the sake of money, but more for the project itself); I have not yet given up on getting a suitable developer involved. On reflection my post yesterday was probably a bit of a plea to this forum to see if such a dude was in this system and by reading my comments catch his/her attention.

I will look at your posting and see if my ideas and way of working would satisfy what I take as your methodology and requirements?..I haven?t yet looked at it properly to see what you said ....and do.

skylark

When I read Alexander's linked post, I was amazed to see that he was actually using TEN different programs to manage his information. Is this the normal situation for other forum users?

skylark wrote:

I do have aspiration to (one day) make this a product

(...)

On reflection my post yesterday was probably a bit of a plea to this forum to see if such a dude was in this system and by reading my comments catch his/her attention.

I know the feeling! After Ecco died, I started thinking and then working on a tool for that exact purpose: To fulfill all my information management needs. For the last 7 years, all my information is stored in InfoQube (IQ) (textual, dates, tasks, project, numeric, organizational).

Pierre Paul Landry
IQ Designer
http://www.infoqube.biz

I use these programs daily: MyInfo, Evernote, NoteTab, UltraEdit.

I use these occasionally or rarely: Treepad, Procite, Keynote.

I feel that I should go into a dimly lit room with chairs in a semi-circle and begin by saying, "My name is -----, and I am a CRIMPer."

--------------------------

Gary Carson wrote:

When I read Alexander's linked post, I was amazed to see that he was actually using TEN
different programs to manage his information. Is this the normal situation for other
forum users?

the feeling! After Ecco died, I started thinking and then working on a tool for that
exact purpose: To fulfill all my information management needs. For the last 7 years,
all my information is stored in InfoQube (IQ) (textual, dates, tasks, project,
numeric, organizational).

Pierre Paul Landry

Pierre
I have to confess (even having said that I have tried many!) not to have tried InfoQube. I can see that you have put a huge amount of effort, knowledge and time into your program (not forgetting money) but it has in my opinion (as with many others, built in obsolescence). If one day you stop or change course completely (as evernote 2.0 - web 3) then its either all gone or locked in, or too much effort to move over...(I appreciate that there will be some degree of export functionality included in InfoQube)...so my way of thinking, I offer without being able to expand on this comment, fundamentally different from yours.

As I have intimated on earlier posting, I would like to open this discussion up, but also have a personal achievement thing going on, to try and do something myself, along with some illusive developer(s)....let the hunt continue!

I can ROTFL* and accept the truth of the statement at the same time: many evenings, faced with the breadth of life's challenges---at the time when 'normal' people would turn to drugs, booze or TV---I am still likely to be found testing a new piece of software or webware; I especially like watching videos of developers demonstrating why their program is the best thing since creamed cheese.

By the way, I still have around 8-10 info management programs open at any one time, around 5 of which are only for textual notes. I switch between them depending on the task at hand and find that it helps my focus very much; I liken it to working from my client's office, something I have done often in the past as a consultant. For a period, I had tried the 'task-focused' interface of Tasktop, but found it made very little difference to my frame of thought.

WSP wrote:

I feel that I should go into a
dimly lit room with chairs in a semi-circle and begin by saying, "My name is -----, and I
am a CRIMPer."

--------------------------

Gary Carson wrote:
>When I read
Alexander's linked post, I was amazed to see that he was actually using TEN

>different programs to manage his information. Is this the normal situation for
other
>forum users?

*Roll On The Floor Laughing

It's interesting to me that these conversations often reflect David Allen's GTD principle of selecting a "trusted system" (but not necessarily a single system, if I'm not mistaken.)

A trusted system for me is one in which I am confident that:

1. my data is secure (stable) -- buggy "beta" software can't be "trusted,"
2. my data is accessible -- proprietary programs and data storage systems scare me,
3. the data is findable -- there's nothing more important than good search functionality,
4. the process (usability factor) is fast and efficient -- if it's not easy I won't keep using it,
5. the software will continually improve -- long cycles & unresponsive developers scare me,
6. the software will continue to be fun and enjoyable (e.g., I like using TheBrain; it's cool!)

So, for me, I use the following "trusted software systems" daily (in other words, they meet most, if not all, of the above conditions). As a disclaimer and for general usage background, I'm an author (of textbooks, not novels), business professor, and consultant -- so, your mileage may vary.

1. ConnectedText - Rock solid stability, great for capturing text and linking thoughts, ideas, and resources; exports to html, good search, & responsive developer
2. TheBrain - Easy to use, great for storing links, making connections, and quick capture; indexes web pages and PDFs for great search; lousy for text heavy stuff
3. MindManager - Great for mapping out my ideas, thoughts, and overall brainstorming that can't be done with previous two
4. Citavi - Top notch bibliographic software for academic research (if you need it, this one rocks!)
5. WebResearch - Fantastic program for web clipping and bookmarking; amazing reproduction of stored web pages/clippings
6. CintaNotes - Kind of an Evernote-lite; for quick text notes I store the entire program in DropBox and access it from multiple machines for quick notes
7. ListPro - All of my software purchases or other lists are stored in this customizable database program; great for store-and-forget record-oriented stuff
8. Evernote - With my tablet, I like taking handwritten notes in Evernote that are stored and synced across all my computers, but I don't store everything here (like they want me to)

The applications that I use less often, but that are still important to my overall system:

1. MyInfo - Good for outlining and developing drafts of writing projects; useful when the tree outline is the important part
2. MyNotesKeeper - Not as strong for outlining as MyInfo, but better at handling graphics within notes and storing/managing attachments
3. Scrivener - When I move a draft into a more polished writing mode, I'm starting to use Scrivener for Windows (jury's still out though)
4. Atlas.ti - Academic research tool for annotating and analyzing text documents (e.g., Word docs and PDFs)
5. Biblioscape - Academic bibliographic tool that I used prior to Citavi; I still have lots of captured notes and reference data stored here

Applications that show promise, but I haven't yet (or have chosen not to) adopt fully in my workflow:

1. Surfulater - Purchased back when it was actively being developed, but it never met expectations set by MacroPool's WebResearch
2. MemoMaster - Purchased because of strong text processing (great implementation of RichView control), but weak development cycle
3. TreeProjects - Purchased because of ability to index PDF attachments (MyInfo & MyNotesKeeper cannot do this), but weak text processing
4. InfoQube - Long beta; confusing UI, but very interesting promised feature-set (watching, but nowhere close to being a "trusted" system)
5. RightNote - One of the better outliner/notetaking apps; good text processing and search, but doesn't exceed best features of other apps
6. Mendeley - Academic bilbiographic software that is cloud-based (which is nice, but provides less features than Citavi or Biblioscape)

Well, that's my story this week anyway! Hope it helps someone make sense of all these tools that my CRIMPing nature has explored over the years.
-- Glen

Glen Coulthard wrote:

Surfulater - Purchased back when it was actively being developed, but it never met
expectations set by MacroPool's WebResearch

Hi Glen,
What are those expectations? I looked at MacroPool's website but I can't see any huge difference between WebResearch and Surfulater. (I've been using the latter for some years.)

1. Does anyone have a reason for preferring WebResearch to myInfo?

2. MOST USED PIMS: I use myiInfo for saving Web pages and related notes. For text, I use Jot Plus, which is no longer being developed. (I keep looking for a replacement, but a) can't find one that imports Jot files directly, b) have no desire to look for a topic in x different PIMs and c) it is very easy to use and has rtf and Web links.)

Rather than keep all my info in one gigantic PIM database, I use separate folders for different topics (e.g., computer-related, house-related, medical, ...) [P.S., Speaking of medical, I've found I prescription drug, guanfacine, that improves short-term memory in old folks like me (also works in rate).]

(I have Surfulater, but prefer MyInfo.)

3. Other PIMs I use:
3a. Inspiration: Mainly as a successor to and updater of GrandView files, which I once used for everything. It's fairly easy to import GV files into Inspiration. (Inspiration is also nice for creating charts, flow diagrams, etc.)
3b. Cinta Notes for quick notes.
3c. Ecco, now only for contact info, as I am retired and don't need for meeting reminders, etc.

4. I have several other PIMs that I don't use, or still keep because I once used them and have files in their formats. The "historical" PIMs include:

TreePad Business, into which I copied the contents of several earlier PIMs.
NoteMap 2, which was nice until it started losing what I was writing as I wrote.

5. I keep considering wikis...maybe some day I'll find one I like. Same thing for PIMs with tags, some of which I think may take the place of Zoot and/or Personal Brain.

Glen Coulthard wrote:

It's interesting to me that these conversations often reflect David Allen's GTD
principle of selecting a "trusted system"

I offer (bit of devils advocate in this offering) the best and will be forever ?trusted system??. A list!

Every time you go to a meeting you ?.make a list, you go shopping you ?.make a list. You asked to do something it goes on your?..list. Phones present you contacts, information, music and other to you nowadays?..on a finger scrollable list. You post to a forum it is on a ?.list!........my emails ?..are a list!

Control your lists.....you can put them in ?GTD? buckets if you want!

skylark

by the way what with this forum putting spurious ?? into postings (when pasted from word) ? (the last one was meant!)

skylark

Glen,

Thanks for the run down on the applications you use. Also, thanks for the great video of how to use your academic library file for ConnectedText.

My own list of applications is pretty convoluted, partly due to my multi platform existence, but also (much more so) due to CRIMP. Here it is:

At the office on a Windows PC --

- TheBrain (major repository of documents related to my job, project management hub)
- ConnectedText (main note taking and management application)
- FileMaker (managing customer database)
- Zoot (legacy data -- I'm gradually using Zoot less and less, though I still admire it. I just find TheBrain and CT more enjoyable to use)
- Noteliner (for hammering out outlines)
- OneNote (using less and less now that I'm using TheBrain and CT more effectively, but still handy for capturing scanned images and sucking the text from them)

At home on my MacBook --

- TheBrain
- Tinderbox (for analyzing and thinking through projects and problems; keeping a day books)
- Scrivener (writing longer, more complex projects)
- MacJournal (writing one-off documents, journal)
- Bento (for structured data like tracking my reading list, collection data -- syncs nicely with Bento app on my iPod Touch)
- DevonThink (my junk drawer for all stuff I want to keep, but don't know where to put it)

For transferring data among my devices I use Evernote and TheBrain's WebBrain service.

As convoluted as this appears, it is actually taking shape finally, thanks to TheBrain and ConnectedText. However, I think I'd trade them all in if I could get Tinderbox for Windows (with an adequate sync).

Steve Z.