I have downloaded a 30 day trial of is2007 yesterday and I am positively surprised of the overall stability and speed of the application.
One of the features I like very much in InfoSelect is its incremental and ligthning fast search.

Is the search in InfoSelect still very fast when you are using it with huge files (>10 mb)?

What is your experience with InfoSelect files: do you put everything into one file or do you split your content into different files?

InfoSelect does not have attributes or metadata. This is a reason for not using it (I am coming from ADM and I am using UR Professional today). But to be honest: There are really not many situations where I really need the metadata for search or filtering. Most of the time I am using the folder/topic hierarchy what can be achieved in IS as well.

My basic intention for using IS: note taking (project log/journalling), and day planning of my work.

Any comments and experiences with IS is welcomed.
Thanks!

Dominik

Trial version? I thought Micro Logic distinguished itself by not having trial versions. Do you have the URL of the trial version download site?

Thanks,

Graham

http://tinyurl.com/2okaj7

Found it: http://www.miclog.com/cgi-local/passw_lookup.cgi?type=trial_request&prodmap_product_id=17

Easy to miss, bless them ...

In my experience, the search remains fast even with very large files. This is because all of the data is loaded into memory.

I've used Info Select 2007 fairly heavily - mainly as a way to determine whether I can live in it as opposed to Ultra Recall. There are some things I prefer about Info Select: it functions as a decent one-pane outliner (when using one-line "Topics"), and it's easier to work with subsets of your information, using filters, folders and tabs. Working seamlessly with multiple files in one outline makes sense to me, and there are lots of options for blocking sections of the outline from normal searches, keeping archive data files closed (until you need them), etc. And most operations are very fast.

Unfortunately, I always tend to get seduced into trying to use IS for absolutely everything, including email and web capture. I actually don't mind the sort of primitive email interface, but what I do mind is that some outgoing messages are not reproduced faithfully - words are joined together at times, for instance. This simply makes me look bad and it's really unacceptable. The web capture is basically not worth using - unless you just want to capture plain text.

I think as a basic outline of topics and notes using the core features, Info Select is pretty useful and has some unique ways to work with small subsets of a big mass of info. There is nothing that says you have to try to use all of the additional features (but I inevitably do).

When it's all said and done, I still find using Ultra Recall to simply be a more satisfying experience, even though I do miss the ability to view a filtered outline.

Chris Murtland wrote:

I think as a basic outline of topics and notes using the
core features, Info Select is pretty useful and has some unique ways to work with small
subsets of a big mass of info. There is nothing that says you have to try to use all of the
additional features (but I inevitably do).

at $250, a little bit expensive to use is as a "basic outline of topics and notes" :)

quant wrote:

at $250, a little bit expensive to
use is as a "basic outline of topics and notes" :)

Very true - of course, if you are an owner of a former version, upgrades are $99.

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

What is
your experience with InfoSelect files: do you put everything into one file or do you
split your content into different files?

You have to split them. At least when they grow over 2Mb you receive messages from the programme advising you to split the files.
And if you're like me, I ended up with hundreds of files. But I don't use it anymore. Although I think it's very powerful, it takes some time to learn how to use every feature to take advantage of it.

Cristina in Lisboa, Portugal.

Dominik

Is the search in
InfoSelect still very fast when you are using it with huge files (>10 mb)?

Yes. On my 2 GHz machine, there is no difference between searching a single 2 MByte database or all my databases (over 30 MByte).

What is
your experience with InfoSelect files: do you put everything into one file or do you
split your content into different files?

Over the years, I split my databases into a number of smaller (a few hundred to 8 MByte) files. Usually, I only have those open that I need for my work.

My reasons for splitting the database into several files:

a) A practical one: The folder tree gets crowded and difficult browse when you have a lot of stuff inside IS. Splitting the data into several files that I open as I need them, makes it easier to navigate the tree.

b) An irrational one: I feared that I might all of my data in case the IS database got corrupt. But in over 10 years of using IS, I haven't lost any piece of data. No file corruption or anything comparable.

InfoSelect does not have attributes or
metadata. This is a reason for not using it (I am coming from ADM and I am using UR
Professional today). But to be honest: There are really not many situations where I
really need the metadata for search or filtering. Most of the time I am using the
folder/topic hierarchy what can be achieved in IS as well.

2 years ago, when everyone talked about metadata and tags, I thought I'd need that, too. I came up with a simple workaround: I put the metadata at the end of each note. To be able to search for metadata, I added a line starting "TAG: " for every tag - this way, I could search for "TAG: encryption" for example. I stopped adding metadata, however, as I found that I seldomly used metadata search.

Regarding the comments of other members here:

I use IS only as data repository. I have no need for the e-mail client and for the calender and todo list features. And unfortunately, the web capture feature (the Transporter) has become less useful than in older versions: Sometimes formatted data from web pages that I "transport" to IS using the Transporter or the Windows clipboard is completely garbled, so I have to paste the data first into Word or Notepad, CTRL+C again before I paste it into IS. Last week, I encountered an even stranger phenomenon: When copying data from a number of e-mails (in The Bat), IS did not display the text copied and pasted but a strange text string (when pasting into Notepad, the text from the mail was correct). So: To avoid this behaviour I got Surfulator.

Franz
Often I use Word or Notepad as

I've been a registered user of IS for several years -- since version 4, I think. Each time I upgrade, I end up feeling cheated because the upgrades are so expensive... that darned CRIMP. Here's my view: IS might be the software I use if I were allowed only one piece of software, because it has so many functions packed inside its coding. But almost every one of its functions (with the exception of its lightning searches) is done better -- far better -- by other programs. It's just that you have to mix and match some. So, if your goal is minimizing the number of programs you rely upon for information management, IS could be a good choice. If you want to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness, I think a combination of other programs would work better.

Steve Z.

Thank you all for your very interesting posts!
I appreciate them very much.

Most of your reports are similar to my experiences.

I plan to use IS as a workhorse for daily note taking (during meetings and phone calls) and for task planning. The built in calendar is not a highlight of usability but very helpful in organizing the tasks on a daily basis. I won't use IS for e-mails and web capturing.

After a day of testing IS during a hard working day here my summary:

Pros of IS:
- Fast search
- Easy outlining and note taking
- Easy integration for external folders
- Easy linking to external files
- Different types of topics
- Editor
- GUI (yes, I like it...!)
- Templates
- Printing (much better than in IS 6 and 7)
- Context folders
- Quick Text

Cons of IS:
- No metadata (not really an issue for me)
- Missing internal linking like UR provides
- No tabs (to open several topics the same time)
- The high price (I think of starting with the $50 yearly subscription)


IS is a complex application and it takes time to get used to it, even more than to UR. I am testing IS the third time now and I start to understand and like it.

Dominik

Hi Dominik,

so UR has lost another user ...
I've seen someone a week or so ago posting on Kinook's forum that he/she is moving to UR from IS. Seems that people are migrating from one PIM to another. I don't want to copy your post, would you mind posting on Kinook's forum the reasons why you prefer IS to UR? I think UR users and developers might find it useful as well, to see what UR weaknesses are and how to get rid of them :)

Good luck!

quant,

UR has not lost a user!

I am still in the testing phase of IS and I don't plan to migrate from UR to IS completely. UR has some outstanding features and is overall the the more powerful application.
Posting on the UR forum is a bit risky especially when mentioning a competior product. I suggest that I post a 'experience' report on the UR forum mentioning the most important issues and features to be improved without mentioning IS.

Do you have experiences with IS?

Dominik

Dominik, sometimes it is helpful to talk about competitor's products on the forums if done constructively.

I'd suggest keeping an eye on MyInfo -- also I wonder how MDE Infohandler might work for your needs. It is a very powerful program, but the paradigm is somewhat different. Manfred, who is very creative, responsive, and enthusiastic, is open to suggestions. He might be appreciative of thoughts you culd offer form a business perspective.

Daly

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

quant,

UR has not lost a user!

I am still in the testing phase of IS and I don't plan to
migrate from UR to IS completely. UR has some outstanding features and is overall the
the more powerful application.
Posting on the UR forum is a bit risky especially when
mentioning a competior product. I suggest that I post a 'experience' report on the UR
forum mentioning the most important issues and features to be improved without
mentioning IS.

Do you have experiences with IS?

Dominik

Daly,
Thank you very much for your hints.
MDE Info Handler is on my list.
But first I want to test IS2007 intensively and decide by the end of July whether I will buy the one-year subscription. The full price is definitely too high (it is equal to have subsribed for five years - a long time for software.).

Dominik

Dominik Holenstein wrote:

But first I
want to test IS2007 intensively and decide by the end of July whether I will buy the
one-year subscription. The full price is definitely too high (it is equal to have
subsribed for five years - a long time for software.).

Even then it wouldn't be too bad if you got free upgrades, but MicroLogic hits you up for $99 each time they come out with a new version. That's the main reason I've given up on IS.

Steve Z