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Posted by Donovan
Jul 5, 2012 at 05:50 AM
Hello all…
I’ve been using GS Notes (Golden Section Notes http://www.tgslabs.com ) from TGSlabs for years. I first began using it in 2002. Along the way I tried a few others, including TexNotes back when it was under the old owner. It became the epitome of bloatware for this type product and I finally ditched it completely. Now, GS Notes from my experiences the past year or so, has been abandoned. No response from support, old ‘news’ section, no new updates (and the last was a joke)...you get the idea. After almost continuous use since 2005 or so, I’m faced with finding something else.
I’m real tired of proprietary formats that don’t allow all of the data to be exported in any real usable way. I never could export a notebook in full, only a folder. I’d love to find something from a company that doesn’t fear people taking their data elsewhere.
Having been with GSNotes for so long I am used to the double pane, hierarchical method. I use the program mostly for research and notes. GS Notes has always been good with images inside notes, files, etc. but I’d like to add some decent web archiving to any wishlist for future purchase. So - the old question: since my PIM/Outliner (whatever we call all of this) has decided to give it up and not add any new functionality, where do I turn? I would be happy with something similar to GS Notes if only because of the comfort level. One thing I have always liked is the ‘rich text’ visual text editor that’s fairly comprehensive, so I dislike anything that requires using keyboard codes to achieve the same thing rich text icons serve. Markdown, in general (at least the way I think it works) is just not for me.
The great PIM Heaven In the Sky seems to be getting crowded. Projects abandoned and so many started with less than a full commitment. For so many reasons, it seems many of these are biting the dust. I would love to find something that has some heft behind it and is a true labor of love so as to not have to go through this again in another year.
What about this MyBase that will be on bits. I just saw that post a few minutes ago and have never tried it. But I’ve found that trying something isn’t the full story. Is there support behind a product? Updated frequently? Are customers loved or only a bother? So much of that can only be found out the hard way or through community experience such as this.
Sorry for the length. First post and fears I’m not getting across what I’m trying to get across. Sorry for that. If I’ve made enough sense for help - I’m all ears.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 5, 2012 at 02:44 PM
Welcome, Donovan. Thanks for joining our conversation.
myBase has been around for quite a while, at least 10 years and has been developed continually in that time. I was an early user, but switched to other options several years ago, so I can’t comment on the feature set at this time, but I think you can be confident that it will be around and developed in the future.
Other two-pane, hieararchical options with a decent track record and more standard text formatting capabilities:
MyInfo: http://www.milenix.com/myinfo
UltraRecall: http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/
- although, as Daly mentioned in another post, there is reason to suspect that there will not be a lot of further development of UR
RightNote: http://www.bauerapps.com/RightNote.html
- not sure how it handles web archives (if it does at all)
Hope this gets you started in the search for the perfect PIM/outliner.
Steve Z.
Posted by Cassius
Jul 5, 2012 at 02:53 PM
1. I’ve used myBase/WebCollect for years and am quite happy with it. I recently said,
“I?ve used myBase/WebCollect for years and prefer it to Surfulater and other Web capture PIMs. Very occasionally a Web page cannot be saved, but this seldom occurs and saved Web pages appear in their original format unlike the saved pages in some other PIMs.
“A few months ago, I suddenly could not save new ?New York Times? pages. I contacted the developer (wjjsoft.com ; in China-excellent English) and within a few days it sent me a fix. The developer is very responsive.”
HOWEVER, exporting information from myBase, should it become defunct, is not easy.
You may wish to try another approach that I’ve recently posted here. See:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4079/0/using-a-pim-to-catalog-files-and-folders
and
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4146/0/using-a-pim-to-catalog-files-and-folders-redux
I’ve just started using TreePad Business to see how well my idea works (or doesn’t). Less complex * less expensive versions of TreePad may work as well.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 5, 2012 at 03:49 PM
Curious, I am now trying out RightNote. The professional version ($60) does include a web capture tool, which on my limited testing works very effectively.
Steve Z.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 5, 2012 at 06:06 PM
There was a discussion of RightNote here back in March. Here’s the link to the topic:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3812/
Also, if you do decide to go ahead and purchase right note, do it through Bits du Jour and get a 35% discount:
http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/rightnote/
Steve Z.