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Can we talk about Info Select?
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Posted by razorboy
Aug 25, 2012 at 06:40 AM
I have two concerns: the software, and the forum. The forum - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoSelect/ - was last posted to on 23 July, 2012. Many discussions were about leaving for Evernote. I applied/registered, as one must do so in order to be accepted by the list owner. However, it has been several days, and I have heard nothing. So: is there another Info Select group, preferably one with living members?
I had IS 3, a long time ago, and loved it. (I still have the disk.) I now need IS again for organizational purposes. I will probably only need the basic features, with which to create, save, and organize, zillions of pieces of information and data. IS 10 has bad reviews from users, so no thanks. This brings question #2: what is the oldest version of IS which can be run on Windows 7 64-bit? Officially, IS 2007 – which I take it is version 9 – can run on it, but “full functionality is not guaranteed.” OK, I’m sure I could live with that. So, is there anything earlier which will run on that OS?
And finally, if there is any competing software which has a tree structure and search structure exactly (or nearly) the same as IS? I know there are all kinds of organizers, outliners, and PIMs, but I don’t know them. If IS’s tree and search features are duplicated by another software, I will take a look. Otherwise, I will probably live with the oldest version of IS which will run on my laptop OS.
Thanks very much to anyone who can address any of my questions.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 26, 2012 at 12:23 AM
I recently tried running IS 8 on my Windows 7 machine, but it didn’t work very well. I can’t remember exactly what didn’t work properly, however.
Posted by Jack Crawford
Aug 26, 2012 at 02:51 AM
There seems to be an endless stream of tree-based note taking info managers out there.
The one that seems closest to Info Select is NoteFrog. From memory the authors said that they were inspired by the old DOS versions of Tornado and IS. I didn’t particularly like the interface which seemed pretty primitive. It has been developed further but I haven’t put it through its paces recently.
Jack
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Aug 26, 2012 at 01:58 PM
@razorboy: Just some hasty notes. Not sure whether this might help, but here it is in case there is something useful to you from my experience - some of which may be common with yours.
I was a Lotus Agenda user since 1990. I have been an InfoSelect user since 1997.
I still very occasionally use Agenda(!), and I regularly use InfoSelect 8, and the latter runs just fine on a Win 7-64 laptop (Home Premium).
I also subscribe to the Yahoo IS User Group you mention, and have noticed that it has started to look pretty moribund. The IS developer (who took over the Admin/Manager role for it) seemed to have a Cavalier approach and scant regard for users’ needs, and this has apparently upset some users, who were saying they were looking to emigrate to Evernote. I don’t know how many may have made the switch. I had already been investigating Evernote by then anyway.
.
A query in a discussion in that group, about IS5, led me to reinstall my old copy of IS5 as an experiment, to prove that it too works just fine on a Win 7-64 laptop (Home Premium). I reported on that to the User Group.
Though it feels like I have trialled (and still trial) almost every PIM out there, I have not yet come across any other hierarchical 2-pane PIM (Personal Information Manager) that is quite as well-designed, consistently stable and useful as IS8. It is very good at what it does. Later versions that tried looked pretty hopeless by comparison, and I did not consider them worth the investment - so I have stayed with IS8.
I also use NoteFrog (and before that, its predecessor Clip Guru), and have been a ß tester for it. It is an excellent Clipboard Information Manager, but it is not designed to be a PIM like IS8. It is NOT hierarchical, by the way.
A couple of years back, I started to use and compare Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. I have since settled for OneNote, since the OneNote database allows me to store ALL my data - including image data with any text in it, and the spoken/sung audio data (Yes!) - and index/search through it all (OCR for the image data), with the database being on a local hard drive. This all suits my peculiar needs, though it might not suit other peoples’ needs.
Incidentally, for a while now, I have been trialling Jello - which Integrates with Outlook, which integrates with OneNote. The possibilities seem endless, but I am just exploring.
Posted by razorboy
Aug 26, 2012 at 05:50 PM
Thanks to all for those replies. There are helpful.
Slartibartfarst, thanks for the generous response. I contacted Info Select support, and they claim to have no idea who owns the user Group.
Your response generates some more questions, if you don’t mind…..
~~~~Later versions that tried looked pretty hopeless by comparison,...~~~~ So, you tried IS 9 (2007) and 10, and found them inferior to IS 8? IS 10 has really bad user reviews, I see.
~~~~...led me to reinstall my old copy of IS5 as an experiment, to prove that it too works just fine on a Win 7-64 laptop (Home Premium).~~~~ How did you do that? Did the installer do its job, or did you have to resort to hackery?
~~~~and the spoken/sung audio data (Yes!)~~~~ That is of some interest to me as well, for making musical & spoken notes (no pun) although it might not be a deciding factor. (I don’t want to have to fire up Studio One every time I get an idea.) Do IS 9 and 10 not save audio (note) files? Does Evernote? I downloaded the trial of AllMyNotes, and the tree and search function are pretty good; however, it does not yet save audio.
~~~~It is NOT hierarchical, by the way.~~~~~ I confess that I don’t know what It is meant by “hierarchical” in the context of describing these softwares. Please explain. (..blush..)
Thanks again.