Forum Posts Feed
Searching without hope of finding, and holding on for dear life.
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by jamesofford
Aug 5, 2007 at 04:02 AM
Fellow Outliners:
Like many of you I have been searching for some time for a piece of software that will help me to organize all of the information that I have flying at me. And like many of you I have been frustrated. I have used Zoot, UltraRecall, Onenote, a few other different outliner programs, Ecco, and Omea Pro. None of them quite did what I wanted. Zoot comes closest, but I need to be able to store graphics, and the text based nature of Zoot precludes that.
I have been envious of the choices on the Mac side for some time now, and am about to make the jump. I figure this will give me the ability to try out a set of software that seems to at least come close to my needs. Things like Devonthink, Yojimbo, Tinderbox and others hopefully will allow me to do what I would like. Also, as a scientist I spend a lot of time with papers downloaded from various journals. These are all PDF files. The Mac also has Papers, a program that promises to help me organize the multitude of PDF files on my hard drive.
And given Parallels, I can also keep the stuff that works on the PC side. Mostly Onenote.
Anyone who has experience with PIM software on the Mac side? How does the stuff really compare with what we have on the PC side?
Posted by David Dunham
Aug 5, 2007 at 04:37 AM
I think almost all the Mac products will allow you to store graphics mixed with text (my own Opal certainly does).
Are you needing a single pane outliner (my preference) or one with two or three panes?
Posted by Cassius
Aug 5, 2007 at 06:49 AM
Jim,
You might look at MyBase+WebCollect (http://www.wjjsoft.com) and Web Research (http://www.macropool.com). You can find a topic discussing these in this forum a week or two ago.
Both save Web pages and have PIM features. WR saves more pages correctly than does MB+WC, but I’ve found a partial work-around for most problem pages.
MB+WC has extensive RTF capabilities and can save graphs, and equations from WORD, MathType, and probably other formats. WR probably can as well, but my trial period has run out, so I can’t check.
MB+WC costs more than WR, but includes indexed search. I think WR can do indexed search with an add-in. MB+WC can also save other file formats (eg., PDF) as attachments and open them in the appropriate programs (e.g., Adobe). It also has some linking ability. You can open more than one file at the same time in MB+WR, but the screen can get crowded unless you hide some windows (just like you do in MS Windows). Also, you can open two separate instances of MB by opening two MB files separately from Windows (by double-clicking on each file’s name).
There are some days when MB seems to crash a lot, but that may be because I got carried away in editing a saved Web page. However you can set it to autosave frequently. (I’ve set it to autosave every 2 minutes and I think the minimum is 1 minute.) It can also automatically make dated backups.
Did I mention that it can link to external files? Also, it saves its files in Zip format with a compression level of your choice.
Hope this helps.
-cassius
Posted by Cassius
Aug 5, 2007 at 06:53 AM
Jim,
Here’s a P.S.
If you’re happy with UltraRecall except for it lacking Zootish features, you might try Dominik’s recent suggestion:
“I found a little workaround to simulate the smart folders from Zoot in UR: Instead of creating a folder I am inserting a Search Item. Then I add the query (or rule) and save it. Then I mark the “Automatically start saved search when search item selected” in Tools -> Options -> Search/Reminders.”
-c
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
Aug 5, 2007 at 11:52 AM
The tool I can recommend on the Mac side is Tinderbox.
It has a similar feature like Zoot’s Smart Folders. Further, you can visualise the content like a Mind Map or like in PersonalBrain::
http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/index.html
Price: $229
PS:
The Windows version seems to be available soon according to Mark Bernstein, the inventor and developer of Tinderbox.