In response to a request on this forum for some tutorials on ConnectedText for qualitative research, I have decided to create a blog dedicated for that purpose, rather than risk boring users who are not interested in that over here.

As part of setting up this blog, I created a page with my favourite software and hardware tools for qualitative research, note-taking, outlining, concept and mind-mapping, writing and general PIM and productivity.

Here it is:
http://drandus.wordpress.com/favourite-tools/

The CT tips and tutorials are still to follow. However, I thought this could be an opportune moment to kick off a Fall 2012 Outliner/PIM roll call.

My set up is in a bit of a transition at the moment. I'm attempting to work with an all plain-text system, though on Windows where it's far less trendy.

I'm using UV Outliner as a writing outliner. I find it sufficient for brainstorming and planning out an article.

Resophnotes, storing everything in text files to handle quick notes.

I've been doing more of my actual writing in WriteMonkey, which is a pretty great full-screen text editor. (I've also enjoyed a little program called MarkdownPad, but it desperately needs spell check before it'll be really useful.)

I've been using Pinboard.in as a bookmark manager and I'm rather liking it despite my weariness towards web apps. Though, I was set more at ease when the developer posted that he does have a contingency plan in place should he be hit by a bus.

TodoPaper for tasks/project management.

E-mail and calendar is taken care of by Postbox with the Lightning extension.

I'm in the process of evaluating some other apps to see if they're useful to me (and whether or not I'm willing to exchange money for their continued use.) I'm toying with ConnectedText though it seems to have quite a learning curve. I am also trying out the latest Scrivener for Windows. I should really make some time to put them through their paces properly. (Quick side note: I love that Scrivener's trial period is based on days of ACTUAL use rather than just from the date of installation.)

Ooh, I'm also playing with a text editor called SublimeText which, despite being a programming text editor has a surprising number of plug-ins aimed at writers, though it does excel more for its intended purpose (which for me, the closest I get to "coding" is HTML/CSS)

Oh, there's also the mobile front which is also very much in flux, as I'm facing the reality that it's time to ditch my beloved Blackberry. Over there I'm doing everything through the Dropbox app, which includes a text editor.

I bought an iPad a year ago which I've used mostly as a consumption device. As far as any PIM related uses going, I've played with PlainText and Nebulous Notes (now that there's a free version) though it's mostly to be able to review notes either while chilling on the couch or lying in bed. Admittedly, I've only edited them as a novelty.

I'd probably be doing more "work" with them if I had the same apps on an iPhone (plus I'd have TaskPaper, which can manage the TodoPaper files), though I'm torn there, as the Nokia Lumina 920 looks *really* nice, there's just not many apps for Windows Phone. That said, since I'm keeping as much as possible in text files, I could probably get by with a Dropbox-synced text editor.

You can do a bit better than that, in fact, by using OneNote, which has a pretty good client for the iPad (in fact it's got two: Microsoft's own, which is useful for e.g. checklists, and a much more advanced third-party app called Outline+ which supports Dropbox rather than SkyDrive, and can do many of the things the serious desktop version of OneNote can do). OneNote will certainly be launched on WinPhone 8. I use OneNote to sync between desktop PC, iPad and Android mobile (Galaxy Note): it works very well. The Android client is actually very nice!

Doc I took this from your March 2012 post on how you code in CT

1. I take a 20,000 word document (a transcript of an interview) and paste it into CT as a new ‘topic’ (document).
(So you cannot code pdf files in CT; gigantic shortcoming considering the predominance of that format.)

2. I dock the table of contents window on the left, and have the edit view of the document on the right of it.
(I cannot even maximize the TOC window much less dock it.)

3. I start reading through the document and “code” it by adding in headings (up to 5 levels).
(No such function as headings. 'splain what you are talking about. Like do you highlight something in the word doc and then select some menu item; if so what is it since it ain't "headings."

4. As headings are added, they start showing up in the TOC pane in the left, so I can see the hierarchy of the themes (codes).

(Yeah so how is this any different than copying and pasting a word doc into the doc window of any two pane outliner like UR and then linking the selected text to an outline item. I am lost within the first three directions.)

reverendmartian wrote:

Doc I took this from your March 2012 post on how you code in CT

I am lost within

the first three directions.)

Well, the reason I set up the blog was exactly to have more space to explain this in more detail, so watch that space.

1. I take a 20,000 word
document (a transcript of an interview) and paste it into CT as a new
‘topic’ (document).
(So you cannot code pdf files in CT; gigantic
shortcoming considering the predominance of that format.)

Well, there are advantages and disadvantages to coding PDFs within an application and its single project file or outside the application, or not coding PDFs at all. There is also an advantage to having to copy PDF (or any other) content into CT and analyse it there. It means you don't ever have to go back to the original source again, which saves time and effort. Why bother going back to a PDF if you have already read it and and had extracted the key information? You can still have a link back to the file, BTW. But CT is the central database for content that matters (value-added, processed content).

2. I dock the table of
contents window on the left, and have the edit view of the document on the right of
it.
(I cannot even maximize the TOC window much less dock it.)

Yes, docking can be a bit fiddly, especially for the novice. Search the CT forum for some desktop layouts and use those initially. Then you can save your own desktop templates as well.

3. I start reading
through the document and “code” it by adding in headings (up to 5
levels).
(No such function as headings. 'splain what you are talking about. Like do
you highlight something in the word doc and then select some menu item; if so what is it
since it ain't "headings."

Well, you do need to read the Welcome file to learn the basic mark-ups. It's a wiki after all. The markup for the headings are the following:
=Heading 1=
==Heading 2==
===Heading 3===
====Heading 4====
=====Heading 5=====

Believe it or not, it's quicker to type this than have to highlight text and select some icon on a ribbon, like in Word.

4. As headings are added, they start showing up in the TOC
pane in the left, so I can see the hierarchy of the themes (codes).

(Yeah so how is this any different than copying and pasting a word doc into the doc window of any two pane
outliner like UR and then linking the selected text to an outline item.

It's faster in CT. You can add headings to a text and the hierarchy (which I use as the "codes") shows now automatically in the TOC in real time as you type. But the distinguishing feature is then the ability to incorporate the codes in other documents using CT's "include" mark-up. I will really have to explain this on the blog, not over here.

I can imagine the annoyance of importing those big tables that articles have into CT. I'm guessing you have to use snipping tool and paste as an image, as I did when trialing CT. I've yet to find a pleasant to read richtext converson of an academic article.

(please ignore my english errors, Chrome dictionary problems)

kalkito wrote:

I can imagine the annoyance of importing those big tables that articles have into CT.
I'm guessing you have to use snipping tool and paste as an image, as I did when trialing
CT. I've yet to find a pleasant to read richtext converson of an academic article.

Yes, that's true, CT is not good with tables and I never bothered making one, let alone importing one. Yes, it would be easier to just add it as an image.

Another way to deal with that is to just add your analysis or interpretation of it in CT, without having to include the raw data. This would be using CT for managing value-added, processed material, rather than as a dumping ground for all data. This is the reason that I prefer to keep my 1000s of academic articles in EndNote and websites in Surfulater. Only a fraction of those will be truly important to the content that is being developed in CT, and so no point filling it up with not so relevant stuff.

Dr Andus wrote:

This is the reason that I prefer to keep my 1000s of academic articles in
EndNote and websites in Surfulater.

Have you tried the external links to EndNote references and Surfulater articles (sulkb://) ?

shatteredmindofbob wrote:

My set up is in a bit of a transition at the moment. I'm attempting to work with an all
plain-text system, though on Windows where it's far less trendy.

I'm in a similar situation. I've written elsewhere of the benefits of plain text, but reducing the footprint of my programs is another reason. So, I follow your post with a comparison of selected solutions.

I'm using UV Outliner as a writing outliner.

It is Brainstorm for me; also Emeditor with the outline plugin more recently.

Resophnotes, storing everything in text files to handle quick notes.

Same here. Along with Simplenote for syncing; though I had an issue with lost content recently and am feeling a bit insecure.

I've been doing more of my actual writing in WriteMonkey

Same here. And Textroom in Linux.

I've also enjoyed a little program called MarkdownPad, but it desperately needs spell check before it'll be really useful.

Have you tried Asutype?

TodoPaper for tasks/project management.

Once again looking for a workable solution for this; will try TodoPaper. In the meantime it's GQueues (web) or simple text editors. I see that its developer plans to port it to Linux which is good news.

The thing is that I often need to have my task lists available on the road, so Android is often my starting point.

E-mail and calendar is taken care of by Postbox with the Lightning extension.

Interesting; so you prefer Postbox to Thunderbird; do you find it more reliable or what?

I'm in the process of evaluating some other apps to see if they're useful to me.

I suggest you take a look (well, more than a look as it's not so evident at first) to Sense.

Ooh, I'm also playing with a text editor called SublimeText

Impressive indeed. My own choice is Emeditor. Among others, it has an nice simple outliner plugin; you can turn any simple test to a collapsable outline with a few prefix spaces.

A couple of additional useful goodies: Text Editor Anywhere, of which I heard here, brings up the editor of your choice whenever you have something to write, in whatever other program. And, PureText, which cleans text in the clipboard removing any formatting info, giving you plain text to paste anywhere.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Dr Andus wrote:
>This is the reason that I prefer to keep my 1000s of academic articles
in
>EndNote and websites in Surfulater.

Have you tried the external links to
EndNote references and Surfulater articles (sulkb://) ?

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I had to Google it but eventually figured out what (sulkb://) is and how to use it:
http://blog.surfulater.com/2007/10/15/surfulater-v230100-released-external-links-and/

But I couldn't find anything similar for EndNote. Are you saying it's possible to link to an EndNote entry from another application as well?

Actually both of this functionalities would be very useful if they had worked in CT. Unfortunately I couldn't get (sulkb://) work in CT but I'll ask around on the CT forum.

Dr Andus wrote:

Unfortunately I couldn’t get (sulkb://) work in CT but I’ll ask around on the CT forum.

Actually I did find a way to get it work in CT. I had to use the [[$APP: command, so a link to Surfulater in CT looks like this in edit mode:

[[$APP:sulkb://kb=PhD,Fid=5354,Rid=7460]]

This produces a button in view mode, rather than a link. However, the button text can be customised by adding the item name (e.g. "Press Release") like this:

[[$APP:sulkb://kb=PhD,Fid=5354,Rid=7460|Press Release]]

Neat! Thank you so much for this suggestion. This would have never occurred to me... Are you saying EndNote has a link like that as well?

Dr Andus wrote:

This produces a button in
view mode, rather than a link. However, the button text can be customised by adding the
item name (e.g. "Press Release") like
this:
[[$APP:sulkb://kb=PhD,Fid=5354,Rid=7460|Press Release]]

I'm glad you managed to make it work in CT. From my part I admit that I feel almost terrorised at the markup involved, in terms of interrupting the flow. That said, I could just copy the link and do the markup later.

Are you saying EndNote has a link like that as well?

I was quite certain that it did, and that I had read about it in this forum ages ago, in relation to Word. But, I was unable to find it. In fact, I may have been mistaken; I only found this relevant discussion http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/49 which refers to Biblioscape, not Endnote.

In the case of Postbox v.s. Thunderbird, I'm not sure about reliability but I find Postbox in general more pleasant to use.

The search is awesome, going through a large volume of e-mails in less than a second. I find the UI is laid out a lot better (which I realize can be customized in TBird, but this one works the way I want it to right out of the box.) A lot of little things -- the way it handles conversations, the integration with Gmail and Priority Inbox (it's pulling from multiple Gmail or Google Apps accounts).

Also, unlike Thunderbird these days, it's still under active development.

Anyway, thank you for mentioning Asutype, I will give it a shot. Looks like I could be a decent stop-gap solution until MarkdownPad gets a spellchecker (supposed to be coming, along with a rather nice looking interface, based on screenshots that have been posted.)

Dr Andus

Actually I did find a way to get it work in CT. I
had to use the [[$APP: command, so a link to Surfulater in CT looks like this in edit
mode:

There is a simpler way. Just add "sulkb" to a file named Protocols.txt. You will find in CT folder. Then you can use it as an URL.

Eduardo Mauro wrote:

There is a
simpler way. Just add "sulkb" to a file named Protocols.txt. You will find in CT
folder. Then you can use it as an URL.

Cool! Thanks Eduardo, that was easy enough.

Just for other people's benefit, here are the steps how to do this:
1. Go to ConnectedText folder (probably in "My Documents", open protocols.txt and add "sulkb" to the list. I presume you have to restart CT for this to be recognised.
2. Open Surfulater, go to the body of an article you want to link to from CT, right-click, select Copy as > Plain External Link.
3. In a CT topic in edit mode, type [[$ and this will bring up the pull-down list of commands. Choose [[$URL: and paste in the Surfulater link. At the end of the link type "|yourdescription]]. E.g. [[$URL:sulkb://kb=PhD,Fid=5354,Rid=7460|Press Release]]
4. Now switch to view mode, click on it, and it should launch Surfulater and open the exact article.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

From my part I admit that I feel almost terrorised at the markup involved, in terms of interrupting the flow. That said, I could just copy the link and do the markup later.

Yes, this is a common complaint about working with wikis and CT in particular. However, I think some of this is down to perceptions. A string of command like that looks like intimidating gibberish (which disappears in view mode though). But actually once you get used to the look of it, it might be quicker or at least the same as doing this in Word, where you still need to 1) highlight the text, 2) click on the insert menu, 3) click on the hyperlink button, 4) paste in the address, 5) click OK (and of course do the copy in Surfulater beforehand).

But enough of CT here! :) This thread was supposed to be Outliner/PIM roll call: Fall 2012!

Dr Andus wrote:

Yes, this is a common complaint
about working with wikis and CT in particular. However, I think some of this is down to
perceptions. A string of command like that looks like intimidating gibberish (which
disappears in view mode though). But actually once you get used to the look of it, it
might be quicker or at least the same as doing this in Word

Quite true.

To connect this discussion to the main topic of this thread, I would add that I have been using MarkDown quite a bit recently. The positive things about it are its readability and broadening support. Aside MarkDown pad already mentioned, it is recognised by Windows programs like ResophNotes but also Android ones like Epistle, which I use for note taking.

Its readablity ensures that even if a program (e.g. text editor) does note recognise MarkDown, my text will still look OK and provide me useful formatting cues. So I can expand my toolbox with no incompatibility side effects.

In practice, I spend most time in "edit" mode, so complex markup gets in the way. But I could probably get used to it indeed.

I just want to add one note about ConnectedText in case some folks are reading this thread and getting their first introduction to the application. CT is a really terrific plain text note box. That is, you can choose to not use any or only minimal markup and you'll still find it remarkably useful. The markup abilities, of course, expand its power almost exponentially. But do not be intimidated by the idea that in order to use CT you need to learn all sorts of esoteric coding. That's not the case.

Steve Z.

Further on the Fall 2012 Outliner/PIM roll call, here is the top 10 list of software links that visitors (mostly from Outliner Software) clicked on the most on my blog:

1. ConnectedText – personal wiki
2. Mindsystems Amode V2 – project management
3. Protopage.com – customisable home page (free)
4. Freeplane – mind mapping (free)
5. Noteliner – fast outlining (free)
6. Nebulous Notes – note-taker for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (with Dropbox)
6. VUE – concept mapping (free)
6. Natara Bonsai – outlining
7. CarbonFin Outliner – outliner for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with online companion
8. MyLifeOrganized – to-do list
8. Storybook – for structuring writing
8. NoteTab – text editor (free)
9. A-PDF Collector – PDF utility
9. Directory Opus – Windows Explorer replacement
10. PureText – utility for stripping rich text formatting (free)
10. Debenu PDF Maximus – batch PDF processing
10. Surfulater – note-taker for websites
10. PDF XChange Viewer – PDF viewer (free)

For some commentary on this list and the international profile of blog visitors (and probably Outliner Software readers) see this post:
http://drandus.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/visitor-stats-for-launch-week/

Sorry to be a little late to the conversation. I was on vacation the last two weeks, and while I was reading the forum, I just couldn't bring myself to write a long (winded) response.

My honor roll of applications has changed since last year, mostly due to finally getting comfortable with ConnectedText. Here's the overview:

At my office, where I work on a PC:

1. ConnectedText for note-taking and daily journal.

2. TheBrain for planning and organization of various types of documents and files, especially project-specific information.

3. FileMaker for very structured information, such as customer mailing lists and time tracking.

4. Zoot for some specific information management tasks, such as logging of purchases and payments.

5. Noteliner for quick outlines and todo lists.

6. NoteTab for cleaning up text and when I just need a clean screen to write in.

On my MacBook, which I use for personal projects:

1. TheBrain

2. Scrivener

3. Tinderbox

4. MacJournal

5. OmniOutliner

6. Curio

Steve Z.

My software arsenal hasn't changed much in the last year.

MyInfo is my workhorse, and I use it every day for note-taking (mainly for books I am writing). It is solid, well thought out, and regularly updated, and it has an exceptionally attractive UI.

Evernote is for me sort of the junk drawer in the spare bedroom. I throw everything into it that doesn't need a high level of organization. As I explained on another thread, last summer I briefly tried to put all my notes for a big research project into it, but I grew disillusioned when I ran into a serious syncing problem. To be fair to EN, the temporary syncing collapse was a result of a slow Internet service in a remote village, and the problem resolved itself as soon as I returned to a city; but the experience just reinforced my wariness about heavy dependence on Evernote. I've gone back to my original view that MyInfo is more suitable and more reliable for highly structured information.

I use Notetab for address lists, non-financial passwords, etc. -- anything that I want to pop up quickly on the screen. I also do some occasional writing in it.

For my calendar, I use Pocket Informant (which syncs with Google Calendar).

I still have more old files than I like to think about in ProCite, Treepad, My Notes Keeper, etc. None of that material is active, but I still occasionally go into one of those programs to fish out some information that I need.

Like others on this forum, I continue to fantasize about the perfect program. To my mind, it would mostly resemble MyInfo, but it would add just a few features from Evernote: OCR of images, indexing of attached PDF files, and synchronization with the iPad.

WSP wrote:

Like others on this forum, I continue to fantasize about the perfect program.
To my mind, it would mostly resemble MyInfo, but it would add just a few features from
Evernote: OCR of images, indexing of attached PDF files, and synchronization with
the iPad.

UltraRecall provides one of your sought after features, namely indexing of attached files. As an overall solution I have found it at least as capable as MyInfo, though its interface is definitely not as clean. I don't expect that they'll be offering OCR anytime soon (on the other hand, I understand that Onenote provides this). As for syncing with the iPad, it depends on the data: you should be able to sync contacts via Outlook and Google Sync. Or, from MyInfo, you can also export a topic as a website and access it in iPad --but not edit it.

In short, it seems to me that many of the features we seek are out there, scattered among various similar looking applications. What I have found rather disconcerting is that in some cases where all the features are made available in a single piece of software, this is can end up like some kind of Frankenstein contraption.

Yes, I'm aware that Ultra Recall indexes attachments. I've briefly played around with UR a couple of times and could see that it was an enormously capable program, but the interface felt klunky and unattractive to me. I admit that's just a visceral response that I can't really defend.

Petko does continue to add new features to MyInfo, but rather slowly and deliberately. He has promised, for example, that indexing of attachments will arrive in some future version.

I also suspect that in Evernote's Trunk Store one of these days I'm going to discover a new app that provides a proper tree hierarchy for EN. That will probably make me rethink my vow to stay away from EN for writing projects.

WSP wrote:

I also suspect that in
Evernote's Trunk Store one of these days I'm going to discover a new app that provides a
proper tree hierarchy for EN.

I would not hold my breath for this... other than watch how Rightnote's interfacing with Evernote develops.

Overall the Trunk has been a major disappointment for me, with the better applications being usually Mac- or iOS-only, and most overall being less focused to expanding Evernote's functionality into new realms, and more to making it easier to use in the existing ones.

Right, I noticed some of the recent comments here about RightNote. I gather that there have been some problems in making it sync with Evernote. I wonder if anyone on this forum has done any further experiments with it?