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Question about ConnectedText, Ultra Recall and others
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Posted by Dr Andus
Sep 21, 2012 at 01:08 PM
Jon Polish wrote:
>Dr. Andus, I
>think I will try CT parallel to UR for a while. The program is intriguing and may prove
>worthwhile for me. I need to learn about getting the information I need in the correct
>order, out of CT.
I would be interested in your comparison between CT and UR, as I ended up using CT for the kind of thing that I thought I’d be using UR. For me one of the main benefits of CT as a wiki is to be liberated from hierarchical organisation (ironic, I know, to say this on an outliner forum).
>The features in CT that are most reassuring to me are
>the navigator and the outliners. While these are primary features of the
>aforementioned programs, they are second tier in CT.
I’ve also been initially attracted to CT by the Navigator. It’s not really for restructuring things but for visualising your network of relationships and for ... navigating. I’ve only just got into using the Outliner more recently and I like it a lot. CT is pretty flexible, so what is primary or secondary really depends on the user.
Posted by tradercclee
Sep 21, 2012 at 10:25 PM
I have CT and UR.
CT’s features are impressive. Everything looks great on paper…
But I just can’t seem to get into it.
Have tried many times.
The edit mode slows me down. I dread writing in it.
I ended up using ResophNotes regularly.
It has way less features, but it clicks with me.
If CT didn’t click with you before, I doubt the latest version would.
Posted by Dr Andus
Sep 22, 2012 at 08:29 AM
tradercclee wrote:
>If CT didn’t click with you before, I doubt
>the latest version would.
My experience was different. I have checked out CT repeatedly over the years and it didn’t click with me at all. However, having read some user case studies (http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3799/), Manfred’s posts (http://takingnotenow.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/ConnectedText), especially the one on the CT website (http://www.connectedtext.com/manfred.php), and finally Steve’s review (http://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/connectedtext-tinderbox-for-windows/) helped me visualise how CT can help me with a particular information management problem I had.
As for writing with mark-up, I use minimal code, such as the headings, occasional italics and bold, URLs, file links, and the “include” and category tags. And the highlight mark-up here and there. That’s pretty much it. I have most mark-ups automatically displayed in dedicated colours, which helps the eye recognise where they are in the text and it is less disruptive (counter-intuitively) when you are writing and reading.
Sure, this is not as clean as writing in Word or Notepad, on the other hand the benefits of using CT far outweigh any possible inconvenience (which after 7 months of daily use I simply don’t notice).
Here are the advantages to me of writing in CT’s edit mode:
- ability to dock Table of Contents pane on the left, so I can see in real time the emerging outline of the text that I am writing (as any of the 5 levels of headers get automatically displayed);
- ability to dock Outliner on the left (can be hidden in a tab behind the TOC and called up by one click) and either use it as an outline to guide the writing or as an outline for the overall project that can be amended while you’re writing a sub-section.
- ability to dock Topic list pane on the right, so I can quickly navigate and switch between other topics that might be related (CT automatically saves content of your current topic when you do that);
- ability to have Navigator open on another monitor, so I can see how the topic I’m currently working on might be related to other topics (visually, as a map).
- ability to have a Notes pane docked on the right, where I can jot quick notes down to the topic I’m working on.
The main thing here is that all this happens within the same window (except the Navigator, although you can dock it within the same window if you want as well), so there is no need to exit and use another app for those tasks. So there are some huge efficiencies here, which compensate for me any inconveniences of having to use mark-up.
Posted by Jon Polish
Sep 25, 2012 at 05:06 PM
Thank you Stephen, Dr. Andus and tradercclee. Your guidance has been both instructional and created some consternation for me. Stephen’s emphasis on the ability to be productive while keeping it simple was encouraging. Dr. Andus’ use and description of how he uses CT inspired me to delve into CT’s finer points. In the end though, tradercclee’s observations were closer to the mark. The feelings I had while attempting version 3 remain. It seems ashame because I see CT’s value and craftsmanship. I suppose this is one reason why we have different tools at our disposal.
I think CT would benefit from UR’s ability to index documents linked to it. You can then include these linked files as part of your database search.
Jon
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Sep 26, 2012 at 05:48 PM
Jon Polish wrote:
>Dr. Andus’ use and
>description of how he uses CT inspired me to delve into CT’s finer points. In the end
>though, tradercclee’s observations were closer to the mark. The feelings I had while
>attempting version 3 remain. It seems ashame because I see CT’s value and
>craftsmanship. I suppose this is one reason why we have different tools at our
>disposal.
Yes, usefulness of a tool is often at the hand of the user. Some things may click with us and others will not. E.g. I always had difficulties in budgeting with Excel; then I discovered B-liner, a sort of hierarchical spreadsheet and it was an eye-opener. I have now switched to MindView, which is a mind map program that includes numerical functions because it’s more powerful and stable, but the paradigm is the same.