hello!

I am looking for a program to organize a large amount of data (text, rich text, tables, files, graphs, charts, etc)

1) I should be able to easily transfer the data to another pc (that doesn't mean necessarily that the program itself has to be portable, or that the whole database should be stored in one file, etc, but it would be nice)

2) I should be able to create rich text easily (WYSIWYG editor), with as many features as possible (eg. write math notations and equations, unicode text, symbols, etc)

3) I should be able to create drawings/mindmaps/charts/flowcharts/etc easily (WYSIWYG editor), with as many features as possible

4) I should be able to create tables easily (WYSIWYG editor), with as many features as possible (eg, sortable columns, filterable columns, etc)

5) I should be able to have text editor capabilities with as many features as possible, eg regex search/replace, etc

6) I should be able to organize the data in various styles (treeview, hyperlinks, mouseover popups etc)

7) I should be able to save files/graphics/etc attached (it would be also nice to have embedded file viewer/editor for each file type, pdf, doc, xls, png, etc)

8) it should be able to handle efficiently a large amount of data

wiki software is really tempting

it is very powerful and extensible, you can do literally anything you can do in a website (embed animated gif's, embed JS calculator, etc)

but, I am not interested at all to share the data with others or let others edit it (in other words, I am not interested in the "collaborative" sense with which wiki is normally associated)

however, having it in a cloud as a website which I can edit by any pc, is something interesting, but I dont want to have in my pc any web server installed

That's a tall order.

If you're working on a PC, I think the only thing that comes close (and nothing, I'm aware of will do all you want) is OneNote. If you're working on a Mac, try Curio.

Steve Z.

I think some of your criteria are almost mutually exclusive, especially being able to do all that stuff and "be able to handle efficiently a large amount of data."

Three programs that would tick a lot of the boxes on your list are Mindsystems Amode, WhizFolders, and NVivo. However, once you want to keep everything in one place and especially in one file, you'll start facing issues like increasing processing times and computing resource requirements (which negate all the other advantages) and the possibility of corrupting files.

I'd suggest selecting your most important core requirements and then finding a single software for those, while using additional software to deal with the less important aspects. E.g. Amode does have a built-in concept mapping etc. tool but I never bother using it because it's quicker and easier to do in VUE.

Regarding wikis (which is one solution to be able to deal with a huge amount of data while avoiding putting everything into a single file), you don't have to use a collaborative wiki, there are plenty of so-called personal or desktop wikis out there: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DesktopWiki

I would agree that no program I am aware of can do all that you suggest. For example, many programs we discuss here have WYSIWYG editors, but their capabilities often fall short compared to more dedicated editing programs like MS Word.

However, you can have your cake and eat it (though not at the same time) by using a strong info database like UltraRecall which can import all kinds of files, and allow you to edit those directly from UltraRecall. E.g. if there's rich text that you want, work it out in Word and then import the file to UR. If it's tables you want, do the same with Excel.

You can set the UR options to view/edit the imported files with the MS Office edit control which will give you virtually identical control to Word/Excel etc, but from within UR.

Funnily enough, I'm tempted to recommend that you take a good look at WYSIWYG web editors; some of them (e.g. WYSIWYG Web Editor) handle all the media and pages in a single large file, and include search and replace functionality. But you wouldn't be using them optimally, as it were!

It sounds as if a better solution might be to use a web server system (just for your own use, not necessarily anybody else's). There are quite a few that cost very little or nothing and can support lots of different types of files, input etc. Good examples include e.g. Kerio Workspace (free Starter edition), Atlassian Confluence ($10), TikiWiki (Open Source), Plone (Open Source) and Microsoft SharePoint (not free!!!).

There's no reason why you couldn't run these locally, on your laptop/desktop - assuming, of course, it's fairly powerful. The other advantage you may eventually come to appreciate is the flexibility - you can upload/download files or pages (some of them allow you to output pages in e.g. PDF format), you can access the server from anywhere (assuming some competence with firewall settings), you can run the server in a virtual machine (which can then be moved around very easily from one machine to another, or even from one OS to another - there are plenty of free cross-platform VM apps). All the above-mentioned servers full-index their own pages and any attached files (in the main popular formats); some of them have very sophisticated search functions. And a server will take all the data you can possibly throw at it.

Just a rather lateral thought!

Cheers,
Bill

If you are thinking of wikis, I can also recommend ProjectForum, a commercial product but very modestly priced for a basic version ($25). There is a free version, but it's fairly useless. But if I were you I'd make the jump up to Kerio Workspace. Its main shortcoming: non-highlighting of search results (although its actual search engine is very powerful and uses similar Boolean concepts to e.g. Google). Workspace has the advantage of being very easy to administer and use. Plone is quite a bit more sophisticated, but still manageable. Confluence is hugely powerful and a bit overwhelming, but has a great interface once you get to grips with it. And SharePoint is, of course, free with various MS server systems (whoopee!). TikiWiki I've rather lost touch with, but I believe it's extremely powerful, although a bit fiddly to install.

MadaboutDana wrote:

If you are thinking of wikis, I can also recommend ProjectForum, a commercial product
but very modestly priced for a basic version ($25). There is a free version, but it's
fairly useless. But if I were you I'd make the jump up to Kerio Workspace. Its main
shortcoming: non-highlighting of search results (although its actual search
engine is very powerful and uses similar Boolean concepts to e.g. Google). Workspace
has the advantage of being very easy to administer and use. Plone is quite a bit more
sophisticated, but still manageable. Confluence is hugely powerful and a bit
overwhelming, but has a great interface once you get to grips with it. And SharePoint
is, of course, free with various MS server systems (whoopee!). TikiWiki I've rather
lost touch with, but I believe it's extremely powerful, although a bit fiddly to
install.

As a CT fan I would say this, wouldn't I, but what would be the advantage of going with any of these wikis vs. a dedicated desktop wiki like ConnectedText (considering that collaboration is not a requirement here)? Although CT doesn't have a WYSIWYG editor, in exchange you get a lot of flexibility, without having to worry about any of the installation and search issues of the above-mentioned wikis.

Having another look at ConnectedText (sorry, I still don't really get it!), I realised it reminds me of something I was investigating a couple of years back: Remus Information Management. This might be something you want to look at for your particular range of requirements. It seems to have evolved since I last looked at it - and it's open-source and free, so definitely worth experimenting with. Here's the link: http://remus-software.org/

Cheers,
The Other Bill

Remus looks interesting, but there appears to have been no activity on development for more than a year. Does anyone know the status of the project? Thanks.

Daly

MadaboutDana wrote:

Having another look at ConnectedText (sorry, I still don't really get it!), I
realised it reminds me of something I was investigating a couple of years back: Remus
Information Management. This might be something you want to look at for your
particular range of requirements. It seems to have evolved since I last looked at it -
and it's open-source and free, so definitely worth experimenting with. Here's the
link: http://remus-software.org/

Cheers,
The Other Bill