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which solution do you suggest?
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Posted by outliner
Nov 7, 2012 at 07:28 PM
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
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Nov 7, 2012 at 09:12 PM
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.
Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 7, 2012 at 11:33 PM
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
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Nov 7, 2012 at 11:45 PM
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.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Nov 8, 2012 at 02:35 PM
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