I initially heard about this program in the Zoot forum, and finally got around to give it a try.

I think the program is quite promising if you do a lot of academic research.

You might want to try out for yourself.

There are also some good video tutorial clips for the program at the website.

http://www.ideamason.com/default.htm

Ken

IdeaMason looks very good.

I had never heard of it, but it looks a good compromise between a word processor and the all encompassing NotaBene.

Thanks for the pointer,

Graham

I see Idea Mason contains an outliner in it composition module. Unfortunately for some of us, it looks like it's a two-pane outliner. How competent is the tree itself. Has anyone checked out what kind of outlining operations are available?

Stephen R. Diamond wrote:

I see Idea Mason contains an outliner in it composition module. Unfortunately for
some of us, it looks like it's a two-pane outliner. How competent is the tree itself.
Has anyone checked out what kind of outlining operations are available?

I wouldn't say the program has an excellent outlienr, but for what it does, it's as good as Nxdcards if not better (it's quite seamless). I really like the ability to insert all linked items into the outliner.

I think it's really good at organizing your ideas. Once you insert your source materials, the bibliography gets updated automatically--essential for acadmeic writing in my book.

The developers seem to be quite receptive to suggestions as well.

Ken

The cut-off for me is multiple selection of topics. Does the outliner let you select and move multiple topics at the same time, or do you have to rearrange one by one.

Ken, I have been trying out IdeaMason, but too soon to give a detailed review of it.

The appproach is certainly unique, and seems to be taking advantage of a more contemporary approach to software design.

I'd sure like to hear what you or others are experiencing with IdeaMason.

What's the strong point? What's the downside?

Thanks.

Daly

Kenneth Rhee wrote:

I initially heard about this program in the Zoot forum, and finally got around to give
it a try.

I think the program is quite promising if you do a lot of academic
research.

You might want to try out for yourself.

There are also some good video
tutorial clips for the program at the
website.

http://www.ideamason.com/default.htm

Ken

I installed the trial version of IdeaMason after hearing about it on the Zoot software user forum. While IdeaMason looks to be software with quite a bit of potential – and just the type of thing I’m looking for to help with my writing and research (am really dying for the perfect blend of rtf-friendly outliner and zoot-like functionality!), it currently has two serious limitations which negate its usefulness to me. First, it requires all references/source materials to be entered manually. Sorry, but my existing collections are too big and I have no patience for something that can't import/export in other formats - e.g., EndNote, BibTeX, XML, csv, etc. - I can be flexible but the software has to meet me halfway! Also, without ability to import in one of these formats, it makes it really difficult to leverage online lit searches. I also don't appreciate the lack of ability to import/export to/from other formats for notes. If I'm going to bother to put my data into a program, it needs to be easy to get that data back out and use it in different programs and share it in compatible formats with other researchers. When these functions are added, *then* I will consider giving the software another look and seeing if I like the look/feel.

Shelby

Daly de Gagne wrote:

Ken, I have been trying out IdeaMason, but too soon to give a detailed review of
it.

The appproach is certainly unique, and seems to be taking advantage of a more
contemporary approach to software design.

I'd sure like to hear what you or others
are experiencing with IdeaMason.

What's the strong point? What's the
downside?

Thanks.

Daly

Daly,

This is my quick assessment of the program.

Strength

Integration of various modules (this is one of the best programs I've seen--rivals Notabene but much more simpler)
Quick index search
Bibliographic support (APA, MLA, and Chicago)
Outline module for writing (inserted all linked items is a great feature) and export to MS Word
Customer support

Weakness

No Boolean search
Outline not great for organizing (but to be fair, outline is not there for organzing information (storage) but organizing writing drafts (writing)
No import/export to other popular bibliographic note (e.g., Endnote)

However, the company is willing to listen to its customers' feedback and quick to fix its bugs. I pointed out a bug on Sunday morning, and it was fixed by Sunday afternoon.

Hope this helps.

Hi Kenneth.

Thanks for the pointer to IdeaMason.

I have tested the software for a week and bought a 3-machine licence yesterday.

The has been extremely responsive: 2 days after I asked about a 3-machine licence they expanded the 2-machine licence they had before to cover 3 PCs (they said that I was not the only one who required a more extensive licence). Before buying the licence I sent them a list of suggestions - again, they responded almost immediately (particularly surprising for me given the lag between the USA and Germany).

What I like about IdeaMason:

* It is an integrated tool that has almost everything I need: notetaking, outlining, source-material management (though I don´t need that for the current project).
* And: I don´t have to put up with the editor - I can export outlines and drafts to Word or OpenOffice.org and work in my familiar word processor.
* Add to that a fast search, the ability to use categories, to create link between notes, and the ability to create shortcuts to files and to combine several projects in one portfolio (i.e. a IdeaMason file).
* Though there is no real export feature at the moment, I can send all the data inside IdeaMason or selected notes to Microsoft Word - which is what I do to regularly backup my project in a format I can read with a tool outside IdeaMason.
* The responsiveness of the developer is great.

There are, however, a few things I am missing. What I urgently need:

* Keyboard shortcuts for often needed commands: New Idea, New Sourced Material, Bold, Italics, Font. When entering new information, I have my hands on the keyboard; IdeaMason forces me to interrupt the flow and take the mouse to create a new note or to format the text.
* The ability to select several items in outline view and move, promote/demote, copy, or cut the items together.
* An import feature that reads a RTF (or Word) file and creates a new note or a series of new notes - I have a lot of material for my various book projects stored in Word files and in Infoselect databases. At the moment, I have to copy and paste the data over to IdeaMason - being able to automate that using an import feature would be a great help.

Things that would be nice:

* An export command (at the moment I have to create a draft to export all or selected notes to Word and save it as Word, RTF, HTML or whatever file), what I'd like is an export to RTF (I do not need HTML output but I think there is a number of users that might need it).
* Though I own Microsoft Office 2003, I prefer to use OpenOffice.org - I'd like to be able to select the output format (either Word or OpenOffice.org Writer). Right now, I have to have both Word and OpenOffice.org on each machine on which I use IdeaMason.

After I sent my suggestions to the developer, I was told that they plan to publish updates in September and December. The September update will bring among others the keyboard shortcuts, the December update will bring an RTF import and an RTF and HTML export. They also offered me to review their proposed feature list for the next versions and make additional suggestions.

Franz

Shelby.

it currently has two serious limitations which negate its
usefulness to me. First, it requires all references/source materials to be entered
manually. Sorry, but my existing collections are too big and I have no patience for
something that can't import/export in other formats - e.g., EndNote, BibTeX, XML,
csv, etc. - I can be flexible but the software has to meet me halfway!

This will be addressed in release 3 (slated for December 2006). The developer plans to include at least the ability to import data from EndNote.

Also, without
ability to import in one of these formats, it makes it really difficult to leverage
online lit searches. I also don't appreciate the lack of ability to import/export
to/from other formats for notes. If I'm going to bother to put my data into a program, it
needs to be easy to get that data back out and use it in different programs and share it in
compatible formats with other researchers.

This will also be added in the December release:

* Import of Word DOC, FTF, HTML, XML, CSV, TXT
* Export to RTF, HTML, XML (Word export is already included)

There will be an interim version 2.5 coming in September.

This is what the developer told me when I asked for these and other features.

Greetings, Franz
(I am just a satisfied customer, in no way related to IdeaMason)