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IdeaMason
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jul 9, 2006 at 01:58 PM
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
Posted by Shelby
Jul 10, 2006 at 12:35 AM
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
Posted by Kenneth Rhee
Jul 10, 2006 at 01:37 AM
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.
Posted by Franz Grieser
Jul 15, 2006 at 05:27 PM
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
Posted by Franz Grieser
Aug 4, 2006 at 03:35 PM
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)