Mike H wrote:

Pierre at SQLNotes.net is writing a piece of software called SQLNotes which uses ECCO
as a jumping-off point for a really nice project. [snip] I think he'll be the one to pull it off.[/snip]

Mike, I d/ld the most current & took a cursory look @ this.

As an Agenda, then EccoPro aficionado, I've been in the vast PIM wasteland since I decided to abandon EccoPro +/-4 yrs ago even tho I still have it on my machine. So I look at this program with great interest. It looks very techie to me but then it's still in early development so I will folo it.

Since EccoPro, i jumped to ADM & Ariadne, both abandoned. I thought ADM was quite inventive tho different than the Ecco template.

Now I'm into UltraRecall Pro & so I'm soft of familiar with SQLnotes GUI which is good because it's a lot to take in.

My only question /concern in chat was whether there was going to be any import functions a-la-Zoot, ADM, Ariadne, UltraRecall, etc. as I want an all in one toolbox, i.e. research, gather info from all sources & writing while keeping track of a variety of personal & professional projects.

Thanks for bringing SQLnotes to my attention.

I've played with the same packages you mentioned and most of the others, it seems. Some were uninstalled in minutes, while others lasted a little longer. I had great hope for UltraRecall, but Kinook felt strongly against putting data fields on the outline tree. While one can design forms and create really sophisticated filters, the results were returned in tables. This had a lot of value for me in my work as a db programmer - keeping track of the systems and reports I write. It didn't do very well in organizing other parts of my information. I think SQLNotes will succeed.

I believe Pierre has come to appreciate the needs and wants of Ecco users and is the first person to seriously come up with a product that works with outline structures, as Ecco does. He clearly uses ideas from this website in his development.

Mike

Jan wrote:

My only question /concern in chat was whether there was going to be any import functions a-la-Zoot, ADM, Ariadne, UltraRecall, etc. as I want an all in one toolbox, i.e. research, gather info from all sources & writing while keeping track of a variety of personal & professional projects

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Yes of course, there will be import functions. There is already a flexible import module. More will come with more input/output formats. SQLNotes data structure is flexible enough to handle just about all other formats without loss of data. Drag-drop is already implemented, but improvements are also planned.

If I had to single out just one thing that differentiates SQLNotes from the competition is data access. Data in SQLNotes is accessible by other programs (without additional import/export steps, real live data), in particular MS Office. So your data is not locked in. Users that don't have SQLNotes can view it using other tools, such as Excel, Word, Web, etc.

Does Word 2003 read XML? If not, what's the best means to export to MS Word 2003?

Mike H wrote:

Pierre at SQLNotes.net is writing a piece of software called SQLNotes which uses ECCO
as a jumping-off point for a really nice project.

Actually, this looks darned interesting. I'll make a note of it and maybe download it after the current beta is released.

Very interesting design, though. My only concern is that the interface might turn out to be cluttered. But we'll see.

I couldn't find a price. Its not free... is it?

Tom S.

Tom wrote:

Very interesting design, though. My only concern is that the interface might turn out to be cluttered. But we’ll see.

I couldn’t find a price. Its not free… is it?

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Thanks. The interface can be made as uncluttered as you wish. At it's base, you have a grid, same as Excel. Various panes can be opened and made floating or docked if needed. If you want it as a 2 pane, it can be as simple as a single column tree and an rich text editing pane.

SQLNotes is beta tests, which is expected to last till the end of 2007, It is however very stable and you can use it, import your data into it without worry.

It is free during beta and contributing testers will get a free licence. Price, when released has not been set, but will likely follow traditional pricing scheme.

I've been beating on it pretty heavily. I have some views/grids which are pretty sparse and others which are pretty loaded up. I've been testing it on a workstation with 19" monitors, but also a Samsung Q1. I can tune SN to work well with both.

What I like about SN and ECCO is that you can have a lot of control over the interface. What I like about SN, in particular, is Pierre's approach to try and make it useful and appealing to Ecco users, but also to keep an eye on modern technology. You can get data in and out easily because od ODBC compliance. His decision to use an HTML editor instead of RTF will really pay off.

I think if you spend some time with SN, you'll be pretty impressed.

Mike

Mike H wrote:

I've been beating on it pretty heavily. I have some views/grids which are pretty
sparse and others which are pretty loaded up. I've been testing it on a workstation
with 19" monitors, but also a Samsung Q1. I can tune SN to work well with both.

What I like about SN and ECCO is that you can have a lot of control over the interface. What I
like about SN, in particular, is Pierre's approach to try and make it useful and
appealing to Ecco users, but also to keep an eye on modern technology. You can get data
in and out easily because od ODBC compliance. His decision to use an HTML editor
instead of RTF will really pay off.

I think if you spend some time with SN, you'll be pretty impressed.

Thanks Mike,

And new features are coming real soon:
- Rich text in the outliner/grid
- Combo-views where multiple grids can be opened at once and tiled, docked, floated
- Live interactive charts
- Unicode text editing and UI
- Outlook style calendar including alarms and recurring events
- Live-sync with MS Outlook
- iCal sync with web calendars
- Full featured Gantt chart for project management

Just to keep users informed, SQLNotes now supports

- Live interactive charts
- Ecco Pro imports