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Horses for courses: Voodoopad, Tinderbox, Curio, Devonthink, etc
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Posted by Dr Andus
Mar 4, 2013 at 11:02 PM
Prion wrote:
>I evaluated Devonthink also as a candidate for the wiki, too, but
>although it knows some Wiki functionality (Wikilinks) it does not
>display backlinks, i.e. incoming links from other pages, which is
>crucial for me.
Check out Manfred Kuehn’s blog. He’s been using ConnectedText on his Mac and he has managed to integrate it with a number of other apps, incl. Devonthink (I think):
http://takingnotenow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/devonnote-and-connectedtext.html
Posted by Prion
Mar 5, 2013 at 08:16 AM
Yes, I was aware of that and tested it, too. However, running two operating systems and relying on connectivity between programs on either OS is not my idea of long-term stability.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Mar 5, 2013 at 05:02 PM
Prion wrote:
>3) The kind of information that I have the biggest problem finding a
>good home for is not the pieces of information as such but which
>connections I draw between them, this is separate from gathering the
>information in the first place and the most personal thing in the whole
>process.
I also don’t work on the Mac, and have not tested for myself the famous interoperability of applications. I just wonder, if you have more or less settled on Devonthink as your main repository, is it possible to use another tool to create relationships among Devonthink items? E.g., does Devonthink provide special links such as devothink:// which can directly open specific items?
My own choice for relating info would be TheBrain, which is available for Linux, Mac and Windows (runs on Java). The logic is very different to a wiki, as relationships are among whole items/entities, rather than via wikiwords integrated within the item texts. For me this provides a much better overview of connections.
Another strong contender (but less mature) is http://piggydb.net/ discussed here in the past. It provides wiki functionality, but also offers a way to relate whole entities among them via tags into visualisable relationships. I know my description is far from crystal clear, so you can see an example here: http://piggydb.jp/en/
Piggydb also runs on Java and is cross-platform. Additionally, it can run on a server which supports Java, and be accessible via LAN or the web, as is the above example. The Piggydb developer has a strong long term vision and is open to relevant suggestions.
Posted by Dellu
May 16, 2013 at 12:42 AM
>3) The kind of information that I have the biggest problem finding a
>good home for is not the pieces of information as such but which
>connections I draw between them, this is separate from gathering the
>information in the first place and the most personal thing in the whole
>process. After a lot of trial and error I am coming to the conclusion
>that a wiki might be the best solution for this. Tinderbox, as nice as
>it may be otherwise, is too content with its splendid isolation to
>fulfill that role (I may keep using it for other jobs, though).
>I evaluated Devonthink also as a candidate for the wiki, too, but
>although it knows some Wiki functionality (Wikilinks) it does not
>display backlinks, i.e. incoming links from other pages, which is
>crucial for me.
>Voodoopad may not be as powerful as Tinderbox in that regard (what is?)
>but provides backlinks as well as custom URLs, talks to Spotlight, takes
>graphics more gracefully and may also scale better with size than
>Tinderbox.
>
>Thanks for your comments so far.
>Prion
My takes:
- Wikis are bad: they will be broken if u move sth. So, never use them
- Future proof plain text (markdown) files are the best
- Keep all the text notes in the same folder, inside Dropbox
- access them by different apps (as the need arises).
- Use Simplenote as a glue among the apps
—- here is the step by step—-
1. Create the notes in nvALT
2. Store them in a folder in Dropbox
3. Index the folder in Devonthink
4. Sync nvALT to Simplenote
5. Sync Tinderbox to Simplenote
6. Sync Scrivener to Simplenote
Work on any of the apps, as the need arises. The changes will be reflected everywhere (windows pcs, ipad, iphone, all fetch from the same folder).
- nvALT is the best for simple notes (drop what is in your head)
- Tinderbox is best for creating connections of ideas
- Scrivener is the best for drafting
It is possible to get the use the best of the apps without losing track. I hope this helps sb.
Dellu