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ConnectedText versus Ndxcards
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Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2007 at 05:40 PM
Keywords can be hierarchical ro flat. (Typically, they seem to be called ‘categories’ when hierarchical. Evernote and Idea!, for example have hierarchical keywords. ndxCards has a flat list, although adding hierarchy is one of the features the developer has considered. Are keywords in CT flat or hierarchical?
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Oct 19, 2007 at 05:50 PM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Manfred, I really enjoyed your article on the CT site about note-taking.
I hadn’t seen the article. I’m going to read it this weekend. But regarding the below, Daley asks a good question. Indeed, why not. Actually, it occurs to me that software already exists that makes some of these conventions less onerous. There are programs that specialize in the function MS Word calls “auto-correct.” You can pick your own keystrokes that trigger typing a different set. You might type ‘cnct’ and have it insert the connection symbol. Or in something like ActiveWords you could actually just type ‘connect’ after typing the trigger and have it insert the connection symbol instead of what you actually typed.
Is there any reason this wouldn’t work? If not, then why would CT delay incorporating this sort of functionality. (Probably CT users have a much better memory than I, making this aid irrelevant.)
>
>I guess I am
>just not able to get my head around the whole wiki notion—part of me rebels, first of
>all at having to remember conventions, as Stephen spoke about. Why can there not be
>programming that gives you bold or italic or title at the press of a button. That’s one
>objection based on doing less than to me seems reasonably possible.
>
>But then I guess
>I lack the imagination to think of how I would start linking stuff up, and whether I
>would be consistent.
>
>I know I am missing something here, and I have that feeling
>everytime I download CT or another wiki for a trial.
>
>Daly
>
>Manfred wrote:
>>I am not
>sure whether you saw this. Nor am I sure how helpful it will
>
>>be:
>>
>>http://www.connectedtext.com/manfred.html
>>
>>I agree that there is a
>
>>learning curve, and that the conventions of a wiki take getting used to ...
>>
>>I am
>
>>convinced that the usefulness of a Note-taking applications, no matter which one
>you
>>choose, increases exponentially in relation to the time and effort you put into
>it. I
>>know this must appear (and is) paradoxical, for you must commit before you
>really
>>know. And after you have committed, you will never really know whether
>another one
>>might have been better. Reminds me of marriage that way ;)
>>
>>On Index
>Cards: I tried it,
>>but it appears to me that it does not translate the index card
>method into an electronic
>>equivalent and is too much of a copy of the paper-based
>model, but that is my very
>>subjective view. (I also did not find it “intuitive” -
>again, a very subjective
>>reaction that has to do with my prior experience.
Posted by john oconnor
Oct 19, 2007 at 05:53 PM
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>The immediate recognition of common key words seems independent of the wicki
>approach of CT. Is that right? In principle, a program like ndxcards could have a
>feature like this. Or so it would seem
In NDXcards you would have to stop what you were doing and run a separate search. How likely is that going to happen in practice. With Connectedtext you can quickly click on a keyword link to see what is already connected. The speed of seeing the connection and the ability to rapidly move between the connected ideas and to update them is something I would find useful.
John O’Connor
Posted by Manfred
Oct 19, 2007 at 05:56 PM
Categories can be nested in ConnectedText; so Philosophy can have subcategories like Epistemology, Ethics, etc. But it can be as flat or hierarchical as you want it to be. It’s easy to make a category a sub-category of some other category. You can even have circular assignments (though I wouldn’t know why anyone would).
The markup of MediaWiki is very similar to that of ConnectedText.
I extensively use AutoHotkey with ConnectedText. They work well together.
Manfred
Posted by john oconnor
Oct 19, 2007 at 11:44 PM
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
> I’m skeptical of undirected connections as in Wikis, and I don’t
>understand how CT can produce an outline (which involves directed connections) from
>the undirected connections that CT allows. Maybe someone can explain.
If you are looking for something that will create a hierarchy of structured static data that can be easly turned into an outline I do not think a Wiki, like Connectedtext, is what you need or should use. On the other hand if you are looking for software that seems, IMHO, to mimic what the brain does in making connections between data and creating knowledge then the Wiki concept may be worth exploring. When the brain seeks to solve a problem it does not open up a file and scroll down a list of data points arranged in a neat hierarchy.
As to the undirected connections that a Wiki allows, this is neccessary for the creative part of the brain to function. There is a place for describing and labeling connections, just not at the wiki stage. Once you assign a label to a connection or descibe the direction in which concepts should flow you run the risk of closing off alternate views.
Just my thoughts.
John O’Connor