In your opinion, what is the best application running on PC (mobile and cloud are only options, not essential) and compatible with internet browsers (it can capture web contents) that covers above task?

Notbalok, welcome to the forum.

In my opinion your question is a bit too general and can be answered only subjectively. First of all, one has to differentiate between information _collection_ (e.g. from a browser) and idea/knowledge _generation_ and organisation; the two require very different features. I personally don't think that there's any software that excels in both.

Some thoughts:

- Many information managers provide plug-ins for popular browsers, facilitating information collection: Evernote, MyBase, MyInfo, Surfulater, UltraRecall to name but a few. Even some more 'idea-oriented' programs like MindManager provide such a feature. The results of plug-ins vary widely, so depending on whether the faithful copying of web pages is important for you or not, your choice may vary. I am personally mostly interested in the textual content, which most tools have no trouble capturing.

- 'Knowledge' managers differ greatly on the underlying 'model' of knowledge organisation: outlines / mindmaps, networks, hypertext (wikis), tables... The choice usually reflects the user's own perception of reality.

- Sometimes, simpler is better: quick capture and access to information, or seamless noting down of ideas may be more important than extensive organisation with keywords, folders etc. It is for me, so I've chosen accordingly, i.e. Evernote for the former and Brainsorm for the latter, though there's a lot of features I miss in both.

Greetings and welcome to the forum.

I concur with everything Alexander said. "Best" is what works best for you and will probably change over time. The knowledge management tool I currently use the most is TheBrain, which is extremely versatile and useful, but a long way from perfect. Not to mention, it is pricey compared with some of the other options.

Here's what I like about it:

- The interface just works for me. I like the visual set up of the main window (known as the Plex), which is kind of like a mindmap, but not really. Unlike a mindmap, when you click on an item (known as a thought), it becomes the center of your knowledge universe. You can see related thoughts, and how they may be related. You can stuff a thought full of information:
- text notes
- multiple attachments (almost any kind of file, from PDFs to Word documents)
- multiple links to URLs
- screen shot or icon
- visual links to other thoughts, and the links can have labels to define the relationship
- multiple tags
- provide it with a thought type

- While you can be buried deep into the structure of your data, other key pieces are quickly accessible in a number of ways:
- You can pin thoughts to the top of the Plex for quick access
- You can search for a thought quickly and easily
- If you have tagged a thought, you can quickly find all the thoughts with that tag
- TheBrain has a powerful reporting function to locate thoughts in any number ways

- Integration with data from the outside world is pretty good, could be better. You can drag and drop lots of different pieces of data right into the Plex, either to create a thought related to the active thought, or to make it attached to the active thought:
- Drag e-mail from Outlook
- Drag URLS from your browser
- Drag in files
- Files can be embedded in TheBrain or just linked to
- While you can capture text from the Internet (only be cut and paste), it does not capture the actual web page, but only links to it.

- TheBrain syncs to WebBrain, a proprietary cloud service, which also does a fine job of keeping your data synchronized across your computers. Unfortunately, the handy calendar system is not available online at this time.

Anyway, my point is not to convince you that TheBrain is for you, but just to let you know how it works for me.

Steve Z.

notbalok wrote:

In your opinion, what is the best application running on PC (mobile and
cloud are only options, not essential) and compatible with internet
browsers (it can capture web contents) that covers above task?

I'd also suggest to specify your requirements more precisely. You'll be more likely to get suitable advice. E.g. what do you mean by "best," "personal information," and "knowledge and idea management?" These can mean very different things to different people.

There is also an underlying assumption that it's best to have a single application to do all this in. But it's also possible to have several specialist application for the different tasks, and then have those applications "talk" to each other via linking, import/export, or AutoHotkey commands.

To use my current setup as an example, when I need to capture a full webpage (images + text), I use Surfulater, which allows me to link to each capture from other applications. If I only want to capture text, I can use an AutoHotkey script to paste it directly into ConnectedText (my main knowledge management application), but CT also has its own "Clipboard catcher" tool.

When it comes to outlining and writing (as the knowledge production stage), I might use a whole raft of outlining and writing tools for different types of writing. (But then I'm an obsessive-compulsive software collector, so I would say that, wouldn't I? :)

@Steve and Dr. Andus.

Is it possible to drag&drop Evernote notes into TheBrain or ConnectedText. Or - instead of notes - links to Evernote notes?

Thanks, Franz

Franz Grieser wrote:

@Steve and Dr. Andus.
Is it possible to drag&drop Evernote notes into TheBrain or
ConnectedText. Or - instead of notes - links to Evernote notes?

Sorry Franz, I don't have Evernote installed on this machine and only have an ancient version (2. something) installed on my netbook. Maybe Steve can answer this?

Regarding linking, I'd imagine it's a question of whether Evernote provides you with a protocol to link to a particular item. If yes, then you can link to it from pretty much any application that allows you to have active links. E.g. in Surfulater the protocol looks like sulkb://kb=etc. or in CT as ct://project/topic etc.

I have never tried this before, but a little fooling around with the two apps reveals a couple of options. If you drag a note from your Evernote desktop application into TheBrain, it creates a link back to the note. Clicking on it opens EN and that specific note. It does not capture the note title, but uses the obscure number of the note, so to make it make sense you will have to rename the thought. However, if you copy the URL and paste it into TheBrain, the new thought is named with the note title, the little EN icon appears with it, and clicking on the thought will open your browser and that note in the cloud version of EN.

You could also paste the link or the URL to an existing note.

Steve Z.


Franz Grieser wrote:

@Steve and Dr. Andus.

Is it possible to drag&drop Evernote notes into TheBrain or
ConnectedText. Or - instead of notes - links to Evernote notes?

Thanks, Franz

I should add, this is the behavior on my MacBook. I have not tried it yet on my Windows PC at work.

Thanks Steve and Dr. Andus.

So I should take a look at the TheBrain demo during the holidays.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

If you drag a note from your Evernote
desktop application into TheBrain, it creates a link back to the note.
Clicking on it opens EN and that specific note.
However, if you copy the URL
and paste it into TheBrain, the new thought is named with the note
title, the little EN icon appears with it, and clicking on the thought
will open your browser and that note in the cloud version of EN.

Have you tried this with CT by any chance? I'm just curious if it works the same. I've stayed away from Evernote till now, but if it would work with CT this way, I might take another look...

Dr. Andus.

No, I haven't tried it with CT. I have a licence (vs5) but I am not willing to permanently switch between edit and view (or however it is called) mode. So, CT and any wiki that has these 2 modes is not for me.
Though a whki-like software is probably what I need (for making connections notes).

Franz

I haven't tried it with CT and EN. I will do so on Monday, when I'm back in my office and let you know how it works.

Steve Z.

Dr Andus wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
> If you drag a note from your Evernote
>desktop application into TheBrain, it creates a link back to the note.
>Clicking on it opens EN and that specific note.
> However, if you copy the URL
>and paste it into TheBrain, the new thought is named with the note
>title, the little EN icon appears with it, and clicking on the thought
>will open your browser and that note in the cloud version of EN.

Have you tried this with CT by any chance? I'm just curious if it works
the same. I've stayed away from Evernote till now, but if it would work
with CT this way, I might take another look...

Okay, here are some updates related to EN, TheBrain and CT on Windows 7:

There seems no synergy at all between Evernote and CT. I couldn't drag a note into a CT topic. And when I tried to paste a URL, it only pasted the note title.

Also, I could not drag an EN note into TheBrain plex, as I could on my MacBook. Pasting the URL link into a thought in results in a link back to the desktop note (unlike the cloud copy of the note in MacBook). I think this reflects the difference between EN for Mac and Windows.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

There seems no synergy at all between Evernote and CT. I couldn't drag a
note into a CT topic. And when I tried to paste a URL, it only pasted
the note title.

Thank you for checking, Steve. I suspect that if there isn't a simple way to get the location of an Evernote note via the evernote:// protocol, then it might be difficult to do this even manually in CT. I did a quick search on the Evernote forum and I couldn't find a straightforward answer to whether this protocol is generally available to other applications or not.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Okay, here are some updates related to EN, TheBrain and CT on Windows 7:

There seems no synergy at all between Evernote and CT. I couldn't drag a
note into a CT topic. And when I tried to paste a URL, it only pasted
the note title.

Did you add Evernote to the CT list of protocols supported by the $URL command? Supported protocols are listed in the file protocols.txt in the ConnectedText directory. This is documented in the URL topic of the Welcome project. I haven't had the opportunity to try it myself with Evernote.

Jerry

For whatever it's worth, I can report that links to Evernote work smoothly in MyInfo.

MyInfo 6.2 has been released this past week, incidentally. The update, among other things, makes it easier to customize a website generated by MyInfo.

Jerry wrote:

Did you add Evernote to the CT list of protocols supported by the $URL
command? Supported protocols are listed in the file protocols.txt in the
ConnectedText directory. This is documented in the URL topic of the
Welcome project. I haven't had the opportunity to try it myself with
Evernote.

Good point. I forgot about that step.

P.S. Having done a quick search on the CT forum, it turns it linking between Evernote and CT does work both ways. But it's necessary to add the evernote:// protocol to CT's protocol file, as Jerry had described it.

More here:
http://connectedtext.com/forum/index.php/topic,2614.msg11300.html#msg11300

Franz Grieser wrote:

@Steve and Dr. Andus.

Is it possible to drag&drop Evernote notes into TheBrain or
ConnectedText. Or - instead of notes - links to Evernote notes?

Thanks, Franz

You can't drag/drop Evernote notes into CT, but you can create clickable links to them.

In Evernote - get a copy of the note link. In the Windows desktop app, you right click and select that action from the context menu. You past the link into CT using this format...

[[$APP:evernote:///view/52053/s1/8279bfe7-d531.............|Your Note Title Here]]

If you use Evernote in the web app, you get the note link by clicking on "Share" and select "Link". You paste this link into CT using this format....

[[$URL:https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1......................|Your Note Title Here]]

These give you a link in CT that opens Evernote in the app from which you got the link.

Good suggestion. Now when I paste the link, it shows as a link and opens Evernote to the note in question.

Steve Z.

Jerry wrote:

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
Okay, here are some updates related to EN, TheBrain and CT on Windows 7:
>
>There seems no synergy at all between Evernote and CT. I couldn't drag
a
>note into a CT topic. And when I tried to paste a URL, it only pasted
>the note title.
>

Did you add Evernote to the CT list of protocols supported by the $URL
command? Supported protocols are listed in the file protocols.txt in the
ConnectedText directory. This is documented in the URL topic of the
Welcome project. I haven't had the opportunity to try it myself with
Evernote.

Jerry

May I suggest Info Select 10 plus Lotus Organizer 6.1. They will perfectly match your requirements.

Despite IS 10's shortcomings compared to IS 2007 (database and export function), it is a powerful information management software. You can store all kind of file extensions, prepare notes, and capture web contents (amongst other tasks). Whilst the first IS 10 releases occasionally crashed (on both, XP & Win 7), several patched versions have been released in the meantime and IS 10 now runs very stable on both, XP & Win 7. BTW: There also exists a portable version of IS that you can run from a memory stick. Moreover, IS is one of the oldest outliners around (since 1986, known as Tornado). I started using it some three years ago and all my information (e-mails and correspondence as PDF) go into IS. It is just amazing. I use Lotus Organizer 6.1 in conjunction with IS 10. It arguably is the best PIM that ever existed. Unfortunately, IBM stopped selling it back March 2013. However, you can easily obtain the IBM Lotus SmartSuite 9.8.2 (that contains) LO on eBay. Also, it has been confirmed that it will run on Win 8! I use it extensively for time planning, personal information, and contact management. With that respect, LO is quite sophisticated, since you can cross link information, i.e. between Contacts, Calendar, To Do, and Notepad. Also, I use it for organizing weblinks (Web section). As IBM has halted sales and support of LO, it can be considered as "deadware". However, there still is a well-frequented forum hosted by IBM. Lastly, and that perhaps is the biggest advantage, you can export LO data in .dbf format and also import from that format. This means that despite LO being "deadware", it is open towards other software, so you are not trapped in it.

On the other hand, I would not recommend Evernote. They had some security issues (hacked passwords) and of course, your data is in the cloud. Also, I believe it just is too impractical for heavy daily use. Ultra Recall frequently is mentioned as the favourite outliner. However, their support forum suggests that there are functionality issues.

To conclude: Stick to tried and tested outliners and PIMs. I do it and only can recommend Info Select 10 and Lotus Organizer 6.1.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Lotus Organizer 6.1 recommended. I agree it's one of the best PIM's for business ever. In many ways, unique too. I liked it very much. If you can still find it for sale, give it go.

I can attest to Lotus Smartsuite 9.x running under Windows 8.1 very well. WordPro and Approach used frequently. Lotus 123 and Organizer are not, though 123 is still fired up periodically for its ease of printing spreadsheet sections.

Smartsuite will be permanently put out to pasture in September of 2014: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS913-091 I'm very sorry to see it go. That said, if you really like it and want to keep it working for many years to come there is the Lotus dedicated site http://www.xpertss.com/ that is a fabulous resource.

For many reasons, I moved my PIM (tasks, contacts, calendar primarily) to http://www.chaossoftware.com/ Intellect about 5 years ago. Very solid, very good.

Steve

notbalok wrote:

In your opinion, what is the best application running on PC (mobile and
cloud are only options, not essential) and compatible with internet
browsers (it can capture web contents) that covers above task?

===============
If saving Web pages is really important, check out myBase (with WebCollect plug-in) at wjjsoft.com. It is the fastest Web page saver that I know and I've never found a real bug in it. It probably has more features than you'll ever use.

Hillman and Steve, you both should open a new thread where you would detail your respective use of application / "workflow", I think both ideas are quite exceptional in this forum, far from the "usual suspects" mentioned here over and over again (and this in spite of the fact that this forum doesn't (technically) permit screenshots).

As for IS/LO, "workflow"/interaction would be of the highest interest, whilst for ChI, it would be interesting to know which shortcomings you have to live with, and also what is your experience with the current version (of which users say it's a nightmare, see cnet.com and other other for (obviously legitimate) user comments).

I think ChI is one of the most beautiful Windows applications, and for me personally, that's a very strong argument for software. But then, ChI does not seem to have too much functionality at the end of the day (cf. 2 different top-ten-reviews.com comparisons where it appears), and then, there seem to be all those bugs, etc. they seem to have introduced into their very latest version, whilst previous ones seem to have been perfectly stable.

(In fact, I liked my ChI trial (previous version) so much, visually, that I often wished to buy it and to do some "work" with it, and then waited for a (possibly more complete) new version, and now, those user reviews I read, make me flinch, and how could it be otherwise. And then, there is always the problem how it will react when there is really much data in it, independently of its possible inadequate/insufficient processing ability for that data.)

@22111: I am not sure whether a special forum for Info Select / IS 10 and Lotus Organizer are needed, since they represent the earliest outliner and PIM software. Both, I believe, are quite well known and best of breed. A few days ago, BTW, there was a new IS 10 release. It is now IS 10.00.100. So, whilst the Yahoo forum may be very quiet, IS actually is being maintained and improved. The Lotus Organizer 6.1 cross-link function I mentioned can be described as following (it actually is called "Links"):

You can create links between discrete pieces of information in different sections in Organizer or between entries in the same section. Creating links lets you cross-reference associated Organizer material. For example, you can link an appointment in your Calendar to a person in your Contacts section for quick access to that person's phone number. You can also create multiple links from an appointment scheduled in Calendar to all the Contact records of the people attending the appointment and to a Notepad page that holds the meeting agenda. In addition to linking information, you can also link Organizer information to other files or applications. For example, you can link a scheduled budget appointment to a spreadsheet that contains budget forecasts. You can link Contact records to a comment about that contact, such as meeting notes. You can also link Organizer information to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address on the Internet. For example, you can link a sales meeting to your client's home page on the Web. To keep track of your linked information, you can create a Notepad page with links to all the information for one project or to your most commonly used applications.

Should you need further information, I can highly recommend the following website: http://pcs-bihn.eu/lotus-organizer/programmdetails/index.php . Unfortunately, it is in German only. The company comes from Western Germany and actively develops add-ons to LO 6.1. They also sell LO 6.1, together with their add-ons. On their website, they provide ample information on LO 6.1 However, I do not know whether their LO 6.1 is in German or multilingual. I forgot whether there are language options in LO 6.1, since I always use English.


@notbalok: I wrote that Lotus Organizer 6.1 forms part of IBM SmartSuite 9.8.2. That, however, is not the case, as I just discovered. I recently ordered SmartSuite 9.8.2 (the last commercially available version) and noticed that it contains LO 5! So, the only way to get hold of LO 6.1 would be getting in touch with IBM. Sorry for that error on my side.


@Steve: You were right. IBM announced back in May 2013 that they would stop supporting SmartSuite in September 2014. I had a look at Chaos (ChaosSoftware) some time ago. What really bothered me were the limited import / export functions. I want the .dbf option, since I key in my contacts in dBase IV for DOS since 1991. I think that if you decide to work with a certain PIM, you really need 100% commitment, i.e. switching back and forth is not an option. So, I decided to stay with LO which it appears I will be able to use for some more years.


As far as the cloud functions are concerned: For me, this is a no-go. I value privacy and my data is not part of the public domain. I got a tiny 32 GB memory stick with me all the time (but not encrypted with Truecrypt, mind you). It contains all the data plus software I currently need. The rest is on external USB drives.