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Luedecke's Zettlekaten
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Posted by 22111
Jan 23, 2014 at 03:14 PM
MenAgerie,
1)
“The screen names is less a Tennessee Williams reference that a Billy Cobam and Bud Powell reference (although I misremembered the Bud Powell piece Glass Enclosure!).” - see? That’s what’s called lateral thinking ;-)
“I have very little experience with Zettlekasten - and none of AskSam.” - I mentioned AS since in fact, it’s a Zettlekasten prog by design which then has been spiced up somewhat.
“What I have found that seems to do what I want (academic social science/theory)” - perhaps others got the task at hand, BESIDES from those you mentioned; I did not. Let’s put it another way: What is the functionality any primitive, totally basic outliner would not be able to deliver?
From that, we could choose a more elaborate one, depending on your needs (since there isn’t any “perfect outliner” out there, so making compromise is a necessity here). Or from another pov again, what might be the problems the outliner concept as such could make arise in your task(s)? Or even simpler, since you use MI already, what are your current (or future, foreseeable) probs with MI, for the tasks at hand (since all those you mentioned would fit perfectly into what MI offers)?
As for NB, it’s said to be some (rather expensive, but academic pricing should be acceptable) derivative from (the defunct) XyWriter - when trialling NB, I didn’t see the similarities (I had extensively used XW several years, it was something incredibly good for its time (and even today), so that must be hidden under the hook. Anyway, I fled NB some 90 min. into my trialling and never touched it again (but that’s not necessarily an argument, or then possibly against me, not the sw).
“I simply feel like a fool sitting in front of Connected Text, not knowing what to do, or what is going on. Not a good attribute for a piece of software” - that is one thing (and well, let’s face it, the-interminable-andus (is it 6 years now? 8?) and Prof. Kühn are almost alone in saying that’s not true); additional offerings of CT might be another (which in extremis would justify your delving into it if that’s the only way) - we’ve had a discussion on “outlining plus something other” here some months ago, the search term would be “KEdit”.
This being said, if you’ve used MI extensively, and need something “better”, i.e. more appropriate for your special task, another look into AS might be indicated, and I’m 200 p.c. serious here. (= some kind of “programming language” for searching, even search for numeric values in different fields with “greater than” and all that, very elaborate combinations of any such search, “search in search results”, AND then output (“reports”) of anything if you need that (and which would be the prob with dtSearch if I’m not mistaken, but otherwise dtSearch is worth another look, too).
For “regular work”, Zeoli’s right in “not touching” AS, but for some scholars, AS might be the very best 3-digit-priced sw that has ever been programmed (and academic pricing’s available, too).
2)
For the task of entangling AND differentiating “own work vs. reference material”, I’d try different colors / formatting and different indentation levels within the tree (so beware of UR where you could only could do this by symbols). Btw - here, I’ll make again unhappy Bill (wsp; but he can’t contradict me since it’s true), it’s precisely MI which had, many years ago yet, some descriptions of what its print and export functions ostensibly could do, re sub-groups of items, in its helpful (but functionality you weren’t able to trial since they were withheld for after buying), and then, boom, after buying, this part of the product was vaporware, and is vaporware even today.
Whilst AS does such things and always has done (be it deadware or not; and similar remarks apply to KEdit: “deadware’s not badware, necessarily” (all rights reserved; hint to would-be radio speakers)).
Posted by MenAgerie
Jan 26, 2014 at 12:03 PM
Thanks for setting me off to look at Citaviagain Dr Andus. I think I have had a bit of an epiphany as you did with ConnectedText! I had looked at Citavi before (right back at the beginning I believe), and it didn’t impress. I think I was looking then for a pdf and reference manager. In any event I passed it by.
Now it looks just the job! I had not noticed the ‘outlining’ function before (here called a ‘category list’), and discovering this just turned a light on!
Many thanks
Posted by MenAgerie
Jan 26, 2014 at 12:23 PM
<“The screen name ... That’s what’s called lateral thinking ;-)”
Yeah, I surprise myself sometimes, but I wish I could claim more credit for that creative linking!
< What is the functionality any primitive, totally basic outliner would not be able to deliver?
The main think - that MI cant do at all for me - is bibliographic formatting. I used EndNote for a while ant University - but they ditched the licence for RefWorks (which I found to be a massive backwards step). I use Zotero mostly for that function/s - sucking refs and pdf’s out of the internet, putting them in writing, and letting the software keep track of where they are and eventually formatting the finished paper for each journal submission.
< what are your current (or future, foreseeable) probs with MI, for the tasks at hand
I love MyInfo - it is really easy to understand - straight out of the box - and I am able to shuffle stuff around to get an order to my written thought snippets. I also use it for storing all sorts of stuff for my teaching activities - lesson plans, feedback to students, regularly repeated emails (we get asked the same questions over and over by students each year!), etc.
< I fled NB some 90 min. into my trialling and never touched it again
Me too!
Re Connected Text…
<… (is it 6 years now? 8?) and Prof. Kühn are almost alone in saying that’s not true);
Maybe I will eventual get an epiphany here to, in due course, when the time is right?
many thanks for stimulating ideas and nudges to creative reassessment - what a great list this is!
Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 26, 2014 at 12:25 PM
MenAgerie wrote:
>I had not noticed the ‘outlining’ function
>before (here called a ‘category list’)
Glad to hear it works for you.
It sounds like you’re on Windows, but people with an interest in Zettelkasten software on the Mac might be interested in this alpha-testing opportunity of what sounds to me like a possible new Zettelkasten software:
http://christiantietze.de/posts/2014/01/need-alpha-testers/
Unfortunately the developer is a bit light on detail, but he’s been covering the Zettelkasten method on his blog for a wile:
http://christiantietze.de/posts/tags/zettelkasten/
Posted by MenAgerie
Jan 26, 2014 at 12:27 PM
Ooooppps - forgot something…
< what are your current (or future, foreseeable) probs with MI, for the tasks at hand
I love MyInfo - it is really easy to understand - straight out of the box - and I am able to shuffle stuff around to get an order to my written thought snippets. I also use it for storing all sorts of stuff for my teaching activities - lesson plans, feedback to students, regularly repeated emails (we get asked the same questions over and over by students each year!), etc.
My MI databases are getting a bit too crowded to move through cleanly and clearly these days. I chop them up into smaller topic now and then. But generally I use MyInfo as a ‘thought dump’ a big bucket of ideas and useful bits an pieces - the the drawer in an old chest where I keep old pens, bit of string, buttons, etc - they will be useful one day!