Correlate is back
Started by Dominik Holenstein
on 3/14/2014
Dominik Holenstein
3/14/2014 10:54 am
We are having a much better time at the moment with the announced free OneNote, Clibu (Surfulater on the web), the Zettelkasten and now with Correlate.
I remember having bought a licence for Correlate 1.5 or 2.0 many years ago (it must have been in 1999 or 2000 short before I discovered TheBrain). Then they vanished. To my surprise, I got a newsletter from Correlate a week ago. It is a Norvegian company now and they provide interfaces to SharePoint, LotusNotes and Dropbox for example.
http://www.correlate.com/
Correlate is a very nice outlining tool which allows you to link and cross-link files, links, notes etc. It is the ideal tool to create knowledge bases on an intranet.
I am "suffering" currently of a heavy CRIMPING attack...
Best,
Dominik
I remember having bought a licence for Correlate 1.5 or 2.0 many years ago (it must have been in 1999 or 2000 short before I discovered TheBrain). Then they vanished. To my surprise, I got a newsletter from Correlate a week ago. It is a Norvegian company now and they provide interfaces to SharePoint, LotusNotes and Dropbox for example.
http://www.correlate.com/
Correlate is a very nice outlining tool which allows you to link and cross-link files, links, notes etc. It is the ideal tool to create knowledge bases on an intranet.
I am "suffering" currently of a heavy CRIMPING attack...
Best,
Dominik
Daly de Gagne
3/14/2014 1:22 pm
Greetings Dominik!
I hope all is well with you.
I've just taken a quick look at Correlate. I appreciate the concept. I think it is in some ways similar to Smart Outline or Planz (https://planz.codeplex.com/ I have a few concerns.
Apart from the fact that the trial is only 15 days, I see the cost of Correlate for an individual is more than $90 per year.
Also, I wonder whether one couldn't create the same kind of knowledge map or structure using a mind map such as FreePlane or Drop Mind, or outliners, eg MyInfo or WhizFolders?
I'm sold on the notion of having such a structure.
Daly
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
I hope all is well with you.
I've just taken a quick look at Correlate. I appreciate the concept. I think it is in some ways similar to Smart Outline or Planz (https://planz.codeplex.com/ I have a few concerns.
Apart from the fact that the trial is only 15 days, I see the cost of Correlate for an individual is more than $90 per year.
Also, I wonder whether one couldn't create the same kind of knowledge map or structure using a mind map such as FreePlane or Drop Mind, or outliners, eg MyInfo or WhizFolders?
I'm sold on the notion of having such a structure.
Daly
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
We are having a much better time at the moment with the announced free
OneNote, Clibu (Surfulater on the web), the Zettelkasten and now with
Correlate.
I remember having bought a licence for Correlate 1.5 or 2.0 many years
ago (it must have been in 1999 or 2000 short before I discovered
TheBrain). Then they vanished. To my surprise, I got a newsletter from
Correlate a week ago. It is a Norvegian company now and they provide
interfaces to SharePoint, LotusNotes and Dropbox for example.
http://www.correlate.com/
Correlate is a very nice outlining tool which allows you to link and
cross-link files, links, notes etc. It is the ideal tool to create
knowledge bases on an intranet.
I am "suffering" currently of a heavy CRIMPING attack...
Best,
Dominik
Jon Polish
3/14/2014 6:32 pm
Daly de Gagne wrote:
I would include what seems to be a big overlap with Ultra Recall. Correlate looks like it is worth investigating but without sufficient time to spend on this, I wonder if someone with experience could compare these programs.
Jon
Greetings Dominik!
I hope all is well with you.
I've just taken a quick look at Correlate. I appreciate the concept. I
think it is in some ways similar to Smart Outline or Planz
(https://planz.codeplex.com/ I have a few concerns.
Apart from the fact that the trial is only 15 days, I see the cost of
Correlate for an individual is more than $90 per year.
Also, I wonder whether one couldn't create the same kind of knowledge
map or structure using a mind map such as FreePlane or Drop Mind, or
outliners, eg MyInfo or WhizFolders?
I would include what seems to be a big overlap with Ultra Recall. Correlate looks like it is worth investigating but without sufficient time to spend on this, I wonder if someone with experience could compare these programs.
Jon
Dr Andus
3/14/2014 8:33 pm
Daly de Gagne wrote:
We could probably include it in the project dashboard category we discussed here:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4964/0/software-for-creating-writing-project-dashboard-with-links-to-files
Freeplane can definitely work as a low cost (i.e. free) option. It's just a simple drag and drop. In my experience though these kinds of dashboards can become quite unwieldy, once they grow too big. Then something like TheBrain might make more sense.
I've just taken a quick look at Correlate. I appreciate the concept. I
think it is in some ways similar to Smart Outline or Planz
(https://planz.codeplex.com/ I have a few concerns.
We could probably include it in the project dashboard category we discussed here:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4964/0/software-for-creating-writing-project-dashboard-with-links-to-files
Also, I wonder whether one couldn't create the same kind of knowledge
map or structure using a mind map such as FreePlane or Drop Mind, or
outliners, eg MyInfo or WhizFolders?
Freeplane can definitely work as a low cost (i.e. free) option. It's just a simple drag and drop. In my experience though these kinds of dashboards can become quite unwieldy, once they grow too big. Then something like TheBrain might make more sense.
MadaboutDana
3/14/2014 9:37 pm
It's also worth bearing in mind that Notebooks (yes, my fave!) can act as a file manager/previewer, as well as a notebook and to-do app. Because it uses the underlying file system to organise its notes, you can drag and drop more or less any kind of file into it. What's more, the files will be indexed and searchable.
Okay, so the iPad/iPhone version doesn't have proper outlining support as such (nested notebooks would be a more accurate description), but the desktop version kind of does... ish. I find myself using it increasingly as a repository for all kinds of 'stuff'.
Okay, so the iPad/iPhone version doesn't have proper outlining support as such (nested notebooks would be a more accurate description), but the desktop version kind of does... ish. I find myself using it increasingly as a repository for all kinds of 'stuff'.
Dominik Holenstein
3/15/2014 3:13 pm
@Daly,
It is nice to meet the old campers here again :-) ! Are you still missing ADM like me? My main work horse is TheBrain in the meantime.
Regarding Correlate:
Yes, you can achieve the same with MyInfo, any MIndMapping tool or with WhizFolders.
I personally like the look and feel of Correlate. It is not a state of the art tool nor it is very polished. Correlate is not 2014 it is more 1999 or 2001. But the files created with Correlate are very small it the application opens much faster than TheBrain, MindManager or UltraRecall.
@Jon - I don't think that one can compare UltraRecall with Correlate. UR is more a free-form database with an outline and has many more features. Correlate's main purpose (my view) is linking and not storing.
@DrAndus - I agree, you can to the same more or less with Freeplane as well. Further, Correlate is not the perfect tool when you want to create huge data pots. Then TheBrain is the much better tool for that.
Correlate will replace MindManager on my notebooks just because MindManager is very expensive. Correlate's price is not low but you get a very stable and lightweight application for a single price without having to pay a fixed amount every year. Further, the licence is linked to the user and not to the PC/notebook. You can therefore use it on all your devices.
TheBrain remains my data pot. I will use Correlate for Action and Project plans, Meeting notes, general note taking, writing etc. There will be many small files which will be linked into TheBrain. By the way, you can have several Correlate files open on your pc/notebook while working.
Dominik
It is nice to meet the old campers here again :-) ! Are you still missing ADM like me? My main work horse is TheBrain in the meantime.
Regarding Correlate:
Yes, you can achieve the same with MyInfo, any MIndMapping tool or with WhizFolders.
I personally like the look and feel of Correlate. It is not a state of the art tool nor it is very polished. Correlate is not 2014 it is more 1999 or 2001. But the files created with Correlate are very small it the application opens much faster than TheBrain, MindManager or UltraRecall.
@Jon - I don't think that one can compare UltraRecall with Correlate. UR is more a free-form database with an outline and has many more features. Correlate's main purpose (my view) is linking and not storing.
@DrAndus - I agree, you can to the same more or less with Freeplane as well. Further, Correlate is not the perfect tool when you want to create huge data pots. Then TheBrain is the much better tool for that.
Correlate will replace MindManager on my notebooks just because MindManager is very expensive. Correlate's price is not low but you get a very stable and lightweight application for a single price without having to pay a fixed amount every year. Further, the licence is linked to the user and not to the PC/notebook. You can therefore use it on all your devices.
TheBrain remains my data pot. I will use Correlate for Action and Project plans, Meeting notes, general note taking, writing etc. There will be many small files which will be linked into TheBrain. By the way, you can have several Correlate files open on your pc/notebook while working.
Dominik
Alexander Deliyannis
3/18/2014 2:02 pm
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
It is indeed. I believe I first tested Correlate back in 2001 on behalf of a governmental agency I was working for. We finally didn't purchase, which is just as well given its subsequent demise (also the agency's demise!)
At the time it _was_ state of the art, and possibly the only solution for transparently organising files across Sharepoint containers. I am quite certain that MindManager provided this several years later.
I installed the new Correlate hoping that it would provide similar features for Dropbox and other modern containers. However, whereas it seems to work as such in Office 365 and Sharepoint, its Dropbox 'integration' appears nothing more than linking to local files via the Windows shell and to files online via shared links: "With the Correlate K-Map Client you can use the Dropbox Desktop Application for Windows and the Dropbox web-link feature."
In this day and age that Dropbox is standard and its API allows even mobile apps to access it and sync content, I find the above rather simplistic. Relying on the shell, in particular, means that if I switch computers and the Dropbox files are in another path, linking will no longer work. I can workaround this with junctions, but then I don't need Correlate for linking.
Correlate does seem to offer advantages in corporate environments, such as the possibility to gather material and produce collective PDFs http://www.correlate.com/why-correlate/correlate-4-pdf/ Maybe down the road real Dropbox integration will follow too...
I personally like the look and feel of Correlate. It is not a state of
the art tool nor it is very polished. Correlate is not 2014 it is more
1999 or 2001.
It is indeed. I believe I first tested Correlate back in 2001 on behalf of a governmental agency I was working for. We finally didn't purchase, which is just as well given its subsequent demise (also the agency's demise!)
At the time it _was_ state of the art, and possibly the only solution for transparently organising files across Sharepoint containers. I am quite certain that MindManager provided this several years later.
I installed the new Correlate hoping that it would provide similar features for Dropbox and other modern containers. However, whereas it seems to work as such in Office 365 and Sharepoint, its Dropbox 'integration' appears nothing more than linking to local files via the Windows shell and to files online via shared links: "With the Correlate K-Map Client you can use the Dropbox Desktop Application for Windows and the Dropbox web-link feature."
In this day and age that Dropbox is standard and its API allows even mobile apps to access it and sync content, I find the above rather simplistic. Relying on the shell, in particular, means that if I switch computers and the Dropbox files are in another path, linking will no longer work. I can workaround this with junctions, but then I don't need Correlate for linking.
Correlate does seem to offer advantages in corporate environments, such as the possibility to gather material and produce collective PDFs http://www.correlate.com/why-correlate/correlate-4-pdf/ Maybe down the road real Dropbox integration will follow too...
Daly de Gagne
3/19/2014 4:32 pm
@Dominik
After your last post, I gave Correlate another go, but wasn't impressed. And the aesthetics of the program leave much to be desired.
I've also played around with some of the programs which have been mentioned in this regard.
I decided I've work with Planz for a few months. Planz is free, and was developed by the information school at the University of Washington. It calls itself "a light overlay" for the Windows file system. You can outline in it, insert files, insert text from files, link, etc There is an on-line manual which includes videos.The manual is at http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planner/User_Manual/HTML/user_manual.html
Planz can be downloaded at http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planz_install.html
Planz is not a fancy program. It strikes me as being simple without being simplistic. And it looks better than Correlate.
Daly
After your last post, I gave Correlate another go, but wasn't impressed. And the aesthetics of the program leave much to be desired.
I've also played around with some of the programs which have been mentioned in this regard.
I decided I've work with Planz for a few months. Planz is free, and was developed by the information school at the University of Washington. It calls itself "a light overlay" for the Windows file system. You can outline in it, insert files, insert text from files, link, etc There is an on-line manual which includes videos.The manual is at http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planner/User_Manual/HTML/user_manual.html
Planz can be downloaded at http://kftf.ischool.washington.edu/planz_install.html
Planz is not a fancy program. It strikes me as being simple without being simplistic. And it looks better than Correlate.
Daly