Well, it's been an interesting learning curve: Macs are nowhere near as like PCs as I thought they were.

There are some great apps out there. DayOne in particular springs to mind. As far as outliners are concerned, my two favourites are Outlinely (essentially exactly the same as Workflowy) and Tree (amazing outliner!). Although I run OmniOutliner on my iPad, I've not, for some reason, felt especially inclined to invest in the (rather expensive) desktop version. I have, on the other hand, bought MagicalPad, the desktop version of which is rather impressive.

E-mail is an issue. Apple Mail is, to my great surprise, not great (with a very nasty tendency not to pick up certain e-mails from my primarily IMAP-based suite of accounts). I've tried Outlook (much better at picking things up -- right up to the moment it crashes and has to rebuild the "Microsoft Database"). I've tried various other favourites (Postbox, Thunderbird -- both much slower and more hesitant than their PC siblings). I've finally settled on Airmail, which is very good, although its search function is rather hit and miss.

Office apps are also interesting. I installed, then discarded, Microsoft Office 2011: a weird mixture of highly competent and distinctly old-fashioned. I used the iWork apps for a time, and they're not bad, but have some quirks I'm not really prepared to take the time to familiarise myself with (notably language settings). Instead, I've installed LibreOffice, which is, I have to say, superb -- very fast, very steady.

On my iPad, however, I have to say that Word is superb (apart from, again, limitations on language settings). It's a great platform for drafting and syncs instantly with OneDrive. For general word processing I rate it higher than Pages.

A large part of my information management system is now based on PDFs, because Adobe Reader and other PDF apps have such efficient and user-friendly search engines. This works especially well on the Mac, which has a plethora of PDF viewers. I use Reader to run searches, and Preview to view source documents and so on. And I've also found a replacement for my favourite document manipulator on PC, PDF Split and Merge Basic, which allows me to interleave PDF pages from source (e.g. German) documents with target (e.g. English) translations to create "bitexts" (i.e. dual-language PDFs with the texts side by side). The Mac equivalent is a commercial app at the very reasonable price of £1.50 called PDFSuite (by a German programmer).

Finally, Growly Notes has pretty much replaced OneNote as my web page store of choice. I can print straight to Growly Notes from any application, including e.g. Chrome, Safari etc., and the web pages (or other pages) are saved as embedded PDFs. Growly Notes also indexes them, so I can use the app's very capable search engine. Sadly, Growly Notes is not cross-platform, but an iPad version should be out later this year.

Still learning, however!

I did invest in Ulysses in the end, but to my embarrassment, find I'm scarcely using it. On the other hand, I haven't really had a chance to.

Interesting update. Thank you.

Curious: Have you developed a work flow for getting items created or saved on the iPad into Growly Notes? This is my big hangup about relying on GN more.

Steve Z.

An interesting summary.

I agree Growly Notes is worth considering as a non-Microsoft, OneNote Lite option - if for no other reason than that its creator seems ready to attach his name, face and reputation (and track record) to it, in a way that few other shareware developers are prepared to do. As far as I can see, GN has progressed since it was first launched, and the addition of an iPad app should make it more useful.

But I think the key question if moving from a Windows machine to a Macbook, is: To what uses will it be put? In my case, long-form writing has been the key use, so my focus has been on gathering and storing research, sorting my ideas out and getting them down, and planning and scheduling the activities involved. I do use OmniOutliner, partly because of familiarity with and use of other Omni products such as OmniPlan and OmniFocus. But I also like Neo (and before it, Tao, from the same developer), although they sometimes seem over-complicated for the uses to which I put them.

Two interesting questions:
- with respect to workflow from iPad back to Growly Notes: no, I haven't really found a perfect solution. But I use both iWork apps and other note-taking apps on the iPad, all of which synchronise with my MacBook. Once they're on the MacBook, they're easy to 'print' to Growly Notes. Obviously in such cases Growly Notes only acts as a repository, not a round-trip working platform. For that, I'm afraid we have to wait for Growly Notes for iPad!

- with respect to usage: I've always tried to keep my main information repositories in 'neutral' formats, specifically HTML, PDF and less obviously TXT. On the whole, this means I can transfer the archived data into more or less any system (including e.g. web-based CMS solutions), benefit from full indexing on any platform, and avoid anxieties about possible loss of proprietary support. But OmniOutliner and other outliner apps all support OPML exports, so in principle that acts as a reasonably 'neutral' option as well (although as we've seen, OPML exports don't always include notes!).

- with respect to round-trip workflow: we use a platform known as Soonr for our document management, especially of live projects. This is like a business-focused Dropbox, and works extremely well. It also has clients for iOS, Android, Mac OS, Windows and other platforms.

Having said that, my very favourite all-singing, all-dancing app for iOS is Documents by Readdle, which integrates with a wide variety of Cloud services (and is under continuous development). It's extremely predictable, robust and can be set to synchronise specific folders in e.g. Dropbox, Box, WebDAV servers etc. with set folders on your iPad. When I want to transfer documents quickly and reliably from one platform to another, it's usually Documents I turn to!

Speaking of which, one of the best apps I've found on the Mac rivals Copernic Desktop and even DTSearch for sheer searching power. It's called FoxTrot, and comes in Personal and Professional versions. So far, I've found the Personal one quite powerful enough, but I can see sense in moving to the Professional for the convenience of more search parameters from the start (the Personal version can also be tweaked, but not as easily). The app indexes pretty much everything (PDFs, MS Office, iWork, you name it) and generates search results with WYSIWYG previews very quickly indeed. Makes Spotlight look a bit tragic, frankly.

Thanks for this post. I'll get my Mac Mini (no real need for a Macbook Air as I had thought) in the next few days and am looking forward to trying some of the apps you mentioned.

Have you tried Curio? And how does that compare to MagicalPad on the Mac?
Or maybe Stephen can tell?

TIA, Franz

Franz Grieser wrote:

Have you tried Curio? And how does that compare to MagicalPad on the
Mac?
Or maybe Stephen can tell?

Franz, I am only going to be able to give you a superficial comparison of Curio with MagicalPad, because after I first installed MP, I found all sorts of buggy behavior, including the app freezing up on me, so I did not use it further. There has been one update since then, which possibly could have reduced these issues to a manageable level. I hope so, as I would like to use MP for a couple of reasons:

1. Syncing with the iPad version.
2. Runs under OS 10.8 -- I have decided not to run my MacBook Air under Mavericks, due to excessive memory usage.

Also, for anyone who hasn't already invested in either program yet, MP is the less expensive choice.

On the other hand, Curio is a terrific program, which impresses me as the more powerful program on many levels. Just for example, you can affix a note to any figure in your idea space. Curio can also easily take the place of Keynote or PowerPoint for running presentations. Having said this, I must sadly confess that I haven't used Curio much because it is kind of isolated. There is no cloud portal, no compatible Windows app, no iPad app, and with two MacBooks, one running Mavericks and the other Mountain Lion, I can't even use the same version on them.

If you're going to be doing 90% of your computing on a Mac Mini, then you will likely find Curio very useful, depending on what you need it for.

Steve Z.

Thanks Stephen.

I plan to work on the project mainly on the Mac Mini. Curio (or MagicalPad) will be the place where I plan to do the planning and brainstorming. It will be a more visual thing than my other projects. That's why I thought Curio might be useful. And because Curio can import Evernote notes - most of the notes for the project are in Evernote.

Bye, Franz

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

On the other hand, Curio is a terrific program, which impresses me as
the more powerful program on many levels. Just for example, you can
affix a note to any figure in your idea space. Curio can also easily
take the place of Keynote or PowerPoint for running presentations.
Having said this, I must sadly confess that I haven't used Curio much
because it is kind of isolated. There is no cloud portal, no compatible
Windows app, no iPad app, and with two MacBooks, one running Mavericks
and the other Mountain Lion, I can't even use the same version on them.

If you're going to be doing 90% of your computing on a Mac Mini, then
you will likely find Curio very useful, depending on what you need it
for.

Steve Z.

Oops! Posted a quote from Stephen's post, but not my intended endorsement of it.

The only thing I'd add is that although Curio has no iOS portal, it does enable you to "plug in" Evernote, to which (partly for that reason) I've finally succumbed. Thus you can send notes etc to Curio from your iPad, or indeed any of the other platforms Evernote uses. Curio, as I've written here before, is an excellent programme for "sculpting" ideas, and I'm looking forward to trying Curio 9 (which I believe I've read, possibly here, Stephen has already tried out).

I've looked at Curio and, like any good CRIMPer, twitched avidly, but so far successfully resisted!

It's a lovely program, but quite expensive and, as you rightly remark, isolated. Nowadays, that seems like a shut-end strategy, to be honest. But if it does evolve into a cross-platform product (even if only MacOS/iOS), I'll definitely be in the queue...

... and having just looked at Curio again, I can't help wondering if a mixture of MagicalPad and Growly Notes wouldn't be a rather more flexible, cost-effective alternative?

Franz Grieser wrote:

Thanks Stephen.

I plan to work on the project mainly on the Mac Mini. Curio (or
MagicalPad) will be the place where I plan to do the planning and
brainstorming. It will be a more visual thing than my other projects.
That's why I thought Curio might be useful. And because Curio can import
Evernote notes - most of the notes for the project are in Evernote.

Bye, Franz

Given this, I believe you'll be quite satisfied with Curio.

Nice to see that someone else has moved over to the Dark Side. I'm in an all Windows lab and it gets kind of lonely here.

On the writing front-I have tried several different pieces of software(I am a CRIMPer after all.)and I have always come back to Microsoft Word. It may not be the best, but I have used it for so long that I am used to its quirks. I've used it since it was a DOS program. And it remains the lingua franca of word processors. I do use Ulysses if I want something that is as plain text as it can be. I tried Scrivener and haven't taken to it.
On the information managment front, I use Papers 2.7.2 to keep my pdfs in line. It works great if you need to keep track of a literature, and for generating bibliographies I think that it is better than Endnote. I have the iOS version on my iPAd and it works great. Don't buy version 3 of Papers. They bolloxed it all up. I also use Devonthink Pro Office to keep track of stuff that doesn't fit into Papers.
For notetaking, I use Notesuite. It has a nice, clean interface, and it is easy to use on both the Mac and iOS. I used to be an avid user of Onenote on the PC, and I have tried several of the Mac/iOS versions of software that purport to be like Onenote. Including Onenote now that Microsoft has released it for other platforms. I don't like them as well as I do Notesuite, but if they keep improving it I may switch back to Onenote. I like the way you can organize your stuff in Onenote better than I do Notesuite.

Jim

jamesofford wrote:

Nice to see that someone else has moved over to the Dark Side. I'm in an
all Windows lab and it gets kind of lonely here.

On the writing front-I have tried several different pieces of software(I
am a CRIMPer after all.)and I have always come back to Microsoft Word.
It may not be the best, but I have used it for so long that I am used to
its quirks. I've used it since it was a DOS program. And it remains the
lingua franca of word processors. I do use Ulysses if I want something
that is as plain text as it can be. I tried Scrivener and haven't taken
to it.
On the information managment front, I use Papers 2.7.2 to keep my pdfs
in line. It works great if you need to keep track of a literature, and
for generating bibliographies I think that it is better than Endnote. I
have the iOS version on my iPAd and it works great. Don't buy version 3
of Papers. They bolloxed it all up. I also use Devonthink Pro Office to
keep track of stuff that doesn't fit into Papers.
For notetaking, I use Notesuite. It has a nice, clean interface, and it
is easy to use on both the Mac and iOS. I used to be an avid user of
Onenote on the PC, and I have tried several of the Mac/iOS versions of
software that purport to be like Onenote. Including Onenote now that
Microsoft has released it for other platforms. I don't like them as well
as I do Notesuite, but if they keep improving it I may switch back to
Onenote. I like the way you can organize your stuff in Onenote better
than I do Notesuite.

Jim

James,

I've tried to like Notesuite. It's user-interface is certainly initially strikingly cool and attractive, as is its synchronisation between the Mac and the iPad. The aspect that I find less appealing is its attempt to be a task manager as well as a notebook. I have a task manager already, and the task manager functionality of Notesuite tends (for me) to complicate the use of the software for notes, which is all I need it for. (For the same reason - the software attempting to do too many things - I've not been a happy user of Circus Ponies Notebook).

Do you use Notesuite successfully for managing tasks?

H

Hugh wrote:

I have a task manager
already, and the task manager functionality of Notesuite tends (for me)
to complicate the use of the software for notes, which is all I need it
for. (For the same reason - the software attempting to do too many
things - I've not been a happy user of Circus Ponies Notebook).

Do you use Notesuite successfully for managing tasks?

Hugh, I generally have a similar feeling about apps that try to do to much. What is compelling about how Notesuite manages tasks is that you can embed them anywhere in your notes, where you can find them in context... say as they streamed from a meeting... but you can also view all your tasks. There are a few other apps that do this, including, I believe, OneNote, but it is still rare. I just wish I could take to Notesuite better in other ways.

Steve Z.

Hugh:

On the task management front, things are currently a moving target. As you may remember, a while back I solicited input from the group as to how they plan and manage things. I am currently using a notebook and a pen to do my tasks, and I am trying to get a solution in place to deal with more long term planning.
That being said, I don't use Notesuite for to-dos, just for pulling out stuff from webpages and other bits of text so that I have an electronic, searchable list. For big time stuff I use Devonthink Pro Office, but Notesuite works well for the simple stuff. And the synchronization between Mac and iOS version works well.
I tried Onenote on the mac and on my iPad. My first impression was that it wasn't quite as nice as the old version I used to use under windows. The Mac and iOS versions sync easily, and one of the nice things about Onenote is that it is easier to organize the material once you get it in there.
My "system", such as it is, is still in flux.

Does Notesuite retain the URL of the webpages that you archive just like Devonthink does? Just CRIMPing....

Steve and Jim, thanks for your thoughts.

Prion, yes - although Notesuite is in many other respects a long way behind DevonThink Pro or Pro Office. (However, my interest in NS has been partly prompted by my reading somewhere that like Growly Notes' developer, NS's founder spun himself out of one of the larger Silicon Valley corporations, and in addition has some finance behind him - in other words, not necessarily following the usual shareware path.)

Notesuite does retain the URL for the site you have clipped. It is at the bottom of the note.

The one thing that I haven't figured out is how to organize all of the stuff that is in there. Right now all of my notes and web clippings are just in one long list. I think that there is a way to organize into folders, but I haven't had a chance to find out how yet. Fortunately, it is easily searched.

A question to the Macinistas here. Not really outliner-related but maybe you could answer all the same:

What internet security tools (virus scanners, etc.) do you use?
Just got my Mac Mini with 16 GByte of RAM (thanks to Stephen for the caveat re. Mavericks).

Thanks, Franz

Hey Franz,
Sorry, I meant to comment on the Mavericks issue earlier. My MacBook Air only has 4GB of RAM, but runs lots of applications under Mavericks with minimum effort. Very occasionally, noticeably after 'sleeping', I find that one or two apps freeze and take a long time to reload - but then again, I'm routinely running at least eight different apps, including Safari with multiple tabs open (I was using Chrome, but found it had quite a power hit; Safari is slightly more power-efficient and is pleasant enough to use). I do wonder if Stephen's issues aren't indicative of a hardware problem?

With respect to anti-virus software: I was using Avast, but was put off by a couple of things - first, by the impression that it was collecting info about me (some Internet research confirmed that yes, this might indeed be the case!), and second, by its memory overhead. So I'm now using Avira, which appears to run very well and has garnered quite a few favourable reviews.

With respect to outliners: I finally succumbed and bought OmniOutliner for Mac to complement my iOS version. It's very good, although I've had one or two odd issues when syncing outlines to iOS (being unable to navigate to the top of outlines, for instance). I haven't had time to investigate these fully, unfortunately. I remain very tempted by Curio, but I've already got so many goodies to explore (Scrivener for Mac being one of them), and Curio is expensive!

My new favourite info management software is, however, Growly Notes! Ridiculous, because I have extensive databases in OneNote and Notebooks, both of which also run on iPad and iPhone (whereas GN currently doesn't). But there's something very... friendly about Growly Notes.

With respect to e-mail: I'm now using Airmail as my preferred client, having tried literally dozens of others. Apple Mail is decidedly iffy if you've got lots of IMAP accounts (like me). It appears to work fine, but in actual fact fails to pick up certain e-mails for no obvious reason. Which is disastrous in a business context! I tried Outlook, too, but sadly, despite my earnest intention to give it a jolly good chance (I abandoned it on Windows years ago), it's still a heap of sh** (constant crashing/rebuilding of 'Microsoft Database'), and still very resource-intensive. I continue to marvel at all those who use it as their preferred mail/info manager.

Generally speaking: couple of really useful bits of software are: AVG Cleaner and CCleaner (yes, the latter is now available for Mac), and on the file management side, ForkLift and TrashMe. ForkLift is a two-window file manager with tab support - very easy and pleasant to use, and much better than Finder. TrashMe is an excellent utility for deleting apps you no longer want. You drag the app out of 'Applications' and onto the TrashMe window, and it finds all the related files and folders and offers to delete those, too. Really Apple ought to buy it and make it part of the operating system! After some, ahem, experimentation (= CRIMPing), I've ended up deleting a number of apps and TrashMe has been invaluable in saving SSD space.

Enjoy your Mac Mini. After an unexpectedly lengthy learning curve (probably because I really like to know what all my systems are up to), I'm now thoroughly enjoying my MacBook!

Thanks Jim (or John?)

I decided to go with 16 GB RAM because I plan to run one or two Windows VMs.
Re Outlook for Mac: In over 7 years writing about Outlook, I just have had 2 people asking questions about Outlook for Mac. I haven't decided yet, whether to get Office for Mac.

I think choosing 16 GB of Ram is wise, especially since RAM prices seem to have fallen sharply in the last 24 months, and the OS X platform appears to be getting more hungry.

Re MS Office for the Mac: I think the Apple equivalents are almost as good, except the latest version of Pages. Although I have Pages, MS Word remains the standard for the work I do. I also still use Excel for the Mac rather than Numbers, given its versatility and my decades of experience of using it.

But again, past and likely future usage dictates choices.

Update re antivirus software:
A colleague of mine, an expert in computer security, recommended Sophos Antivirus Home Edition (which is free).