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One-pane outliner for academic writing
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Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Aug 25, 2014 at 04:56 AM
Hi Charlie, and welcome to the forum (as far as I understamd this is your first post here)
I’ve started a new thread as I believe that the question you posted under Mindscope merits a separate discussion; also more people are likely to notice it under a relevant title.
Posted by Charlie, Aug 24, 2014 at 08:20 PM
> Hi Alex,
> Thank you for introducing the the Aibase, my first time to know it, another German cool.
> By a quick browsing, I like it.
> I am seeking a one pane outlining tool. I need to add tables,equations,and short analysis
> under each bullet most often and at last make it a content outline for my thesis writing.
> Have you played with the Aibase ? If so, do you think it fit my need ?
> Thanks, Charlie
It’s easy for me to answer that Aibase is _not_ the tool you are looking for. It’s logic is multidimensional and non-conducive to developing a linear text as output. Also, learning the intricacies of the sui generis interface would probably consume more time than would be advisable during thesis writing—unless your subject is Aibase itself! That said, if you are an engineer, Aibase may be one of the best knowledge recording software you’ll ever find.
It’s much harder for me to suggest a tool for what you want, but here’s a fist attempt (I assume you are on Windows):
- Since you meed tables and equations, I think the best candidate is MS Word (versions from 2010 onwards, where the navigation pane is much improved); I know this may sound banal, but it is the only solution I can think that fully fits the bill. In addition, it will probably save you a lot of time and frustration when preparing the final draft, as it integrates references (very few outliners do) and you won’t need to bother with imperfect importing from another programme.
- A second candidate may be Outline 4D (formerly Storyview), but I don’t think that it can handle tables and equations; you may need to use placeholders and edit them externally. See more in this thread http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4446/0/outline-4d-formerly-known-as-storyview-20 as well as Dr Andus’ excellent blog http://drandus.wordpress.com/
- A third is the Sense editor; this is my personal favourite Windows outliner for writing, see e.g. http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3909/0/sense-editor-recent-updates However, here again you’ll have to work with tables, equations and images externally.
You might also want to take a look at this relevant thread http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/1265/0/looking-for-pim-thesis-writing-software-for-the-pc
I hope others will contribute their own suggestions.
Posted by Dr Andus
Aug 25, 2014 at 07:18 AM
>Posted by Charlie, Aug 24, 2014 at 08:20 PM
>> I am seeking a one pane outlining tool. I need to add
>tables,equations,and short analysis
>> under each bullet most often and at last make it a content outline for
>my thesis writing.
How about InfoQube?
Although some of the info may need to go into an adjacent column, rather than under an item:
http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/223
Posted by Charlie
Aug 26, 2014 at 10:09 PM
Hi Alex,
I have played a bit with the Aibase.Hi Yes, your are right.
The Aibase is not the one for my current project.Outline 4D
looks excellent for works in social science or mostly in pure text.
I tried Sense and find that it competes the clipboard with
phraseExpander and I was often locked,otherwise it is as good
as Outline 4D. I also went back to read those discussions in the
past.I hate to say few choices are there in the Windows ecosystem.
At last, I drill down to two toys. One is notetaker , called Noteshare Express
in windows OS. It is like the Notebook OS X and I can put bullet,text,table,
links,image,even a web browser .But, when I copy and paste
a Mathtype equation ,it shows black box even if I choose copy
Latex format in MathType. I cannot use it. The other one is WhizFolder
although it has two-pane. But the deluxe version has a view choice
by which I can view the whole outline including the note in a separated
window just like in one-pane.I can also do some simple edit in the one-pane
view window by double click on the item.for equations,I can paste my equations
in the left note area in either image format or latex format.
The WhizFolder is far from my ideal one, but I can only work with it before
I buy my first Mac for my next generation of writing Box.
>It’s easy for me to answer that Aibase is _not_ the tool you are looking
>for. It’s logic is multidimensional and non-conducive to developing a
>linear text as output. Also, learning the intricacies of the sui generis
>interface would probably consume more time than would be advisable
>during thesis writing—unless your subject is Aibase itself! That said,
>if you are an engineer, Aibase may be one of the best knowledge
>recording software you’ll ever find.
>
>It’s much harder for me to suggest a tool for what you want, but here’s
>a fist attempt (I assume you are on Windows):
>
>- Since you meed tables and equations, I think the best candidate is MS
>Word (versions from 2010 onwards, where the navigation pane is much
>improved); I know this may sound banal, but it is the only solution I
>can think that fully fits the bill. In addition, it will probably save
>you a lot of time and frustration when preparing the final draft, as it
>integrates references (very few outliners do) and you won’t need to
>bother with imperfect importing from another programme.
>
>- A second candidate may be Outline 4D (formerly Storyview), but I don’t
>think that it can handle tables and equations; you may need to use
>placeholders and edit them externally. See more in this thread
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4446/0/outline-4d-formerly-known-as-storyview-20
>as well as Dr Andus’ excellent blog http://drandus.wordpress.com/
>
>- A third is the Sense editor; this is my personal favourite Windows
>outliner for writing, see e.g.
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3909/0/sense-editor-recent-updates
>However, here again you’ll have to work with tables, equations and
>images externally.
>
>You might also want to take a look at this relevant thread
>http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/1265/0/looking-for-pim-thesis-writing-software-for-the-pc
>
>I hope others will contribute their own suggestions.
>
Posted by Charlie
Aug 26, 2014 at 10:28 PM
Hi Dr
I have tried InfoQube. I don’t like it. It ‘s like a FORTRAN 95 , the very old but powerful programming tool/language. Everything lives in the grids.It can be used as task management tool and the tasks are planned in grids. And I just felt my thoughts confined to the grids as well. The note can be put in a column. But when I put notes in the note window, I have to manually export them to the final HTML view.
I have also tried Inspiration. It is very good , hoisting,insert text,equations either in image or in Latex.It also has a Ipad app. But It does not support tag/keyword.
Dr Andus wrote:
>Posted by Charlie, Aug 24, 2014 at 08:20 PM
>>> I am seeking a one pane outlining tool. I need to add
>>tables,equations,and short analysis
>>> under each bullet most often and at last make it a content outline
>for
>>my thesis writing.
>
>How about InfoQube?
>
>http://www.infoqube.biz/
>
>Although some of the info may need to go into an adjacent column, rather
>than under an item:
>
>http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/223
Posted by Dr Andus
Aug 27, 2014 at 07:45 AM
Charlie wrote:
>The other one is WhizFolder
>although it has two-pane. But the deluxe version has a view choice
>by which I can view the whole outline including the note in a separated
>window just like in one-pane.I can also do some simple edit in the
>one-pane
>view window by double click on the item.for equations,I can paste my
>equations
> in the left note area in either image format or latex format.
If you liked WhizFolders, you may also like Scrivener for Windows, as it has a similar feature set. There is the Scrivenings view, which allows you to view the combined documents as one, and each document has its own “notes” area that can be viewed in the Inspector.