Ariadne as a Writing Environment

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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Sep 3, 2006 at 12:25 PM

One of the issues of continual concern to me is how a particular program is for putting together an article or paper. And like Chris in a post on the Organizing vs Searching thread, I recognize that no one program is going to meet all my needs.

Ariadne has what it takes for me to consider it a good writing program.
http://www.open-sft.com/

I can use a table to set up a structure for holding the notes and quotes relevant to the writing project, based on James Fallows article organizer which he developed in Zoot. The column headings are: topic (an ex of the data each might contain is in the brackets) (ex.ML on self reg), author (Marsha Linehan), source (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy), page # (365), Publisher (Guilford), Place (New York), pub date (1995), Ref added (2006-09-01). Even though I will have a full bib citation on this book in a seperate file, I capture enough in the table so I can easily make a text ref (Linehan, 1995) and identify the various quotes ‘n notes. I could also add a column wiith a drop-down list that specifies: quote, indir quote, note, idea.

The actual comment or quote for each record is contained in a comment window that can be associated with any record in the table, and situated as an icon just to the left of the record. The comment windown can float anywhere on the screen, be made to any size, or brought up in a fixed workspace within Ariadne. The comment is essentially containing what would be put in a note window; notes are not available for table records, but it is not an issue..

As for the writing template it looks something like this:

Folder: BPD Proposal
Folder: First Draft
Particle: Introduction with a comment window to the left to contain any notes about what I want to do with the intro. (The particle is a device for entering a line of text without using a folder or a note. The particles in this case will appear as section headings in Bold caps.}
Note, already inserted under the intro particle and in line with it (particles cannot have anything nested within them, and since I am not making a true outline it does not matter. The particle is different enough in appearance to make the point that it is a section head).
Note
Note
Particle: BPD Overview, again a comment to the left.
Note
Note
Particle: Proposal
Note
Note
Particle: Conclusion
Note

I can also attach a comment to each of the note lines.

The comments can be used to hold really rough notes, a cut ‘n pasted quote, a point I need to keep in mind with re to what is written in that particular note.

The way I have structured this template allows for an outlining of sorts because I can still use a seperate note for each main point in a particular section.

It helps the writing process that I can have several different comments and notes open at a time and positioned all over the screen in a way that is helpful to the project.

What I have described may be hard to envision without downloading Ariadne.

The template (I have to see now if Ariadne will allow me to template this whole branch. Otherwise I can just keep a copy of it and cut ‘n paste for each new project) is what I think of as appropriate technology. It doesn’t require a lot of bells and whistles and it is no more automatic than it needs to be.

It’s appropriate because it allows me to organize a writing template that is clean and that reflects my writing process. It uses the features of Ariadne that allow for different ways of placing and seperating information.

Later I can bring all that I have written together in one note window, and transfer it to a wp program, and use a bib program to insert the refs, or do them manually.

Daly

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Sep 3, 2006 at 12:41 PM

I see that the program has removed the indents I used in explaining the Ariadne writing environment.

So here goes in words:

There a project folder called Borderline.

In that folder is a folder called Drafts.
In that folder is a folder called First Draft.

In that folder is the particle/note/particle/note sequencing, none of which are indented under the other.

Daly

Posted by Jan Rifkinson
Sep 3, 2006 at 03:39 PM

You know, Daly, it’s really funny how different people approach their tasks. I read your post w great interest & found myself inserting ADM wherever you referred to Ariadne. I found the processes you describe to be easier to construct in ADM than in Ariadne which is not say that Ariadne is not a good tool for writing. Clearly it’s a great tool for you which is all that counts. It just struck me how our divergent our approach is.

—
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield, CT USA
skype janrif

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Sep 3, 2006 at 08:55 PM

Jan, interesting you should say that (grirn), because when I was developing this tempate for writing, I kept asking whether I could do the same thing in ADM, and if I could, why wasn’t I.

There’s no doubt you could do it in ADM, and I am not so sure our approaches diverge, at least at the macro level.

Where I think we may differ has to do perhaps more with personal preference when writing and organizing information for writing.

When I write, I like to spread it out in front of me. I like reminders and other notes to myself as well as what I am actually writing; in the analogue world I use index cards and different colour inks in my fountain pens.

Both ADM and Ariadne would allow me an ability to do spread stuff out. ADM supports floating pages that can be moved around.

I find that Ariadne’s system of having one or more comment(s) for each note gives it an edge.

Also helpful is the ease with which I can turn any note or particle into a prioritized to-do item that is then instantly available, along with all my other to do items through GREP. ADM keywords would allow a similar function, but the spped and simplicity of Ariadne in this area really appeals to me.

In terms of storing quotes ‘n notes in a table, ADM has an edge, certainly in its ability to have both tables (columns) and forms (metadata at the top of the page).

I think that Ariadne is a deceptive little program in the sense that there is more power there than at first may be evident, especially since Mike has again entered a development phase. My prediction is that if Ariadne gets the ability to have seperate files that can be selected by tabs and special folders in the outline (both options in case one wants to be able to have more than one file open at a time), hoist capability in addition to locus, and cloning in addition to linking, and groups for keywords to avoid have an ultra-long keyword list, that it would be a serious competitor to MyInfo, InfoSelect, ADM, Treepad, UltraRecall, etc.

Daly

Jan Rifkinson wrote:
>You know, Daly, it’s really funny how different people approach their tasks. I read
>your post w great interest & found myself inserting ADM wherever you referred to
>Ariadne. I found the processes you describe to be easier to construct in ADM than in
>Ariadne which is not say that Ariadne is not a good tool for writing. Clearly it’s a
>great tool for you which is all that counts. It just struck me how our divergent our
>approach is.
> >—
>Jan Rifkinson
>Ridgefield, CT USA
>skype janrif

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