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MacBook experience...
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 29, 2008 at 06:07 PM
Thanks for the recommendations, Hugh. I had seen Hazel talked about, but wasn’t exactly sure what it did. I’ll take a closer look.
Thanks, again.
Steve
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Apr 29, 2008 at 06:27 PM
Harlander wrote:
>Stephen, please be sure to try out DevonThink Professional
>(http://www.devonacademy.com) and Tinderbox
>(http://www.eastgate.com/tinderbox) - my main instruments for writing, research
>and education ( I work as a teacher). You may need to spend some time with them,
>especially Tinderbox is not easy to master, but I am sure you will like them.
>
Andreas,
I did, in fact, download and install DevonThink Professional, but I honestly didn’t give it much of a look. At this stage of my MacBook usage, I thought it might be overkill and it is a bit more costly than other options—I need to give my budget a rest. However, I will give it another look. My CRIMP affliction can’t pass up such a recommendation.
Thanks!
Steve
Posted by David Dunham
Apr 29, 2008 at 08:17 PM
Hugh wrote:
>it remains one of the few Mac
>note-taking programmes (the only one?) to to be able to take in data or files or search
>for a note when the application itself is closed,
Don’t forget that Mac OS X has Spotlight. You can find text in Opal outlines when Opal is closed.
And a number of Mac tools have the ability to create notes without launching the application first. Heck, this comes with Mac OS X—check the Services hierarchical menu under the application menu, which includes Make New Sticky Note.
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Apr 29, 2008 at 08:45 PM
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>6. There are some nice applications for the
>MacBook, but none that have really blown me away and made me think that, yes, this is
>lightyears ahead of what you can get on a PC. In fact, most of these programs are less
>powerful than some of the Windows applications I use—nothing comes close to Zoot
>(excepting Zoot’s lack of text formatting, of course). There is nothing I’ve found as
>powerful as WhizFolders Deluxe. But the interface on the Mac is easier to use… what I
>mean by that is, though I have admired the power and functionality of WhizFolders, I
>never use it because I found it too clunky and unintuitive (I know this is a subjective
>assessment, one not shared by everyone). So, even though some of the programs are not
>as feature-rich as their PC counterparts, I find them to be somewhat more
>user-friendly.
>
>The software I’ve looked at includes the following
>titles:
>
>Scrivener (writing)
>Journler (note taker, journaling, not
>mis-spelled)
>Mori (note taker)
>Yojimbo (info organizer)
>EagleFiler (info
>organizer)
>Curio (mind-mapper plus)
>Bento (scaled down version of
>FileMaker)
>Voodoo Pad Pro (wiki)
>OmniOutliner (outliner)
>Opal (outliner)
>Tao
>(outliner)
>NoteTaker (OneNote-style note taker)
>
>So far I have bought licenses
>for Scrivener, NoteTaker, Yojimbo and Opal. My purchase of the NoteTaker license may
>have been premature, as I’ve found other note-taking applications may be superior
>(Journler, for instance).
Have you had the chance to compare Aquamind’s NoteTaker to CircusPonies Notebook? They started out as one project, and the two developers split. Since then they seem to have diverged further. NoteTaker is said to emphasize information management more than Notebook, which tries to be more of an outliner too. This is all hearsay, but at least one poster raved about CircusPonies Notebook.
Tao is supposed to be the most powerful pure outliner on the Mac; Omni the most popular and versatile; Opal might be the most facile, judging by its predecessor, Acta. I would be interested in your comparisons with MaxThink, NoteMap, and BrainStorm.
I recall one of your main concerns was finding an optimal writing environment. How does Scrivener compare to what’s available on Windows?
Posted by Cassius
Apr 29, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>1. ... I’ve never been a fan of track pads, but the one on the
>MacBook makes it bearable to use. The pad is smart enough to know the difference between a deliberate motion and an incidental contact, so there are not the accidental cursor juggling that I’ve experienced in the past.
—————
Steve,
I used to feel the same as you about track pads. I have both exaggerated essential tremor and poor fine motor control (at least much of the time). I used to use a large track ball (Kensington Expert Mouse), but it caused problems on my Toshiba with XP Media Center Edition. So I was forced to learn how to change the track pad settings. I now have them set FOR ME and am much happier than if I were using a trackball or mouse. Try it, you’ll like it!
-c