Forum Posts Feed
NVIVO vs Devonthink
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Luhmann
Jul 10, 2017 at 11:02 AM
OK, I was able to test this just now. While pro is required to see a list of keywords across all documents, you do not need pro to search keywords across documents.
Luhmann wrote:
And if you get Dynalist pro I think you can see keywords across files,
>but I don’t have pro so I can’t test it out…
Posted by bigspud
Aug 5, 2017 at 04:37 AM
Sorry to be late to the party.
Thanks for the heads up on the foxtrot search. that’s been useful!
Marginnote pro will export to devonthink. It’s at the right price to get the best of annotations and content selection into devonthink at a snippet basis that makes the search of devonthink and the “AI” really work! A few fold cheaper than atlas.ti etc.
hope theres an avenue to explore?!
Posted by Dellu
Aug 6, 2017 at 12:09 AM
bigspud wrote:
Sorry to be late to the party.
>Thanks for the heads up on the foxtrot search. that’s been useful!
>Marginnote pro will export to devonthink. It’s at the right price to get
>the best of annotations and content selection into devonthink at a
>snippet basis that makes the search of devonthink and the “AI” really
>work! A few fold cheaper than atlas.ti etc.
>
>hope theres an avenue to explore?!
>
Marginnote is very pleasing application for reading PDF files. I also find the export capabilities very interesing. I tried to export my annotations, it breaks each annotation into a separate RTDF file and export it into a single folder. This exactly like the workflow we used to have Sente. The system in Sente was slighly better because the pieces of notes where not numbered; We used to assign titles which summerize the main concept of the annotation.
Marginnote still doesn’t fix the break between the reading, and tagging in one hand, note taking and taking on the other.
Assume you are reading a stricking passage in the book. You want to quote that paragaraph in your future writing. What do you do in Marginnotes?
You highlight it; write a comment….that is it. You cannot tag it. Unless you remember the words or phrases, there is little chance that you will pick that paragarph when you need it.
In QDA applications, it is very simple. you assign a code (tag) to that pagagraph by the topic. If you want to quote the pagaraph when you are writing, for example, about “algea”, you code the paragraph by that term. You don’t need to search it when you need it. You just pick the code.
Coding (tagging) solves the weakenesses of SEARCHES. Search requires knowning the exact terminology; the exact English words. Search doesn’t know conceptual connections. Codes (tags) can register and keep conceptual connections because you are putting them thinking about the connections.
I would have said Marginnote solved the poblem if I can tag the paragraph in Marginnote; and that Devonthink understands and picks the tags.
But, it is possible to develop some internal techonlogy to fix the break. One strategy is to use the system in the BEAR application, for example. You just put hash before you keywords. Then, after exporting, use some script to translate those hashed words into tags. We have been expreimenting with this kind of systme in Tinderbox forum. I also tried it with Day One, Bear and MacJournal: https://dellu.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/switching-from-day-one-to-macjournal/
Posted by Luhmann
Aug 6, 2017 at 06:18 AM
As I stated earlier, while Bear and other text editors only allow you to attach tags to individual documents, outliner software such as Worfklowy, Dynalist, Outlinely, and Mudu all allow you to attach tags to individual outline items and to filter the outline for those tags. If you use outliners that export your annotations as single plaintext files, such as GoodReader, PDF Expert, etc. then you can simply copy and paste these into your outliner of choice. This has the added advantage of letting you use the outliner functions to organize the text outline to reflect the structure of the paper. (If you highlight the sub-headings this makes it much easier to do so.)
Posted by Luhmann
Aug 6, 2017 at 06:19 AM
It looks like MarginNote can even export into OPML format, which would simplify the whole process?