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Curio 5.0
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Oct 20, 2008 at 02:05 PM
Stephen, just looked at the product web site, and Curio brings out the CRIMPing instinct.
CRIMP appears to be a well conceptualized program elegantly executed.
Now all I need is a Mac!
Daly
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>Back in April I bought a MacBook for my personal use. I had been a long time PC user, but
>some of the applications I had seen recently for Mac OS had made me envious—
>particularly DevonThink and Scrivener. So I took the plunge, and have bought several
>applications—a whole new domain for my CRIMP fever. And I have tested many
>more.
>
>Overall I am very happy and impressed with my MacBook. It starts up fast and
>turns off even faster. It returns from sleep mode in a snap. I also like the integration
>of many of the applications. The fact that I can print a PDF into many of the information
>managers is very advantageous.
>
>So, as an environment, the MacBook is great.
>However, I haven’t been as impressed with the software as I expected to be. They are all
>competent, but I really haven’t seen much that is not available in the PC world.
>
>That
>is, until now. Curio 5.0 is a really exceptional application. In its “idea space”
>approach it is a little like OneNote—that is, you have a page on which you can combine
>several different types of elements. However, one of the item types that you can
>insert into any page is a pretty sophisticated mind map, also incorporated
>full-fledged project management functions.
>
>The other important element type you
>can add to an idea space is an outline box. You can also add a text box or URL or even live
>web pages.
>
>I’m still exploring the features of Curio, but I feel I’ve finally found
>the perfect planning application for me—no, it isn’t a database, and can’t serve
>that function. But Curio is the perfect place for brainstorming, then expending on
>those ideas with whatever material you need! At $149 for the pro version, Curio isn’t
>cheap, but it is less expensive than most mind mappers in the PC realm, and it does
>more.
>
>It’s definitely worth a look, even if it is just to nurse your CRIMP
>desire.
>
>http://www.zengobi.com/
>
>Steve Z.
Posted by Captain CowPie
Oct 23, 2008 at 03:03 PM
Steve,
I tried Curio and really was impressed with it’s abilities. I just don’t know what I would use it for that would justify the price.
But I had not known about the spread PDF feature, really nice. I may have to give the product another look.
Vince
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>The folks at Zengobi have added a short tutorial (or what they are calling a tutorini)
>about a very powerful feature of Curio 5.0: The spread PDF feature. Take a
>look:
Posted by Hugh
Oct 24, 2008 at 01:46 PM
Captain CowPie wrote:
>Steve,
>
>I tried Curio and really was impressed with it’s abilities. I just don’t know
>what I would use it for that would justify the price.
>
>
>Vince
>
>
As Steve says, Curio is an exceptional application. The way I think about is as a very large virtual whiteboard on to which you can place all kinds of digital items - with the added advantage that you can also start to project-manage their use as well. Virtually whatever you could do on a real - but huge - whiteboard, you can do with Curio. You can start to trace spatial/mindmap-type relationships between items, you can just park them, you can transform them in various ways, or you can pretty them up and put together a presentation. I can imagine the software being useful in, say, an ad agency.
I use it at the throw-stuff-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks stage of writing, especially if visuals are involved. I probably wouldn’t use it in putting together a precise argument or polemic because there the tools of a traditional text outliner would be more valuable, nor would I use it in “late-stage” outlining of any kind, because it won’t give you an OPML or Word-type outline you can export elsewhere. But for for free-form creative doodling, it’s terrific.
And it’s in active development.
H
Posted by Hugh
Oct 24, 2008 at 03:19 PM
To clarify - of course Curio does export OPML, as I say in an earlier post, but from items appropriate to the purpose - that is, mind-maps and text-outlines. You can’t export the contents of an entire “idea-space” or whiteboard as an outline, nor would you probably want to because it’s likely to be made up of many qualitatively-different elements with disparate links.
H