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Tinderbox / content visualization software for windows?
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Posted by thouqht
Aug 27, 2018 at 03:36 PM
I’m looking for a note management software that would allow me plop down hundreds of notes and build as many different connections between them as I want. Ideally, I could then visualize those connections in different ways. I create educational content on complex ideas and I need a way to move around a bunch of different information so that I can identify the ideal structure for delivery.
I’ve been using an outliner (Dynalist) but the issue is that a linear outline already ASSUMES structure & prioritization of information. When I’ve got a sea of information, structure and prioritization is the thing I’m looking for a tool to help me FIND. I end up just having to recreate the whole outline repeatedly toying with with different structures. It works, and I know it’s somewhat mandatory, but I feel that there HAS to be a better way.
From what I’ve found, Tinderbox is the only thing that seems to do what I want, but I’m on windows. Are there any tools I’m missing? Is my only option to either limp along with what I’ve got or run a VM?
Other things I’ve tried
- Scrivener: It’s okay, I like how much metadata you can add, but it lacks the visual arrangement flexibility
- Mind maps: They are just linear outlines made ugly and lack the rearrangement and heavy cross linking I’d want
- Scapple: Nice but too weak for larger things and doesn’t let you easily move stuff around
- yEd: nice graphing and rearranging capabilities, but not really meant for lots of text
- (briefly) The Brain: Seemingly more optimized for storage rather than creation
- (briefly) Connected Text: Started scratching the surface, but everything was clunky, ugly, and I’m worried to invest more time into it if it’s not being maintained.
Thanks for any help.
Posted by Paul Korm
Aug 27, 2018 at 03:47 PM
Some Windows options come to mind for the graphical piece. Each of these will play differently with the “dump in a bunch of notes” piece.
VUE from Tufts University
http://vue.tufts.edu
Cmap from IHMC
https://cmap.ihmc.us
SouthBeach Modeler
http://www.southbeachinc.com
(I suspect SouthBeach is abandonware, though the developer denies that—but if you can find a copy it is pretty good.)
ThinkComposer from Instrumind
http://www.instrumind.com
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 27, 2018 at 04:35 PM
There’s an old-timey Windows writing app called Writer’s Blocks. It probably isn’t what you’re looking for, but I’m mentioning it just in case:
https://www.writersblocks.com/
Steve Z.
Posted by Chris Thompson
Aug 27, 2018 at 08:56 PM
One option that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the TiddlyMap extension for TiddlyWiki. Basically this extends TiddlyWiki to full-fledged concept mapping. (However, if you found the interface of ConnectedText clunky, you might not take to this either.)
Unfortunately if you need what it offers (incremental refinement of notes representing complex relationships you can’t quite figure out at first), there isn’t anything quite like Tinderbox.
Posted by Paul J. Miller
Aug 27, 2018 at 10:19 PM
InfoQube (http://www.infoqube.biz/) is the only thing I have found other than ConnectedText which does the emergent structure thing.
Looking at it’s manual and reading about it I think Tinderbox may also be good at revealing emergent structure in data but I haven’t used it so I can’t say for sure.
There may be other things which I haven’t found ... but, I haven’t found them.
I don’t know what it is about ConnectedText which lends itself to the data communicating with the user but this is my experience. See https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes for a better explanation of this phenomenon than I could possibly give.
I think it has something to do with the placement of data. In most applications the user decides where to place things and so they are unlikely to discover anything they didn’t already know whereas in ConnectedText there is no place, the data organises itself depending upon it’s links and metadata and things become apparent from the emergent structure which the user wasn’t previously aware of.
I know what you mean about everything being a bit clunky in ConnectedText. The split between edit mode and view mode is especially incongruous to me but ConnectedText does do what it does very well. Yes development has been abandoned but the program still works just as well as it did.
InfoQube doesn’t do the emergent structure thing as well as ConnectedText.
InfoQube does almost everything that ConnectedText does but with everything being accessible via a GUI rather than being in a markup language. Items can appear in multiple places/views and these views can be driven by the meta data which is what lets the data communicate with the user.
You could get a free trial version of InfoQube and see what you think. The user interface is quite complex and dense but it is very configurable so you can strip out the things which you don’t need. Thats what I have done and my stripped down version is a lot simpler to use than the default version. Yes I am aware that I’m not using it to it’s full potential but I don’t care.