I was suprised to find very few references to TagNotate here on outlinersoftware.com (to be precise, only two short references, in a thread discussing octopusnotes). Given the fact that a great deal of discussions here focus on MacOS software (and to a lesser degree to iOS), this is quite strange.
For those who did not hear about this app, it is a pdf-reader and annotator, but it has some unique functionality that I didn't find in any other app, either on Windows or Android. The most useful features are:
- you can underline (highlight) and annotate parts of pdf files and tag every annotation INDIVIDUALLY. So, tags are not based on the pdf file, but on its contents.
- you can search inside the pdfs in your library with full text search but also with tags; you can "drill down" to your search by selecting multiple tags from the tag-cloud (using AND / OR operators). TN shows the pdf files which contain the selected tags and also a preview of the annotation.
- after you have drilled down enough, you can export the results to the clippboard and use it for further study. To be clear: the export contains only the annotated portions of the pdf's, not the whole pdf's.
- the library of TN allows "virtual folders", meaning one pdf can be in several virtual folders (or collections). When you select the virtual folder / collection, the tag-cloud only shows tags which are contained in the pdf's in this specific locations.

Why is that important (at least for my workflows)?
When I read non-fiction books, they tend to be from various fields - Physics, Psychology, History, Politics, Pop Science, Economics etc. Things which I find interesting are highlighted and tagged according to my pre-defined tag-list. When I want to focus on one area of my interests, I dril down with the tag-search, and copy all the info associated with those tags for further studying. This way, I often see connections between areas which are at first look not related.

As I said, TN is unfortunately available only on apple OS's. I use it primarily on my iPad, as I have no Mac (I have MacOS virtualized through VirtualBox on Windows, however it is no joy working in this because of the lag).

I really wish there would be a Windows (or Android) app like this, ideally with some note-taking addition (or is there?)

On a related note: Why are tag-implementations on note taking / outliner applications so weak? For example MyInfo, which is my main note taker. You can assign multiple tags to a document (but not on a specific part of the document), but you can filter / search only according to ONE TAG. This is the same with every other note taker which I tried (MyNotes Keeper, RightNote, MyBase, CherryNotes...). Am I the only one who would find such a thing useful or is it so difficult to implement?

What is your take on Tagnotate? Do you find the concept useful or are the use-cases in your cases too exotic?
Are there any other apps which are similar regarding this functionality? (and I mean really similar, not "similar.to" like similar).

(BTW, I am in no way affiliated with the authors of TN except that I bought the app on my iPad. The app has its shortcomings: no updates in a long time, you cannot rename a tag and deleting the tag involves deleting are instances it is assigned to....)

Mirce wrote:

What is your take on Tagnotate? Do you find the concept useful or are
the use-cases in your cases too exotic?
Are there any other apps which are similar regarding this functionality?
(and I mean really similar, not "similar.to" like similar).

I have tried Tagnotate. I think I was a bit worried that the annotations made with the app are not visible other pdf reading applications.

But, I love the idea of tagging paragraphs (bullet points) and being able to drill down into the individual tags. That is exactly why I have been using Atlas.Ti, Nvivo and MaxQda. Almost all the quantitative data analysis software follow the same strategy. You annotate a specific part (paragraph), quote it as well in the case of Atlas Ti, and tag (code it). You can then construct a collection of documents or quotations across documents using the tags.

It is a very neat way of reading and processing information. I find Atlas Ti much more efficient because of the quotations; and that I can write comments, titles, and summaries to the quotations. But, the license is very expensive.
I paid a hefty cost; and works only for 2 years. That has been a big problem to me.


Thank you for bringing Tagnotate to our attention. I will check it again (if it can replace at least part of the functions of the Atlas Ti).

I confess I'd never heard of it. Looks pretty interesting. PDF manual here:

http://www.tagnotate.com/wp-content/uploads/Getting-Started.pdf

Quick search shows it's bee around for a couple of years. A couple of 2015, 2016 articles about the app here:

http://www.betaboston.com/news/2015/04/15/tagnotate-is-the-rap-genius-for-researchers/

http://stage-directions.com/stagemanagement/8486-the-best-line-note-app-ever-made.html

Dellu wrote:

I have tried Tagnotate. I think I was a bit worried that the annotations
made with the app are not visible other pdf reading applications.

I just checked this by sending an annotated pdf from TagNotate to PDFViewer and GoodReader - the highlights and notes taken in TN are are correctly transferred, i.e. visible. However, the tags are not shown of course.

That is exactly why I have >been using Atlas.Ti, Nvivo and MaxQda. Almost all the quantitative data >analysis software follow the same strategy. You annotate a specific part
(paragraph), quote it as well in the case of Atlas Ti, and tag (code >it). You can then construct a collection of documents or quotations
across documents using the tags.
It is a very neat way of reading and processing information. I find
Atlas Ti much more efficient because of the quotations; and that I can
write comments, titles, and summaries to the quotations. But, the
license is very expensive.
I paid a hefty cost; and works only for 2 years. That has been a big
problem to me.

I must confess that I never heard of these applications. They seem really powerfull, but also daunting. Especially this commenting on the quotations seems very useful.
But the price of Atlas Ti - really frightening. 930€ for a single user, non-commercial license. :(

BTW, I contacted the developer of TN regarding a Windows version - no plans for that he answered.

satis wrote:

I confess I'd never heard of it. Looks pretty interesting. PDF manual
here:

http://www.tagnotate.com/wp-content/uploads/Getting-Started.pdf

Just a heads-up: The manual is wrong in some aspects, i.e. last time I checked, it mentioned that you can rename and delete tags; this is not possible. In order to rename a tag, you have to manually delete it in every instance (for every annotation to which it was given) and then again assign the renamed (new) tag.

I check periodically for mentions of apps I like (TagNotate, Flexcil, LiquidNotes...) in order to find discussions and possible new use cases. Strangely, when searching for TagNotate there are more links explaining how to remove (uninstall) TagNotate for MacOS than links to reviews of this app.

I export all my PDF annotations to either Dynalist or Ominoutliner and then add hashtags in the outline. Both apps make it easy to search or filter quotes by hashtag and reviewing my export later helps with retention. It also allows me to save notes from Kindle, iBooks, or Instapaper in the same format without having notes from each kind of document stored separately.

On a side note, I wish apps that were iPad only would wake up to the fact that the newer iPhones have huge screens that can do much of what iPads can do. Since I got my 8+ I no longer use my iPad, and the XS Max is even bigger!

Luhmann wrote:

I export all my PDF annotations to either Dynalist or Ominoutliner and
then add hashtags in the outline. Both apps make it easy to search or
filter quotes by hashtag and reviewing my export later helps with
retention. It also allows me to save notes from Kindle, iBooks, or
Instapaper in the same format without having notes from each kind of
document stored separately.

This is a very interesting approach Luhmann. I also use Dynalist more and more for various bits of info, as their browser-app(?) is really fast and intuitive, and they have quite good apps for iOS and Android. Your approach with hashtags for tags is great, as Dynalist allows AND / OR in their search, effectively allowing you to drill down to your info.
There are two reason which keep me from going full scale with Dynalist:
- my (maybe irrational) reluctance for online / cloud services (I am an old school computer guy which remembers the time without internet and with low-quality connections; only offline is truly always available)
- scalability: Dynalist is really fast (compared to NimbusNotes for example), but how well would it fare with a heavy workload? Meaning several hunderds or thousands info-pieces? How many notes do you have in your database?

WhizFolders will tag (keywords) specific words within your text. It will also allow for Boolean searches of multiple tags/keywords.

In Ultra Recall, you can set up a tagging system and search for multiple tags. Unfortunately, you cannot tag specific sections of your text.

NoteCase similarly will allow Boolean searches for tags but like UR, you cannot assign tags to specific sections or words (I could be wrong on this).

CintaNotes has a very easy to use hierarchical tagging system with flexible searching, but again, you can only assign tags to the entire note.

The real 800 pound gorilla in this will be InfoQube. A hierarchical tagging system has been incorporated into the newest pre-release. It is developing, but already awesome. Worth checking out.

Jon

Mirce wrote:

On a related note: Why are tag-implementations on note taking / outliner
applications so weak? For example MyInfo, which is my main note taker.
You can assign multiple tags to a document (but not on a specific part
of the document), but you can filter / search only according to ONE TAG.
This is the same with every other note taker which I tried (MyNotes
Keeper, RightNote, MyBase, CherryNotes...). Am I the only one who would
find such a thing useful or is it so difficult to implement?

Jon Polish wrote:

WhizFolders will tag (keywords) specific words within your text. It will
also allow for Boolean searches of multiple tags/keywords.

In Ultra Recall, you can set up a tagging system and search for multiple
tags. Unfortunately, you cannot tag specific sections of your text.

NoteCase similarly will allow Boolean searches for tags but like UR, you
cannot assign tags to specific sections or words (I could be wrong on
this).

CintaNotes has a very easy to use hierarchical tagging system with
flexible searching, but again, you can only assign tags to the entire
note.

The real 800 pound gorilla in this will be InfoQube. A hierarchical
tagging system has been incorporated into the newest pre-release. It is
developing, but already awesome. Worth checking out.

Jon

Thank you for your feedback Jon.
I used WhizNote for a while until one day I was informed that the free period was over, so I uninstalled it. UltraRecall I used some years ago, never knew that it allowed searching by selecting multiple tags. CintaNotes wasn't on my radar as it is a single-pane outliner. I hesitated to try InfoQube as it looks like a kind of app for which I would have to invest considerable time to get into it, but maybe I should reconsider.

Mirce wrote:

Dynalist is really fast (compared to NimbusNotes for
example), but how well would it fare with a heavy workload? Meaning
several hunderds or thousands info-pieces? How many notes do you have in
your database?

The web interface is super-fast and doesn't get slowed down at all even with hundreds of super-long outlines. But iOS is another story. That is why I switched to Outlinely. The Dynalist mobile app just freezes on me and they haven't fixed the problem (even telling me to delete data!)

Mirce wrote:

I just checked this by sending an annotated pdf from TagNotate to
PDFViewer and GoodReader - the highlights and notes taken in TN are are
correctly transferred, i.e. visible. However, the tags are not shown of
course.

you are right, the annotation is standard. That is good news. I probably tested it earlier (beta) or confused it with another app.

I must confess that I never heard of these applications. They seem
really powerfull, but also daunting. Especially this commenting on the
quotations seems very useful.
But the price of Atlas Ti - really frightening. 930€ for a single
user, non-commercial license. :(

AtlasTi is really powerful. The concept mapping (mind mapping) tool also helps you map the quotations/comments or the tags(codes) to construct new ideas.
it is very powerful machine for understanding literature and generating new ideas.

MaxQDA is the same. I find the Quotation feature in MaxQda a little lacking. MaxQDA is better on the license side. Once you pay for the license, you can use the application for life (so far as you don't want to upgrade). The license in Atlas Ti is a huge pain the ass.
It works only for 2 years. And, you are locked out of your data if you forget to export.

MaxQDA is the same. I find the Quotation feature in MaxQda a little
lacking. MaxQDA is better on the license side.

I find it amazing who the qualitative text analysis guys escaped the software price drop trend of the past. And there seem to be only three giants Atlas TI, MaxQDA and Nvivo who better share the market then going into competition with each other pricewise.

Lothar Scholz wrote:

>MaxQDA is the same. I find the Quotation feature in MaxQda a little
>lacking. MaxQDA is better on the license side.

I find it amazing who the qualitative text analysis guys escaped the
software price drop trend of the past. And there seem to be only three
giants Atlas TI, MaxQDA and Nvivo who better share the market then going
into competition with each other pricewise.

I think they survive because of the universities.
Many universities and colleges pay these expensive prices because they are mostly owned by governments (less care is given). Private users are very rare. The university I am studying at also offers Nvivo license. But, I find the Mac version of NVIVO pretty dismal.

Here is my note on these three applications:
https://dellu.wordpress.com/2018/10/11/maxqda-vs-atlasti/

The tagging feature in this little/cheap application, TagNotate, could replace the coding feature in MaxQDA.

Around ten years ago several friends and I got together to plan a note-taking software that would do exactly what you, me, and a lot of other people want: an note-taking application that allows tagging of content. This feature is critical for all qualitative data analysis software (QDA applications). Most QDA apps are expensive and have very restrictive licenses.

However, one of the QDA vendors, ResearchWare produces a product called HyperResearch which is priced reasonably, especially the student version, and can be run from a USB pen drive which makes it invaluable to researchers who move from computer to computer. Despite snail-pace development of their products, the company finally released HyperReserach 4 earlier this year which includes the ability to tag PDF documents in addition to wordprocessor documents, audio files and video. Compared to the big players of AtlasTI and MaxQDA, their interface is dull, PDF editor, audio and video editors are quite simplistic, but they get the job done. And for a price that is much lower than the big names.

I'm not affiliated with ResearchWare. They have a good product that is strangely not used very much it appears.



Dellu wrote:

That is exactly why I have

been using Atlas.Ti, Nvivo and MaxQda. Almost all the quantitative data
analysis software follow the same strategy. You annotate a specific part
(paragraph), quote it as well in the case of Atlas Ti, and tag (code
it). You can then construct a collection of documents or quotations
across documents using the tags.

It is a very neat way of reading and processing information. I find
Atlas Ti much more efficient because of the quotations; and that I can
write comments, titles, and summaries to the quotations. But, the
license is very expensive.
I paid a hefty cost; and works only for 2 years. That has been a big
problem to me.


Thank you for bringing Tagnotate to our attention. I will check it again
(if it can replace at least part of the functions of the Atlas Ti).

And did your initiative take off, or did you find that HyperResearch covered your needs at a reasonable price and opted for that?


Carrot wrote:

Around ten years ago several friends and I got together to plan a
note-taking software that would do exactly what you, me, and a lot of
other people want: an note-taking application that allows tagging of
content.

Carrot wrote:

However, one of the QDA vendors, ResearchWare produces a product called
HyperResearch which is priced reasonably, especially the student
version

The other options are still quite pricey though, and there isn't an option to just buy one as a private individual.

All the options presume that you belong to some organisation, whether commercial, educational, or nonprofit, which would pay for the licence.

Having said that, it's probably still more reasonable than the competitors with their limited licences.

Anyway, this is the first time I've heard of this one, thanks for mentioning it, one day I may need this.