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Your current PIM software portfolio - November 2008 Poll
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Posted by grapeshot
Nov 22, 2008 at 01:24 AM
My list for tracking notes and ideas:
Keynote
I use this to capture my thoughts and ideas for a specific writing project. Usually this is just a simple collection of jotted down ideas, or a sort of scratchpad for me to work out my ideas. That venerable old software is simple enough for me to figure out, yet versatile enough for me to incorporate images, or link to other files and web urls. I think if I were doing a project that required me to keep track of lots of research and documents I might think about shopping around for something that can encompass a larger variety of file types. Even so, from the hunting around that I’ve done, it might be hard to find something to match Keynote for it’s ease and ability to organize the information. I am also able to run Keynote on a jump drive, and now I use it both for my weekend writing projects, and my day job.
TiddlyWiki
I tried to use TiddlyWiki for capturing and tracking my notes, but found Keynote more to my liking. The ability to tag items was interesting, but the way my mind works, I need to be able to see the overall organization of how all the pieces of information and other snippets fit in with the whole thing. TiddlyWiki instead has become a sort of diary and free-for-all way for me to get my creative mojo started up when I’m staring at a blank page and am stumped for words. I use the tagging feature as a way to look back on the evolution of various ideas that I’ve toyed with, which can sometimes spark another idea.
Compendium http://compendium.open.ac.uk/institute/about.htm
I discovered this free mind-mapping software a couple of years ago, and from what I gather, it’s a little like MindManager or FreeMind. It allows me to explore possible scenarios when I’m developing my stories. I tried FreeMind some years ago, but found that developing my diagrams required too much formatting just to do the diagraming work. Compendium, with it’s 8 or 9 standard symbols, allows me to keep my focus on the ideas, and not on the diagram. As for MindManager, well, I’m not too keen on the price. Although Compendium has some limits on how it exports its diagrams, because I’m usually trying to develop plot points and scenarios, and not necessarily trying to keep track of a huge decision-making tree, it’s just perfect for my needs.
Palm Desktop
I use my Palm T|X for jotting down any notes and ideas about my personal project that occur to me during my day job. Sure, I could just as easily use a notepad. That’s what I used to do, but I was forever having to track bits and pieces of scrap paper, and somehow they would never be at hand when I needed them. The Palm syncs to its desktop software on my computer, and the notes are always there—and easy enough to cut and paste into my Keynote file.
Firefox and Extensions:
I use Firefox as my browser, and it has a couple of extensions that I find indispensable for helping me hunt for ideas, inspiration, and for keeping notes. Firefox can also run from a jump drive, so on my work computer, where I am prevented from installing software, I can still operate Firefox.
QuickNote extension: This is the quickest and easiest way for me to jot down a note of any kind while surfing. It creates one very long text file, which can make it hard to find a particular idea, but there’s a lot to be said for the simplicity of this extension.
Google Notebook: I work on several computers, and I travel a lot on business. I’ve found that anything that I want to take note of when I’m on a computer far from home, particularly if it’s a website, Google Notebook lets me note it, and it’ll be available to retrieve no matter where I am, as long as I can get on the web.
Other tools:
MS Word
MS Excel
yWriter4
Posted by LW
Nov 22, 2008 at 07:24 AM
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>Hello group,
>
>I wondering what tools you are using today to manage the information
>stream during a working day due the the current development in the PIM and general
>software market.
Hi,
My way of looking at “tools” might be a little different than yours—I write fiction.
OneNote 2007. When I start a project, I open a section or a new notebook in OneNote and dump all my thoughts, images, PDFs, FLVs and whatever in there. OneNote is extremely intuitive and a breeze to work with.
Surfulater 3. I rely heavily on the internet for preliminary research and SUL is a great web clipper.
MindManager 7. When I need to visualize my way through plotting or play around with wild ideas, MindManager is the best mindmapping tool for the job. Am I going to purchase 8? Upgrading is pricey. Version 7 is good enough for me.
MS Word 2003. Yup, I haven’t migrated to Office 2007 (except for OneNote which I purchased separately). I tried “creative” alternatives such as PageFour or Liquid Story Binder but discovered that if I want some real work done, I go back to plain old Word.
ClipMate—the best clipboard extension out there. Among other things, I use it to save text clips when I work on a story.
SnagIt—the best screen capture tool out there. I use the combination SUL+ClipMate+SnagIt for web-based research, this setup works great for me.
LW
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Nov 22, 2008 at 11:39 PM
Hi Jack,
What was the latest Brainstorm announcement? I seem to have fallen out of the Brainstorm loop, never to be allowed to return.
Jack Crawford wrote:
>My main usage at the moment is:
>
>. Am living inside Outlook more than before using the
>ClearContext add-in and the Michael Linenberger approach. Email is stored inside
>this system.
>. OneNote for creative notes, meeting agendas, project drafts and
>personal storage.
>. MindManager and Project Kickstart for project design and
>management.
>. Inspiration for diagrams (occasionally).
>. dtSearch for indexing
>(it will run off a USB).
>
>I would still love a reliable one-panel outliner that
>exports directly to Word. Am watching InfoQube and (since the recent announcement)
>Brainstorm.
>
>Jack
>
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Nov 23, 2008 at 12:19 AM
I use many applications, to avoid boredom, but the dearth of software development—which I don’t expect to change soon or even in the next few years—has let me distinguish core from optional applications. My core applications, in order of first use on a writing project, are:
GoalEnforcer (http://www.goalenforcer.com)
Clipmate
MS OneNote
MindGenius
NoteMap (longer projects only)
MS Word 2007
As my fundamental work principle, I proceed always from a task outline, revised before deviating, residing in GoalEnforcer. I supplement the task outline with content outlines, first a graphical-outline mind dump, then, for longer projects, a full-sentence linear outline, but I follow these outlines less assiduously than the fundamental task outline.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Nov 23, 2008 at 01:06 AM
Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>Hi Jack,
>
>What was the latest Brainstorm announcement? I seem to have fallen out of
>the Brainstorm loop, never to be allowed to return.
Stephen,
The announcement about Brainstorm is that it looks like it is going to be acquired by an American, who we are hoping will provide further and more rapid development.
Steve Z.