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Craft 2.0 - For Everyone!
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Posted by Simon
Jul 16, 2022 at 11:28 AM
Is Craft any good for academic work? I’m looking for a solution for an MA I’m starting.
Would Craft be a good fit?
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 17, 2022 at 08:45 AM
That’s a question, Simon, which only you can answer. Would Craft be a good fit for your way of working, is the nub of it. And since none of us knows how you work or what processes you use, it’s impossible to answer this question.
I can imagine using Craft to put together an MA, yes – it’s got the necessary breadth, flexibility and search capabilities. But I can think of many other tools that would do just as well if not better. Speaking personally, I wouldn’t try and stuff all my MA work into a single app, even though that’s the ultimate dream (having said that, Scrivener would be an obvious choice if that’s your preferred approach). Instead, I’d be looking at ways to structure my reference information so I could rapidly access it regardless of its format.
There are several repository-style apps (all for macOS, I should emphasise) you could look at here: Personally, I’m fond of Notebooks (also does Windows), but there are other equally/more powerful tools like DEVONthink or Keep It. All three are capable of searching across multiple file types; all three are good places to keep notes linked to files and other notes. Craft can do this, too, at least with PDF files, but it’s also worth examining apps’ ability to capture web pages easily – for this, my current favourites are Bear and UpNote, although a recent recommendation in this forum has proved unbelievably capable, and you don’t even have to “explicitly” save the page: History Book, which captures your browsing history in background and keeps copies of all the text (amazing app! And takes up much less space than you might think).
The first thing to do, perhaps, is decide how you’re going to approach your MA (this will depend on your particular mentality), then check out apps that will support you in that process; you may, of course, find that Craft fits you perfectly, in which case – bingo!
Cheers,
Bill
Simon wrote:
Is Craft any good for academic work? I’m looking for a solution for an
>MA I’m starting.
>
>Would Craft be a good fit?
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 17, 2022 at 11:41 AM
I would concur with everything Bill wrote.
If you’ve already paid for Craft, give it a go. You can get your information out of it if you decide you don’t find it as useful in your MA as you hoped.
If you haven’t already committed financially to Craft, then you might find other opitions better (as Bill said). If you’re strictly in a Mac/Apple universe, then Ulysses might be a good bet.
But the truth is anything will do. Really. As long as it is stable and you’re able to export your work into a useable format for writing the final drafts.
I am thinking back to the stone age when I was finishing college. That would have been 1978. I wrote my papers using hand-taken notes on index cards and then typing them out on a manual typewriter. Even the most basic of computer writing apps would have made that process 1000 times more efficient. The difference between Craft and any other app is miniscule compared to the difference between that analog process and today’s digital options. I write this only to make you realize there really is no wrong solution. Just ones that are slightly better or slightly worse. But most will be entirely workable.
Steve
Posted by satis
Jul 17, 2022 at 01:36 PM
Simon wrote:
>Is Craft any good for academic work? I’m looking for a solution for an
>MA I’m starting. Would Craft be a good fit?
Depends on what your needs are. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem you could find that Apple Notes would be fine, as it syncs text, images and drawings (which you can make in-app on iOS). Even if you use Craft or something else, don’t ignore the usefulness of Notes, which some people have taken as a replacement for Evernote.
Craft makes for beautifully formatted notes with useful backlinks, real-time collaboration, output to public webpages, and 30-day versioning history, and it’s a beautiful, easy to use app. It’s great for organizing notes and lists, less so for me for long(er)-form writing. (Although Craft streamlines long documents by enabling you to organize material within attractive sub-pages and thumbnail cards, so it’s usable for longer works… but for me it doesn’t work as well as an app like Ulysses, which also breaks up long-form into ‘sheets’.)
It’s block-based text metaphor is like Notion’s but I think it’s much easier to grasp and use out of the box than Notion, and it has better text formatting and seems to be faster than Notion when you have a lot of notes.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jul 17, 2022 at 02:36 PM
Interesting point about Apple Notes, @satis – especially since the beta version in the impending OS upgrade will add some powerful new features, including substantially improved support for “smart folders” (built on multiple search criteria). An app it’s very easy to underestimate.
satis wrote:
>
>Simon wrote:
>>Is Craft any good for academic work? I’m looking for a solution for an
>>MA I’m starting. Would Craft be a good fit?
>
>Depends on what your needs are. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem you
>could find that Apple Notes would be fine, as it syncs text, images and
>drawings (which you can make in-app on iOS). Even if you use Craft or
>something else, don’t ignore the usefulness of Notes, which some people
>have taken as a replacement for Evernote.
>
>Craft makes for beautifully formatted notes with useful backlinks,
>real-time collaboration, output to public webpages, and 30-day
>versioning history, and it’s a beautiful, easy to use app. It’s great
>for organizing notes and lists, less so for me for long(er)-form
>writing. (Although Craft streamlines long documents by enabling you to
>organize material within attractive sub-pages and thumbnail cards, so
>it’s usable for longer works… but for me it doesn’t work as well as an
>app like Ulysses, which also breaks up long-form into ‘sheets’.)
>
>It’s block-based text metaphor is like Notion’s but I think it’s much
>easier to grasp and use out of the box than Notion, and it has better
>text formatting and seems to be faster than Notion when you have a lot
>of notes.