[liberationtech] Research Writing Software
Yosem Companys
companys at stanford.edu
Sun Dec 21 20:08:33 PST 2008
Dear friends,
Here is a list I assembled of software programs designed to assist in the
process of organizing information and/or writing research papers.
Most are information management software programs (e.g., note taking,
outliners, etc.) and some do so much that they aspire to be universal
personal information managers (PIMs). People seem to agree that Apple Macs
have better options in this area, while the options on the PC side are so
bad that users have come up with the term "CRIMP," which stands for a
make-believe malady called "compulsive-reactive information management
purchasing." Symptoms include:
- Never being satisfied with your current system of information
management
- Continuously being on the look-out for something newer and better
- Purchasing every new PIM program you learn about
- And secretly hoping you won't find the perfect PIM, because then you'd
have to stop looking for a better one
As one of the users says: "So, when someone speaks of succumbing to his or
her CRIMP, it means acknowledging that they've purchased another PIM program
even though they really don't think they need it. There must be a 12-step
program for over-coming CRIMP, but who really wants to? It's too much fun."
Anyway, a good review of information management programs conducted by coders
can be found here:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/NoteTakers1/index.php
Wikipedia offers a long list of them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_personal_information_managers
Here's a great article on how different tools can be used together
powerfully: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/digital-judgment
The ones that really drew my attention, however, are those that have
information management capabilities and the ability to assist in writing
research papers (i.e., research writing software), so I have listed those
first. I excluded:
- All the ones that are made primarily for fiction writers and focused on
storyline development and character tracking, which I believe are
unnecessary for most scientific scholars
- Mindmapping software, which is not of much interest to me
- Software programs that run on Linux
- Citation software programs such as EndNote or Zotero
If you have any other suggestions to the list that I may have missed, please
let me know. I hope the list is useful.
Best,
Yosem
PS So which one did I get? None yet, though I am leaning towards Idea
Mason or Biblioscape. Either that, or I will use different applications
together to provide the best solution, as James Fallows suggests in his
article above. Everyone seems to agree that Scrivener is the best, but alas
I am a Windows guy... :-)
- Research writing software:
- Scrivener: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html
- Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created
specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and
research papers.
It won't try to tell you how to write - it just makes all the
tools you have
scattered around your desk available in one application.
- $39.95 for download on Mac OS X
- Nota Bene: http://www.notabene.com/
- Nota Bene: a word processor for scholars ... a bibliographic
manager for those who are tired of typing/formatting their
own citations and
bibliographies ... a personal search engine for those who want to find
anything they've ever written in seconds ... a database
manager for those
who have things to keep track of ... a Hebrew, Greek,
Cyrillic, IPA and
(new!) Arabic word processor for those who want more than
just fonts ... an
Internet search tool for those who need to find and capture
bibliographic
data ... a set of tools for scholars who want to focus on
their writing and
research ... a work of art for scholars who appreciate the
finer things in
life ... a community of scholars.
- Considered the leading program in this area, but very complex and
old school
- $349 for Scholars, $249 for Students for download on Windows
- Idea Mason:
- IdeaMason brings together the database elements of both a
bibliographical and information management tool in combination with a
virtual writing platform. Store and categorize ideas and
research in one
comprehensive portfolio. Collect and manage sources in a
virtual library.
Then use IdeaMason's revolutionary Composition tool to
organize your ideas
and manage referenced sources in a single efficient step.
When you are ready
IdeaMason exports your work into a fully-formatted document
complete with
footnotes and citations. IdeaMason automatically generates a complete
bibliography (including annotations) in your choice of the
following major
styles APA, MLA, Harvard Citations *(UK & Austrialian variations
supported)*, Chicago Notes-Bibliography, & Chicago Author-Date.
- Rave reviews by users, especially for its most recent version
- Standard ($69), Educational ($59) for Windows
- WhizFolders: http://www.whizfolders.com/
- WhizFolders is outlining software that encourages list based
outlining instead of the editor based outlining that you
might have seen in
other outliners. An outline containing just the titles in a
list is easier
to manage and needs less scrolling. You can insert wiki-like
cross-links
going to other notes, web sites and other files on your
computer. What is
more, the newer version gives you universal links back to
WhizFolder notes
from other applications like Microsoft Word.
- Unlike Idea Mason, it lacks a reference system
- The Deluxe Edition costs $80 and Pro Edition costs $39 only, both
with free updates for 2 years. Runs on Windows.
- SuperNoteCard: http://www.mindola.com/snc/index.html
- SuperNotecard is an intuitive tool that uses notecards to capture
and organize your ideas. These virtual notecards can be moved
into decks,
arranged on the screen, or grouped and categorized with ease.
Researchers
use SuperNotecard to gather facts, manage sources and finally
stitch it all
together in a way that is significantly more visual and capable than a
traditional outlining tool.
- $29 and available for use on the web or the iphone or for
download on Windows, Mac OS X
- Writer's Blocks: http://www.writersblocks.com/wb3quicklook.htm
- Writer's Blocks 3 is software for writers who plan, organize, and
research their writing projects.
- $149 for download on Windows
- Biblioscape: http://www.biblioscape.com/biblioscape.htm
- Bibliographic software to help researchers organize reference
collections, research notes, generate citations and a bibliography for
publication, compile notes into outline to generate a final
draft with table
of contents, search and capture references on the web, etc.
- Biblioscape 7 has introduced two new modules: Categories and
Compositions. You can now tag records and write a thesis
using Biblioscape.
Version 7 also organizes all research information in a single tree
structure.
- Three versions for PC/Windows:
- Lite: It includes the references (limited features) and notes
modules. In the references module, users cannot convert
temporary citations
in a document into formatted citations and a bibliography.
Global editing is
not available. $79.
- Standard: It includes the references and notes module. Users
can add notes to a reference inside the reference window.
References can
also be dragged and dropped into a note without leaving
the note window. It
can open a remote database through BiblioRemote server. $139.
- Professional: All the features in the Standard Edition plus
the tasks, charts, categories, and composition modules. It
can be used to
write a book and thesis using the composition module. The
Pro edition also
includes one concurrent license for BiblioRemote and
BiblioWeb for single
user remote access. $299.
- Purely information management software, both PC and Mac:
- OneNote: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx
- Office OneNote 2007 is a digital notebook that provides people one
place to gather their notes and information, powerful search
to find what
they are looking for quickly, and easy-to-use shared
notebooks so that they
can manage information overload and work together more effectively.
- $99 for download on Windows; part of MSFT Office Suite Package
- Jot+ Notes Student and Teacher Edition:
http://www.kingstairs.com/jot/jot4school.html
- For reports and thesis papers, Jot+ Notes cannot be beat! Record
research notes, references, quotations, citations, useful
website URL's all
in one place. Use Jot+ Notes' powerful search facilities to
locate the facts
you need quickly. Then use Jot+ Notes to outline your paper
and even write
the final draft.
- $29.95 for download on Windows
- Evernote: http://www.evernote.com/about/what_is_en/
- Evernote allows you to easily *capture* information in any
environment using whatever device or platform you find most
convenient, and
makes this information *accessible* and *searchable* at any time,
from anywhere.
- Seems to have become very popular among users of notebook /
organizing software over the last year or so
- Free for basic, $5 per month or $45 per year for premium on the
web or for download on iphone or Windows/Windows Mobile or Mac OS X
- Diigo: http://www.diigo.com/
- Diigo is a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing
community
- Free on the web for IE, Firefox, etc.
- Keynote: http://sourceforge.net/projects/keynote-newfeat/
- Tabbed notebook with RichText editor, multi-level notes and
strong encryption. Added new features to Marek's KeyNote:
checkboxes on
children of selected nodes, hidden nodes, alarms on nodes.
- Open source forge
- Rightnote: http://bauerapps.com/RightNote.html
- RightNote is a multi-page notebook that allows you store and
organise all your notes in a single place.
- $24.95, award winning software for Windows
- ConnectedText: http://www.connectedtext.com/
- *ConnectedText* is a powerful but simple information management
system, a free-form note-taking and note-management
application that allows
you to keep an unlimited number of notes in one file (or many files),
instantly accessible by sophisticated full-text searches that
can span all
open files; and navigating between topics is a breeze: it's
like a notebook
with an unlimited number of pages (which can be linked to one another
easily)
- $29.95 for download on Windows
- WikiPad: http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/
- WikiPad is a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas,
todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down.
- For download on Windows; open source, relies on donations
- ZuluPad: http://gersic.com/zulupad/
- ZuluPad is a notepad on crack. It's a place to jot down class notes,
appointments, to-do lists, favorite websites, annotated
bookmarks, pretty
much anything you can think of. The great thing about ZuluPad
is that it
combines the best parts of a notepad with the best parts of a wiki, a
concept made popular by Wikipedia <http://wikipedia.org/>. The
basic idea has been called a personal wiki or a desktop wiki.
- Open source for download on Windows; Premium version is $15
- NoteTab: http://www.notetab.com/index.php
- *NoteTab* is a leading-edge text and HTML editor. Winner of software
industry awards since 1998, this application does it all: it
easily handles
a stack of huge files; lets you format text to your heart's
content; does
system-wide searches, and multi-line global replacements. It
even corrects
your spelling mistakes. 3 Formats:
- NoteTabLight: The ultimate free Notepad replacement and a
handy HTML editor. Handle a heap of files with a simple
tabbed interface.
Search files, strip HTML tags and format text quickly.
Build libraries of
text macros to speed up your work. Formerly called "Super
NoteTab". 100%
freeware -- no ads and no nags.
- NoteTabStd: Similar to NoteTab Light, but adds several useful
features like a thesaurus, a multilingual spell checker,
text-outline
editing, EBCDIC file editing, customizable menu shortcuts,
Clipbars, etc.
All this extra functionality for only $19.95 US! There is no
trial version, but you can install NoteTab Light to see
what it's like.
- For those who want the best. NoteTab Pro offers all the
features HTML authors, programmers, and other demanding
users need to speed
up their work. Best of all, it's programmable! The full
version adds a
thesaurus and a multilingual spell checker. There's a lot
more to NoteTab
Pro -- and it's unbeatable value at US$29.95.
- Award winning software; people seem to like it because the
scripting and export capabilities are very powerful.
- TreeDBNotes: http://www.mytreedb.com/treedbnotes_free.html
- *TreeDBNotes* stores and represents your information in a
comfortable and clear tree-structured form. Each node in such 'tree'
represents associated note, so you can store a lot of mostly
independent
notes in one notebook. With any note you can perform main Wordpad-like
text-formatting functions (font and paragraph styles):
- TreeDBNotes Pro
- Home Use $34.95
- Home and Business Use $44.95
- TreeDBNotes Free
- Personal License $19.95
- Business License $24.95
- Zoot: http://www.zootsoftware.com/
- Zoot is a personal information manager used by writers,
researchers, students, scholars, and maybe you! Zoot offers a highly
efficient process for collecting, classifying and
prioritizing information
so that it can be viewed in meaningful timeframes and contexts.
- Extremely popular among users of notebook / organizing software;
endorsed by PC Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly's James Fallow:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97aug/zoot.htm and
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/new_version_of_zoot_goes_up.php
- Runs on Windows for $99.
- Ecco Pro: http://www.compusol.org/ecco/
- ECCO PRO, the Personal Information Manager with the most awards in
history, brings together your contacts, calendar,
appointments, tasks and
projects in one integrated, customizable application. Even in todays
operating environments of Windows XP or Vista, this amazing piece of
software, with a development stop in 1997, still shows it
strength compared
to todays PIM's. With ECCO PRO you always have the
information you need at
your fingertips!
- Supported by donations and runs on Windows.
- TreePad: http://www.treepad.com/
- TreePad™ is an award
<http://www.treepad.com/awards/>-winning *Personal
Information Manager*, Organizer, *Database*, and *Word Processor*.
Portability and compactness are smoothly blended into
TreePad™ with its
other distinctive features <http://www.treepad.com/featurechart/>:
versatility and power, as well as simplicity and intuitiveness of use.
- Comes in Plus ($29.95) or Safe ($34.95) versions that run on
Windows.
- UltraRecall: http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/index.html
- Ultra Recall is personal information / knowledge / document
management software for Microsoft Windows. It helps you
easily capture,
organize, and recall all of your electronic documents and
information across
all the applications that you use.
- Seems popular among information management users
- Pro ($99) and Standard ($49) versions for Windows.
- TaoNotes: http://actitrend.fre3.com/
- *TaoNotes 2007 Pro* manages your tasks and notes organized
as *outline
structure* suppoting some additional dimensions for ranging notes
(statuses, flags, priorities).
- Price not available; for Windows only.
- NoteMap (Supported by LexisNexis):
http://www.casesoft.com/notemap/index.asp
- Our NoteMap outliner makes it super easy to create, edit and use
outlines — far easier than creating outlines with
word-processing software.
- Award winning software for Windows
- Trial version available but no price listed
- MyBase: http://www.wjjsoft.com/mybase.html
- myBase is a versatile free-form database system that allows entry
of unstructured text, webpages, images, documents, emails and
even arbitrary
files without regard to length or format. All information is
compressed with
the integrated zip utility and stored in the tree structured
outline form.
Unlike traditional database programs, myBase accepts text
input like a word
processor, and provides better methods for capturing,
editing, organizing,
retrieving, searching and sharing information.
- $59 with a variety of additional plugins for collecting web data
available for $29 more; Windows & Windows Mobile
- InfoSelect: http://www.miclog.com/is/2007/index.shtml
- *Info Select 2007 *is the award-winning Personal Information
Manager that organizes Internet data, notes, to-do's,
schedules, contacts,
addresses, forms, ideas, images, and much more.
<http://www.miclog.com/is/index.shtml>
- $249.95 for Windows
- SmartOutline: http://secure.smartoutline.com/default.asp
- SmartOutline is professional free-form information management
software that allows you to organize, secure, collaborate and
work with
information in new and innovative ways. SmartOutline operates from a
tree-like or Explorer style interface. After adding
information to your
outline, you can save it to an ".OUT" outline document
format. From there,
export to many popular office file formats and share with
others. You can
write notes, add calendar events, reference articles or even
annotate any
web page using shapes, clip art and text highlighting tools.
Two versions:
- Standard (individual)
- Professional (collaborative shareware)
- Pricing information not available (website was down); for Windows
- Ariadne: http://www.open-sft.com/ariadne/
- Ariadne is a tabbed browser IE overlay, with a built in pop-up
window manager, that permits the user to harvest any data
type from the
internet & local server - to tabulate, sort, outline or
shuffle it into any
order or form that is convenient. The user can search
locally & on the
internet by several means - store, group, highlight, link and
bookmark any
of it. In addition, Ariadne also has a working calendar, todo
lists, popup
alarms, usage history & more.
- $29.95 (license) for Windows
- Opal: http://a-sharp.com/
- Opal lets you organize just about anything — ideas, reports, lists,
notes, projects, graphics — in the form of an outline.
Opal's elegant,
uncluttered interface stays out of your way so you can capture notes
efficiently. You're free to organize — and reorganize —
however you like.
You can always find information later, using fast filtering
or Spotlight. Or
keep it out of your way by shrinking long topics or focusing
on part of a
document. Prioritize lists with flexible sorting. Track
projects with smart
checkboxes. Multiple selection lets you work faster. Streamlined and
responsive, Opal is truly your digital notepad. Opal will be
familiar to
anyone who ever used the popular and reliable
Acta<http://a-sharp.com/opal/acta.html>outliner. However, it's
completely rewritten for Mac OS X.
- $32 license for Mac OS X
- Google Notebook: http://www.google.com/notebook/
- Research the web, take notes, then manage & share your notes
online
- One user says: "Google has a notebook feature, but it's very
rudimentary. It acts like a large bin into which you can
throw your notes.
It's hardly more than what your browser's bookmarking feature
offers with
the ability to write in or paste in notes. I'm not that
impressed with it,
however it does allow sharing if you set up a public notebook."
- Free; web-based for IE, Firefox, Opera, etc.
- ListPro: http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/lp/listpro.php
- Create shopping lists, to do lists, checklists, or any list you
need! ListPro makes it easy to *organize and use your information
however you want*. Manage your time, remember all your errands,
stay on track - and take your lists everywhere you go.
- Award winning software
- Get ListPro<http://store.iliumsoft.com/shopper.php?multipreadd=action&keys=LP30PKO,LP30SPO,LP30PLO,LP30DTO&template=NewTpls/MultiItem1.html>on
your Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone, Palm OS Handheld, or
Windows
PC for only $19.95; Get ListPro (Professional
Edition)<http://store.iliumsoft.com/shopper.php?multipreadd=action&keys=LP30PEK,LP30PES,LP30PEL&template=NewTpls/MultiItem1.html>and
run ListPro on your desktop and one Windows Mobile or Palm OS device.
Synchronize or share lists quickly and easily for only $29.95
- ndxCards: http://www.ndxcards.com/
- ndxCards is a powerful electronic note taking software that helps
record, retrieve and recap all your knowledge in whichever
form you choose.
Anything you read, hear, some boiler plate text or a code
snippet - enter it
as note cards and ndxCards can manage it all. In three easy
steps: First, you
can record your freeform notes - text, pictures, data,
charts, interviews
using subjects and keywords, sources, authors, picture cards
etc.. You can
tag them, archive them, classify them and share them with teammates to
collaborate. Second, you can flip through your notes using
keywords and filters. Retrieve your note cards as outlines,
citations,and
flashcards. Third, ndxCards™ gives your thoughts shape, color and
life. Recap your notes as presentations, print index cards -
and so much
more! All these and additional features like annotating,
setting reminders,
classifying, and analyzing notes give you the edge you always
wanted to
succeed.
- Award winning software
- Professional and Academic ($49), Superset ($69), Portable USB
($89) for Windows.
- NoteLens: http://www.windsorinterfaces.com/notelens.shtml
- NoteLens is a note-taking tool that is so fast, it lets you
concentrate on your notes - not on the interface. NoteLens
is designed to
help you stay in the flow. You never spend time deciding
where to store
notes, save them, or even give them names. NoteLens takes
care of that for
you. With a lightning fast *full text indexing system*, you can
quickly find any note just by typing any word - all of the
notes containing
that word will be pulled up *as you type. *NoteLens integrates
with *Microsoft Outlook*. You can import notes from Outlook, and
then keep NoteLens and Outlook synced. (Although you don't
need Outlook to
take advantage of NoteLens.) With Microsoft ActiveSync, your
notes will be
synced with your Microsoft Pocket PC. NoteLens even syncs
contacts and
email, so you can have integrated super fast access to all of
your critical
information. And you can rely on NoteLens with confidence,
knowing that
they are backed up in Outlook - and also stored in a simple
text format so
you'll never be locked in.
- Its main advantage is a lightning fast search tool
- NY Times featured:
http://www.windsorinterfaces.com/press/notelens-nytimes-jan-22-2004.htm
- Free for Windows (accepts donations)
- AskSam: http://www.asksam.com/
- askSam is a flexible and powerful way to organize information and
create searchable databases from Web pages, Email, PDF files,
texts, and
Word documents. For over 20 years askSam has been the choice
of researchers
and other information professionals. See why over 350,000 businesses,
organizations, and individuals rely on askSam. askSam Pro includes
all the great features of askSam plus full text indexing to give you
lightning-fast searches.
- Standard ($149.95), Professional ($395.00)
- iOutliner: http://www.ioutliner.com/
- iOutliner is a powerful way to manage your tasks, ideas, and
projects in structured lists. Simple to use and customizable
to the way you
work and best of all its completely FREE
- Web-based outliner
- Sproutliner: http://www.sproutliner.com/
- Sproutliner is a free web service that helps you manage your
projects and ideas (think of it as a supercharged structured
to-do list). It
uses some rather smashing client-side technology to make
things as quick and
easy as possible, without forcing you to worry about hitting
'submit' to
save your precious data.
- Free and open source
- MySmartFolders: http://www.castlepeaksoftware.com/Products.html
- My SmartFolders introduces a new way to organize your data! My
SmartFolders organizes your files, web links and Outlook
items, grouping
them based on their relationships. Attach tags to your
files, web sites and
Outlook items and then they appear in your SmartFolders based
on those tags,
according to your specifications. It's simple, yet very
powerful. You can
apply this concept to any aspect of your work, for any
business and for any
kind of data that you store on your computer or over the network. My
SmartFolders benefits you and your company in three ways.
First, you can
organize your data according to tags. Second, you can pull together
files/data stored in separate locations, on your hard disk
and over the
network. Third, web sites and Outlook items are treated like
files, so you
can use one organizational tool, My SmartFolders, to organize
your work.
Put this all together and you have a very intuitive way to
organize your
data. Pull together files scattered in various folders on
your harddisk,
your home or company network, and on removable drives with My
SmartFolders.
Without moving a single file from its current location, you
can organize
your view of these files in any folder configuration. In
fact, you can set
up multiple folder configurations simultaneously! Not only
can you organize
files and folders, but My SmartFolders is also integrated
with Outlook and
Internet Explorer. This allows you to collect varied forms of data all
within Windows Explorer, in your SmartFolders. Join the
growing number of
My SmartFolders aficionados and find out how your computer
time can be more
organized and more efficient.
- $29 for Windows
- Tinderbox: http://www.eastgate.com/Tinderbox/
- Tinderbox stores and organizes your notes, plans, and ideas. It
can help you analyze and understand them. And Tinderbox helps
you share
ideas through Web journals and web logs.
- $229 for Mac OS X
- Omea Pro: http://www.jetbrains.com/omea/
- *Bring all your information together* -- your email, contacts,
documents, files, blogs, transcripts, newsgroups, RSS feeds,
pics, webpage
bookmarks, tasks, and instant messages are all in the same
place, so you
don't need to look through a slew of programs and applications anymore
- Free award winning software for Windows
- Aquaminds Notetaker: http://www.aquaminds.com/product.jsp
- Sister product to Circus Ponies Notebook (they shared the same
code base for OS X's predecessor, NeXT OS, and have a similar
feel, though
they have diverged). Uses a notebook metaphor which will be initially
confusing to pure single-pane outliner users, but it definitely is a
single-pane outliner (basically it adds the ability to split
your single
outline into sections). Tab views. Live indexes (for
instance, you might use
it to jump to any page of your outline that mentions a client's name).
Rudimentary database functionality. Has workgroup features
for notebook
sharing.
- Come in Standard ($69.95) and Academic ($39.95) versions for Mac
OS X
- Circus Ponies Notebook: http://www.circusponies.com/
- Similar user interface to Aquaminds Notetaker. Closest thing to
Microsoft OneNote on OS X, but designed with an outliner
structure as the
fundamental building block (which in my view, makes a huge
difference in
usability; OneNote is not really usable as a single pane
outliner for power
users and writers except in a crude sense). Most of the same
features as
Notetaker, with a few aimed at closer integration to other OS
X programs.
- Award winning software
- Comes in Standard ($49.95) and Academic ($29.95) versions for Mac
OS X
- OmniOutliner: http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/
- Probably the strongest combination of features and usability.
Very good support for columns (can be used as a hierarchical
spreadsheet
like Ecco, but with auto-recalculating math), rich support
for styles (can
be used directly as a word processor to generate print
output), hoisting,
adjunct sections view (depth controllable by section), line
comments and
auto-hiding, fully programmable through AppleScript
- Recommended by the Atlantic Monthly's James Fallows:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200706/digital-judgment
- Comes in Professional ($69.95) and Standard ($39.95) versions for
Mac OS X
- TAO (no relation to TAO Notes for Windows):
http://artec-software.com/products/neo/en_index.html
- Most features of any single-pane outliner I've seen in current
production. Cloning! Hoisting, filtering. A little less
Mac-like than the
others (lots of square buttons, Windows-style interface).
Graphical document
map sidebar. Not programmable yet.
- $30-34 depending on where you buy it for Mac OS X
- DevonThink: http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/
- Meet DEVONthink — designed to manage and keep in order all those
disparate pieces of information so important to your work or
studies. As you
become more experienced with DEVONthink and its easy,
intuitive interface
you will quickly find more exciting ways of using your data.
DEVONthink
comes in a number of flavors tailored to different needs and
user types:
- DEVONthink Personal: Home and small office ($49.95)
- DEVONthink Pro: Advanced functionality, office use ($79.95)
- DEVONthink Pro Office: Plus paperless office functionality
($149.95)
- DEVONnote: Basic note taking and organizing ($24.95)
- Award winning, by MacWorld
- Mac OS X only
- Debrief: http://debriefnotes.com/
- Debrief(R) is software for notes relating to experience, ideas,
activities, contacts, and more. Where do you keep your notes
today? Spiral
binders, legal pads, composition books, scraps of paper? How
fast can you
find an idea you jotted down last week, last month, or last
year? Imagine
keeping your notes in one place, and not misplacing them
again. Notes are
the core purpose of Debrief notes software. Make a note one
time, and view
it in many different contexts - by date, like a journal, log,
or diary. Or
by subject folder, like files in a drawer. And they can be
viewed within
additional contexts of the features mentioned below. Notes
are searchable
too.
- Comes in Standard ($29.95) and Professional ($39.95) versions for
Windows
- InfoHandler: http://www.download3000.com/download_30755.html
- *MDE InfoHandler* is a multipurpose information manager for your
PC and Pocket PC that you can use to organize notes,
documents, web links,
e-mail and news messages, dates, programs, and more, using a
uniform and sophisticated interface. It features a very powerful
categorization method including hierarchical organization of
categories,
master-slave relationships, text and number type categories,
and efficient
automatic categorization based on analyzing the text of an info item
(InfoItem) or of linked documents. Another special features are two
universal time stamps which you can set freely and use for sorting or
filtering the item list. The InfoItems are stored in special databases
called InfoBases and you can have several different windows
for the same
InfoBase simultaneously open side by side. You can view the
InfoItems either
as a table sorted by three of its columns or as a set of
trees formed by
hierarchically structured category groups - possibly
constrained by set-up
filters for categories or time. Many kinds of drag & drop
include dragging
web links and documents from browsers, emails from MS Outlook
(Express),
creating InfoItems as a result. You can also drag InfoItems between
InfoBases copying or moving them. Active links to external
objects include
those to web pages and documents as well as between InfoItems
in the same or
in different InfoBases. The text of an InfoItem can be richly
formatted and
you can store paragraph and/or character formats for later
re-application -
manually or automatically using a find-replace dialog. Other features
include several methods for text search, alarms bound to
InfoItems, flexible
print options, customizable toolbars, various data export and import
including with the Pocket PC companion, and the InfoShooter
which lets you
create new InfoItems on the fly. InfoHandler can be of help
if you are using
your PC on a daily basis to assist you with your professional
or hobbyist
requirements to master a flood of information.
- $73.90 for Windows
- GoBinder: http://www.gobinder.com/Default.aspx
- Collect. Schedule. Find. Compile Print-Free Research -- GoBinder
can turn web pages, PDF's, Word documents, PowerPoint
presentations, class
handouts, and more into digital paper, which you can
highlight and annotate
just like printed paper. Annotate Digitally -- Take notes
directly on your professor's presentation or class handout
using a keyboard
or Tablet stylus. Sketch charts, diagrams, add tables or shapes right
alongside your typed notes. Take Faster Notes with Auto-Outliner --
Quickly record lecture notes in auto-outline mode. Use bullets or
numbers and quickly navigate up to six level deep with tabs
and back tabs. Personal
Learning Archive -- Store all your downloaded, typed, even
handwritten school stuff in a personal learning archive.
Easily create tabs
for each of your courses, than organize class materials by
date, by lecture,
or whatever makes sense to you. Power Find -- Search every typed,
downloaded, even handwritten word from one place. Refine
searches by course,
category, type and/or folders. Use it to quickly outline
papers or study for
exams. Answer Flags -- Flag key concepts, questions, and to-do's.
Even create custom flags so you can immediately locate important
information. Use flags to quickly create your own flash
cards, answer keys,
or crib sheets. See the Whole Picture -- See a single snapshot of
all your classes' due dates, tests, and assignments with day, week and
month-view calendars. Easily Categorize -- Color code your courses
and personal life and their associated appointments, tasks,
and contacts.
Link individual items like team meetings, team members, and assignment
details together. Prioritize -- Prioritize tasks with user-defined
color codes. Set alarms and reminders for important due dates. Share
Data with Outlook & your Palm
Sync appointments, tasks, and contacts in Microsoft Outlook or a
Palm with GoBinder.
- Standard for $99.95 and Education for $49.95 for Windows
- ActionOutline: http://www.actionoutline.com/
- ActionOutline - store and arrange all your information in a tree
outline form! Build outlined freeform storage for your
thoughts, ideas and
information in an intuitive way! You come up with this
brilliant thought, or
maybe your mother just sent you a recipe for her new chicken
casserole. What
do you do with this information? With ActionOutline you now
have a place to
put all your info and thoughts! A simple yet useful organizer,
ActionOutline consists of an Explorer-like interface where
you can store and
arrange all your information in a tree outline form. Arrange
items using
your keyboard or mouse, cut and paste branches, place checks
or tags next to
listed items, search information, print data, export to the
external file,
or link to web or local files. ActionOutline can be your
be-all, end-all
solution to organizing your life. When you want it out of sight simply
minimize it to your system tray where it's available for your
next fleeting
thought or item. The possibilities for its use are
practically endless:
to-do lists, recipes, project notes, personal contacts,
bookmark lists,
reports, term papers and more. ActionOutline 3 lets you
handle multiple
outlines with ease, thanks to the new tabbed multi-document
interface. And
with Network Edition of ActionOutline you can share your
outlines on the
network!
- Standard ($39.95) and Network ($79.95) versions for Windows
- Surfulater: http://www.surfulater.com/
- With Surfulater you can permanently save anything you find on the
web, in other applications and on your hard drive, and
organize it in ways
you haven't dreamt of yet. For starters you can categorize,
cross reference
and do full text searches. Plus tag, annotate and edit
whatever you have
saved to make it all the more valuable. And of course you can
find anything
in a flash. Surfulater - the super smart way to build a
permanent, personal
digital reference library, one you can even carry around with you.
- $79 on Windows PC.
- Backpack: http://www.backpackit.com/
- Organize your business and share information with your team. An
Intranet in 30 Seconds. Over 350,000 Accounts! To-dos,
Announcements, Ideas,
Files. Easily centralize & share information across your
organization. Keep
a Group Calendar Online. Keep everyone's schedule online
with a color-coded
calendar.
- Award winning software with accolades from PC Magazine, NY Times,
Business Week and PC World
- Three tiers:
- Basic: $24/mo.
- Plus: $49/mo.
- Pro: $99/mo.
- LessonsLearnedServer: LessonsLearnedServer.com
- To circumvent that, *LessonsLearnedServer* provides a
knowledgebase central for an organization to quickly collect and store
unstructured information - in the form of textual content, answered
questions, documented techniques, resolved problems,
articles, documents,
white papers, images, etc. - and intelligently exploring and
retrieving that
information. LessonsLearnedServer streamlines those tasks through a
sophisticated yet simple and intuitive web-interface that provides
hierarchical information storage along with powerful extraction and
retrieval features. All that available through a smart
background service
for handling the lengthy tasks of data extraction, indexing
and retrieval.
- 5 accounts for $129
- MyInfo: http://www.milenix.com/
- MyInfo is a personal information manager for Windows. It will
help you capture, organize, edit and share ideas, documents,
tasks, and web
pages.
- Standard version for $49 for PC Windows.
- Chandler: http://chandlerproject.org/
- Chandler is an open source Note-to-Self Organizer. It features
calendaring, task and note management and consists of a
desktop application,
web application and a free sharing and back-up service called Chandler
Hub.Our goal is to serve the way people actually work,
independently and
together, particularly in small groups, a market segment we believe is
underserved. Our belief is that personal and collaborative
information work
is by nature iterative and that the existing binary *Done/Not-Done,
Read/Unread, Flagged/Unflagged* paradigm in productivity software
poorly accommodates the reality of how people work.We are
also committed to
breaking down technological barriers that prevent effective
collaboration.
Chandler Desktop and Chandler Server are cross-platform and
standards-based
because we realize that collaboration can't and shouldn't be
trapped within
a single system. Chandler Server provides web access to
shared information
that makes it easy for collaborators to hook into Chandler
workflows without
having to download the Desktop application.
- Free for Windows, Mac OS, Linux
- Do-organizer: http://www.gemx.com/?page_id=1884
- do-Organizer includes useful tools to improve your experience and
qualify you as an achiever. Store valuable information with a
versatile,
elegant, and customizable data manager. Creatively highlight
information
with a huge library of quality clipart, icons, and pictures that will
enhance every presentation.
- $49.95 for download, $59.95 on CD for Windows
- TexNotes Pro: http://www.gemx.com/?page_id=1885
- Keeping all your valuable notes and information can't get any
better than with TexNotes. Each day we are confronted with
enormous amounts
of data. Organizing, memorizing, and utilizing this vast amount of
information is often overwhelming. Short-term solutions like writing
everything down on scattered pieces of paper is both ineffective and
ultimately fruitless.
- $19.95 for download, $29.95 on CD for Windows
- TotalNotes:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/TotalNotes.shtml
- An application that will turn your storage device into another
brain, and carry it to work on any PC. Searching for a piece
of information
on your hard disk can be very time comsuming and also quite
dispiriting if
you can not find what you want. As more and more information from the
internet, email, office working files, digital cameras etc.
accumulates,
knowledge workers need an integrated, robust office suite with
filing/document management capabilities to improve their
daily work flow.
TotalNotes does the job for you. TotalNotes lets you turn your storage
device into another brain, and carry it to work on any PC. Although
TotalNotes performs great installed on a PC or Notebook, it
is completely
portable. You can also install it onto any usb hard disk or
flash drive and
start it directly from the removable drive, letting you use
it on computers
that will not allow user installed software. This 100%
portability makes
TotalNotes an excellent integrated knowledge management
solution for mobile
workers who need to work on multiple computers, whether at
home, at school,
at the office (with administrative rights) or at a client's
office, even at
hotel business centers, airport lounges and internet cafes.
- $49.95 on Windows PC
- TaskMerlin: http://www.taskmerlin.com/
- A simple but very powerful project and task manager that allows you
to add notes to projects, link each item to other items or to
websites and
to files, create your own filter and sort criterias using a powerful
designer or SQL and reminders
- No Outlook integration/link
- Accolades from PCWorld
- Personal ($49) and Professional ($99) on Windows PC
- uOrganized: http://www.veetosoft.com/uOrganized.html
- uOrganized unique approach let users decide what's the most
appropiate and productive configuration for their needs. Just
take a look at
these layouts, they look different but it's the same program,
at the same
price with the same number of features organized in a
different way. You can
choose any of them when program starts (you can also
customize and create
your own interface).
- $29.95 for Windows PC
- NoteFinder: http://notefinder.co.cc
- The main concept of it is notebook. You can create as much
notebooks as you want. Each notebook has its backend. The
following backends
are provided now: FileSystem (stores entries as organized
plain text files,
features tagging), Files (stores entries as non-organized
plain text files),
DokuWiki (uses DokuWiki powered website to store entries),
RSS (NoteFinder
isn't RSS reader, but this backend may be useful for some
people), iPod (you
can use notes on your player), iCalendar (uses vCalendar
Journals), Mail (if
you have no access to your computer, you can mail your notes
to specified
email address from mobile phone or another computer and then
view them and
maybe copy into local notebooks with NoteFinder), Zim (uses
Zim's files and
directories tree) and Wixi. Wiki Creole or HTML markups are
available for
rich text editing. Plugins system is presented. NoteFinder requires
Python, Qt 4, PyQt 4, setuptools and, optionally,
python-feedparser (for RSS
backend).
- NoteFinder is licensed under the terms of BSD Revised License.
- EagleFiler: http://c-command.com/eaglefiler/
- EagleFiler files are stored in directories and subdirectories in
their native formats. What EagleFiler provides are ways of
organizing those
files: such as an indexed, hierarchical overview of the files
in a folder
("library"), searches, and smart folders that find all files
that match
specified criteria.
- $40 for Mac OS X
- Leap: http://www.ironicsoftware.com/leap/
- Information management software that works by means of a tagging
system
- $59 for Mac OS X
- Together: http://reinventedsoftware.com/together/
- Together lets you keep everything in one place. Text, documents,
images, movies, sounds, web pages and bookmarks can all be dragged to
Together for safe keeping, tagged, previewed, collected together in
different ways and found again instantly.
- $39 for Mac OS X
- NoteCase Outliner: http://notecase.sourceforge.net
- NoteCase outliner helps you to organize your text notes into a
document, with individual notes placed in the tree-like
structure. To ensure
your privacy, encrypted document format is supported.
- Project is multi-platform and open source (BSD license).
Win/Linux/OSX/FreeBSD/Zaurus/Nokia N800
- NoteCase Pro: http://www.virtual-sky.com
- NoteCase Pro is an advanced commercial version of Notecase
project. It's an outliner that helps you to organize your
text notes into a
document, with individual notes placed in the tree-like structure,
supporting encrypted document format.
- Win/Linux/OSX/Zaurus/Nokia N800
- TKoutline: http://tkoutline.sourceforge.net/wiki/
- Tkoutline is a single pane, cross-platform outline editor written
in Tcl/Tk . With this editor, information can be structured
hierarchically
in an outline and outlines can be hyperlinked together to
create a web of
outlines.
- Free for PC Windows
- InfoQube: http://sites.google.com/site/infoqube/Home
- *InfoQube* is a Windows application to manage *your* information
(text, numbers, lists, web, contacts, tasks, notes) in outline format.
- $49.95 for license
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