Combining the Opera browser with FBO plus Solvr for a free preliminary manual bookmark organizer outliner.

Posted by Foolness
Sep 13, 2012 at 09:58 AM

Links:
http://a.freshbrain.com/solvr/
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/the-reminder/
http://davidseah.com/blog/node/the-fast-book-outliner/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU5M4jW_kvk

Tutorial: http://a.freshbrain.com/solvr/help

These are actually quite old concepts but I did a search on this forum and I didn’t spot any topics on this and it doesn’t sit well with me that if I’m going to be potentially banished that the forum would be sorely lacking in posters knowing about this software.

As I don’t want to go from being accused as a long term dictator to a short topic spammer, I’m throwing in a random “spur of the moment” guide on combining all these four just to avoid being accused of being a “multi-topic” poster. The result is not any different from a basic outliner but it’s more tailored for hobbyist social curation than a normal outliner.

The core is FBO which as the name says is the Fast Book Outliner. It’s not an actual software but it is going to be the prime premise for this guide so if you want to read it, read it right now but it’s not necessary.

It’s meant for real book reading but my experience of it’s concept doesn’t really help me much. Mostly though I don’t want to condition myself in the habit of having templates lying around while reading a book.

For webpage though it’s good enough to outline several short pages at least. Software like Surfulator, PearlTress, Scrapbook++ are better for highlighting webpages and there are of course many quick one push bookmark buttons for reading later but I find I’m quicker with a plain text, url on the side and rewriting/copy pasting my last read paragraph helps me remember the feeling I was having when I stopped. Especially for long webpages I’d rather blind copy than return to a full webpage if possible.

This is where Opera’s built-in copy to note works best. Highlight, right click, context menu -> copy to note.

Do it right then the Opera Notes panel is going to be full of your copy pasted notes. The idea here isn’t really to flip between the notes panel and the webpages you’re reading.

>If you did this right, step 1 would be:
>100 tab pages (arbitrary number to highlight why you may want it to be in bookmarks instead of sessions/>reading later lists), read 1 page, right click, copy to note, continue reading or move to next tab doing the >same thing.

optional step for non-opera users
-ctrl + F12 -> Advanced -> shortcuts -> Opera 9.2 compatible

Now pressing 1 and 2 would move your tab left and right. Sometimes it gets in the way of the address bar but just manually mouse through the next tab.

Now you have a set of notes inside the Opera notes panel with zero url linking back to the text you’ve highlighted. No problem, you should still have the tabs open.

This is where Solvr comes in. Just answer the question and it should make a link like this for you:

http://www.a.freshbrain.com/solvr/d/ixampomyui

^This is the url you want bookmarked. If you can have only one bookmark backed up, this is it. The master bookmark url instead of web bookmarking/cloud synced bookmarks. (You don’t have to delete them though. You just have to keep this in case.)

Solvr’s what’s called an argument mapping service but it’s extremely basic. Normally these things look like mindmaps but for those new to argument maps, it’s easier to understand a 3 tier outliner than an icon set mindmap.

If you’ve read about concept of “tags as concepts” before then this is “tree branches” as concepts.

Go ahead add an entry and you’ll spot the options: problem/comment/idea besides the large text box.

This is where you push the Solvr page to a separate window and the Opera notes panel besides it.

Shift+F12 - Panels - Panel placement: Floating works best for lots of tabs and tab to tab flicking.

The sidebars speak for themselves.

Either way, click on your notes, Ctrl+ A to select all and copy paste this to your Solvr.

This may seem cumbersome but keep in mind that unlike most other outliners, Solvr is doing the tagging and outlining for you cause that’s what argument map software do. They don’t dilly dally with sections/people/tone/interpretation. They don’t leave you alone when it comes to processing the content of the outline.

They do the work and analyzing arguments and later on the user can think for themselves but outline content isn’t important at all.

>Step 2:
>Don’t read just copy paste, delete the Opera Notes panel and now all the notes are inside Solvr.

This is where the step deviates from your typical outliner or GTD based process stage.

>Step 3:
>Read section by section of what you pasted.

Underneath each entry should be the same add as entry.

This is where the annotation comes in.

If the section you are reading has a problem, write a problem branch underneath it. If it’s an idea (even if the idea is to not overthink the post and skip to the sub-headers) put it there.

>Step 4:
>Download the Reminder Speed Dial Extension for Opera

Instructions: Open a new page - See Speed Dial - Right Click - Preferences - Add Notes - Click Save (Important!) - Delete tab with copied url (a clipboard manager is a good backup in case something goes wrong)

The trick here is to copy paste all the urls inside each note while deleting the opened tabs as they are copied.

At first it sounds like a cumbersome one button bookmark button but as soon as you’re done, you’ll see the urls flash by inside the speed dial where you put the extension in.

As each box flashes forward, the average eyes wouldn’t be able to spot the entire url except as glimpses on keywords.

Here’s where the magic comes in.

The speed dial now has those urls flashing. That’s your tag indicator. Instead of thinking what tag to put on a url for your preferred bookmark organizer, your brain naturally steers you towards the dominant image the url you’re seeing is hinting at. That’s your eyes working as natural outliners without overthinking on bookmarks on underthinking and creating a huge list.

On the Solvr side, the color pattern differences in problem vs. idea should help your eyes naturally do the same.

Start with the speed dial content (copying the note that catches your eye have categorized and deleting it under preferences) and then pasting it into a new tab. Opera’s ctrl+b is convenient for this.

Link that url to the notes you’ve been putting in Solvr and if it’s a problem, copy paste the url underneath it. (You decide what type it is this time) and just repeat until you hit on a note with an idea.

If you have time, read that page keeping that idea in mind. If you don’t, you can do the same as the problem or you can start actually bookmarking it into your preferred reading list/your preferred program.

The idea here really isn’t to cut down the content inside but to put as much to it. The Reminder Speed Dial being an unreliable storage will train the user to constantly value their bookmarks and the Solvr style will help speed up the memory rationale for why you read a certain page.

The beginning steps may seem way more complicated than an outliner but the late steps are more automatic than most basic outlining methods, most highlighters, most massive reading list creators when sorting through the bookmarks which is it’s biggest unique contribution to bookmark organization especially for those who are really bad at reviewing their bookmarks even when using a great software.

It also trains the reader to be more naturally skimming of text the more you blind right click then copy to note which helps better in speed reading (for bad/untrained speed readers) than either focused line by line quick reading or ultra fast skimming but I’m not a speed reader. I’m just saying the late stage method doesn’t punish the hoarder as much because of all the automatic priorities and color labels pre-registered in the processing stage to help the brain remember the links in context. Even in webpages that Opera couldn’t copy to note, it’s a good physical reminder that helps distinguish such a page as it’s own unique property rather than accidentally colliding articles with youtube videos in one folder/tag.