Advice on research software

Posted by Wayne K
Aug 17, 2013 at 02:10 PM

Bill, it’s interesting how you’ve been able to overcome one of Evernote’s weak points. For this particular project though, I think I"m going to need something different. Organizing will be paramount.

22111, what software are you referring to when you say there’s dedicated software and it’s expensive? I’m willing to get something expensive if needed (as long as we’re talking $500 expensive, not $50,000). For your examples, I would need both reports A and B. Some of what I need will emerge only after I get into the process of entering the notes. So I would need the ability to add fields after records are completed.

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked with this material so I’m not able to give you a laundry list of exactly what kind of output I want. I worked on this 25 years ago using a Kaypro II and a word processor. I did all the sorting manually. Those notes are still useful. I would like to upgrade what I did before and have all the material in a single program that I can use for research. When I’m done, I should be able to filter the material by any of the fields and create reports that summarizes all the testimony on any topic.

An example of a report would be “Indians’ first sighting of Custer”. The report would be similar to a spreadsheet with each row having the individual’s name, tribe, date the account was given, and a summary of what was said. This report could then be sorted by any of the headings (name, date, tribe, etc)

I’ve been assuming that I would try one of my PIMs for this project along with looking at ConnectText and maybe other academic research software. Then I saw the thread here titled “List of ALL info-managers with custom attributes!”. This thread included a list of free-form databases. I looked at some of these but didn’t do any trials. It set me to thinking that maybe I should be looking at a database solution. That’s what prompted this thread.

I’m probably not making myself clear. All I’m really asking is whether anyone has experience using a free-form database like Access to organize research notes. If so, how did it work out?