Some outliners and the features Unicode, search in the tree, website publishing

Posted by Tester
Nov 25, 2013 at 10:28 PM

Perhaps it is of interest for some readers - or perhaps someone can recommend a convincing alternative. ;-)

Since a while I am looking for an outliner (information database) whose main functions should be to replace (sometime in the future) a dictionary that I maintain up to now in Word (as common doc-files) and to publish it as a website in the Internet.

I have tested numerous programs of that kind and unfortunately I have to say that with none of them I am completely (and not even almost completely) satisfied.

It is self-evident that the software should be able to transfer correctly the contents of a word document (including tables etc.) without any change in formatting. Moreover it should offer the possibility to edit the tables, to create hyperlinks etc. Programs that do not even fulfill these basic conditions (and there are various of them) are ruled out anyway.

Of importance would also be that the program can handle a bigger database (some thousand items / documents) without crashing or causing big delays during opening, saving or searching. But I could not test this in detail because with the exception of my two favorite programs (azzCardfile and Myinfo) I filled the databases only with a couple of items (= text documents in my case). Useful information about this aspect (the performance of a program in case of a bigger database) is included in the detailed reviews of various outliners that I found here: http://pauljmiller.wordpress.com/

Beside of these criteria, three features would be indispensable for me:

a) support of Unicode
b) comfortable search function within the tree (= within the item/document titles = the keywords in the case of a dictionary)
d) possibility to export the database as a website (that means: not only producing html-files, but also the tree structure)

It is strange that not only one program can offer all these three features in a satisfying way. I will start with the three programs that made the best impression to me (azzCardfile, MyInfo and Memo Book), afterwards I will mention some others in alphabetical order:

1. azzCardfile (Azz Cardfile):
http://www.azzcardfile.net/ and http://www.azzcardfile.com/
Pros:
Concerning the search function, azzCardfile is for my needs clearly the best program I could find:
Above the tree (= the list with the keywords) – or better: integrated within the tree – you have a search field (“Filter”) that is steadily “opened”. That means I do not have to click anywhere in order to activate this search function. When beginning to type a keyword, the tree already shows me the filtered results (and the first matching document is automatically opened in the editor). Concerning the filter I have the option to search only for whole words (or not) and to search only for words who start with the letters I type (or not, so that for example the search for “nation” would also show me “international” etc.).

(Moreover azzCardfile offers a good fulltext search [within the contents of the documents], but this function is not of such a big importance for my needs.)

Cons:
- No possibility of exporting the database a a website. That is (for me) the big diasadvantage of the program. Otherwise I would regard it as the best one for my purposes.
- The program has a number of small bugs and an uncomfortable way of opening hyperlinks. But I think these flaws could be eliminated in future versions.

2. “MyInfo”
http://www.milenix.com
Pros:
I would regard it – together with azzCardfile – as the best program (always spoken for my individual needs of course) and I am inclined to buy it after the end of the trial period.
Nevertheless there are various disadvantages too:

Cons:
- The search function is by far more inconvenient than the one from azzCardfile. Within the toolbar you have a permanently open search field too (that is positive) but in order to search within the tree (= the document titles) you have to type every time the word “title:” (followed by the keyword), afterwards you have to confirm the search by clicking on the search symbol etc. The pleasant thing is that the developer is planning to improve considerably the search function in future versions. And this plan is an important reason why I regard this program as my potentially favourite one.
- The export as a website works easily and without problems but formatting is not fully retained in the web version: especially line spacing is too small (and the width of the tables is bigger than in the editor). That means that the appearance of the text on the website is rather unattractive. For this issue the developer also announced an improvement (but unfortunately not within the next time but only in the long run).

On the whole, MyInfo is a nice program but I am still unsure if I should spend quite a large amount (99,95 Dollar is the price for the professional version) as long as the mentioned problems are not resolved.

3. “Memo Book”:
http://www.memo-book.net/en/overview-en.html
Pros:
Easy to use; quite comfortable search function; possibility to export as a website with better results than MyInfo concerning the line spacing (as it is retained as shown in the editor).
Cons:
- For some (unknown) reason this program uses in its editor a zoom instead of adopting the font size of a pasted text as it is in Word. And with this zoom you cannot chose a zoom factor by yourself but you have only the possibility of 100%, 150% and some others. 100% is by far too small, 150% ist too big. So the program is obviously not able to give you in its editor the same view of a text that it has in Word (concerning its size). After exporting as website all is o.k. again: You see the text in its “correct” size (as it was in Word). But as I would work with the documents mainly in the editor, the program is useless for me because of this completely silly and unnecessary zoom.
- Another important issue: I found no possibility to sort the documents in the tree alphabetically. You can make it manually, but I expect from such a software that it can do this automatically. Such a feature exists for the attachments of files and for the lines of tables but obviously not for the tree items! At least I could not find it.

These two annoying flaws are a pity because they make useless for me a program that otherwise could be quite attractive (and with 49 Dollars is not very expensive).

4. “Aml Pages”:
http://www.amlpages.com/about.shtml
Has a quite confusing user interface; no export as a website.

5. “EssentialPIM”:
http://www.essentialpim.com/
Pro:
It has a quite comfortable search function and is easy to use.
Cons:
- an annoying issue concerning the hyphens when pasting a text from word; moreover tables are smaller than in Word
- no export as a website

6. “InfoRecall”
http://www.inforecall.com/Index.html
Pro:
It has a quite comfortable search function and is very easy to use (concerning the creation of new documents etc.)
Cons:
- Unicode in general works, but not in the titles of the documents
- no export as a website

7. “InSight”:
http://www.dataomega.com/insight/index.htm
That’s a quite unpleasant program:
Very expensive (124,95 Dollar), but it was not even able to retain the formatting details from Word (font size, tables, underlining etc.) when pasting a doc-text!
I only mention this program because they say that it has the possibility to create a website. (I did not try it after I saw that not even the basics work.)

8. “Maple”:
http://www.crystaloffice.com/maple/
You can export the database as a website but in its tree (document titles) the non-latin characters are not depicted correctly (only in the text of the documents they are o.k.).
Moreover again a problem with the formatting on the website version: font size is too big, line spacing is too small.

9. “MemoMaster”:
http://www.jbsoftware.de/memomaster/
Pro: a search function that is almost as good as the one of azzCardfile
Cons:
- although Unicode in general seems to be supported, you cannot make a search for words with non-latin-characters
- no export as a website

10. “myBase”:
http://www.wjjsoft.com/mybase.html
Pro:
relatively comfortable search function
Cons:
You have the possibility to export the database as a website but in practice this feature is completely useless because important parts of the formatting are lost in the html-files: line spacing and font size are completely different compared to the editor, tables are completely “destroyed” etc.
(There is also an add-on called “myBase CGI” for publishing of the database on a website but this add-on requires a special web server.)

11. “My Notes Keeper”:
http://www.mynoteskeeper.com/index.html
Pro: quite comfortable search function
Con: no export as website

12. “RightNote”:
http://bauerapps.com/
I saw only negative aspects (for my needs):
You can export to html-files but not create a “full” website; the export to html-files does not work with titles that have non-latin characters etc.

13. “TreePad”:
http://www.treepad.com/
Pro:
It offers you a comfortable feature to create a website (in certain versions even with a search engine); the appearance of the website can be easily configured in various ways and is perhaps more attractive than the result with MyInfo.
Cons:
No Unicode support in the current version. They plan a version with Unicode (called “treepaduni”: http://www.treepad.com/treepaduni/), but it is still not available and moreover its functions will be quite reduced: They write that “because we do not want to be overly ambitious, initial releases will not support the entire feature set of e.g. TreePad PLUS, such as images, tables, underlined hyperlinks, bullets, indents”.
That means that “treepaduni” will not be of any use for me too (at least not in its “initial releases”).

14. “TreeProjects”:
http://personaldatabase.org/
Pro:
The search function is almost as good as the one in “azzCardfile”, links can be created even more comfortable than with “azzCardfile” – a nice program and easy to use
but:
Con: no possibility to export as a website

15. “Ultra Recall”:
http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/
Pros:
Another software whose function is almost as good as the one in “azzCardfile” (but you have to click in order to open the search field).
Cons:
- The alphabetical order in the tree is not always correct (at least in case of titles with non-latin characters).
- The export as a website does not work flawless: for example there is no export of documents (“notes”) which have non-latin characters as title. And the line spacing on the website is not correct (similar issue as with MyInfo).

16. “Web Idea Tree”:
http://www.webideatree.com/
As the title says, you can create a website; but this seems to be a quite complicated process (if you are not familiar with this matter). Moreover the program did not depict non-latin characters although they claim on their website that Unicode is supported.
Maybe that this program has its merits, but for me it was too complicated.

17. “Whizfolders”:
http://whizfolders.com/
No possbility to export as a (full) website. (Only html-files of the documents can be created.)

As you can see, the general impression is not overwhelming.