Best personal information, knowledge and idea manager software?

Posted by Hillman
Dec 14, 2013 at 02:08 AM

May I suggest Info Select 10 plus Lotus Organizer 6.1. They will perfectly match your requirements.

Despite IS 10’s shortcomings compared to IS 2007 (database and export function), it is a powerful information management software. You can store all kind of file extensions, prepare notes, and capture web contents (amongst other tasks). Whilst the first IS 10 releases occasionally crashed (on both, XP & Win 7), several patched versions have been released in the meantime and IS 10 now runs very stable on both, XP & Win 7. BTW: There also exists a portable version of IS that you can run from a memory stick. Moreover, IS is one of the oldest outliners around (since 1986, known as Tornado). I started using it some three years ago and all my information (e-mails and correspondence as PDF) go into IS. It is just amazing. I use Lotus Organizer 6.1 in conjunction with IS 10. It arguably is the best PIM that ever existed. Unfortunately, IBM stopped selling it back March 2013. However, you can easily obtain the IBM Lotus SmartSuite 9.8.2 (that contains) LO on eBay. Also, it has been confirmed that it will run on Win 8! I use it extensively for time planning, personal information, and contact management. With that respect, LO is quite sophisticated, since you can cross link information, i.e. between Contacts, Calendar, To Do, and Notepad. Also, I use it for organizing weblinks (Web section). As IBM has halted sales and support of LO, it can be considered as “deadware”. However, there still is a well-frequented forum hosted by IBM. Lastly, and that perhaps is the biggest advantage, you can export LO data in .dbf format and also import from that format. This means that despite LO being “deadware”, it is open towards other software, so you are not trapped in it.

On the other hand, I would not recommend Evernote. They had some security issues (hacked passwords) and of course, your data is in the cloud. Also, I believe it just is too impractical for heavy daily use. Ultra Recall frequently is mentioned as the favourite outliner. However, their support forum suggests that there are functionality issues.

To conclude: Stick to tried and tested outliners and PIMs. I do it and only can recommend Info Select 10 and Lotus Organizer 6.1.