WhizFolders and Graphical Front Ends

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jul 14, 2006 at 03:28 AM

Ian, I read your note about WhizFolders with interest.

I have always thought that other programs could do most of what WF does, as well as some other things, such as provide clones, metadata, etc.

But from your post it appears as though you use WF for a lot of your notes.

I know that, like me, you try all kinds of software related to information processing bcause I see your name on many of the same forums I am on.

Bit it also seems from reading your posts that you are also using a number of the different programs.

So I am curious—what kind of information are you making notes about and processing, and how do you decide which program to put which notes into? Is it not a drag having information split among several programs? I know I am continually trying to get my usage down to one or two programs, and as my posts elsewhere in the last week or so indicate, I am pretty much choosing on MDE InfoHandler.

While there are things I like with other programs, such as the aesthetics and the idea of a nice neat outline, I am beginning to realize that when it comes to slicing and dicing information, and being able to get at it real fast, that IS is—for me—the best of the bunch.

Having said that, I have been testing both MyInfo and EverNote.

There’s no doubt that MyInfo has become one nice program, and—IMHO—a better choice than Whize Folders if one wants the outline metaphor. MI offers clones, tags (keywords), and metadata columns, as well as capture of web pages.

EverNote’s metaphor of the endless paper roll or tape is also appealing, and I especially like how the automatic categorizing works. However, it messes up a lot of the web pages it captures (especially The New York Times, which is a main information source for me). I thought it might be good to use it as a one place for all my data. Then with sober second though I realized that though I like the nifty auto cat feature, manual cats in IH can run circles around EN. And in version 10, Manfred has made it so much easier to add categories by way of the category tree.

The cat tree means you no longer have to use the bottom third or so of the page with the category groups, so you have more room for the actual documents. The cat tree is a left sidebar, and is easy to use.

IH has an autocat feature, but it seems to be not as automatic as EverNote’s. However, that’s a minor detail given how much more IH will do.

So, except for CRIMP motivated testing, I think my information is moving away from the outline to a system based on the infinite possibilities of groups of categories. The question of cloning doesn’t even come up because there are no folders. The categories are essentially tags.

I am interested in and do like ADM and Ariadne, and hope both succeed. But I have realized it does not make sense to spread data across different programs, and that I have spent way too many hours trying to make that work, and then wondering why I cannot find things easily.

Daly

Ian Goldsmid wrote:
>I am very excited about this:
> >WhizFolders has just implemented the ability to copy
>external links to its Tree Topics, AND links to text/paragraphs/section headings
>whatever ‘inside’ its Topics’ Notes - that can be pasted into many other applications
>- such that you can then navigate from that app to either a WhizFolders Topic (in the
>Tree) - or to some text buried deep in any Topic Notes Content (like an anchor)... See
>here:
>http://whizfolders.com/blog/index.php/category/news/alpha-version-news/.
>And by the way, what WhizFolders call an alpha is as good as or better than what many
>other vendors release as advanced betas.
> >So I am now using Axon Idea Processor
>(could have been any other concept or mind mapping tool, but I really love the freedom
>of the ‘many to many’ linking that you just don’t get with Mind Mapping tools which
>essentially just give a different view of a hierarchy) to create a Visual Navigation
>system around all my stuff, and especially my extensive notes in WhizFolders (and
>maybe in due course UltrRecall, if I can get the “Copy Item Command Line” to work in UR
>which I can’t right now)....
> >This combination of best of breed Notes Management,
>and Visual Diagramming/Linking that’s available now with WhizFolders (and perhaps
>UltraRecall), with Axon Idea Processor is precisely what I have been looking for for
>ages….
> >Thoughts?