Curio 5.0

Posted by Hugh
Oct 24, 2008 at 01:46 PM

Captain CowPie wrote:
>Steve,
> >I tried Curio and really was impressed with it’s abilities. I just don’t know
>what I would use it for that would justify the price.
> >
>Vince
> >

As Steve says, Curio is an exceptional application. The way I think about is as a very large virtual whiteboard on to which you can place all kinds of digital items - with the added advantage that you can also start to project-manage their use as well. Virtually whatever you could do on a real - but huge - whiteboard, you can do with Curio. You can start to trace spatial/mindmap-type relationships between items, you can just park them, you can transform them in various ways, or you can pretty them up and put together a presentation. I can imagine the software being useful in, say, an ad agency.

I use it at the throw-stuff-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks stage of writing, especially if visuals are involved. I probably wouldn’t use it in putting together a precise argument or polemic because there the tools of a traditional text outliner would be more valuable, nor would I use it in “late-stage” outlining of any kind, because it won’t give you an OPML or Word-type outline you can export elsewhere. But for for free-form creative doodling, it’s terrific.

And it’s in active development.