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Year end Outliner/PIM review/roll call

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Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 3, 2016 at 01:00 AM

 

In 2015 I didn’t do much CRIMPing, other than upgrading essential software to newer versions or paying subscriptions. I feel pretty settled and happy with my current selection of software.
 
I’m getting more and more into using Chromebooks for web- and cloud-based work. I have also decided to stick with Windows 7 for the foreseeable future. My only connection to iOS is my iPod Touch.
 
What am I looking forward to? The new ConnectedText (apparently a major redesign), the new WriteMonkey, the new SmartDown (for Windows). I also hope that Surfulater will get its Chrome and Firefox add-ons fixed.
 
There are also a few things that I hope won’t happen in 2016, such as the rumoured merger of Chrome OS and Android (I’m a big Chromebook fan and I don’t want Android to ruin Chrome OS).
 
- Main software used in 2015:

  - cross-platform (Windows, Chromebooks, iPod Touch, Android)
  - WorkFlowy
    - project and task development, management, tracking, and recall
    - workflow development and archiving
    - note-taking
    - outlining
  - Google Calendar
    - for managing the execution of time and date-specific tasks
  - Google Sheets (Google Drive)
    - tracking productivity
    - project management
  - Gingko for outlining
 
- Windows:
  - ConnectedText
    - project management, tracking, archiving
    - notes database (Zettelkasten)
    - diary archive
  - WriteMonkey for writing in Markdown
  - SmartDown to edit Markdown texts
  - SmartDraw CI for drawing diagrams
  - VUE for concept mapping
  - Freeplane for mind mapping
  - Outline 4D for outlining
  - Surfulater for capturing and organising web pages
  - Dragon NaturallySpeaking 14 Pro DPI
  - PhraseExpander Pro

  - Chromebook (Chrome OS)
  - Caret - for diary writing in plain text and saving to Google Drive
  - Kami - for reading and annotating PDFs on my Asus Chromebook Flip

 


Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Jan 3, 2016 at 11:29 AM

 

zoe wrote:
Hey bob, it’s me again with another did-you-know-Emacs-could-do-that
>tip: if you like nvAlt/ResophNotes, you might try Deft
>(http://jblevins.org/projects/deft/). It’s a minor mode so it can
>co-exist with Markdown Mode, and it does pretty much what Notational
>Velocity does. You type to filter your notes or to create a new note.
>New notes are created as separate files in .md, .txt, .org or whatever
>format you specify. 

I’ve tried it. It’s neat, but I think one of the weaknesses of using Emacs is poor integration with the rest of the system. I just can’t access it as easily as Resophnotes (which I pull up with a global hotkey.)

Though, it did surface a weird issue with the way Resophnotes stores titles v.s. other note-taking apps, including Deft. Resophnotes uses the name of the text file as the title, which means the title is missing if I load it anywhere else. There is a setting to add the title to the note itself, but then that creates an issue where I end up with the title in my notes multiple times. That has happened before, but only now do I realize what was causing it.

 


Posted by jaslar
Jan 3, 2016 at 11:26 PM

 

I started to say that I’m getting simpler:

- Google Tasks as a multi-device way to capture my modest to dos
- Google Calendar to manage the calendar
- SimpleNote for most non-private notes
- Keeper (on Android and iOS) for passwords
- Notecase Pro for more encrypted journals (not that anyone would be interested in my life)

But that wouldn’t be the whole truth.

New discoveries in the year:

- Editorial - by far the best markdown (iOS) editor I’ve found, AND a Taskpaper clone at the same time
- Smartdown - really, a joy to write in on Windows.
- JotterPad on Android - nice markdown, no folding. Don’t use it much, but paid for it because I admire it.
- Org-mode. Emacs, as I’ve written before, is just a bottomless rabbit hole, but works on both Linux and Windows (and Mac, if I still had access to one, but I don’t).. But it tends to reward you for the work. I’m still loving the markdown-mode as a solid writing tool.
And I got a lot of writing done in those environments over the year.

Mind mapping:
- mostly, I use this for talks, and somehow have drifted over to iThoughts HD
- still like Mindscope for Trello-like big picture planning
- Workflowy - quick and dirty journal and task management for the day
- intrigued by Dynalist (formerly omniflow.io, now dynalist.io)

 


Posted by MadaboutDana
Jan 4, 2016 at 03:25 PM

 

My interest in Chromebooks has been revived by the astonishingly good Toshiba (with HD screen), which I spent about half an hour playing with in John Lewis and very nearly bought. However, I’m very much a Mac person nowadays, so a purchase would have been pure self-indulgence… ;-)

I appreciate your decision re: Windows 7, but would recommend a second look at Windows 10. I’m running it in a virtual machine (VirtualBox) on my Mac, and it’s a truly great desktop OS - you really don’t have to use it in tablet mode at all; the main advantage over Windows 7 is the vast increase in efficiency (you really don’t need more than 2GB to run it in, as I’ve found with my HP Pavilion X2; indeed, the virtual machine only has 1GB of RAM assigned to it, because my MacBook Air can’t spare any more). There are ways of disabling the “Microsoft phone home” function that has so alarmed many people.

The (new) iPod Touch is really very, very good; I’ve just bought one for my film-making son, who is astonished by the quality of its recordings. Replacing a bunch of expensive film cameras with a handful of iPod Touches is a genuinely valid proposition (you’d need extras, of course, such as clip-on lenses etc., but it’s already been done).

Maybe we’ll see a ConnectedText for Mac at some point in the not-too-distant…

Dr Andus wrote:
>I’m getting more and more into using Chromebooks for web- and
>cloud-based work. I have also decided to stick with Windows 7 for the
>foreseeable future. My only connection to iOS is my iPod Touch.

 


Posted by Ian Goldsmid
Jan 4, 2016 at 05:08 PM

 

Paul Korm wrote:
Oh, sorry—my comment on DEVONthink 3 was more aspirational than
>concrete—though enticing hints are dropped here and there in the
>forum. 

ok, no worries! I am naively hoping that Devonthink might get some of the power features of Ultrarecall in the future ... [sigh ...]

 


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