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General Knowledge Base vs Ask Sam vs Idea
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Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 04:06 AM
I have just come into about 3000 pages of journal articles that I need to quickly get set up in the best ways possible.
Some are PDF. Most are in word processing files.
I have to make some serious choices.
I can see GKB, Ask Sam, or Idea being possible solutions. Splitting articles up in Zoot is a pain.
Plus I am having difficulty getting all my databases to open as part of one project in Zoot, and until I can figure out how to clean up that mess I want to lay off Zoot for a while.
I also figure I could use Ultra Recall, which is set up on a USB stick.
Or I could put it all in Surfulater.
I like the idea of Idea, being able to group articles into projects.
Frankly, I am feeling overwhelmed. And I don’t have time with so much stuff to get into the system to spend figuring out what kind of database to use.
Re UR, I like being able to make notes on a document. But I am never quite sure how to differentiate between bringing a Word doc into UR, or simply linking to it.
Hope this all makes some sense.
And to make matters even more challenging, the mentor who has given me the 3,000 pages, says there’s about another 5,000.
Please help—suggestions, or criteria to use so I can make a good decision. I thought I knew this stuff. But now I am aware of how little I know.
I kind of like AskSam and its entry forms, but I have heard so many horrow stories about AskSam’s Jim Lewis approach to customer relations that I am afraid. As well, the AskSam group is down to aboout 40 members, not a good sign.
Thanks to any and all for your help.
BTW, time is of the essence, because I need to start doing some writing based on parts of this material within the next week or so.
Daly
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
Jan 20, 2008 at 07:06 AM
Daly,
I would use UR.
Reasons:
- You can define the attributes and enter the metadata to each article on a form.
- I suggest to run a test and import all Word files. Then these files are indexed and accessible through the UR search
- UR is very stable even with huge databases. My main database has 2000 items and is 15 MB. No crashes, no access violations on two completely different computers
- USB option: Very nice, you can carry your databasse and UR on a USB stick with you and work on *any* computer
- Logical linking: you can link together similar articles or articles which belongs together
- Adding texts to each item, whether in the editor or on the notes panes. Further, you can export the texts and notes to word
- Tight integration with Word. If the editor is not sufficient you can do the editing in Word (to add tables, for example) and load the text back to UR
I don’t know Surfulater, askSam or GKB well enough to say these are better or worse tools for your project.
I just recommend UR because I am usin it every day and because I don’t have any issues with it (keep wood touched).
Dominik
Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Jan 20, 2008 at 11:55 AM
The optimal solution depends on the collection’s purpose. But since you are under pressure, if I were you, in choosing a database I would emphasize : 1) my familiarity with the software and 2) its freedom from reliability problems and other issues.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 20, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Hi Daly,
I would second UltraRecall for reliability and ease of use. As far as I know, you should be able to do in UR anything you might have done with the other programs, though I am not very familiar with AskSam or GKB.
For your needs I would rule out Surfulater, which is very capable with HTML content but, as far as I know, can’t search within attachments. Similarly, IDEA! uses Windows Search to the search inside attached files; in addition, the program hasn’t been updated for a couple of years.
>I am never quite sure how to differentiate between bringing a Word
>doc into UR, or simply linking to it.
You should import the documents into UR if you want them indexed for quick searches, which I definitely suggest considering the sheer size of material. This will happen automatically upon importing as long as .doc and .pdf are included in Options / Import / Keywording (they are by default). You can keep the original files in place if you want as well, as the links will be maintained.
Both the Word and PDF files can be opened in the UR window itself if you so wish; see Options / Documents. Note however that anotating PDFs is not as easy as editing Word documents. Special PDF editing software is required. However, you can keep notes for each file in its Item Notes pane.
You’ll be able to organise files within folders in UR’s tree; cloning is supported so the same document can exist in several folders.
>And to make matters even more challenging, the mentor who has given me the 3,000 pages, says
>there’s about another 5,000.
UR uses a compressed SQL database so you will see little differences in speed regardless of size (mine is about 50 Mb) after they have been imported.
alx
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 20, 2008 at 02:20 PM
Dominik, thanks.
Point of clarification: An imported Word file, as I understand it, lives in the UR database as opposed to being linked to it, though it may *also* be linked to the actual Word file.
If I make a change to the imported Word file, is my understanding correct that the change is not made to the linked copy.
I am already running UR successfull on a stick, and have more than 1.5 gig free on the stick, which also has on it Open Office, Skype, and a few other programs.
What happens when you want UR on more than one stick? Do you pay for another copy? Or can you install UR on as many sticks as you want?
Thanks again for your help.
It looks like once you made the shift to UR from ADM you never turned back. Any regrets—if ADM was again to be developed, but in a way with integrity, would you consider going back?
Daly
Dominik Holenstein wrote:
>Daly,
>
>I would use UR.
>
>Reasons:
>- You can define the attributes and enter the
>metadata to each article on a form.
>- I suggest to run a test and import all Word files.
>Then these files are indexed and accessible through the UR search
>- UR is very stable
>even with huge databases. My main database has 2000 items and is 15 MB. No crashes, no
>access violations on two completely different computers
>- USB option: Very nice,
>you can carry your databasse and UR on a USB stick with you and work on *any* computer
>-
>Logical linking: you can link together similar articles or articles which belongs
>together
>- Adding texts to each item, whether in the editor or on the notes panes.
>Further, you can export the texts and notes to word
>- Tight integration with Word. If
>the editor is not sufficient you can do the editing in Word (to add tables, for example)
>and load the text back to UR
>
>
>I don’t know Surfulater, askSam or GKB well enough to say
>these are better or worse tools for your project.
>I just recommend UR because I am usin
>it every day and because I don’t have any issues with it (keep wood
>touched).
>
>Dominik
>
>
>