iPad app update

ThinkBook for the iPad with the Slider activated.

I’ve had my iPad Mini now for about five months. It’s a terrific device and I’m glad I bought it. That doesn’t mean, however, that I haven’t had my frustrations with it. More specifically, my frustrations revolve around the apps I’ve been experimenting with trying to find just the right combination to make the Mini a useful device for actually doing things that matter to me.

Part of the learning curve for me has been figuring out just what it is I do WANT to do with the Mini. I think I originally had an inflated idea of what could be done EFFICIENTLY with the unit. The key word (as I not so subtly hinted at) is efficiently. There are so many apps that do so many things that it seems that almost anything you can think of, you can do with the iPad. It’s just the question of asking oneself, “Do I want to do that?” For me, the answer has as often as not been no. And that has been due to three reasons:

The form factor of the iPad Mini just isn’t conducive to the doing, primarily for two reasons: A.) the screen is too small, or B.) the on-screen keyboard just isn’t the best way to add a lot of text. This could very well be a generational thing, as I’ve spent the past forty years writing words using a full-sized keyboard of some kind or another. Not to mention my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be.

Reason two is the apps themselves are wanting. This, in truth, is more often the reason. There are a lot of crappy, useless apps out there and I think I’ve tried all the ones related to information management. Even the ones that are relatively ingenious in one way, often have a glaring failing that just makes me not want to use it. Often this has to do with the failure of the developer to extend the keyboard with useful keys. It has almost become a litmus test for me: if the developer can’t be bothered to extend the keyboard, then the app is no good. Another significant cause of failure is a lack of useful export options for sharing with other apps. Sometimes it’s that the app is too simple and other times it’s that the app is too complicated. Regardless, this has narrowed down the field of possible solutions by 90% or more.

The final reason is simply, “Why do on the iPad Mini what is so much easier and efficient to do on my grown-up MacBook or office Windows PC?” This is possibly related to or redundant with reason number 1, but I feel like it needs to be said. Full-sized laptops or desktop computers with roomy keyboards, big screens and lots of processing power are just better at most computing jobs than the Mini. The software is more mature and more powerful in many cases. So why force the issue? Two out of three times I can wait until I get to my “real” computer to do the job, so why have a less than pleasant and effective computing experience when I don’t have to? Obviously there are times when I can’t or don’t want to wait to do something. Or when I have empty time on my hands, but do not have access to my MacBook or am not at the office. Otherwise the Mini would have been a waste of money. But that doesn’t mean I need to do everything on it just to make myself feel it was a good investment.

So back to what it is I want t use the Mini for (relating to information management, not the myriad other things to do with it). I’ve narrowed this down to these tasks:

• Calendar/date book
• Tasks check lists
• Quick journal
• Quick note taking
• Brainstorming when I need it and can’t get to a computer
• Mobile access to useful information

Essentially, then, the Mini is an electronic notebook/datebook and portable database. And I’m glad to report that I think I’ve distilled my essential apps for these tasks down to the following:

Awesome Calendar. This is a nice application that combines a day planner with simple task management. You create three types of items: events, todos and notes. Tasks and events can have dates assigned so they show up in the calendar. You can also view each type in a filtered lis. Simple and easy.  I was using PocketInformant Pro, which I like overall, but which is really way more than I need, and its many parts overwhelm the small iPad Mini screen.

Day One. This is my journal application. I’ve written about it before, so no need to go into detail. Works great.

ThinkBook. I lik this notebook application very much. It just seems to make it easier to enter information than other apps. One way is with the ingenious gizmo they call the Slider. You create notebooks and pages much as you would in OneNote for Windows. Each page can contain various types of data: notes, todos, pictures, questions, links to other pages and more. Creating outlines is a snap with ThinkBook, and the Slider allows you to easier navigate to the section of the page you want to add to and select the type of information you want to enter. ThinkBook still needs some work on sharing content created within itself with other apps, but the export text to Dropbox function works well. (My only other complaint is that its icon looks to me like a skull an crossbones!) I think I’ll write a longer post about ThinkBook in the near future.

Evernote. This is my freeform database and my notetaker when I want to be able to share the notes across devices. I’m not a big fan of Evernote, but it works. Enough said.

Bento. This is a great little database app I use for structured data, like my reading list. It syncs through wifi with the OS version on my MacBook.

Of course, I also use many other apps on the Mini. This is a post about information management, in case that wasn’t clear at the top. And even for info management, I use other apps, like the terrific iThoughts for diagramming. In fact, I love iThoughts, but I don’t use it as much as I would like, mainly due, I think, to the Mini’s small screen. If I had the regular sized iPad, I suspect iThoughts would get a lot more use.

If you read my earlier posting about the apps I was considering, you’ll find this new list very different. But these are the apps that have bubbled to the top of my iPad workflow. I hope to write more about some of them, especially ThinkBook. Stay tuned.

Some notes on Evernote

I have reluctantly come to believe that Evernote is the best note-taking app for people who want to keep their notes synchronized among various devices. I use a Windows PC at work, a MacBook Pro for home and personal computing, an iPad Mini and an iPad Touch for mobile computing.

The Evernote note editor window on my Windows PC.

There are other options than Evernote that would work to join these four devices in a note network — a notework? Two that come to mind are:

Simple Note

I could use Simple Note on my mobile devices, which can sync through the Simple Note server with apps on my PC (Resophnote or Cinta Note), and MacBook (Tinderbox or Notational Velocity).

Dropbox

I could use one of various writing apps on my mobile devices (Drafts, iaWriter) that sync to Dropbox, then use whatever text editors I want on the two computers.

These are just two examples. There are numerous others. But I’m finding that Evernote works best for me because there’s an Evernote app for everyone of the devices I own, although this advantage is dulled some by one of my reservations about Evernote (see below), and the synchronization among them has proven to be quick and reliable. In addition, I generally like the note editor in Evernote, which is among the more powerful I’ve found in apps that work on iOS devices.

Reservations

You probably noticed I used the term “reluctantly” earlier to describe my adoption of Evernote. I have a few fairly serious reservations about the app, including:

• I’m not comfortable trusting one app, one company with my notes. I could live with it just being the software on my devices; that survives a bankrupt company (look at all the people who still use ECCOPro 18 years after the application was abandoned by its company). But Evernote users also rely on the Evernote company for the synchronization of notes. Also, you need to have a premium account to have access to your notes locally on your mobile devices. And it is notoriously difficult to export notes from Evernote in formats usable on other applications.
• The user interface for Evernote is different on all my devices, so it is like using four different apps. Not a horrible problem, but not ideal either.
• While the basic service is free, to make Evernote your primary notes app, you really should purchase a subscription to the premium service (in part for the reason mentioned above). I’m not a fan of subscriptions for software. I don’t mind paying annually for upgrades, but I don’t like a system where if I stop paying the subscription, my service is cut.
• Reliance on tagging for organization. Tagging is very useful, but it is not an instinctive means of categorization to me, yet Evernote relies heavily on tagging for keeping information in order.

There’s also this: Evernote is very popular and I’m a contrary cuss. I don’t like using the same application that everyone else is using.

But the simple truth is that I’ve tried many, many apps on my iPad mini, and I’ve be disappointed with them to the extent that they make sharing notes across devices easy and reliable. Evernote works. It’s effective. So that will have to do for now. (Until Tinderbox for iOS comes out…)

Typing versus handwriting

Manfred Kuhn has a wonderful blog for note-takers called, sensibly enough, Taking Note. He makes posts about the theory and practice of note-taking, often ferreting out very interesting articles from all over the web. I’ve referenced his writing before.

In a recent post, Manfred commented on a post by another blogger writing about memory, and specifically about her assertion that typing doesn’t help memory. The original post contains several interesting nuggets about memory worth reading, and read Manfred’s comments too. But I have an issue with the same assertion Manfred does. The author writes:

You are much better off writing notes in a notebook than you are highlighting. Notice that I state “writing” rather than “typing” too. I chose that word deliberately. The reason I suggest writing, is that writing with a pen or pencil requires deliberate thought, and though it is a motor skill regulated by Procedural memory, when you are paraphrasing and shaping the words, you are actively using your semantic memory too, thus writing serves as a dual-coding exercise. Typing, on the other hand (ha, ha, no pun intended), is a skill that for most college students anyways, is automatic. It’s something you can do without deliberate thought, thus it is regulated primarily by Procedural memory.  You can type and think of other things. So if you are reading and typing your “notes” you are not processing the material as deeply as you would be if you were hand-writing them. In short, highlighting and typing are time-savers, but not memory-improvers. If your aim is recall, then stick with an old-fashioned pen or pencil.

I don’t know if her point is true that when writing by hand you are “actively using your semantic memory too, thus writing serves as a dual-coding exercise.” Perhaps it is, but there are several advantages to typing your notes into a good information management software (let’s call these “digital notes”), which, to me, can make the computer environment a better way to learn:

1. More important than merely transcribing notes is paraphrasing them. You have to understand the meaning in order to properly re-state the information. Writing can be a process for developing that understanding. Creating digital notes makes this much easier, because you have the editing tools available in the computer to facilitate that job. Where hand-writing notes is laborious, typing digital notes is actually enjoyable.
2. I am much more likely to take notes in the first place with computer software, because it is easier and I have confidence that I can find my digital notes later on.
3. Good note-taking software allows you to create relationships among your digital notes, thus increasing understanding and insight. (For example, see my comments on TheBrain.)
4. With digital notes, I can carry literally hundreds of notebooks-worth of notes with me on my laptop or even my iPad Mini, which means that I can reference exactly which notes I need whenever I need them.

I am not saying there is no place for hand-written notes. Of course there is. Because you can jot things down quickly, add diagrams or other visual cues, hand-written notes can be very useful. If I were in college today, I might even take classroom notes in a paper notebook. But I would transcribe them as soon as possible to computer, where I could expand on them at will.

Sadly, I never had that chance, as my college days preceded personal computers. I have often wondered how much more I would have enjoyed learning had I had a laptop computer. I suspect a great deal!

Another excellent tutorial for Connected Text…

… from Dr Andus. See here.

This is especially useful for scholars, I suppose, but it also shows the power of Connected Text.

A CRIMPer’s New Year Resolution List

With a new year upon me, I’ve put together my list of new year’s resolutions relating to my addiction to information management software, or what we call CRIMPing on the Outliner Software forum.

This list is one-part “how do I take advantage of my CRIMP malady to improve my productivity” and two-parts “how do I keep my CRIMP malady from destroying my productivity.”

1. Refine and settle on my work flow. Because I have CRIMPed for much of the past decade or so, I have a long list of software already installed on my computer. Clearly I do not need all this software, yet I am still trying to find the right formula to manage the variety of information that comes my way, and for which I need access to do my job, as well as my volunteer work. I’ve got to pick a work flow and stick with it.
2. Resist purchasing (or even downloading and trying) new software. This isn’t quite as hard as it used to be, since there is less new software being introduced than there used to be. I have no hard, empirical evidence for this. It just feels this way. In fact, it seems as if the choices may be dwindling, because so many apps that used to be part of the CRIMPer’s arsenal have become moribund. Still, there are enough temptations out there that it is important to have some self-restraint. This leads to the next resolution:
3. Resist re-installing older software that I’ve already rejected at least once before. Maybe because of the fact that there are fewer new apps coming into the market, I’ve found myself in the past year or so convincing myself to give that old piece of software another go. That led to me buying a copy of Black Hole Organizer this past year when it was on sale, re-trying Ariadne Organizer, etc…
4. Remove from my computer software which I’ve decided can’t help me. I resist removing software from my computer which I never use, because of sentiment and the fear that one day I would discover that in fact it IS the perfect application for the task at hand. For example, I’ve always kept a copy of PersonalKnowbase on my computer because I have affection for it. But I never use it… Still, it seems like it could be useful. No, stop that!
5. Remember what it was like BC (before computers) to put this in perspective. I have to keep telling myself that when I was in college writing papers on an old Royal manual typewriter, how much better my life would have been just having a DOS computer with Wordstar, or a basic Windows machine with just a plain text editor/organizer like Notetab.*

This is a triply hard list to commit to, given I’ve got a Windows PC at work, a MacBook for my personal computing, and an iPad Mini. All need some software, and the more they can share data seamlessly, the better. And that, I’m sorry to say, still requires a lot of experimentation. So here’s my sixth CRIMPer’s resolution:

• Reject the first five resolutions and wallow in CRIMPer paradise.

* Did you see that version 7 of NoteTab is now available?

Day One: A great journaling program for the iPad, et. al.

I previously wrote about my effort to streamline my app useage on my new iPad Mini. One app that has made the cut is Day One. I’ve been using Day One off and on for a year or two now, but hadn’t begun to rely on it until I got the Mini. Day One has Mac, iPod/iPhone and iPad versions that can all be sync’d via iCloud or Dropbox. One of the things that held it back for me was the lack of a decent search and the fact that it didn’t have tagging. I’m not a big proponent of tagging in general… that is, for applications that allow you to categorize notes under topics, it seems a little redundant to me. However, for notes that are date organized, tagging is essential. Day One has added both a good search function and tagging to its new release for iPad and iPhone (those features are not yet available for the Mac edition yet, but I expect them soon).

Among the nice features of Day One are these:

• You can capture photos and include them in your entries.
• It will automatically capture weather information for your location and include it with the entry.
• You can use Multi-Markdown to add formatting to your text.
• It will remind you to make entries on a schedule you set.
• Make as many entries each day as you need.

My one complaint about Day One is that it does not include any additional keys on the keyboard to help navigate and enter information. I’ve found this very helpful with other apps. For instance, keys that move the cursor forward or backward one letter or one word at a time. Without these, you have to rely upon the awkward iPad technique of pressing and holding your finger over the word you want to edit, wait for the magnifying glass to pop up so you can accurately move the cursor around. This works, but it is disruptive.

My other small complaint is that it is annoying that the OSx app and the iOS apps are not released with the same functionality at the same time.

Regardless of these this minor peeve, I find Day One an exceptional program. It is making me a lot more conscientious about recording diary type information.

My review of Curio 8 is now online

Curio is a feature-packed information organizer and project manager for the Mac. Version 8 was released a month ago by the developer, Zengobi. My review is now available over at Mac Appstorm.

Devices in search of a workflow

The beginnings of bringing coherency to my iPad mini workflow (using the wonderful iThoughts app). Click for larger view.

I ordered my iPad Mini the first day it was on sale, a first for me, as I’ve usually given the gadgets time to season in the marketplace before spending my money on them. But I’ve long been intrigued by portable computing (the list of these devices I’ve bought in the past includes, not in any particular order: Psion5, PsionRevo, NEC MobilePro, PocketPC, & Palm). Last year I got an iPod Touch, mostly for the music feature. I delved into the productivity apps almost immediately, and saw there was, indeed, a lot of potential there. But the iPod Touch is too small for doing much more than adding a calendar listing or entering a new contact. I had stayed away from the iPad because I felt the form factor was too large for my needs. That is, it didn’t seem too much more portable than my 13″ MacBook Pro, and it lacked the keyboard. But the Mini, now there was a device that was small enough to be easily portable, but large enough to actually use to create and capture information.

I pulled the Mini out of packaging nine days ago and immediately the app flood gates opened.

The types of productivity applications available for iOS is staggering. Many of them are junk. But an impressive number are truly innovative and fun to use. For a software junkie, putting these apps through their paces is irresistible. But there comes a time when even I have to settle into a stable, efficient workflow or else the iPad will just be an entertainment device — albeit in a kinda nerdy way.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to chronicle my efforts to bring app discipline to my workflow. This will mean narrowing down the number of apps I use on the Mini to a reasonable handful. Here is a list of the current contenders (in no intentional order):

Diagramming/mind mapping:

• iThoughts
• MagicalPad

Outlining/List Making:

• CicrusPonies Notebook
• OmniOutliner
• CarbonFin Outliner

Notebook/Journal:

• Notebooks
• DayOne
• MacJournal
• Awesome Notes
• Evernote
• Qwik Cards
• Trunk Notes

Task/Project Management:

• TaskPaper
• Cotton
• Projectbook
• Daily Notes
• Priority Matrix

Writing:

• Index Card
• Outliner Pro
• Daedelus
• iaWriter
• Nebulous Notes

Two certainties:

• Bento (structured data)
• PocketInformant (calendar, contacts)

I’ve begun to work through the requirements for the apps I settle on. You can see it in a screen shot of one of my current favorites, iThoughts, in the picture at the top of this post.

More to come.

Outlining in ConnectedText

This is the long-awaited review of the outliner in ConnectedText. I’m not going to actually make this part of the OneNote Smackdown, because it has been too long since I was in that mind frame and I can’t reproduce it well enough to do an accurate comparison. But outlining in CT is interesting because there are some unique wrinkles, so here we go.

Really there are two ways to outline in CT. I’m going to start with and concentrate on the dedicated outlining window, but I’ll cover the second way within this context toward the end of this review.

Open the outlining window (via the View menu), you’re presented with this unassuming little window:

The unassuming little outline view with a new outline.

The window can be free floating or docked to the main window and opens in the position it was in when you last closed it.

Use the CTRL-Enter key combination to create your first item. Type your heading then press Enter to end editing. CTRL-Enter again creates a sibling entry; SHIFT-Enter creates a child entry.

Move entries around with the combination of the CTRL key and appropriate arrow key.

Building an outline is pretty fast in this nimble outliner.

You can hoist an entry using CTRL-PageUp; likewise CTRL-PageDown de-hoists the selection. And you can individually apply check boxes to entries.

Outline hoisted to the Outer Planets heading with a couple of check boxes.

If this were the extent of the outliner in CT, it’d stand fairly well with some of the other outliners I’ve reviewed. However, the real value of the CT outliner is how it integrates with the rest of the application.

Let me back up a step here and note that outlines created in the outline window are separate, individual files. They are not a part of any of your CT projects (the CT term for a file or database). You can, though, link items in the outline with topics (the CT term for entries in the project) in the project with current focus. More than this, you can instruct CT to create a new topic linked to and with the same title as the selected outline item.

For example, I’ve get a CT project going where I’m writing this article, but also with parts of the Solar System example:

The outliner (right) docked to the main window.

If I want to create a topic “Venus” linked to my “Venus” outline item, I just select the Venus item in the outline, bring up the context menu by right-clicking, select “Topic” and then “Create links.”

Now, when I double-click the “Venus” item in the outline, ConnectedText automatically creates a new topic in the currently open project, and a hyperlink is created between the outline and the project.

Items in the outline can be linked to topics in the open project.

A note about the above screenshot: I added the text to the Venus topic, because unless you actually give a topic text, CT doesn’t end up creating it — although the link remains and you can always create it later. But you can see that there is now a Venus topic, and the Venus entry in the outline has a chain icon indicating that it is linked.

You can manually link the selected outline item to the currently open topic, and you can drag topics into the outline to create a new item.

Exporting Your Work

The export options are simutaneously interesting and limiting. The interesting aspect is that if you export to HTML you can choose optionally to include the text from linked topics.

You can optionally include contents from linked topics when exporting to HTML.

The results of an HTML export with linked topic content included.

The limiting part is that no such option exists for the plain text export, so you only get the barebones headings of the outline.

When exporting to plain text, you can only include the headings in the outline.

The other options for export are OPML and Freemind. This latter format, however, would not properly open in Freemind, instead giving me a main topic that reads:

javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException: Could not compile stylesheet

and nothing else. I didn’t have the time to try to resolve this issue. If you know the answer, please let me know in the comments.

Outlines of Outlines

I mentioned earlier that there are two ways of creating outlines in ConnectedText. The second way is by building a hierarchy of headings within individual topics.

Recall two things about ConnectedText. First, the Topic window has two modes: edit and view. Second, you use a specific markup language to format text (and a lot of other things), including creating headings, sub-headings, sub-sub-headings, etc…

Building structure within a topic using the ConnectedText markup. This clipping is taken from the topic when in edit mode.

Bracketing text in combinations of equal signs (“=”) as in the above screenshot creates a series of headings. This structure is reflected in the Table of Contents which can be viewed right in the Topic or in a docked Table of Contents window, both of which are reflected in the screenshot below:

The combination of the outline window (right) and the in-topic table-of-contents provides the opportunity to have an “outline of outlines.”

While this is not technically an outline, it can serve as one quite readily, at least for reference purposes. (See the screenshot at the start of this review.)

It should be noted that you cannot currently drag the headings around in the TOC.

The bottom line

Its flexibility and integration, together with the ability to build outlines of outlines makes ConnectedText intriguing as an outlining solution. The limited export options and lack of labeling are drawbacks that give some of the other outliners an advantage, especially for writing. As a task manager, the outliner in CT could be quite effective, given its ability to link to topics and the check boxes which can be applied to individual outline items.

The developer of ConnectedText has continually been improving the application. In fact, this review was done using the latest beta edition of version 6.0. If he adds RTF export to the outline (with the ability to include linked topic contents), ConnectedText will be a killer writing application. As it is, it is still excellent.

 

Noteliner Update

I’ve written before about a nifty, free outliner/task manager called Noteliner. I just wanted to note (pardon the pun) that the application has been steadily improved by its developer, Sam Hawksworth. It is a remarkably handy and well-thought out software tool, well worth checking out if you’re on a Windows PC. Sam introduced version 3.5 a few weeks ago, and he’s just released the second update to that version.