Data and Information Management Software - "What software should I use?"

Software:	Visual or Text oriented?	Easy to use or Deep?	Reliability / Stability / Maturity	Learning Curve	Categorize and Search thru data?
Zoot	Text	Deep	Yes	Steep	Powerful
OneNote	Both	Easy	No	Not Steep	?
ReadyNotes	Text	Easy	?	Not Steep	Basic
ADM
Scopeware Vision
Info Select
Ariadne
AskSam
The Brain
MindManager	Visual	?	?	?	?
Inspiration	Visual	Easy	Yes	Not Steep	N/A (visual)
SmartDraw	Visual	Easy	Yes	Not Steep	N/A (visual)
NoteMap	?	?	?	?	?
Brainstorm	?	?	?	?	?

Are you frustrated by the sheer amount of e-mail, data and information you must sift through every day? Do you need to organize this torrent into:

• "things to do"
• "projects"
• "stuff to research"
• "tidbits to store for later use"
• "URL's"
• "raw data" that you think might be useful to analyze later
• or any other searchable, easy-to-find category?

Do you want to make sure you don't lose a cool quotation you found? Do you want to save some text from an e-mail message? Do you want to visualize data and information quickly and easily into diagrams, mind maps, charts, or outlines?

A variety of software tools can help you do all these things. The hard part is finding the right tool, or set of tools, for your working style and your data and information storage and retrieval needs.

The goal of this primer is to help you find the right set of tools. It is a work in progress, so please contribute your feedback and thoughts to improve this document for other. E-mail:

 

Feature Comparison Chart - What each software package can and cannot do

Software:	Text Focused	Handles RTF Text	Handles Images	Handles Audio/Video	Visual Outlines	Visual Mind Maps	Visualizes Data and information	Organizes data into Categories	"Googles" Your Hard Drive	Powerful internal search
Zoot	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
OneNote	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes						?
ReadyNotes	Yes	Yes
ADM
Scopeware Vision
Info Select
Ariadne
AskSam
The Brain
MindManager	?		?	?	?	Yes	?	?	?	?
Inspiration	No		No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
SmartDraw	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
NoteMap
Brainstorm

Links - Web sites of software reviewed:

• Zoot - http://www.zootsoftware.com
• OneNote - http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085803
• ReadyNotes - http://www.readynotes.com
• ADM - http://www.adm21.net
• Scopeware Vision - http://www.scopeware.com/
• InfoSelect - http://www.miclog.com/
• Ariadne - http://www.open-sft.com/ariadne/index.html
• AskSam - http://www.asksam.com/
• The Brain - http://www.thebrain.com/Default.htm
• MindManager - http://www.mindjet.com/
• Inspiration - http://www.inspiration.com
• SmartDraw - http://www.smartdraw.com
• NoteMap - http://www.casesoft.com/notemap/index.shtml
• Brainstorm - http://www.brainstormsw.com/

Review Parameters:

1. Visual versus text thinkers
   
   
2. Ease of use
   
   
3. Reliability/stability/maturity of software
   
   
4. Learning Curve
   
   
5. Ability to categorize and search through data
   

 

b

1. Visual/Text thinkers: If you think...

...visually - you like to see your data in charts, diagrams, mind maps, timelines, photos, visual calendars, etc. - then some software tools that might help you are:

• Inspiration - a mind-mapping software package that helps you visualize your thinking.
• OneNote - Microsoft's relatively new package for noting anything from text to diagrams to URL's and re-use bits easily across standard MS applications like Word or PowerPoint. New in version 2.0. Not a mature product, but lots of potential as you can store RTF (Rich Text Files - colors, fonts, pictures, tables, charts...).
• SmartDraw - an inexpensive software package that allows you to visualize anything into charts, diagrams, road maps, flow charts, organization charts, etc. All in an easy-to-use, intuitive manner with manual control over every element of what you are "diagramming".

...verbally or textually - you like to capture text and store and read information using sentences, paragraphs, bulleted lists, etc. - then some software tools you might like are:

• Zoot - great for capturing text information from any text source on your computer, including web pages, word documents, etc. You can organize and store in a multitude of ways, making retrieval and grouping of information easy and powerful. Searching is a top feature of this package.
• ReadyNotes - captures notes, limited to text, basic RTF format, so some basic formatting of text available.

2. Ease of use: If you like your software to be...

...easy to use with limited but powerful features (because you never use fancy features anyway):

• OneNote - fits with most Microsoft users who already use Word and PowerPoint and don't want a big new learning curve. Just some straightforward, easy-to-use RTF note taking abilities.
• SmartDraw
• ReadyNotes

...feature rich, with lots of powerful tools that you can mess with to exactly fit your working style:

• Zoot - very deep with tons of possible uses and features.

3. Reliability/Stability: If you like your software to be ...

... mature - it that doesn't crash, has a standard/simple, and proven interface, etc.:

• Zoot - now over 10 years old. Mature interface, established, de-bugged package.
• SmartDraw - very mature. Doesn't crash. Proven, easy to use interface and tools.

...cutting edge - the latest, coolest features, but might have bugs and inconsistencies:

• OneNote - relatively new with standard MS bugs and problems.

4. Learning Curve: If you want to be...

...up and running quickly with the main features. You want productivity right now:

• OneNote.

...deeply into your software and are able and willing to brave a longer and steeper learning curve (but with a long-term payoff in productivity):

• Zoot.

5. Ability to categorize and Search through data: If you need the power to do...

..fully customized and automated categorizations and powerful searches:

• Zoot

...straightforward, categorizations and fast, simple searches:

 

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Credits:

The following people contributed to this document:

• Paul Kurucz
• ?

This is a work in progress. Please e-mail with your thoughts so you can help others find the tools they need to be productive. Your name will be included in the Credits. First created November 2003. Last Update to this document: November 2003. This document or any information on it may be copied freely. As a courtesy, however, please reference this page on this site as your source. Thank you.

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