ConnectedText personal wiki releases version 5.0
Eduardo Mauro, the developer of Connected Text, has released version 5.0. Connected Text is 
billed as a “Personal Wiki,” and it’s certainly that, but that description barely does it justice, given its rich internal and add-on features. I’ve been using it intermittently for about two years, but cannot claim to have mastered all of its features. However, spend a little time browsing the user forums and you’ll get a sense of how sharp the user population is, and the sorts of challenging intellectual problems to which Connected Text is applied.
Evernote Site Memory for WordPress AND other platforms
Slocum Design Studio, and a member of their design team, Jonathan Desrosiers, have developed Evernote Site Memory, which allows users to clip a blog post to Evernote in, by my count, two mouse clicks and without having to navigate away from the post. And it may prompt some readers to clip who, in their excitement about the post and shouts of “Eureka!” forget to note the URL
. (If you’re getting that excited about posts on this blog, you probably need more R&R).
Slocum’s portfolio is outstanding, and it’s clear that they exploit each other’s talents to good effect. A look at the staff portraits makes the point well: each of them is outstanding, and is the visual anchor for each staff member’s “About” page. In fact, it makes a strong case for engaging a team, whether it’s an established full-time team, or an ad hoc team assembled for a project, for even relatively simple projects. The simplest statement of the principle is that no one should proofread or edit their own copy in any text that matters.
My installation of the WordPress plugin was entirely snag-free [plugin page on WordPress repository]; what’s more, the people at Slocum took the time to provide a clear and detailed entry in the WP Plugin Repository. NB: if you install via the WordPress dashboard, there are several other similar-sounding plugins, with similar descriptions of functionality. I tested Mr. Desrosier’s plugin first because it was featured prominently on the Evernote website. What you’re looking for is “WP Evernote Site Memory,” with a credit in the description field for Slocum and Mr. Desrosier.
Other developers have produced Site Memory functionality for Joomla and Tumblr, and Evernote also provides information for developers; it’s all readily navigable on the Evernote Site Memory page.
One other Evernote plugin for WordPress, EverPress, is essentially the opposite of WP Evernote Site Memory.
EverPress is an automatic RSS posting plugin primarily designed to integrate with the information capturing service, Evernote. This plugin allows Evernote users to automatic post their shared notebooks to WordPress. [EverPress also supports]post scheduling – by day, week or month, and time of day; [and]post settings – set the author, category, status (draft, public and private) and tags.
EverPress is the creation of Martin Hawksey; we hope to have tested and reviewed it in short order.
FusionDesk: flexible, integrated information tools
Fusion Desk comes in three flavors:
- Lite, ($30 USD)
- Deluxe, ($60 USD)
- Professional ($90 USD)
Fusion Desk UI Interfaces and Themes
We haven’t started testing yet, but we’re impressed with what we’ve seen so far, and some glowing reviews which were published before several revisions which added features. From NoteTalkers (“Note-taking software from a user’s perspective”) 2006 review:
Tabbed Projects and Tree Hierarchy with sub-folders.
Clean interface and easy navigation. Ribbon style menu.
Reports that are both functional and print ready.
Multiple Export formats.
Built-in timer and ability to track/expense time.
Quick Review of FusionDesk (2006) on NoteTalkers.
The NoteTalkers review included some suggestions for improving FusionDesk, and at some point after the review, all of those features, and others, made it into subsequent releases.
Even the super-bargain priced “Lite” edition ($30) includes a time-tracking, hours-and-expenses for billing purposes functionality, and that’s not its only valuable feature.PN and smart phones, directly to a second PC, via FTP, over a VPN, and OneNote or with MyInfo.
What’s more, FusionDesk has an API to make it possible for developers to integrate other applications with FusionDesk.
We hope to have some testing – and some results – in the near future.
Antonio Wells: How to Sync your Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar and Android Phone Calendar via Android Tapp.
From Android Tapp, a recommendation for an outstanding free Google app, Calendar Sync. Antonio Wells is the author of How to Sync your Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar and Android Phone Calendar. The Outlook-to-Google and Google-to-Outlook sync worked flawlessly on testing, and the Android sync happened invisibly and instantaneously or close to it. Here’s a screenshot, taken from the post:
Via AndroidTapp.com
Simple, effective, and free.
Current testing: NoteTab Pro from Fookes software
Hope to have in the near future a review of NoteTab Pro, from Fookes Sofware, NoteTab comes in three flavors (link to comparison chart), according to Fookes, “the freeware NoteTab Light, and two commercial versions, NoteTab Standard and NoteTab Pro.” The screenshots that follow will, I think, provide some taste of what NoteTab is about:
Images courtesy of Fookes Software.
DeeperWeb enhances Google Search
The DeeperWeb add-on for Firefox, which I’ve been using for about a week, is an all-around winner. When Google is right on the money, DeeperWeb confirms it by looking at different datasets – sort of like searching Google Scholar.Google ordinaire, and – well, name some other datasets. And it keeps the original Google results front and center (see screenshots below tje jump).
I’ve already made it my default search engine.DeeperWebs a keeper.
Tobu Information Organizer by LightBird Design
Tobu describes itself this way:
Tobu is a freeform information organizer. It can be used to organize notes, todo lists, files, clips, code snips, diary entries and more or less any type of information that can be entered as text or stored in a file; its goal is to make a very large number of items of information easily manageable.
Tobu revolves around tagging each item of information and using keywords to narrow down your search to a small number of hits at a later time. The aim of Tobu is to avoid organizing data when it is added—instead, we limit our job to describing it with tags and sortable tags (more on that below). It is only when we look for a particular record the data is organized using tags to filter and sort the listing.
Tobu has many functions that work in ways that are not immediately obvious. Therefore I recommend at least scanning through this guide. In order to start using Tobu it’s necessary to understand the basics of adding tags, filtering, using sortable tags, searching for a tag. Optional topics that can be left off for later are templates, views and favorite tags. Keyboard shortcuts are not an afterthought in Tobu—they are carefully assigned to make the most important functions easily available without having to use the mouse—you can look at them at any time by going to Help | Keyboard Shortcuts.
I’ve downloaded it, am playing with it, and thus far am excited. Free from LightBird Software. 
Tobu download page here.
Via Jane Hart, Knowledge Notebook
Via Jane Hart, of Jane’s Pick of the Day and The Centre for Learning and Performance comes her review of Knowledge Notebook . Note our restraint: this post is, at least for the moment, free of any puns about “harts,” “heart,” “dear/deer,” etc. This is about as much self restrain as we’re capable of on a good day.
In any case, Ms. Hart seems worth keeping an eye on, and Knowledge Notebook seems worth a look.
Download of Knowledge NoteBook here. Knowledge NoteBook seems interesting, and has migrated, it seems, from extremely-reasonably-priced-ware (bargainware? Any suggestions for an idiom?) of $39 to the more easily withstood but mysterious number zero. As in free. Here is an outline of features;
NoteCase Pro note manager: promising multi-function, multi-platform information tool
Am presently working on two large and one extra-large pieces of litigation, plus a variety of civic projects, and some involvement, rather small, in nearly a dozen pieces of pro bono litigation. The larger projects involve teams of varying technical sophistication, operating systems, hardware, and security issues.
And not blogging much, alas, given the relative inelasticity of time.
The situation means that, unless someone is going to give me a bunch of assistants, typewriters, and a virtually inexhaustible supply of index cards, some combination of applications is/will be necessary to manage these cases (call them “projects,” if you like).
I’m already certain that ConnectedText and Debrief Notes will stay in my toolbox, as will the CaseSoft suite. (Still unequaled as it does things other applications don’t even attempt. Please expect a review of its new features when time permits). But I’m still looking for other tools, particularly cross-platform, reasonably priced tools, since I’m not working alone. And while I collaborate with the same attorneys, experts and investigators repeatedly, that doesn’t mean that new people don’t join the working group on short notice – sometimes even the clients.
So – in my ongoing search for information tools, I’ve discovered NoteCase Pro (also available in a freeware version which I believe is referred to as NoteCase Lite, or just “Notecase.”). The prices range from 25 to 97 euros, for a singe-user, single OS license including one full upgrade cycle (25 euros), to a single-user, multiple OS lifetime upgrade (97 euros). The author, Miroslav Rajcic, has been working energetically on this program’s core functionality for, it seems, about three years; he’s recruited a large number of people to translate it into 35 languages, including English.
Miroslav Rajcic, the author of NoteCase, has taken the best features of a large number of information management programs, and not only combined them, but designed NoteCase, to work in conjunction with many of them.
