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Academic Note Collection Project
caseykoons | Apr 18 2006
I'm a comparative religion student headed for grad school this coming fall. I've been thinking about and exploring a projected I'd like to do that I think would greatly benefit me both in grad school and in an academic career generally. I would like to create some kind of collection (I avoid the use of the word database deliberately) of all of my notes, papers, and other academic work that has: 1) Fairly easily assembly. The documents are in various forms (word, rtf, stw, even some Word Perfect files) 2) Easy update and the ability to edit these entries. 3) Powerful search and organization features, such as the links of a wiki or a concordance. I've explored various wiki options, such as MoinX and Instiki, but I've been turned off with how much time it would take to convert all of these documents into something the wiki could use. Especially those documents with footnotes. I recently heard about DEVONthink and while it looks interesting, I can't afford to buy any software that doesn't meet the projects goals exactly. Is there anyone who has faced a similar challenge? What tools (for the Mac OS) may I have overlooked? 24 Comments
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 Okay. So here's a question...Submitted by emory on April 19, 2006 - 6:51pm.
caseykoons wrote:
Okay. So here's a question for my birthday gift list. I use Pro, but mainly because I like support for multiple databases, RSS/RDF/Atom, 3panes (lame that this is a 'feature', right?), read-only databases (for snapshots to backup disks), Concordance, dashboard widgets, Address Book (and real vCards), etc. IMO it isn't worth suffering without these features. I've never owned anything except DEVONthink Pro. I don't think I could ever go back. I also can't recommend DEVONnote if you're thinking about it. For the same price point I'd recommend Yojimbo at that point. DEVONnote may work for some people but if you're managing that little data you'll probably be wanting a simpler application in general. Edit: oops, forgot your other question. You can setup DEVONthink many different ways. I use the option to copy things into the Database folder. I do this so that the documents I drag into DEVONthink will still show up in Spotlight. The text documents and such I create IN DEVONthink will not show up, they're in the database. You can link to items in your DEVONthink database instead, that way the documents update when they're updated. You have options! I also like that you can do different things for different types of files. » POSTED IN:
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