Data, Information, and Knowledge Management Software - "What software should I use?" A primer on data, information, and knowledge management software tools
Your Working Style:
How usable are these software tools in relation to your working and thinking style?
The summary chart below will help you choose software that fit how you work and think. Below the chart are more detailed overviews of how and why these tools were given their usability ratings.
Software:
Visual or Text oriented?
Easy to use or Deep?
Reliability /
Stability / Maturity
Learning Curve
Categorize and Search thru data?
Text-based Tools:
Zoot Text
Deep
Yes
Steep
Powerful
Brainstorm Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3.x
Not Steep
N/A: Outliner and "thought assistant"
OneNote Both
Easy
No
Not Steep
ReadyNotes Text
Easy
Not Steep
Basic
ADM Text
Info Select Text
Yes - Ver. 7
Powerful
Ariadne Both
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3
Not Steep
Basic
AskSam Both
Deep
Yes - Ver. 5.1
Moderate
Powerful search in Pro version at much higher cost
Personal Knowbase Text
Easy
- Ver. 2.2
Yes
Informaizer Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3.82
Not Steep
Basic
MyInfo 2 Text
- Ver. 2.6.6
MyBase Text
Yes - Ver. 4.83
Yes
TreePad Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 6.53
Not Steep
Yes
Texnotes Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3.5
Not Steep
Yes
General Knowlege Base Text
Easy
- Ver. 2.0
Not Steep
Yes
Infohandler Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 8.8
Not Steep
Yes
Ultra Recall Text
Easy
Newer - Vers. 1. 2a
Visual-based Tools: - - - - -
The brain Visual
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3.0
Not Steep
Moderate - keywords + basic search
MindManager Visual
Easy
Yes - Ver. 5
Not Steep
Moderate
Inspiration Visual
Easy
Yes
Not Steep
Yes - Basic
Mindmapper Visual
Easy
No - Ver. 3.5
(Trial copy wouldn‘t run!)
Not Steep
N/A (visual)
SmartDraw (drawing) Visual
Easy
Yes - Ver. 7
Not Steep
N/A (visual)
Snag-it (screen capture)
Visual
Easy
Yes
Not Steep
N/A (visual)
NoteMap
No - Ver. 1
Haystack Both
Deep
No - Under development
Yes
FreeMind Visual
Easy
No - open source under development - Java based
Not Steep
No
Axon Visual
Easy
No - ver 2.2
File Managers and Content Savers: - - - - -
ContentSaver Visual
Easy
Not Steep
Yes
Scopeware Vision No longer producing or selling this software...
Everdesk Text
Easy
Yes - Ver. 3.2
Not Steep
Basic
eGems Collector Pro Both
Easy
- Ver. 2
Not Steep
Apple / Macintosh Products: - - - - -
Tinderbox Visual
Easy
Version 2
Not Steep
Yes
OmniOutliner Text
Easy
No - Ver. 2.2 (Known bugs warning on home page)
Not Steep
Basic
Idea Keeper Text
Easy
- Ver. 2
Usability Parameters:
Visual versus text thinkers
Ease of use
Reliability/stability/maturity of software
Learning Curve
Ability to categorize and search through data
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:
Zoot and others...
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HomeCredits:
The following people contributed to this document: (Thanks for your contributions!)
Paul Kurucz Wade Baggette Stephen Zeoli Daniel Ginsberg George Mayhew Matthew Deaner
This is a continual work in progress. Please e-mail
paul@kurucz.ca with your thoughts so we can help others find the tools they need to be productive knowledge workers. Your name will be included in the Credits for any contribution you can make. This document first created November 2003. Latest update: July 2005. This document or any information on it may be copied freely. As a courtesy, please reference this site as your source for anything you copy from here. Thank you.
