I’m looking for something that organizes ideas and thoughts for the Mac. These are the choices I have so far:
- Journler - I used this for a while when it was free. The developer is going to start charging with v2.6. It’s mainly for organizing written thoughts though you can integrate music, pictures, weblinks, etc.
- Yojimbo - I’ve heard good things about this. This just feels like an information database.
- Bento - Pretty new. From Filemaker.
- DevonThink
- VoodooPad
These apps kind of do the same thing but not really. Some focus more on text, some more on just keeping data organized. It all seems so vague to me thinking about it now. I’m basically looking for a hub for my life, a centralized spot where I can start my day. A place I keep attachments like pdfs, pictures, docs, whatever. A place where I can go to when I think, “Oh I need to pick up some milk,” or “Oh I really want that USB coffee warmer so bad. I should blog about that soon,” or “Oh I need to remember to buy those tickets when it goes on sale next week.” Basically an app that does everything! That’s all I want.
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I am a new PC to Mac switcher (early Feb this year). I am a blogger and do a couple of newspaper columns a month and am working on a second book, so need a way to organize, retrieve and conceptualize a lot of text. I tried the apps you mentioned (as well as Mori and Circus Ponies NOtebook and others) and have settled on DevonThink Pro, which, like the others, can not be appreciated until they are used and have entries to sort, find and connect. The “see also” function of DTP is just starting to work for me, writing a column about Colony Collapse Disorder in bees, “see also” brings up all the other docs in DTP with a ranking of other docs that have the same key words. Oh yeah, now I remember writing about a similar topic two years ago!
However, no alarms in DTP. If you use FireFox, I’ve just discovered ReminderFox to replace Ecco Pro on the PC that I’ve used since 1993 for outlining and as a PIM. (Ecco Pro 32 bit for PC still available for free, btw.)
What you settle on should reflect the kinds and extent of “knowledge” you want it to keep for you, of course. It is not an easy choice. I keep VooDooPad lite on board, hotkeyed, for the very quickest of ideas plus wifi-fied new pages, then shoot that over to DTP.
Hope this helps. — Fred