OF and raw information
 

I'm beginning to see the sense of using an ancillary app. to manage my information - stuff that isn't directly involved in a project.

What tools do the panel use for this purpose?

tia

peter

Peter,

I use a combination: OmniOutliner for structured material, like future goals or packing checklists; folders and files in the Finder for project support; and Eagle Filer for archival emails.

Cheers,

Curt

Hi Curt :-)

I have these notes: -

o 'NI dongle purchased 12/4/07'
o 'Unsubscribed from MyLife' 12/9/09'
o lots of technique notes for Logic Pro
o people I was considering to invite to perform at a festival last year.

None of them are directly involved with a current project, although arguably the Logic Pro techniques are always useful - but they are no more than tasty selections of the parper/sofware manual

I'd like to strip these sort of things out of OF - to make it more 'action-lean'.

Not least because of the amount of time I have to wait every time I search for a term - but also to cultivate conciseness in what the application is designed to do.

So what I need is an info organiser that will allow me to categorise my info in much the same way that OF does - will Eaglefiler do all that? I've been windowshopping Eaglefiler, DevonThink, Yojimbo, Notes ( Circus Pony) and so on.

I really like the idea of Eaglefiler managing my email archives, but that's not what I'm focused on right now.

My favourite PIM has been MORI, but there hasn't been any development for over a year, and it breaks in Snow Leopard, which I will eventually move to.
I also fancied Journier back when, but they've just announced an end of development, too.

Evernote appears to be an online PIM, and I don't really fancy online data storage.

peter

I've investigated DevonThink, Yojimbo, and EagleFiler. DevonThink is clearly the power tool of this bunch, but I just can't get past the unapproachable user interface. I really like Yojimbo, but it can't handle email natively; you have to print emails to pdf to import them to Yojimbo. EagleFiler feels sticky some how; it's lightning quick one minute, then impossibly slow the next. But it takes a mountain of email, a huge variety of other documents, and provides all the hierarchical and tagging-based organization I could want.

So EagleFiler gets my email, web clippings, random notes, and anything else that doesn't have a home elsewhere.

Peter, I think what you're looking for is a PIM (Personal Information Manager). I've been using a now defunct/discontinued PIM called Dossier that I absolutely love. I actually was using it to manage all my do lists until it got out of control... thus why I sought out Omnifocus.

Friends have recommended Evernote, Devon* products, Yojimbo, Together, Voodoopad, Journlr, OmniOutliner and more. There are a lot of options-- let me know if you find one you love!

I'll be using Dossier until I get up to speed on GTD. Then may try to find a good PIM, though Dossier does the trick for me for the most part.

> I think what you're looking for is a PIM (Personal Information
> Manager)

yes indeed - I've been through quite a few in my time :-)
Now Software, Palm Desktop, Hogbay/MORI, Journier - and apart from Now ( which is overfeatured for my needs) they are no longer under development.

As my main interest is retrieval of text information I guess any of the products you mention would work - but following the responses here, I am growing interested in asset management and email management, too.

I guess this decision will have to brew for a while :-)

thanks, curt & jay - and I'd love to hear from other panelists

peter

I have also tried most of the programs mentioned, Yojimbo, DevonThink, SOHO Notes, EagleFiler, etc. The one I settled on has not been mentioned yet: Together. It is simple to use, easy to get things in an out of, and does not use a proprietary database format, instead keeping everything in a folder format. (This means it might not be quite as quick as say, Yojimbo, but I like knowing that I am essentially keeping everything in its appropriate format.)

It is also very good at quick notes. With a keyboard shortcut you can open the sidebar (to which you can, if you wish, drag any kind of file to import), and type a text note that will be dated and can be tagged very easily.

I find this program invaluable, and while not perfect, would recommend it over all the other "manager" programs mentioned above.

I'm using Together too.

Maybe it's not as glamorous, but I favor the simplicity and robustness (not to mention cost-effectiveness) of the Mac OS X filesystem, especially on Snow Leopard.

I've tried a variety of PIMs and "everything buckets" over the years, but always seem to return to basic files and folders with Finder and Spotlight. Here are a couple reasons why:
[LIST=1][*]Extremely robust, reliable, and future-proof[*]Very Time Machine friendly[*]Compatible with virtually any imaginable file type[*]Very fast even with huge numbers of files[*]Allows you to use any app you want for editing/viewing text notes, images, PDFs, etc.[*]Built-in support for smart folders[*]Built-in support for boolean searches[*]Works well with third-party launchers (e.g., Quicksilver or LaunchBar, if you're into that kind of thing)[*]Built-in support for labels and comments[*]Built-in support for aliases[*]Built-in support for Quick Look[*]Easy linking to OmniFocus tasks (including Quick Look support)[*]Supports syncing across mutiple machines via MobileMe, DropBox, etc.[*]Items can be easily manipulated with scripts, command line tools, and third-party utilities (e.g. batch renaming tools)[*]Excellent security via encrypted disk images[/LIST]
Admittedly, this approach works best if you've already got a favorite text editor or similar app for editing notes. Personally, I like [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/"]BBEdit[/URL], but other apps like [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/"]OmniOutliner[/URL], [URL="http://macromates.com/"]TextMate[/URL], the free [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/"]TextWrangler[/URL], or even TextEdit will work.

It also helps to have a solid understanding of [URL="http://www.macworld.com/article/132788/2008/04/spotlight2.html"]Spotlight queries[/URL] and the [URL="http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Carbon/Conceptual/SpotlightQuery/Concepts/QueryFormat.html"]underlying metadata system[/URL]. That really goes a long way in helping you to quickly and easily find the information you're looking for.

If you're concerned with security, a [URL="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578"]basic[/URL] [URL="http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/lock_your_data.html"]understanding[/URL] of disk images is important too (e.g., Mac OS X's [URL="http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/mdutil.1.html"]mdutil[/URL] command line tool can turn on Spotlight indexing for your disk images).

Many PIMs support tagging, which is, of course, missing in the Finder. But this feature can be approximated by using Spotlight comments or some third-party apps. In my situation, I've found tagging to be unnecessary and rely entirely on Spotlight's full-content and metadata searches. YMMV.

So maybe it's not for everyone (my wife seems happier with [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/"]Yojimbo[/URL]), but it's certainly not rocket science either. And you've probably already got all the software you need to use this system.

-Dennis

thanks toadling - definitely food for thought. Will get back after I've let your idea settle :-)

first questions that come up:

1. is my Finder system as easily understood by other, nontechnical family members in the event that I am no longer in the pilot's seat for whatever reason?

2. using Finder, how would you advise storing the random examples I gave ( above) in my reply to curt?

peter

[URL="http://shawnblanc.net/2009/09/yojimbo-and-anything-buckets/"]This blog post[/URL] about "Anything Buckets" is pertinent. Shawn Blanc argues for keeping Finder stuff in the Finder, but throwing miscellaneous stuff into an info. manager app. He's using Yojimbo, but other apps could be used similarly.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;67514]DevonThink is clearly the power tool of this bunch, but I just can't get past the unapproachable user interface.[/QUOTE]

Oddly enough, Devonthink seems to me to have an unusually straightforward user interface - you just make folders, pull things into them, and use the search dialogs ...

Perhaps, however, this is not the right forum for that conversation :-)

Maybe I need to have yet another look. Every time I've launched a trial of Devonthink I just think "eww". ... [downloads demo] ...

The UI is cleaner than I remember, but there are still way too many concepts to learn for my needs: groups, databases, multiple inboxes, 6 different views on the main toolbar, smart groups in the sidebar and within databases, and a dialog (that comes up behind other apps) with options to install nearly a dozen different vaguely named plug-ins as the first-launch user experience.

Anyway, this is off-topic. DT is clearly a power tool. I'm sure others find OF equally daunting on first launch, but I'd be lost without it. To each his own.

Cheers,

Curt

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;67676]Maybe I need to have yet another look.[/QUOTE]

I think so. (Perhaps they need a less comprehensive demo).

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;67676]too many concepts to learn for my needs: groups, databases, multiple inboxes ...[/QUOTE]

Well ...

[B]groups[/B] - just folders and sub-folders - exactly like OF.
[B]databases[/B] - you only need one. That's what I do to integrate with OF.
[B]multiple inboxes[/B] - Like OF, there's just one global inbox, and an icon for it appears (rather usefully, I find) in the Finder and in the Save As dialogs of all other OS X applications.

(The global inbox can feed into database-specific in-trays if you choose to have several databases, but there's no need to)

As for the alternative screen layouts and smart collections - these are very much like the Finder. As an OF expert, I think you might feel less daunted if you gave it a second glance :-)

I find the Omnifocus <--> Devonthink interaction works very well, not least because both are highly scriptable.

[COLOR="White"]--[/COLOR]

I trust your judgment, Rob. DevonThink goes back on my list of software to play with sometime. I'll try to give it a more extended trial next time.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled forum...

[QUOTE=wdiadamo;67560]The one I settled on has not been mentioned yet: Together. It is simple to use, easy to get things in an out of, and does not use a proprietary database format, instead keeping everything in a folder format. [/QUOTE]

I'm evaluating it now - how do you get actions etc from OF to Together?
I really like the distinction between folders and groups, btw.

(more)

Action text can go to either Eaglefiler by dragging or to Together via Services, but neither will preserve any note.

Ideally that's what's needed: a repository for all non-project related info.

I really can't see Finder doing that job elegantly.

eg.

action: 'test action' + note 'test action note'
Folder 'A'; ex-project 'Z'.

How would I file that in Finder?

peter

[QUOTE=peterlemer;67604]1. is my Finder system as easily understood by other, nontechnical family members in the event that I am no longer in the pilot's seat for whatever reason?[/QUOTE]

That's hard for me to say. It really depends on how complicated you make your system. If your nontechnical family members can navigate a folder heirarchy, sort by column headings, and double-click file icons, then they've probably got the basic skill prerequisites. ;-) It's the building of complex Spotlight queries and using encrypted disk images that adds an extra layer of complexity. But depending on the PIM application you choose, similar complexities may exist in using that software as well.

There's certainly something to be said for having everything in one place, all bundled up nicely in a PIM database. Even though you can think of your filesystem as that "database", I agree that there's an addiitonal level of comfort provided by knowing that all your info is neatly contained within the narrower confines of a trusted application.

Then there's the issue of convenience. As Curt mentioned earlier, Shawn Blanc wrote about this in his recent [URL="http://shawnblanc.net/2009/09/yojimbo-and-anything-buckets/"]review of Yojimbo 2[/URL]. John Gruber has also written about [URL="http://daringfireball.net/2009/02/untitled_document_syndrome"]reducing the friction[/URL] of collecting notes.

I mostly agree with them, but the efficiency gains seem small to me. Maybe it's just my OCD, but regardless of where I store the info, I'm going to name the item properly and store it in an organized manner, whether that be in a folder heriarchy or with tags. Some PIMs might make this slightly easier, but it's not much of an obstacle in the filesystem either, at least not for me.

[QUOTE=peterlemer;67604]2. using Finder, how would you advise storing the random examples I gave ( above) in my reply to curt?[/QUOTE]

[B]NI dongle purchased 12/4/07[/B]

I keep a folder of receipts from all of my purchases. Most of these are PDFs saved from Safari or Mail. If I don't have the original receipt, I create a simple text file with the pertinent details and save it in my Receipts folder. Spotlight, Finder, and Quick Look make searching and browsing easy and fast. I store the folder on an encrypted disk image just in case there are credit card numbers or other bits of private information in any of the files.


[B]Unsubscribed from MyLife' 12/9/09'[/B]

I keep another folder of all my subscriptions and accounts on the same encrypted disk image. I create a single text file for each account using a simple template in my text editor. Each file contains the account name, location (URL), username, password, and a comment field. In the comment field, I log when the account was opened, any signifcant transaction or details, and if/when it was closed or canceled. As with my reciepts, this folder can be easily searched and browsed with Spotlight, Finder, and QuickLook


[B]lots of technique notes for Logic Pro[/B]

I keep another folder of general purpose reference material I've collected over the year. I call mine "Articles" and have a new folder for each year. When I find a useful piece of information, I simply dump it in the folder. Everything for the year is kept in one big pile. I typically view it in list mode in the Finder, sorted by modification date. By the end of the year, I might have a couple thousand articles saved. Tags might be a nice addition here, but I've found Spotlight's full content search to be sufficient for my needs.

I sometimes also create topic-specific folders outside of my Articles folder for things I'm particularly interested in. For example, I have an "Audio" folder for all my notes on Logic Pro, sample libraries, and production techniques. I have another folder for all my purchased e-books, one for all my manuals and user guides, and another for Python tutorials and code snippets.


[B]people I was considering to invite to perform at a festival last year[/B]

For something like this, I'd probably create a folder named after the event and put it in my "Miscellaneous" folder. Inside, I'd store all my notes about the event: URLs, brochures as PDFs, and the list of attendees as either a Numbers or OmniOutliner document or even as plain text.

Using Finder's column view, it becomes very easy to browse through these items and find what I'm looking for. And of course Spotlight works on folder names as well as individual documents.

[QUOTE=peterlemer;67695]Ideally that's what's needed: a repository for all non-project related info.

I really can't see Finder doing that job elegantly.

eg.

action: 'test action' + note 'test action note'
Folder 'A'; ex-project 'Z'.

How would I file that in Finder?[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure I understand. Couldn't you just create a related folder in Finder and put all your reference material in it? Isn't that essentially what you'd be doing in a PIM? Then just link the folder to your OmniFocus project. I usually store short text notes that are directly related to the action or project in the note field of the project or action itself.

As I see it, a PIM basically offers these potential advantages:
[LIST=1][*]Ease of data entry; just drop stuff on the app or "clip" it to store it; no save dialogs or filenames to worry about. But once you start to sort and organize items in the PIM app by placing them in subfolders, tagging, or labeling, there's not much of an efficiency advantage over Finder -- you're more or less spending the same amount of effort in both systems.

[*]Tagging. Granted, this is missing in Finder. Although it can be implemented with various hacks or third-party apps, it may not feel quite as polished as a dedicated PIM app. If you're a big fan of tagging, the Finder approach might not be for you.

[*]Search relevance and intelligent item relationships. I've never used DevonThink, but it looks like it can do some pretty sophisticated stuff in this regard. If you need something like this, Finder is probably not a good choice.

[*]iPhone app. If the PIM offers a syncing iPhone app so you can view all or a subset of your notes and reference material on the go, that's a huge advantage. I guess you could use your iDisk or an iPhone app like Briefcase or Air Sharing to take files with you on your iPhone, but a syncing PIM database seems more elegant.[/LIST]
Am I missing anything?

[B]DISCLAIMER:[/B] I'm not really trying to convince you or anyone else that the Finder, Spotlight, and Quick Look are going to solve all your problems. It's not perfect and probably requires a particular mindset and a fair degree of discipline to make it work.

In fact, I'm kind of hoping someone will offer up some convincing reasons why I might want to consider moving back to a PIM myself. :-) I don't see a clear advantage now, but I'm certainly open to persuasion! And if nothing else, maybe these ideas are at least food for thought.

-Dennis

Hey Toad person only just realised you're a music person too.

wow Dennis - that's some serious coaching :-)
please accept thanks and allow me some time to absorb - this is philosophy :-)

peter

so Dennis - any chance of a screenshot of your folder hierarchy?

My Documents folder is a mix of my main category folders and all sorts of stuff that my various apps put there, plus customised folders and alias folders that are my personalised Dock folders.. Quite a long list - not very well structured.

I'm wary about nesting app-specific folders because sometimes the parent app doesn't like losing the default path. I've had all sorts of problems with audio plugins - I can't be specific here because it's history ( not well logged!) but I've had missing libraries, licenses, presets and so on. I know this can be overcome by revising directory path info but then when I have to re-install for whatever reason, I have to do it all over. And I think some of the developers prefer that such resources stay where the installer puts them.

I admit some confusion, but I do have too many plugins to herd like this.

peter

Peter:

I saw that you took a look at the Together Forum, and if I understand your request, you are looking to be able to copy items from OF to Together for archive/search purposes. I am not aware of any way to do it, but I will take a shot a script. If that fails, it might be worth a request to the Ninjas.

[QUOTE=peterlemer;67754]so Dennis - any chance of a screenshot of your folder hierarchy?

My Documents folder is a mix of my main category folders and all sorts of stuff that my various apps put there, plus customised folders and alias folders that are my personalised Dock folders.. Quite a long list - not very well structured.[/QUOTE]

I suppose I could post a screenshot when I get back to my Mac (traveling with my iPhone right now), but I can tell you my Documents folder is pretty ordinary. I don't have any magical filing techniques or anything. :-)

I also suffer from the same problems you do with apps placing their support data in my Documents folder. I thought they weren't supposed to do that. Isn't that why we have a Library and Application Support folders? If I didn't explicitly create it, don't put it in my Documents folder!

Anyway, I agree it's a pain moving those app-created folders, so I just tend to leave them as well. But if you have too much clutter in there, why not create a single folder at the top level of your Documents folder, or even at the top level of your user account (i.e. at the same level as your Documents folder), and call it something like "Project Notes", "Notes", "Project Support", "Private", or whatever. Then create a clean folder structure in their for all your reference material. You could also put a link to the folder in your Finder sidebar for easy access.

Also, in Finder's preferences in Snow Leopard (last tab, I think), you can restrict the default search scope to just the currently-selected folder. I find this to be really helpful in getting narrower search results.

If that's not enough, try hitting Commad-Shift-F (rather than just Command-F) to initiate a Finder search; it'll search only filenames instead of doing a full content search. Between these two tricks, it's pretty easy to narrow things down to just what you're looking for and almost feels like you're working in a PIM. :-)

Hope this helps.

-Dennis

[QUOTE=wdiadamo;67756]Peter:

I will take a shot a script. [/QUOTE]

thx wdiadamo, please let me know how you get on :-)

peter

all nice ideas, Dennis - I will take the test notes I've placed in eaglefiler and together and place them as text files in a new* ( work in progress) folder heirarchy, see how that feels :-)

peter

* User/Documents/<SPACE>PETERS DOCUMENTS/

Toadling,

How do you handle getting info from a web site?
Are you copying it to a text file and filing it in your reference folder?
Or printing it to PDF?
Or is the answer, there is no standard, depends on what the content is?

One feature I like of a PIM app (such as Evernote and others) is a script or feature hat copies the web content to an entry in the app.

When I think about using the Finder to manage all this I get hung up on how to get web content nicely into a Finder system.

Just curious how this is handled...

[QUOTE=Russell;69454]How do you handle getting info from a web site?[/QUOTE]

I would follow a workflow that's very similar to using a PIM:
[LIST=1][*]If I'm only interested in a selection of text, I'd use a system service provided by [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/"]BBEdit[/URL] to open a new text window with the current selection, which I can then save as a file. I'm not sure if TextEdit offers a similar feature, but [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/"]TextWrangler[/URL] is basically a free, lite version of BBEdit.

It's also very easy to create system services with Automator in Snow Leopard, so you could probably make your own for your editor of choice.

Another option is to drag selected text to the Dock icon of your favorite editor to open it in a new window, then save it as a file.

Yet another option is to use your favorite app launcher, like [URL="http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html"]LaunchBar[/URL], to grab selected text and send it to an editor of your choice.

[*] For saving entire pages, I'd typically print to PDF for cross-platform compatibility and Preview's annotation capabilities. I often use the [URL="http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/"]Readability[/URL] browser bookmarklet to get a nice printing view for sites that don't provide their own.

In Snow Leopard, Quick Look finally works on web archives, so I've started using those more often as well.

[*] If I'm only interested in the address of the site, I'd just save it as a bookmark in Safari.[/LIST]
Having said all that, I must admit that I still have a soft spot in my heart for the simplicity and elegance of [URL="http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/"]Yojimbo[/URL] (which I've used on and off since its initial release in 2006). In fact, after Curt mentioned [URL="http://shawnblanc.net/2009/09/yojimbo-and-anything-buckets/"]Shawn Blanc's review of Yojimbo 2[/URL], I read the blog post again and it convinced me to try the app once more. About a week later I upgraded my Yojimbo license to version 2, and so far, I've been very happy with it.

My immediate observations on Yojimbo 2 (which may or may not hold true for other PIM apps) are:
[LIST=1][*]Generous tagging of my data, coupled with the new Tag Explorer in Yojimbo 2, is revealing interesting connections between items that I might not have found in my old file system method.

[*]Other than tagging, there's not much that I do in Yojimbo that I couldn't also do with my old file system methodology. But as [URL="http://daringfireball.net/2009/02/untitled_document_syndrome"]John Gruber[/URL] has pointed out, Yojimbo is all about reducing friction, and in that respect, the app is very good.

[*]Shawn Blanc points out that he'd been frustrated with Yojimbo in the past because he tried to use it as a Finder [I]replacement[/I]. I think I've had the same problem. Blanc writes, "This is not the same as your tried and true System for saving and finding things. The System is for everything. Your Anything Bucket, however, is for everything else. And you need both."[/LIST]
So I have no plans to completely abandon my "tried and true System for saving and finding things" that I've described elsewhere in this thread, but rather to supplement it with Yojimbo. We'll see how things go in the coming months. :)

-Dennis

Toadling,

Thanks for the reply!

Reading about your process and system has been very helpful to me.
I have been using Evernote for almost two years now, but found recently that I wasn't using it much. I started to consider why and realized there was too much "friction" to using it; apps were slow on whatever platform I used and that made creating a new note a chore.

I've exported everything from Evernote to Yojimbo and that was an awful experience since Evernote has its own database and entry formatting. I won't be touching Evernote again. I had a script to export the data from Evernote to Yojimbo that helped immensely but still took me a good 12-16 hours of effort to complete as I had 1.6 GB of data and close to 3,000 entries in Evernote.

I've started filing items using folders in Finder and I'm really liking it so far. I've used folders before, but I haven't used them intelligently. In the past they would become just another place to dump files for me to look at sometime. Part of the process is definitely using it and going back and "pruning" everything to the way I like it. Right now I'm working to reduce places where files can accumulate and gather dust.

That's one of the attractions to Yojimbo is that I enjoy using the app, it is quick and has a few powerful features, more of a laser focus if you will. So, I have to say I, as well, have a soft-spot for Yojimbo right now. I just have to keep that in check as I seem to have a soft-spot for all PIM apps.

I'm wanting to simplify my system so that I will use it more as the more work it requires will work against me using the system (AKA more "friction"). Right now I have a gut feeling that Yojimbo could serve a great purpose and help me use my system more, I just don't know exactly how it should fit in with everything else. It's like having a gear you know is important to the machine, but not knowing where it needs to go.

I've got some ideas on how things should fit together and I'm working those out as I use the tools. The systems engineer in me is screaming to create an OmniGraffle document showing the process. :) I'll have to draft that up soon...

Thanks again Toadling for describing your process, I have found it very helpful. Anything else you want to offer about your system and process would, I'm sure, be helpful as well. :)

Toadling and others,

How are you using Yojimbo with your existing system of folders in Finder?

Is Yojimbo for the important data, miscellaneous bits, or both?

[QUOTE=Russell;69950]How are you using Yojimbo with your existing system of folders in Finder? ... Is Yojimbo for the important data, miscellaneous bits, or both?[/QUOTE]

I'm using Yojimbo for both important data and miscellaneous bits -- basically any random notes that aren't tied to a specific project. My decision making process is not clear-cut though and certainly requires some discretion on a case-by-case basis.

One of the big determining factors is that I don't think Yojimbo is a good Finder replacement. So I've been trying not to dump [I]everything[/I] into it. Instead, I only use Yojimbo for [I]notes[/I], which are usually text-based, but can occasionally be PDFs, web archives, bookmarks, or even images.

Regardless of the original file formats, though, I consider all of these items to be [I]generic notes[/I]. I do not use Yojimbo as a repository for all of my PDFs, images, web archives, etc. I use the filesystem and Finder for that.

This is contrary to a lot apps that are often labelled as Yojimbo-competitors (e.g. DevonThink, Together, EagleFiler, etc.). I think those apps are really trying to accomplish something different than Yojimbo. They serve more as a front-end to the filesystem, managing/organizing files, rather than being a traditional, free-form database like Yojimbo.

These file-managing "Yojimbo-competitors" seem like they might be better for storing and organizing [I]everything[/I], if that's what you're looking for. Yojimbo, on the other hand, seems better-suited as a simple note collector.

-Dennis

this was a really great thread - now we nearly 18 months on - I wonder if the panel is still here, and where you are now with non-current-project information storage?
Is it Finder, Yojimbo, Things, Evernote, other? ( I'm evaluating 'Hit List' which allows sub-notes)

pete

@peterlemer I use Evernote in the situation you are describing. A big benefit you will have is that if you would (as an example) store License info of programs you have purchased in Evernote, if you need to access this information elsewhere - or in another platform, you will always have this information at hand and it wont be lost in case of a hard disk fault..

You can make your data hierarchy very neat in Evernote as well and it even supports tagging.

I continue to tinker (unproductively, it must be said), and from time to time re-try the usual suspects (such as Evernote), as well as anything new that comes down the pike. I find myself, however, more and more simply using the Finder, placing stuff in a few folders, and relying on searches to find stuff. As for integration with OF, I clip documents (or whatever) into OF, and OF will keep track of where ever I put it. I am still in search of the holy grail, but for now, keeping it simple.

I'm still using a combination of Finder and Yojimbo. Seems to be working pretty well for me, although I'm always on the look out for something better.

-Dennis

devastat:
 

good comment, though for license info I use 1Password, which is superb.

What I like about the Evernote demo (that I've just downloaded following your comment), is the simple idea of a notepad, many of which I use for real in my studio... So in that sense my brain can dance with it right away :-)

However, 'notepads' are no different to 'projects' in 'things' or 'Hit List' and the latter have layers, too. Yojimbo only has one layer of note, too.

I think I like sub-notes, even for raw information.

What I like especially about Evernote, though, is that it speaks android. :-)

choices... choices....

wdiadamo, Toadling - I'm tickled by the idea of using Finder as a filing system but at the same time rather scared to jump there right now with this huge project underway.

I suspect that my best way forward immediately is to get OF under control, which it isn't atm , and use one of the layered options of secondary PIMS as data storage.

In fact, contrary to my parallel comment, attractive as Things' is, it isn't really layered very much. 'Hit List' may be more functional for my needs but just to stir the pot I am revisiting Journier - which has ample layering and might hit the spot <crosses fingers> :-)

pete

pete