Subscribe
Note Studio
I have been using some cool new software lately so I thought it time to talk about. It's called Note Studio. It is kind of a personal web sitle or wiki.
When you run it, it starts out as a blank slate. It's up to you to figure out how you are going to use it and make it useful to you. I use it to keep track of projects, notes, lists, darn near any info that I want to keep track of and, even better, have with me. Yes, it syncs to my Palm organizer. Sweeet. You can edit on either the PC or the Palm and life is wonderful.
I takes a bit to get your mind around the whole thing. How do you want to have things organized and how best will you find the info once it is organized? The feeling is similar to how you set up a new office or kitchen. Where are you going to put what to be most efficient.
The absolute key to the system didn't really dawn on me until I read this excellent site by someone who transformed her life with Notes Studio. The site is called note studio as GTD machine. Getting Things Done (GTD) is an excellent book by David Allen. I read the book a year or so ago and the practices, while easy, are difficult to maintain for me. Note Studio is really helping me stay on track with GTD. As you'll see if you go to that site, the key I am referencing is the NavBar at the top of each page. That allows me to go from one screen of info to another in just a couple taps or clicks.
It is so nice to be able to have my list of movies with me when I go to Blockbuster. AND be able to update the list as I pass a new movie on the shelf. Additionally, I use it to file obsure information like the size and wattage of the flourescent lights in my garage. May sound lame but if I happen to be near Home Depot and I remember I saw a light out I can buy a new one because I have on hand the info I need. Now, I don't go around writing down all this stuff but I needed a light once and it's now filed away in my system for next time.
Equally cool is the desktop interface. It makes editing even faster than the Palm and also allows me to copy and paste info from any application and then download it to the Palm. Read a book review? Copy/paste to my reading list. Newsletter email I don't have time at the moment to read? Copy/paste to my to be read page and sync away.
The possibilities are endless. And I haven't even mentioned backlinks. When you are on a page you click to see the back links. You'll then see a list of all other pages in your NoteStudio that link to the one you are on. This is SO powerful for notetaking. It makes it easy to see relationships you might not have noticed before. Having said all that, you have to be disciplined to link your pages. Once you do you'll see the power but you can't just willy nilly enter info and expect miracles. Besides, it's not that hard once you learn the syntax.
Oh yeah, you can export your pages too. I now maintain my Firefox Tips page in Notestudio. As I find new stuff I edit NS, export it and then FTP it up to my server. It's much more powerful than Notepad or some text editor and isn't full of bloat like Dreamweaver. My site is basic so it fits my purpose with ease.
Get the demo and try it out! This entry was posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 at 2:38 PM.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home