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:

  1. Visual versus text thinkers
  2. Ease of use
  3. Reliability/stability/maturity of software
  4. Learning Curve
  5. 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:

...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:

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):

...feature rich, with lots of powerful tools that you can mess with to exactly fit your working style:

3. Reliability/Stability: If you like your software to be ...

... mature - it that doesn't crash, has a standard/simple, and proven interface, etc.:

...cutting edge - the latest, coolest features, but might have bugs and inconsistencies:

4. Learning Curve: If you want to be...

...up and running quickly with the main features. You want productivity right now:

...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):

5. Ability to categorize and Search through data: If you need the power to do...

..fully customized and automated categorizations and powerful searches:

...straightforward, categorizations and fast, simple searches:

 

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Credits:

The following people contributed to this document: (Thanks for your contributions!)

This is a continual work in progress. Please e-mail 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.