August 8, 2005

Organizing Bits of Digital Information

If your day is spent collecting and keeping track of bits of information its important that you have a tool that can help your brain get things organized.

The New York times reviews some software and writes A practical way to master information from Web pages is so important that new programs for this purpose keep appearing. Those I have described in recent months (and still like) include Microsoft OneNote, with its attractive look and its integration with other Microsoft programs; Zooter from Zootsoftware and ADM from Advanced Data Management, which offer extensive ways to organize data once they have been captured; and Surf Saver from AskSam, with fast searches of stored pages. (Unless noted, all software can be found at Web sites with the name of the company or product.)

Three more to consider are EverNote, Onfolio and Net Snippets. In functions, they are similar. With any of them, you can easily store a full Web page, or selected passages or any other material on your computer screen; you can apply a label or classifying information or just send the data to a general slush pile for later review; and you can search and reclassify the stored material at any time. The programs are also designed for journal entries, to-do lists and anything else you may want to jot down. All offer 30-day free trials. After that, basic versions of Net Snippets and Onfolio are free; EverNote's basic version costs $29.95. More advanced versions of each program are available at higher prices. The programs work with most major browsers, notably Internet Explorer and Firefox, but they run on the Mac only under the Virtual PC utility.

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