Most wanted

[quant]

There are many very good suggestions floating around, ...
but to somehow sum it up, try to answer the following. The questionnaire isn't easy I think, but let's give it a try :)

1. What single feature do you miss most?
2. What single feature do you think would help UR standout?
3. What single feature would attract most new users?

Your answer might be the same to each question, but more probably not, that's the point :)

[TMF]

Hard to answer since I would prefer pack of small things to be implemented, whereas the format of this questionnaire forces me to think big:

1. maybe HTML editing (see above)
2. UR already stands out feature-wise, IMHO it needs to package it all more neatly so that it reaches wider user base.
Anyway, vote goes to HTML editing.
3. Less chaotic, more standardly behaving GUI - but that's not a feature. so the vote goes for More powerful RTF editor.

[janrif]

missed = calendar visualizations
standout = intelligent filtering (a la Zoot smart folders)
attraction = better writing tools

PS: search across databases & pop out details windows

[igoldsmid]

*** HTML (Web Page) Editing

*** Search Results Highlighting

*** Ability to capture links (like Item Command Line) to any content anywhere in the Item Notes or Item Details Panes - (Like OneNote 2007)

*** much faster synchronization with external, linked resources


Thanks

[janrif]

Originally posted by igoldsmid
*** Ability to capture links (like Item Command Line) to any content anywhere in the Item Notes or Item Details Panes - (Like OneNote 2007)[/B]
How does this work in OneNote? I'm trying to understand this priority as user can drag/drop link to details page or note pane in URp which I'm sure you know so it must be something else.

[igoldsmid]

Jan

What it means is that you can, after having located or chosen - for example - a paragraph header, or any arbitrary phrase or word in a body of text, say in an Items details pane, right click and choose copy link (to the clipboard) to paragraph (or selected word or phrase) - then either:

1) paste that link anywhere else within any OneNote Note or,
2) choose to create a new Note using the chosen text as the Title...

Then - if case 1) - clicking on that newly pasted link will navigate you back to exactly that paragraph, or word or phrase chosen in that other Note to link back to, or

if 2) then the chosen paragraph header, or word or phrase becomes a clickable hyperlink which links you to the new note created from it (This is exactly what wikis like mediawiki provide)...

In short, instead of just providing links to Items, it will be possible to create links to text in Item Details or Notes - such that chosen text becomes the target of a hyperlink which can be pasted anywhere else you like, even outside UltraRecall in some other application that supports hyperlinking...

Then UltraRecall content can become much more "web-like" - providing a much finer grained navigation around all the content.

Have I explained that in sufficiently plain English?

Regards, Ian

[janrif]

Yes, Ian, you were clear. I believe you are talking about Wiki or internal hyperlinking. I think I understand. If not maybe you'll try again. Thanks.

[igoldsmid]

Its more than a wiki, because wikis only enable linking from content to a page - whereas what OneNote 2007 is doing is enabling linking content to content, as well as content to pages...

[janrif]

Are you familiar w ConnectedText
http://www.connectedtext.com/index.html

[igoldsmid]

Yes, I have it, but haven't been using it for a while - (because OneNote 2007 provides all the wiki functionality and more - plus excellent Outlook Integration), plus the text manipulation and formatting in ConnectedText are primitive and I would say geared towards tecchies/programmers.

The CT developer is soon to release V3 which may bring it up to new more interesting level of UI and functionality.

Recently I have been using Personal Brain 4 (in beta) a great deal - it has a phenomenal graphical UI, but has limited limited notes functionality. I use it to organize and navigate file, web, UltraRecall, Outlook and OneNote links - essentially a fun and poweful visual GUI to organize and navigate through ALL my stuff...

[janrif]

We are veering terribly off topic but I agree, Brain is very interesting & I've have been trying to use it on a practical basis for years. Off list maybe you can tell me how you interface it with UR, etc.

[igoldsmid]

off topic yes - Jan feel free to either drop me a private email here via this forum by going to my profile - or start a thread on Outlinersoftware.com - whichever you prefer?

Ian

[ashwken]

Originally posted by quant
1. What single feature do you miss most?
2. What single feature do you think would help UR standout?
3. What single feature would attract most new users?


Lack of a Presentation Layer - Database Publishing.

- rtf editor, Office docs as Templates, Printed Output, html editing, exporting, xml transforms, website generation, or publish with the UR viewer -

There's bits and pieces here and there, but it just doesn't seem to come together.

I don't understand why rtf isn't treated more like a legacy thing, since there's so many version of the control and compatibility is even an issue among them...

Why put any more effort into rtf? Move on to something else.

I'm sure that some of you have looked at the ouput from the xml export, you can literally dump the entire UR database into an xml file.

Is this the point where Styles and Layout should be applied, some type of WYSIWYG xml editor?

Or should it be on the front end, the same data that is being dumped in the xml export is already available in UR?

Later,
KenA

[inkognito]

Originally posted by quant
There are many very good suggestions floating around, ...
but to somehow sum it up, try to answer the following. The questionnaire isn't easy I think, but let's give it a try :)

1. What single feature do you miss most?
2. What single feature do you think would help UR standout?
3. What single feature would attract most new users?

Your answer might be the same to each question, but more probably not, that's the point :)

1. choosing multiple keywords in attributes when checked "Restrict values to list" not only one
2. visualisation of the tree/subtree like in personal brain http://www.thebrain.com/
3. i'm not shure which of these 3:
- wiki like linking within the contend of the items and to other infoitems
- multilanguage support
- visual form editor

[edbro]

1. The url for a captured page automatically added to the bottom of the capture like Evernote does.

2. Ability to create simple tables.

I am very new to this software and am trying to learn it. So, if any of this is already possible, please forgive me. That reminds me of another request:

3. A better tutorial than the 4 flash demos (which are a bit outdated as they refer to menu options that are not there now ["alternate layout" in Web Capture demo, "default sibling" in the Journaling demo, etc.])

edit:
I just realized that I didn't follow the 3 part format of the original posting. By the time I read all the posts in the thread I was thinking of most wanted requests.

[quant]

1. better support for internal links:
- internal links pane: would show items that link to current item
- being able to search for internal links

2. full featured calendar with all the bells and whistles

3. better advertising ;-)
- lots of online videos showing "how to" do sth, explaining attributes and basics of databases to beginners and how the user can benefit from that, case studies (made from the existing sample files).

[tfjern]

1. When searching for certain words or phrases, the hits should be numbered (i.e., the total number of hits will be indicated on the status bar), and the hits should be individually highlighted. Plus, convenient hit-to-next-hit navigation buttons. Finally, a multi-database search function. Make this happen, Kinook. The current search functions simply won't do.

2. Internal editing available for all forms of stored data (from xps to pdf formats). Once data is imported or copied into an item in UR, it should be editable. Good luck on this one.

3. Online videos for new users ("UR for Dummies," so to speak), and obviously not ones created by superpower-users or, heaven forbid, the programmers themselves. This has been requested numerous times, but so far not a peep from Kinook. Perhaps a senior member with a lot of time on his or her hands (plus the ability to explain things clearly in simple English) could volunteer to make some Camtasias. Just a thought.

P.s.: Tablet PC inking features, but I won't hold my breath on this one.

[TimP]

Most missed: Quick and easy web-based publishing with full explorer panel functionality, like I used to have with TreePad which I stopped using because UR is so superior in so many other ways.

To Standout: Web-based publishing first, then the ability for site visitors to leave comments in items, then the ability for the site owner to extract the comments back into his/her UR database. Finally, and I know this is ridiculous, UR becomes the front end of a wiki-like shared publishing system, that operates on Mac or PC. PUBLIC COLLABORATION is where the web is going; this kind of ability/functionality would make UR huge, IMHO. I could use it for all my private purposes on my own machine and then share certain databases all over the world.

Attract New Geek Users: Turn column views into live databases like an MS Access table, with full-editing, insert, delete, and the ability to create and add new attributes while still in the columns view.

Attract New Normal users: The control over whether documents are stored and edited internally is confusing and kind of scary at first. My biggest initial doubt was putting all my eggs (documents) in one basket (the UR database), so clearly dealing with this and allowing a complete and perfect export to a filesystem folder tree would make people feel better about trying UR in the first place. Afterall , the product is called UltraRecall not StoreAll. Once it can be trusted to connect to documents harmlessly, people will get to know its other virtues and buy in more happily.

[TimP]

Originally posted by tfjern
1. When searching for certain words or phrases, the hits should be numbered (i.e., the total number of hits will be indicated on the status bar), and the hits should be individually highlighted. Plus, convenient hit-to-next-hit navigation buttons. Finally, a multi-database search function. Make this happen, Kinook. The current search functions simply won't do.



You're absolutely right about the searching and search term highlighting. I used to work for a text-indexing product company. Ranking and search term highlighting in proprietary document formats was extremely important and well-supported in search products even back then (mid 90's).