Usage

[goggin]

I'm evaluating UR and would be interested to learn how others use the program. If you care to share what you use it for, how your organize your data, etc., I'd sure appreciate it!

Thx!
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dg

[ashwken]

UR allows you to collect, organize, and track different types of data for many different situations. You should look at the sample databases for a glimpse of this, you might also spend some time browsing by thread topic (some titles can be decieving for they contain).

Beyond that, is there something in particular you want to do?

[goggin]

Thank you...perhaps I should have been more specific. The sample databases and online tutorials are very helpful to demonstrate capability. But I'm interested in the practical application for day-to-day use...what habits folks have developed that have served them well for capturing and organizing data.

I've used a variety of programs before to capture day-to-day work notes, project information (including links to files), web clippings, and other free form data. A measure of success that's important to me, though, is not just quick and easy data capture, but actually finding and using the data that I've stored. IOW, I'd consider an UR database to be successful based on the amount of information I go back looking for, find quickly, and can use quickly...rather than measuring how much information I put into it.

It's that sort of usage insight I'm seeking...how do you use the program to organize the thousands of pieces of stray information one accumulates these days and so get your day-to-day work done more efficiently.

Links to old posts would be just fine...I searched and didn't see anything like this with the recent releases.

Thx!
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dg

[RalphCal]

I work for a software company that uses a program called Team Track (web based) to record Service Requests (hotline issues) and that type of thing. Problem with this is that while assisting a customer you cannot quickly make notes or record screen shots and the like. So, I use UR to record the ticket information and make all my notes there with screen shots and the like and when appropriate copy/paste an abridged version back into Team Track ticket. UR has a very nice reminder function that I use ALL the time to keep me on track with tickets assigned to me.

Also, our company have documents recreated by just about everyone stored in various directories that are supposed to help you with resolving a ticket -- problem is where to you look and how fast can you get the information -- again UR to the rescue -- I have imported or linked all these notes and now finding a solution is practically instantaneous AND if I find a better solution or want to amend one I can open the linked item and edit and save for the others in the group who continue to use the 'old method' of searching through file explorer. :-)

Hope that helps.

[goggin]

Thx, RalphCal...that was very helpful. I'd hoped to hear UR served the need you expressed of capturing disparate data quickly...and I'm most excited about how you're using UR to find info quickly that's located in a collection of files...very exciting!
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dg

[RalphCal]

I have had other PIM type software that I have kept notes with over the years, to name a few: Infoselect, Treepad, Winorganizer, MyInfo and now UR and I must say that right now I'm enjoying UR the most. I'm a relatively new convert (less then a month old) to UR, I tested it for a week and then registered it almost 2 weeks ago, I couldn't be happier.

I'm still learning what UR can do but I have to say that I was quite productive from day one. The previous program I had been using would crash on me at least twice a week and I would have to reindex each database I had open at the time but I have yet to see any problems with UR and searchs are even faster than what I had been used to. So far, UR has been the only program I have used that I haven't found some sort of bug in. :-) -- that's a good thing.

<Ralph>

[quant]

Originally posted by goggin
Links to old posts would be just fine...

Research is the area where I use UR on a daily basis
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...&threadid=3457

But looking too much back might not give you the best idea how to approach things with UR cause many tasks, like for example GTD (Getting Things Done), would be done probably more effectively now that we have (since v3.5) "info item" attribute type and "search on item relationship"
http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthre...&threadid=3640

The big advantage of UR over other programs is great customizability, so you can tweak it to be just right for what you need to achieve, studying, researching, task management, outlining, ...

[goggin]

Nice...thx! It does my heart good to read posts like that!
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dg

[houseofstrauss]

If you are looking for a dedicated research tool, there http://www.ideamason.com/ is one to check out. It's intended for serious academic input. It's a pig to work with because of its very complicated system. It also misses some of the important extra features of UR. It also constrains you to enter citations and references correctly and formally, which can be a drag if not required. Otherwise look at http://www.zotero.org/ for formal research but you will not get the features of UR

I've actually tried all of these apps and just about all the others available. It's a tedious process and what I have learned is that you really need to define exactly what you want to achieve, or at last a framework, or else you get lost in choices and decissions.

Ultra Recall gives a very balanced feature set with flexible options to leverage personal requirements. Other apps just can't do that.