Steven Johnson has a good essay on Boinboing detailing how he goes about writing a book, which is basically: reasearch like crazy, then sit down and write. One of the tools he mentions is Devonthink, which I’ve never used, and can’t because I don’t own a Mac.In the comments, someone posted a link to Windows alternatives, which is nice, but, like many people, I find myself working on different computers in different locations. I work mainly in Linux, but sometimes I boot into Windows on my laptop. I also occasionally have to use someone else’s computer. My research materials are terribly disorganized, residing in a folder in a file cabinet, a pile on the desk, a stack of books, snippets of text files scattered throughout my file system.So, the question is: is there a good research/writing tool that is platform independent, or, better, web-based?
I think Zotero has some promise. I used it a bit on my desktop, but didn’t delve too deeply. Some have suggested Evernote or Google Notebook. I like Evernote because it captures everything and you can use tags. I have begun uploading pdfs of articles I am using, but I could probably use it more extenisvely. Delicious might be another way to go. The one thing everyone talks about re Devonthink is a search function that finds connections, which the tools I’ve mentioned don’t have (I don’t think). Is there a way to get around this? Does anyone know any other tools, or ways in which I can use the tools I have?
Pingback: Unit Structures – Steven Johnson on Research and Writing