43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Academic Note Collection Project

I'm a comparative religion student headed for grad school this coming fall. I've been thinking about and exploring a projected I'd like to do that I think would greatly benefit me both in grad school and in an academic career generally.

I would like to create some kind of collection (I avoid the use of the word database deliberately) of all of my notes, papers, and other academic work that has:

1) Fairly easily assembly. The documents are in various forms (word, rtf, stw, even some Word Perfect files)

2) Easy update and the ability to edit these entries.

3) Powerful search and organization features, such as the links of a wiki or a concordance.

I've explored various wiki options, such as MoinX and Instiki, but I've been turned off with how much time it would take to convert all of these documents into something the wiki could use. Especially those documents with footnotes.

I recently heard about DEVONthink and while it looks interesting, I can't afford to buy any software that doesn't meet the projects goals exactly.

Is there anyone who has faced a similar challenge? What tools (for the Mac OS) may I have overlooked?

alan's picture

I'll bump josh's question about...

I'll bump josh's question about how DevonThink fits into folks' workflow. These days I find myself filing "stuff" across three applications: BibDesk, a snippet journal in TextMate, and various outlines in OOPro. The latter two are the problematic elements of my system, in that it's hard to really keep track of everything systematically. I've considered putting together something like a wiki-based log of all that activity, so that I don't lose whatever weak ties I'm putting together, but I'm wary of adding *another* application to the pile (Voodoopad, maybe? A local instiki? I don't know). Is DevonThink something that could cut out all those apps?

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »