PIMs Part IV - Loose Text by Dan Butler This article first appeared in TNPC #6.06

Personal Information Managers (PIMs) offer you different ways to structure your information. We've looked at a couple of different products in past issues. All of them have proven to be of limited use to me for storing loose slips of information. Those little tidbits that you might want someday. The problem is they aren't useful unless you can find them again. This issue I'll tell you about a solution I've used for years that solves the problem well.

The application is InfoSelect for Windows. I've used this program since version 3. Version 7 was just released. I've only played with the new version for a week so I'm not up on all the new features. The upgrade went smoothly with no glitches.

New features include the ability to work with files over the Internet. If you need to share data with others or work with the same data at work and home this feature could be very handy. I tested this feature and found it easy to use. Just create a shared file and put it on a commonly accessible web site. Using the encryption feature would be a very wise idea in this case.

The calendar is simple to use and pops up in its own window. It is functional, but I have not used it much. Why don't I use the calendar? I'm already set in my ways with other programs. You can read about that in the previous PIM articles here:

http://www.thenakedpc.com/dan/

So for instance if I want to remember this: "s/\r?\n/ /g" there isn't a quick way to store and locate that inside most PIMs. Sure I can put it in there but after storing a few hundred or thousand of these it starts to get complex. Then you have to find them again.

In InfoSelect I put the above text in and place the words "regex, perl, line breaks" on the top line. That's the total of my efforts to store the information. When I need to know about regular expressions for line breaks I just type "G regex line break" and hit enter. Voila! There is my solution staring me in the face. I have thousands of little tidbits, code snippets, quotes, html, reviews, tips, websites, phone numbers, addresses, notes, sources, and more. It's all available to me as fast as I can type. The only caveat being that the words typed in have to be present in the InfoSelect record. So I often put words in my topics that help me bring them up later.

If you want to classify your information InfoSelect gives you many ways to do this. The main way is with Outlines. You indent your topic headings into a logical order and file your items under the appropriate topic.

I often use the Transporter to enter items in InfoSelect. You highlight the information you are interested in, click the Transporter icon and the data is automatically put in the program. When I am busy researching I'll often transport a lot of data into InfoSelect then take some time when I'm finished to go to those items, add keywords for searching later, then drag them to the appropriate spot on my outline.

Find more information on InfoSelect at their Website:

http://www.miclog.com

Next issue I'll go into more detail on InfoSelect and the new features in version 7.

(c) 2003, Dan Butler
You can reach Dan Butler at:
danbutler@TheNakedPC.com