Spacey Spade said:
omega (e-mail address removed) wrote...
Okay, I cheated and went to the site and watched the flash demo. I like
wild (brain). You can "associate" thoughts, which is different from
hierarchy. You can also have multiple parents for one child thought.
In Correlate, the language they use for hot-linking between links and
memos and other objects, it's "relate." You draw on canvas, and any number
of things can be set to relate to any other things.
Orphans are also freely allowed. It includes too a "jump items" feature,
where clicking on an object can take you anywhere else -- including to a
different document page within the knowledge map (a Correlate .kmp file is
made up of a set of tabbed document pages/sheets).
The appearance when working with Correlate relations - however much you
create depth of relations, and however randomly - there still always
remains a bit of a hierarchical underlay. Not spherical as with Brain,
with its every expanding nets pivoting outwards...
I cannot call the two products the same. What sets them off as a pair is
largely that each is so distinct from anything else in the world. As well,
that the driving nature of both is in their freeform hyper-linking powers.
In PersonalBrain (PB) you can only see approx. 3 layers of a heirarchy
at one time ("view distant thoughts" is a bit messy and incomplete), so
I can see that advantage in Correlate.
Correlate has a number of different elements in its interface which are
more familiar and traditional. For instance, it features a tabbed documents
set (perhaps like an Excel worksheet set). Or, there is a left panel, which
can be used to display a hierarchical template legend.
And even the "relations," while they are what makes Correlate particularly
special and less traditional...they are indeed sort of stodgily rectangular
if compared with Brain. Far less visually thrilling, and less creative-
feeling, this last part. But also easier to reign in, for those of us who
are comforted that way, and less Wild Side, like you.
But, if you want a full viewable
heirarchy, you can create a link to a file, rather than only embedding
the file in PB.
Correlate, like PB, gives you the choice between linking and embedding.
Images are handled very nicely. One way to go is to embed an image,
and what happens is it automatically defaults to a thumbnail size.
Right-click the image within the Correlate document, and you can zoom to
any size. You can do that only for viewing purposes, or in order to reset
what size it displays in the document.
Then from that image you can create "relations" to it. Where you type some
text as a memo object to connect to it. Or where you drag from the explorer
panel, to create connected links, for launching whatever files or executables
you want related to the image object.
You can then go view the file in Windows Explorer, or
your fave file browser... hmmm... but then you only see the contents of
one directory at a time.
Correlate has an optional browser view panel, works in both online and
offline mode, so htms can be launched within the app, as well as online
pages loaded. And things can be dragged from the loaded web page. One
of the neat features is "Insert Outline of Page Links."
Embedded objects of various sorts - other than the images, I haven't
investigated those yet. Although I did notice talk about MS Office
documents support...
The linked items, they work the same of course as with Brain. Clicking
a link to say an .rtf or a .hlp file will launch the associated program.
One interesting act is with the "Insert Folder" menu command. Same essential
result as with selecting everything from a folder and dragging it into
Brain. Only there you end with the different visual layout of the links
in the two. Brain with that expanding-spheres look. Correlate following
the structure from explorer.
Another thing I like about PB and Outlook Tasks is the ability to place
files within the context of written comunication... like an interactive
ebook. Spacey
I don't have Outlook, so haven't specifically seen in action what you
describe. I do believe you might be satisfied with the ability of Correlate
for that activity. Especially since that appears to be its prime intention:
the sharing (by web, by email, etc) of its "knowledge maps," which contain
links throughout, and can contain embedded files of a variety of formats.
It's since you like Brain that I thought you might like this one, too.
Yet don't think I'm expecting you to test it out in the some nearby part
of the future; I only want you to marker it up on your ToeDoe list.
As mentioned, I'm not even actively using it myself as yet. And I saw your
news that there are still a few broken things in your operating system's
OLE functions. :< (I wonder if you'll end by having to resort to either
the MSIE "repair" option, or perhaps to the conservative method of running
Windows Setup. That is, as soon as you become desperate enough to let MSFT
loose on your system, to splatter about its MSN icons and all the other
debris.)
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