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by Graeme Moffatt <gmoffatt@i4free.co.nz>
Whilst I was recently connected
to the internet, I was looking through the MUGCenter website and decided
to download some back versions of the User Group Report <http://www.mugcenter.com/ugr/ugr.html>.
These reports are an audio series featuring interviews with people making
news in the MUG community and are hosted by Chuck Joiner of the Hershey
Apple Core, a Macintosh user group in Pennsylvania in the US.
One of the people interviewed was Elizabeth Statmore of Circus Ponies,
a company based in California that produces a software product called
NoteBook. She was offering special deals to Mac user group members and
this caused me to become curious about the product.
Circus Ponies was co-founded in 2003 by Jayson Adams, Vice President
of Technology and Elizabeth Statmore, Vice President of Marketing. Both
were involved in writing applications for the NEXTstep operating system
and ceased development when the company was purchased by Apple. Jayson
says, "After I wrote the original NoteBook application on NeXTSTEP,
I didn't think I'd ever find anything new to say in applications software.
But I found myself drawn to the possibilities that the Mac OS X development
system opened up for me."
NoteBook is an OSX outliner and freeform database that lets users add
items from the clipboard as well as organise and share unstructured
information from any source in any manner they choose. It uses a notebook
styled interface that is easy to grasp that makes storing and indexing
information straightforward.
As is usual when I first launch a new application, I investigate the
menu items and click on those that I find interesting to see how the
application works and what I can achieve with it. Sometimes this works
fine and other times I am forced to look at the help file or as a last
resort, browse the manual. With NoteBook, I found it easy to add items
on a page of the spiral bound notebook interface, the appearance of
which can be altered in the preference pane. These items can be either
text or any item that can be copied into the clipboard, images, text,
sounds or quicktime movies. Dragging and dropping is also fully supported
and items can be placed and viewed anywhere on a page using this technique.
To get the fullest from NoteBook, a visit to the html help system is
well worth the effort. It is written in html and Safari-based, containing
an introduction and tutorial covering the basic concepts, terminology,
and functions of the application. This is a powerful and elegant application
capable of letting OSX users organise complicated projects so they can
trace and find things fast and readily.
The application provides these features as described on their website
<http://circusponies.com/pages.aspx?page=products>:
- Note-Taking & organising
your information using a familiar notebook interface, complete with
pages and tabs. Arrange notes hierarchically in each page's outline,
in ways that make sense to you. Collapse or expand hierarchies to
hide or show detail.
- Annotate your notes with
keywords, stickers and highlighting. Add an action item checkbox,
set a due date, or assign a priority.
- Copy text and other content
directly into a NoteBook without leaving the application you're working
in. Pre-edit clippings before sending them on to your NoteBooks.
- Search all of the words
in your NoteBook and where they appear. Or all of the keywords, stickers,
highlighting and other attributes - Index Pages make simple searching
as easy as clicking. Use NoteBook's Super-Find panel to perform complex
searches involving multiple words and attributes.
- Importing photos, images,
film clips, and sound files directly into a NoteBook from your digital
camera, or scans from your scanner. Then use Media Frames to enhance
your images with special borders, drop shadows, rotation, and scaling.
You can even add in video clips or movies, complete with a standard
playback control strip for convenient viewing or replay.
- Publish your NoteBooks
to the web to share with non-NoteBook users. Use the default export
options, or customise the look and structure of the exported pages
to fit your project.
Circus Ponies are enthusiastic
supporters of Macintosh user groups and offer a generous time-limited
special offer to Mac users belonging to an Apple-affiliated User Group.
You will need to fill in an online form at <https://www.circusponies.com/pages.aspx?page=hedgehog>
where you can download and receive a license key for $US29.95 per unit
, a 40% reduction of the regular retail price. Minimum system requirements
include Mac OS X version 10.1 or later. PowerPC G3 processor and 256MB
RAM are recommended.
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