Hope to have in the near future a review of NoteTab Pro, from Fookes Sofware,  NoteTab comes in three flavors (link to comparison chart), according to Fookes, “the freeware NoteTab Light, and two commercial versions, NoteTab Standard and NoteTab Pro.”  The screenshots that follow will, I think, provide some taste of what  NoteTab is about:

Images courtesy of  Fookes Software.

 

Via Jane Hart, of Jane’s Pick of the Day and The  Centre for Learning and Performance comes her review of Knowledge Notebook . Note our restraint: this post is, at least for the moment, free of any puns about “harts,” “heart,” “dear/deer,” etc. This is about as much self restrain as we’re capable of on a good day.

In any case, Ms. Hart seems worth keeping an eye on, and Knowledge Notebook seems worth a look.

Download of Knowledge NoteBook here. Knowledge NoteBook seems interesting, and has migrated, it seems, from extremely-reasonably-priced-ware (bargainware? Any suggestions for an idiom?) of $39 to the more easily withstood but mysterious number  zero. As in free. Here is an outline of features;

 

Am presently working on two large and  one extra-large pieces of litigation, plus a variety of civic projects, and some involvement, rather small, in nearly a dozen pieces of pro bono litigation. The larger projects involve teams of varying technical sophistication, operating systems, hardware, and security issues.

And not blogging much, alas, given the relative  inelasticity of time.

The situation means that, unless someone is going to give me a bunch of assistants, typewriters, and a virtually inexhaustible supply of index cards, some combination of applications is/will be necessary to manage these cases (call them “projects,” if you like).

I’m already certain that ConnectedText and Debrief Notes will stay in my toolbox, as will the CaseSoft suite. (Still unequaled as it does things other applications don’t even attempt. Please expect a review of its new features when time permits).  But I’m still looking for other tools, particularly cross-platform, reasonably priced tools, since I’m not working alone. And while I collaborate with the same attorneys, experts and investigators repeatedly, that doesn’t mean that new people don’t join the working group on short notice – sometimes even the clients.

So – in my ongoing search for information tools, I’ve discovered NoteCase Pro (also available in a freeware version which I believe is referred to as NoteCase Lite, or just “Notecase.”). The prices range from 25 to 97 euros, for a singe-user, single OS license including one full upgrade cycle (25 euros), to a single-user, multiple OS lifetime upgrade (97 euros). The author, Miroslav Rajcic, has been  working energetically on this program’s core functionality for, it seems, about three years; he’s recruited a large number of people to translate it into 35 languages, including English.

Miroslav Rajcic, the author of NoteCase, has taken the best features of a large number of information management programs, and not only combined them, but designed NoteCase, to work in conjunction with many of them.

Read more »

 

I’ve been using CaseSoft’s products for, I think, about ten years. I think of them as a suite of products – but, unlike certain other well-publicized software “suites,’ the components of the  CaseSoft – let’s say “toolset” – actually (1) work very well together, and (2) all work very well by themselves for their designated tasks. Learning curve quite comfortable, and worked well even on less-than-souped-up machines.

I’ve had less success in persuading colleagues and clients to try it; so while I’ve never had a moment of buyer’s remorse -I haven’t ever had the opportunity to try it as a collaborative tool. However, I’m current working on a project with a fairly large team, ad hoc in the sense that the team, while most of us have worked together before, not all have, and we’re geographically separated. Add to that some concerns about security – we’re looking at VPN (virtual private network) software – and will probably be using HushMail for intra-group communications – and it may take us a while to test-drive the CaseSoft toolset (which now includes CaseMap, TimeMap, TextMap, NoteMap, and DepPrep). I’ve never understood why it hasn’t caught on, not only among lawyers, but in law-enforcement and intelligence agencies). TimeMap by itself is a treasure – allows you to input events bywhatever chronologcal measure you have available (a date,  a range, a “no later than” or “no earlier than”) and produces graphic chronologies. I don’t know any other software that does this, with the possible exception of the MIT SIMILE tool, which I think is brilliant – but haven’t yet mastered.

I’ve been touting this software for years, and I paid, if memory serves, about $1K for my single-user license. And while I’m normally a proponent of free and open-source tools, this was money well-spent. I feel obliged to add the caveat that, in the interim, the firm has been acquired by Lexis-Nexis, they’ve gone through several versions that I missed (I own, love and use CaseMap 4 – but I’m going to test the current version, 8.5 for my current project), and the website doesn’t prominently note prices. (Or they’re there and I missed them).

But I’m optimistic based on my first looks, and will try to post about the current version of the CaseMap suite in the near future.