Scrivener, the wonderful writing software program, had the very big 2.0 release yesterday. To be fair, it wasn't a final release but a pre-release so those participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) have a version to use now through December 7th.
The final version, with a full set of project templates, will be released on November 1st.
Just as exciting as this pre-release of version 2, is that there is now a early beta version available for Windows users!
I've only played around with version 2 for about an hour, but the improvements are really fantastic. This was already first class software, but the new enhancements make this an amazing writing environment for storytellers or researchers or teachers. Check it out:
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
OmniFocus: 2 More Reviews
OmniFocus is a great software product for getting things done. I've posted about OmniFocus previously (see earlier posts). However, I wanted to share two recent, and very thorough, reviews of the OmniFocus product. This product is available for Mac computers, iPhones, and iPads.
The first post is titled: How I Use OmniFocus to Organize My Life. Check out the post here:
The second post is titled: A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus. The author, Shawn Blanc, nicely covers alternatives to OmniFocus as well in his article. Check out the post here:
The first post is titled: How I Use OmniFocus to Organize My Life. Check out the post here:
The second post is titled: A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus. The author, Shawn Blanc, nicely covers alternatives to OmniFocus as well in his article. Check out the post here:
Saturday, October 23, 2010
OmniGraffle for the iPad
OmniGraffle is a great Mac-only software program for creating visual models. In the recent past OmniGroup released OmniGraffle for the iPad, and just a few days ago Wired Educator published a review of this app. This is a short, but important, read for those of you potentially interested in creating visual models or graphic organizers. Since OmniGraffle for the iPad has VGA support, it can be used not just for creating or showing visual models, but also to create ones live in the moment. Here's the link to their review:
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Multimedia Scaffolding
On Wednesday I presented a second paper at the e-Learn Conference titled: Multimedia Scaffolding for Reading Research. The presentation is 21 minutes long. Here's a short description:
If you would like to download the presentation (and short accompanying paper) you can do so by using the link below. This movie will play on your computer, but you can also play on your iPad. To put onto your iPad you'll need to download, add to your iTunes library, then sync with your iPad.
Beginning doctoral students in education often experience great difficulties in reading and understanding original research articles. This presentation will provide an example of one multimedia instructional approach intended to help students become more efficient and savvier readers of original research. The multimedia treatment is named a “research aloud.” More generally this presentation focuses on multimedia learning tools for helping students deal with very difficult conceptual material across a wide range of subject matter. The basic idea is to leverage the advantages of multimedia to scaffold student learning in a domain that is typically difficult for a defined set of learners.
If you would like to download the presentation (and short accompanying paper) you can do so by using the link below. This movie will play on your computer, but you can also play on your iPad. To put onto your iPad you'll need to download, add to your iTunes library, then sync with your iPad.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Pre-Training in Statistics
I'm currently in Orlando, Florida at the e-Learn Conference. Today I made a presentation titled: Multimedia for Pre-Training in Statistics . This was the first time I had pre-done my presentation: it was shown using my iPad via the Video app. The presentation is 15 minutes long (which allowed 5 minutes for questions at the end). Here's a short description of the presentation:
If you would like to download the presentation (and short accompanying paper) you can do so by using the link below. This movie will play on your computer, but you can also play on your iPad. To put onto your iPad you'll need to download, add to your iTunes library, then sync with your iPad.
This presentation will demonstrate one specific use of multimedia screencasts: as pre-training, and review, of essential concepts in statistics. Each of the 12 screencasts will be less than 5 minutes in length. Their purpose is not to cover a topic in depth but to highlight either: (a) key conceptual issues or (b) key calculation steps. The presentation will provide a live example of one of these screencasts plus discuss the rationale and development of the entire set of multimedia screencasts.
If you would like to download the presentation (and short accompanying paper) you can do so by using the link below. This movie will play on your computer, but you can also play on your iPad. To put onto your iPad you'll need to download, add to your iTunes library, then sync with your iPad.
Index Card
Last week I wrote about CarbonFin Outliner, a very nice writing program that combines being an outliner program, with online web storage and sharing, and can be integrated into a workflow using a regular outliner on your computer or with Scrivener. This week I want to sing the praises of Index Card. This is also a writing program, with a focus on structure.
Index Card is created by DenVog. It provides two key views: index cards (natch) and outline view. This is not a dedicated outliner, so it only has one level (no indents, numbering, etc.) to the outline view. One great feature to this program is you can easily switch back and forth between index card view and outline view—this has many positive advantages if you are starting to write about something.
The final product in Index Card is an RTF (rich text format) file that can be opened by any word processor. You can also export in its native "index card" format if you wish to share a project with another person using an iPad. Like several other programs these days it integrates with Dropbox for syncing your work.
Index Card is more of a writing program (relative to CarbonFin Outliner), but its ability to change structure is still one of its most important features. As with physical index cards, on your iPad screen you can move around your virtual index cards as much as you want. In addition, you can "label" your index cards (using one of eight colors). In turn this makes is easy to create added structure to your project. The combination of moving around index cards, plus using labels, can be very powerful and intuitive for creating a structure to a new writing project.
As with typical note cards, each card has a title, but also you can write content on the card. This content need not be limited to the size of the card. The titles of cards get exported as "headers" in an RTF file, and the notes get exported as text under a specific header. The latest version of Index Cards adds the ability to write "secret" notes on the back of the card. In turn these secret notes on the back of a card do not get exported with the final RTF document.
The developer of Index Card is working with the developer of Scrivener to develop even better integration between these two programs. I don't know what form this integration will take, but for Scrivener users this is great news.
At $2.99, Index Card is a very affordable and handy writing app for the iPad. It's great for developing the initial structure for a new document (via cards that get turned into headers) as well as the initial writing that can easily be done in a chunked manner (i.e. card-specific associated text). And you can share the results of your work easily with other people, or regular computer programs, through the RTF export option. This is a nicely designed app that works smoothly, and the developer seems to be constantly working on new upgrades. A great tool to have on your iPad. Check it all out at:
Index Card is created by DenVog. It provides two key views: index cards (natch) and outline view. This is not a dedicated outliner, so it only has one level (no indents, numbering, etc.) to the outline view. One great feature to this program is you can easily switch back and forth between index card view and outline view—this has many positive advantages if you are starting to write about something.
The final product in Index Card is an RTF (rich text format) file that can be opened by any word processor. You can also export in its native "index card" format if you wish to share a project with another person using an iPad. Like several other programs these days it integrates with Dropbox for syncing your work.
Index Card is more of a writing program (relative to CarbonFin Outliner), but its ability to change structure is still one of its most important features. As with physical index cards, on your iPad screen you can move around your virtual index cards as much as you want. In addition, you can "label" your index cards (using one of eight colors). In turn this makes is easy to create added structure to your project. The combination of moving around index cards, plus using labels, can be very powerful and intuitive for creating a structure to a new writing project.
As with typical note cards, each card has a title, but also you can write content on the card. This content need not be limited to the size of the card. The titles of cards get exported as "headers" in an RTF file, and the notes get exported as text under a specific header. The latest version of Index Cards adds the ability to write "secret" notes on the back of the card. In turn these secret notes on the back of a card do not get exported with the final RTF document.
The developer of Index Card is working with the developer of Scrivener to develop even better integration between these two programs. I don't know what form this integration will take, but for Scrivener users this is great news.
At $2.99, Index Card is a very affordable and handy writing app for the iPad. It's great for developing the initial structure for a new document (via cards that get turned into headers) as well as the initial writing that can easily be done in a chunked manner (i.e. card-specific associated text). And you can share the results of your work easily with other people, or regular computer programs, through the RTF export option. This is a nicely designed app that works smoothly, and the developer seems to be constantly working on new upgrades. A great tool to have on your iPad. Check it all out at:
Thursday, October 14, 2010
CarbonFin Outliner
The apps I like the least for the iPad are those that are writing intensive. I've already got perfectly good tools for that: fantastic software on my desktop and laptop computers. The iPad seems ill suited for sustained writing. However, I've discovered a couple of apps that are great for shorter writing aimed at brainstorming or providing a structure. One of them is named Carbon Fin Outliner. The other is Index Card and I'll write about it at a later time. A quick look at the CarbonFin Outliner screen is provided below.
CarbonFin Outliner is, well, an outlining program. The structure is simple, but the tools are very effective. You can have multiple indented rows to your outline. Outline bullet points can have notes associated with them. It's easy to navigate the outline structure. You can collapse, and expand, outline rows. It's easy to rearrange, or reorder, rows.
Besides the basics of outlining, done well, CarbonFin Outliner offers some important additional tools. First, your outlines can be synced to a web-based server that CarbonFine provides (for free). All you have to do is tap an icon in the Outliner for iPad app and all your outlines are synced (and backed up) to the web. You can collaboratively share your outline with others—they would be given a link to your web-stored outline. They can make changes and when you press sync again on your iPad you'll be automatically updated on the iPad with your collaborator's changes.
Outlines can be exported as OPML files. This is a very generic format for outlines that many programs on both Macs and Windows can read. CarbonFin recommends using OmniOutliner for the Mac (a great program) and Bonsai for Windows. Thus I can create the beginning of an outline on my iPad and then later refine and expand it on my Mac easily enough. By the way, as long as your computer outlining program will export as OPML (and it should) then you can go the other direction also: create an outline on your computer, export/import, and then expand/refine the outline on your iPad or share for collaboration via CarbonFin's Outliner Online free service.
For some the most important feature is that CarbonFin Outliner's OPML exports are readable by the wonderful Scrivener writing software. These OPML files get imported into Scrivener as new folders and files. Notes for items get imported as the text for a particular file or folder. Thus CarbonFin is a great way to start a writing project in Scrivener as well.
In addition, CarbonFin allows you to easily add numbers (and sub-numbering) to your outlines, show a completion task-box for items (great for to-do lists and other things), and many other helpful options.
In the ten days I've had Outliner it has become one of the two most used content-creation apps on my iPad (the other is OmniFocus which I use all the time). The price is about $5. For more information, check out the details at:
CarbonFin Outliner is, well, an outlining program. The structure is simple, but the tools are very effective. You can have multiple indented rows to your outline. Outline bullet points can have notes associated with them. It's easy to navigate the outline structure. You can collapse, and expand, outline rows. It's easy to rearrange, or reorder, rows.
Besides the basics of outlining, done well, CarbonFin Outliner offers some important additional tools. First, your outlines can be synced to a web-based server that CarbonFine provides (for free). All you have to do is tap an icon in the Outliner for iPad app and all your outlines are synced (and backed up) to the web. You can collaboratively share your outline with others—they would be given a link to your web-stored outline. They can make changes and when you press sync again on your iPad you'll be automatically updated on the iPad with your collaborator's changes.
Outlines can be exported as OPML files. This is a very generic format for outlines that many programs on both Macs and Windows can read. CarbonFin recommends using OmniOutliner for the Mac (a great program) and Bonsai for Windows. Thus I can create the beginning of an outline on my iPad and then later refine and expand it on my Mac easily enough. By the way, as long as your computer outlining program will export as OPML (and it should) then you can go the other direction also: create an outline on your computer, export/import, and then expand/refine the outline on your iPad or share for collaboration via CarbonFin's Outliner Online free service.
For some the most important feature is that CarbonFin Outliner's OPML exports are readable by the wonderful Scrivener writing software. These OPML files get imported into Scrivener as new folders and files. Notes for items get imported as the text for a particular file or folder. Thus CarbonFin is a great way to start a writing project in Scrivener as well.
In addition, CarbonFin allows you to easily add numbers (and sub-numbering) to your outlines, show a completion task-box for items (great for to-do lists and other things), and many other helpful options.
In the ten days I've had Outliner it has become one of the two most used content-creation apps on my iPad (the other is OmniFocus which I use all the time). The price is about $5. For more information, check out the details at:
Zotero Making Exciting Updates
Zotero is the wonderful web-based software that allows people to very easily collect references from online databases such as ERIC and PsychInfo. For students and academics Zotero is a free and great resource for collecting, organizing, and exporting references that can be easily imported when using an online database such as PsychInfo.
The downside to Zotero has been that it only works with the FireFox web browser. All of that is about to change. The developers are working hard at creating plugins that work with Google Chrome (Win and Mac) and Safari (Mac). Moreover, they are creating a standalone version of Zotero!
To find out more about upcoming updates to Zotero, check out this article:
The downside to Zotero has been that it only works with the FireFox web browser. All of that is about to change. The developers are working hard at creating plugins that work with Google Chrome (Win and Mac) and Safari (Mac). Moreover, they are creating a standalone version of Zotero!
To find out more about upcoming updates to Zotero, check out this article:
Friday, October 1, 2010
Big iPad App Release Day
It turns out that two major apps were upgraded or released today for the iPad: GoodReader had a major update (to version 3) and MacJournal for the iPad was released.
GoodReader is an inexpensive PDF reader for the iPad (and iPhone). It excels in many ways, but it's especially known for how well it handles large PDFs easily. It connects to several services for importing your PDFs including the must-have DropBox. It's a perfect PDF app in all ways except one: it did not have the ability to annotate PDFs. Instead you'd have to buy an application such as iAnnotate PDF to do annotations. (BTW, iAnnotate PDF is also a solid app.) Today version 3 of GoodReader was released and the major new feature: the ability to annotate PDFs!!!!!!!!
I've played around with version 3 a bit today, and it seems that way you add annotations is very easy and does not interrupt the flow of reading. The part that was unintuitive for me is how to change the icon for a note, or the color for a circle, line, or other figure. It turns out you simply draw in the default note, line, or object. Then when done, single-press on the new object and additional options come up for colors, type of icon and so forth. So actually doing everything I want with annotations is quite easy, but it wasn't obvious (to me) how to refine the look of a particular annotation at first.
MacJournal for the iPad is only a good option if you already use the wonderful Mac application MacJournal. MacJournal is a very solid software product that allows you to have multiple "journals" within one database. This is a very good program for integrating your various notes, letters, and other short writing into one place. In addition, MacJournal allows you to post new entries to a blog. The beauty of MacJournal for the iPad is now you can have all your MacJournal stuff on the Mac synced to your iPad. This can be incredibly useful if you have a large number of notes that you want to refer to via your iPad. You can easily create new entries using the iPad app also. So, if you're already a MacJournal user (or will be in the near future) then you'll definitely want to consider complementing the regular software with the iPad app. Definitely worth the $5.99 investment.
GoodReader is an inexpensive PDF reader for the iPad (and iPhone). It excels in many ways, but it's especially known for how well it handles large PDFs easily. It connects to several services for importing your PDFs including the must-have DropBox. It's a perfect PDF app in all ways except one: it did not have the ability to annotate PDFs. Instead you'd have to buy an application such as iAnnotate PDF to do annotations. (BTW, iAnnotate PDF is also a solid app.) Today version 3 of GoodReader was released and the major new feature: the ability to annotate PDFs!!!!!!!!
I've played around with version 3 a bit today, and it seems that way you add annotations is very easy and does not interrupt the flow of reading. The part that was unintuitive for me is how to change the icon for a note, or the color for a circle, line, or other figure. It turns out you simply draw in the default note, line, or object. Then when done, single-press on the new object and additional options come up for colors, type of icon and so forth. So actually doing everything I want with annotations is quite easy, but it wasn't obvious (to me) how to refine the look of a particular annotation at first.
MacJournal for the iPad is only a good option if you already use the wonderful Mac application MacJournal. MacJournal is a very solid software product that allows you to have multiple "journals" within one database. This is a very good program for integrating your various notes, letters, and other short writing into one place. In addition, MacJournal allows you to post new entries to a blog. The beauty of MacJournal for the iPad is now you can have all your MacJournal stuff on the Mac synced to your iPad. This can be incredibly useful if you have a large number of notes that you want to refer to via your iPad. You can easily create new entries using the iPad app also. So, if you're already a MacJournal user (or will be in the near future) then you'll definitely want to consider complementing the regular software with the iPad app. Definitely worth the $5.99 investment.
MacJournal and the iPad
Today one of my favorite applications on the Mac, MacJournal, released the iPad version of their app. So far it seems to work really well. One of the things that MacJournal will do is to allow you to create simple blog posts. (Note: MJ is not as full featured for blog posts as an app like MarsEdit.)
In fact, this simple post is being written and sent from my iPad! I will write more about MacJournal on the iPad once I have taken it through a few paces.
In fact, this simple post is being written and sent from my iPad! I will write more about MacJournal on the iPad once I have taken it through a few paces.
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