RE: Non-NB: Any quasi-Orbis programs out there, on a student's budget?

["Derek B. Cornish" <100341 ! 2151 () compuserve ! com>]

Gerald -

If you are looking for an indexed search program that will handle most
file-types, enable use of separate indexes for sub-sets of files (so that
you don't have to index your whole hard disk(s)), and is free, you should
look at Redtree's Wilbur, at http://wilbur.redtree.com/. I have used it for
years. If the file has text in it, Wilbur will index and search it - even
old file-types like Lotus Agenda, and Symantec Grandview. It will also
handle most pdf files, extracting the text on the fly using xpdf2text. The
developer is a nice guy and helpful. I am delighted to see that he is
developing a version (called "Wilma") for Linux.

Although Keynote (http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html) is not being
developed any more it has excellent editing features (Susan Cragin knows
much more about than I). Again, it's free. Roughdraft - as someone else
mentioned -is another alternative.

Hope that helps.

Derek

   

> -----Original Message-----
> From: notabene@piper.hamline.edu 
> [mailto:notabene@piper.hamline.edu] On Behalf Of Schlabach, Gerald W.
> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:13 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list NOTABENE
> Subject: Non-NB: Any quasi-Orbis programs out there, on a 
> student's budget?
> 
>  
> Hello folks:
> 
> Yes, I'm still here.  Since I'm not such an early adopter as 
> I was in my youth, I'm not using the 8.0 beta, so there's 
> less to say these days.  (For the record, I hit 50, a few 
> months before Mervyn hit 70.)
> 
> I have a "non-NB" question.  If we were cultists, it might 
> appear to be a "betrayal of NB" question, but I really don't 
> think it is.  
> 
> I'm teaching an upper-level course right now that has a 
> strong research component.  I'm trying to take about 10 
> minutes each week to introduce some basic building-block 
> research skills, techniques and strategies.  In a few days I 
> want to do one such session on electronic searching.  I find 
> that few students are using even the most basic tools -- like 
> taking notes in a word processor, which for undergraduate 
> projects can all be in one file, and then doing a very basic 
> Ctrl-F searches.  
> 
> What I would like to is give them four or five alternatives 
> -- from the most basic sort of search I just described, to 
> the Rolls Royce of textbase management, our own Nota Bene.  
> Realistically, only a few graduate school bound students are 
> going to consider purchasing Nota Bene.  But if a few more 
> know that Nota Bene is out there, and start with intermediate 
> software tools, eventually a few of them might upgrade to 
> Nota Bene.  This is why I don't think I'm betraying NB by 
> posing my question, which is...
> 
> Do any of you know of freeware, shareware, or less-than-$50 
> software programs out there that do some of what Orbis does, 
> indexing and searching multiple files, probably in MS Word 
> formats?  7-8 years ago I found a couple of these when I was 
> teaching another research seminar, but I am sure my findings 
> are now woefully out of date.  And if I can avoid re-doing 
> not only my own earlier investigation, but an investigation 
> one of you might have done, all the better. 
> 
> (BTW, to anticipate the answer some of you might have, the 
> next-step-up suggestion beyond simple Ctrl-F searching that I 
> am going to offer will be MSN and Google desktop searching.  
> So you don't have to remind me of that.
> What I would like third-level options to offer is more 
> targeted searching -- e.g. in specific folders, or with 
> certain kinds of filenames.) 
> 
> Gerald W. Schlabach
> Theology Department
> University of St. Thomas
> 2115 Summit Avenue / JRC 153
> St. Paul MN 55103
>       651/962-5332
>       gwschlabach@stthomas.edu
> 
>