Scanning and Storing Large Text Passages
Despite the availability of web sources for research, I still find myself reading and acquiring much of my research from physical books and periodicals. (Yes, we use our own software around here!) Often, when I am reading such sources, I want to keep large passages before I know where and how I might use them in my own writing. As an example, I might want to keep a certain particularly good 3-page summary of the history of the Russian Revolution, and perhaps eventually quote a few sentences of it in a work I am writing. Naturally, I need full citation details as well.
Since many users of IdeaMason probably have similar needs, I thought I would share with you a process I use to rapidly acquire and manage a large text passage, properly cite its source, and make it searchable in a simple process.
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“Cloning” Material in IdeaMason
One question we get frequently from new users is whether IdeaMason supports “cloning,” which is essentially re-use of the same material repeatedly in multiple contexts. (more…)
Version 3.1 Released!
Version 3.1, released March 9th, 2007, provides compatibility with Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit editions) and has improved support for non-Roman character set languages including Japanese.
IMPORTANT: IdeaMason 3.1 remains fully compatible under the XP operating system. You do NOT need Vista to use Version 3.1. The same download package is used for both operating systems.
How to upgrade:
If you already upgraded to Version 3.0 you just need to download Version 3.1 from the Free Trial downloads page and install it. You DO NOT NEED a new license key and will NOT need to reactivate.
NOTE #1: Be sure to uninstall Version 2.2 before installing Version 3.1. If you try to install Version 3.1 and get the following message: “Exception occurred while initializing the installation: System.BadImageFormatException: The format of the file ‘IMinstallerCustom.dll is invalid.” - this is an indication that you still have Version 2.2 installed on your system.
NOTE #2: If you installed the Endnote Importer please uninstall the Importer beta prior to upgrading to Version 3.1. The Importer is automatically shipped with Version 3.1.
Click here to download Version 3.1 http://www.ideamason.com/download/download.aspx
If you have not yet upgraded from Version 2.2 you will need a new license key. Click here to go to our Upgrade Version page http://www.ideamason.com/purchase/upgrade.aspx
RELEASE NOTES ON VERSION 3.1:
New Features
- Windows Vista compatibility
- IdeaMason Importer (Endnote source importer) now ships with application
- Enhanced support for non-roman character set languages such as Japanese, Chinese, Russian, etc.
Usability Enhancements/Bug Fixes
- Added Ctrl-C keyboard shortcut to item previewer and composition preview panels
- Consistent bolding on Comment, Note, Abstract Text headers in previewer.
- Font in citation window is now the same as the default text editor font settings
- Improved placement of footnote marker on composition draft when there is no punctuation at the end of text
- Removed title marks in title of book when first word in title is manually italicized (certain list views only)
- Fixed “Needs saving” status bar message in Composition so that it does not desynchronize with save state when an item has been edited in the material editor.
- Fixed reload of saved library search query so to include full text search words
- Fixed duplicate Library item display in Library Search when the source is on the additional source list of a composition.
Vista Update
We are still working through the last few remaining aspects of the Vista compatible upgrade. We have a few issues to work out with installation onto Vista but, at this point, we are looking at releasing a new Vista compatible version of IdeaMason by March 9th. You will see updates on our website, weblog and forum when Version 3.1 is ready for download.