Welcome to the IdeaMason Weblog!

There are any number of ways to search and organize your materials in IdeaMason using categories, projects and activities (see our blog posting on “The Matrix“). But one area that may not be immediately obvious is that the Saved Searches feature goes way beyond just searching or even saving searches.

You might already know that the Search folder tab on the homepage provides you with the opportunity to perform either a simple or advanced search of a portfolio. And, so that you can rerun the search at a later date, you can also click on the Save Search button. However, the Saved Searches feature goes beyond a basic search tool. When you setup the parameters of a search and save it you are essentially setting up a customized folder view. When you think about it this will give you a whole new perspective on the information stored in a portfolio. No longer do you have to use the standardized portfolio folders to view your materials and sources. You can utilize the saved search feature to setup your own customized folder views.

For example, while working on a particular activity you find yourself working with a select number of categories. For an easy way to view the union of materials in those categories, just click on the search folder tab, layout the parameters of the search and select the categories you want to view, then save and name the search. This saved search then becomes like a customized folder view of the portfolio contents. Each time you rerun the saved search (from the Saved Searches tab) it will automatically update the results of the search.

Naturally, you can set up your custom folders to view materials from any perspective using any of the search fields available. The great thing is that you can update and edit the parameters of a search anytime you want, or duplicate the search and create a new search by changing a couple of the search parameters. To quickly view the parameters of your customized folder/search see the Search Summary Description at the bottom of the Saved Searches window.

The relationship between projects-activities and categories in IdeaMason is what we like to call the Matrix. This is a great way of thinking about the overall information management techniques in IdeaMason.

You can think of IdeaMason’s grouping mechanisms as a three-dimensional matrix, with one dimension being projects-activities, the second being categories, and the third being material type. The relationship between content in IdeaMason is defined by its location in this three-dimensional matrix. In other words, each point in this matrix defines a set of materials which are grouped together physically and conceptually. Tunneling through this structure in all dimensions is links, which establish direct relationships between content that transcend their location in the matrix.

As a practical matter, it is helpful to think of projects-activities and categories as defining particular types of constraints on content. Projects-activities can be narrowed or expanded in any view by refining the Working Activity or the View Filter in any folder view tab. Because of this capability, it makes sense to think of projects-activities as physical groupings of content–such as a particular writing project like a book and its chapters, for instance. So even if you are starting a new portfolio with a single task in mind, create a project and file the assignment at hand as an activity under the project. As you move forward file any related assignments as new activities under this project.

Categories can be used however one sees fit. There is no right or wrong way to use them. I have actually used categories as preliminary chapter topics in a particular portfolio that was primarily centered around one large project. But if you want to make the best use of materials over time try to think of categories as subject-area topics. You can start a portfolio with a few categories and then build on them over time. You can also create many levels of subcategories, establishing a complex dynamic within a particular subject/keyword area. As you create each material or source, assign it to one or more categories.

Later, when you want to see related items, you’ll see them grouped by category in the categories tab, with only the items in the selected project-activity visible. By using the project-activity filter on each individual folder view (top of the left hand side of the window) you can select either a specific activity or the project itself. This allows you to show the contents of an entire project (all of its activities) if this is helpful.

Using these techniques, you will have established for each material one or more points in the three-dimensional physical-conceptual matrix. These points define sets of content which inhabit the same physical-conceptual location. By pinpointing the desired matrix location using category folders, filters, content type, (even full-text search, which defines an alternative subject-area constraint), you can instantly see all the other contents which inhabit that same physical-conceptual location.

As the amount of content you have grows over time, you’ll start to understand the remarkable power this gives you to explore relationships between content that you didn’t necessarily know existed, simply because the materials inhabit the same space in the matrix.

Every now and then a customer contacts us with a frustrating list of problems. If you are experiencing problems with even the basic IdeaMason functions, like editing an idea or setting up a new source, your problem may be the presence on your computer of a software package called WindowBlinds.

WindowBlinds is a Windows overlay program that allows users to skin the Windows graphical user interface and reconfigure the basic behavior of the windowing technology.

If you have WindowBlinds installed on your desktop, it conflicts with IdeaMason’s movable docking panel technology and quite literally plays havoc with a number of functions in IdeaMason.

This conflict is a fairly common problem between WindowBlinds and a number of applications, which is why the product provides a simple solution: WindowBlinds gives you the ability to “ignore” a specific software package. So all you have to do is configure WindowBlinds to “ignore” IdeaMason. After this, everything runs normally.

See the Wikipedia article on WindowBlinds.

We heard this one from a customer recently who is now an active Mac user and using the Parallels emulation environment to run Windows applications on the Mac. Not being Mac users we were interested as we know there are quite of few of you out there who wish IdeaMason also ran on a Mac.

In a nutshell, Parallels is a software suite that brings hardware virtualization mainstream to Macintosh computers with Intel processors. For those of you working the fine line between a PC and a Mac, but frustrated with the lack of cross compatibility with your favorite applications, Parallels may well be an answer. We were happy to hear that IdeaMason does in fact run smoothly in this environment. So we wanted to pass the information along.

If you want to find out more about Parallels there is a piece on Wikipedia about all this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac

If you have ever lost work, which is more of a when and how many times issue more than an IF statement, then you will be interested in knowing that YES IdeaMason does have an automatic backup system built right into the software.

First, IdeaMason will automatically save your work as you are writing, according to the configurable autosave frequency, which is by default every five minutes. This protects you against machine crashes, low battery shutdowns, etc., whenever you forget to physically press the “save” button yourself.

The second way is that the entire portfolio is backed up into a separate file when it is closed. You have the option to select whether this is a “single file” backup, where the backup is overwritten each time, or (for the extra-secure) an “incremental” backup, which will save the backup to a new file on each closure. This way, should the file ever become damaged, it could be recovered from daily points-in-time.

See Options under the Tools menu in IdeaMason for more information. Click on the Backup tab for more details. You can also click on the Help menu in IdeaMason for more information. Just go to Contents - Options - and then click on “Backup and Restore Portfolio Files”.

Depending on how many windows you have open at the time you may sometimes find the process of dragging and dropping sources from the library window to the material “sources” panel cumbersome. Don’t forget you can always use tried-and-true “copy and paste” to put sources in the associated sources list. Just right click to see the options available on the drop down menu.

To copy sources from the library to the dashboard side panel select the sources on the library list, right click and select “Copy” from the drop down menu options. Then move to the Sources side panel on the dashboard window. Right click within the dashboard side panel and select “Paste Sources”. For more information take a look at our Citing Sources video on our website under the Tutorials link. Go to the Materials section and click on Citing Sources video.

I just finished reading How to Write by Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb and other great works. I thought I’d share a passage from this book since writing–the act, the art, and the struggle–is our focus.

“Whatever your purpose, the best remedy for fear of writing is the Knickerbocker Rule: Apply ass to chair!” (p. 9). Conrad Knickerbocker was Rhodes’ manager when he worked in the Hallmark public relations department.

“If you are afraid you can’t write, the answer is to write. Every sentence you construct adds weight to the balance pan. If you’re afraid of what other people will think of your efforts, don’t show them until you write your way beyond your fear. If writing a book is impossible, write a chapter. If writing a chapter is impossible, write a page. If writing a page is impossible, write a paragraph. If writing a paragraph is impossible, write a sentence. If writing even a sentence is impossible, write a word and teach yourself everything there is to know about that word and then write another, connected word and see where the connection leads. A page a day is a book a year. Listen to that again: a page a day is a book a year” (p. 10).

I hope this refreshingly basic view of writing from How to Write lends a little inspiration to whatever task you are challenged with today!

Question: What methods does IdeaMason have for importing from and exporting to other applications?

Answer:
IdeaMason can export its content as XML for virtually any type - Materials, Sources, and Compostions. We can also export as .RTF, .doc, and HTML.

IdeaMason can import several kinds of files directly through drag and drop — .txt, .rtf, and .doc files. If you drop one or more files of one of these types on the Material Folder on the portfolio home page, they will be imported directly as IdeaMason materials. In general, people have found this to be more useful than XML-based import because it allows them to maintain the rich-text formatting of the imported item in IdeaMason using a standard file format. For most people, this is far more simple and useful than transforming each application’s XML schema.

For importing sources, have a look at our IdeaMason Importer.

For instance, Outlook has the ability to export its messages to .doc or .txt format. Most other mainstream applications have the capability to export as .rtf or .txt, too.

For more information on importing or exporting, go to our help file or see our video “Import Text (.txt) and Microsoft Word (.doc) files into IdeaMason” on the tutorials page of our website at

Question: Can I edit the text of a group of materials without having to open all of the materials individually and edit them in their dashboards?

Answer: Yes! Use a Composition!
Most of you know the primary use of a composition–outlining, organizing materials, previewing the flow of your work, and creating a draft in your word processor complete with citations.

Think more broadly–a composition can also be thought of as just a container for materials. Any composition can be just a group of materials you want to keep together–a sort of “saved subset” of materials. So, if you have a large group of items you’d like to work with together, just drop them into a composition.

Now, edit the materials by clicking on the “Material Editor” panel in the right-side group of windows. As you select the materials on the left side in the outliner, their main text will pop up in the Material Editor on the right side, where you can edit them with full Rich Text capability and save your changes.

If you get new ideas, you can always add new ones to the composition by right-clicking in the outliner and selecting “Insert New Material” on the popup menu.

We all know that IdeaMason manages the bibliographical data of sources you use in your research. But, did you know that by using Projects and Activities cleverly you can easily organize your home Library?

Filtering Library Groups Using Activities

• Set up a Project called “Library”
• Add an Activity to Library called “All”
• Add an Activity to Library for each subject area in your library, e.g., “Science”, “History”, “Philosophy”, etc.
• Add an Activity to Library called “Read”

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