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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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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…)

A recent question on how best to organize the chapters in a dissertation made us think that maybe others might be interested in sharing their thoughts on how they use IdeaMason to organize their own large projects.

Here are our basic thoughts on the subject even though there are so many ways to organize materials in IdeaMason. (more…)