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gulmatan · 03:24 PM

I need help! Now that I have a .mac account, I get advertisements for StickyBrain. JUST WAT IS IT? WHAT DOES IT DO? What can I use it for?

Furthermore, I already have:

Safari, Office 2004, ConceptDraw, ConceptDraw MindMap, AppleMail, DocumentsToGo, Palm Desktop

So, what does StickyBrain have to offer? If I have all this other software, what would I use StickyBrain for?

hodaddy · Mar 31, 2005, 03:21 PM

it's basically an advanced note manager. use it how you'd use a notepad or postit notes...store little clips of info you access regularly, whatever.

there are plenty of applications performing similar functions. i use voodoo pad, myself. but, the choice is up to you. in fact, that's why they offer trial/demos of software. if it works for you, buy it. if not, delete it and forget about it.

Millennium · Mar 31, 2005, 03:47 PM

StickyBrain started off as a humble note manager, similar in some ways to Stickies. Since then, however, it's grown and mutated in ways which make it sort of difficult to describe. Nowadays it's like a kind of cross between a note manager, an organizer, and a wiki (a kind of article database geared towards cross-linking the articles inside it). I don't use it myself, but it's a very neat concept.

gulmatan · Apr 1, 2005, 12:59 AM

I really looked at their (Chronos) website and it wasn't any help at all. But that's my point. Please be more specific. JUST WHAT THE DIDDLY SQUAT DOES STICKYBRAIN DO? IF I ALREADY HAVE ALL THAT OTHER SOFTWARE I MENTIONED, WHAT IS STICKYBRAIN GOOD FOR?? WHAT DOES IT DO THAT ALL MY OTHER SOFTWARE DOES NOT DO? Sorry for the shouting.

Gee4orce · Apr 1, 2005, 02:24 AM

Well, seeing as how there's a 30-day free trial version, why don't you just download it and have a look for yourself ? I did.

gulmatan · Apr 1, 2005, 02:31 AM

I TRIED THAT ALREADY!!!! THERE'S SOME POINT TO THIS PROGRAM. WHAT IS IT?????

PLEASE, SOMEBODY GIVE ME ANSWERS!!!!

Randman · Apr 1, 2005, 03:18 AM

Why don't you try it and find out for yourself?

poocat · Apr 1, 2005, 06:36 AM

Um, first, why are you yelling about a program you don't know anything about? Just don't worry about it? I mean, if you don't think you need it, then you probably don't. If you can't figure out what it's doing or why people would use it, then perhaps you don't need it and shouldn't spend any more effort yelling online about it.

Having said that, Stickybrain is an organizer that doesn't require you to organize. It takes care of where/when/what/who with the search function, which is the reason I use it over Stickies (which I've used for years). I hate organizing things, but I want to know right where they are when I need them. Search.

So, in closing, why are you so stressed?

Angus_D · Apr 1, 2005, 07:07 AM

A troll or an idiot. Ignore him.

gulmatan · Apr 1, 2005, 01:39 PM

Apologize for the stress. It comes from:

(1) a website (chronos) that does not SPECIFICALLY or even LITERALLY explain what the StickyBrain does (even if it would take five or fifty webpages to describe what it does specifically).

(2) Having tried it for two days, I'm still unclear as to the product's function

(3) There is NO structure to its pages or page layouts (unlike MS Word, for example). It's just one big pile where you can glop one thing and another--definitely placing no structure or organizational demands on the user.

(4) When I call Chronos (which I've been doing for a few days) no one answers the phones. Plus, I've called various Apple stores and none oif them can give me a solid answer as to Stickybrain's function.

In short, the program, unless I'm misunderstanding its purpose seem like, just allowing you to put notes upon notes until you get the equivalant of a messy scrap pile of notes and post-its.

And, no, I''m not an idiot or troll (as you call me). I'm just trying to figure out what StickyBrain is for.

Millennium · Apr 1, 2005, 02:28 PM

Originally posted by gulmatan:
(1) a website (chronos) that does not SPECIFICALLY or even LITERALLY explain what the StickyBrain does (even if it would take five or fifty webpages to describe what it does specifically).

It says it's a "note manager". It manages notes that you jot down.

(3) There is NO structure to its pages or page layouts (unlike MS Word, for example)...

Actually, I'd like to point out that Word does not have structure anywhere in its documents either. A Word document is a blank page of text.

It's just one big pile where you can glop one thing and another--definitely placing no structure or organizational demands on the user.

Correct.
[quote](4) When I call Chronos (which I've been doing for a few days) no one answers the phones. Plus, I've called various Apple stores and none oif them can give me a solid answer as to Stickybrain's function.

In short, the program, unless I'm misunderstanding its purpose seem like, just allowing you to put notes upon notes until you get the equivalant of a messy scrap pile of notes and post-its.

You're half right. The other half is that it lets you search and cross-index them, so that even amidst this chaos what you want is at your fingertips. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to work.

It's really not good to call it an organizer, as I did in my previous post, and I'm sorry for that. You don't organize notes in StickyBrain, or at least, not very well. The way you get to them is not by organizing your notes beforehand, but by searching them when you need them.

midwinter · Apr 1, 2005, 05:20 PM

Originally posted by gulmatan:
Apologize for the stress. It comes from:

(1) a website (chronos) that does not SPECIFICALLY or even LITERALLY explain what the StickyBrain does (even if it would take five or fifty webpages to describe what it does specifically).

As you seem to have found, SB is difficult to describe. I use it, pretty much, as my brain. Almost every piece of text I generate gets dumped into it. Web pages I find interesting? In, too. PDFs? Sure. Receipts? Yup. It's a place for you to keep information, categorize it, group it, search it. All kinds of things.

(4) When I call Chronos (which I've been doing for a few days) no one answers the phones. Plus, I've called various Apple stores and none oif them can give me a solid answer as to Stickybrain's function.

OCD

In short, the program, unless I'm misunderstanding its purpose seem like, just allowing you to put notes upon notes until you get the equivalant of a messy scrap pile of notes and post-its.

Yup. Except you can search them and keep them organized.

And, no, I''m not an idiot or troll (as you call me). I'm just trying to figure out what StickyBrain is for.

You have to admit that you're pretty strangely obsessed with a $19 piece of software you are only evaluating. I mean, you've been calling Chronos in Park City "for a few days."

gulmatan · 05:49 PM

OKAY OKAY. Now that my muss and fuss is over, I figured out what to do with SB but it seems Microsoft Office doesn't want to play nicely with SB.

I followed SB's instructions to the letter and while the Services>StickyBrain menu options are available and functional in other apps, the Services>StickyBrain options are greyed out when I'm in any MS Office 2004 app. Why would that be?

murk · Apr 1, 2005, 05:45 PM

You are surfing the net and see a recipe you want to save, you select the text, click and tell the StickyBrain contextual menu to save this in your recipe folder. Next you purchase something from a website, instead of printing the receipt, select the text and tell SB to file it in your receipts folder. Stumble onto a Photoshop tip you want to remember? Sticky Brain it to a Computer Tips folder. Need to find one of these quickly, pull down the flashnote menu and type a few words. I like to think of it as my own personal web of info. There are plenty of apps in this category. Some, like Notetaker, use a notebook metaphor. SB is more free-form.

gulmatan · Apr 1, 2005, 05:51 PM

I figured out what to do with SB but it seems Microsoft Office doesn't want to play nicely with SB.

I followed SB's instructions to the letter and while the Services>StickyBrain menu options are available and functional in other apps, the Services>StickyBrain options are greyed out when I'm in any MS Office 2004 app. Why would that be?

murk · 10:18 PM

Originally posted by gulmatan:
OKAY OKAY. Now that my muss and fuss is over, I figured out what to do with SB but it seems Microsoft Office doesn't want to play nicely with SB.

I followed SB's instructions to the letter and while the Services>StickyBrain menu options are available and functional in other apps, the Services>StickyBrain options are greyed out when I'm in any MS Office 2004 app. Why would that be?

If you select some text and then control/click, are they grayed out in the contextual menu?

gulmatan · Apr 1, 2005, 08:51 PM

Now, that's fishy. your Control-Click trick WORKS. But, why wouldn't the options from the "Services" menu in the menu bar operate correctly?

MacDog · Apr 3, 2005, 02:03 PM

I like using StickyBrain's keyboard shortcut features when I'm surfing the net. I can select some text and hit a key and have the text, the web page address, time & date all captured to a note and put in a specific folder of my choosing... with no intervention from me other than the original keyboard shortcut.

bbales · Apr 3, 2005, 04:51 PM

Originally posted by murk:
You are surfing the net and see a recipe you want to save, you select the text, click and tell the StickyBrain contextual menu to save this in your recipe folder. Next you purchase something from a website, instead of printing the receipt, select the text and tell SB to file it in your receipts folder. Stumble onto a Photoshop tip you want to remember? Sticky Brain it to a Computer Tips folder. Need to find one of these quickly, pull down the flashnote menu and type a few words. I like to think of it as my own personal web of info. There are plenty of apps in this category. Some, like Notetaker, use a notebook metaphor. SB is more free-form.

Murk -- You obviously use SB, then. I tried it (version 2) and used it happily for a while. Then my notes seemed more like a pile of notes and I abandoned it, sad to say. I did look at it again recently, but it just didn't float my boat. I keep thinking I'm missing something though -- because I would use it just like you do. So I may give it another try. I have searched high and low for a program such as this -- recently bought DevonThink (and Devon Agent). I've tried Notebook and NoteTaker but didn't like the format, with the note4books. And I've tried MacJournal (from the free days) and that is also quite a fine application. And I actually also have InTouch, which I use for certain things only. I do like the Services aspect of both SB and DevonThink (MacJournal, too). I'm still searching for the perfect fit.

Thanks for your great explanation of how SB works.

murk · Apr 3, 2005, 06:30 PM

I agree Sticky Brain isn't perfect. I've tried the others also. This type of organizer is not only difficult to describe, but its also difficult to imagine the the thing you are really wanting. All I know is, I will know it when I see it. Here's hoping Tiger technologies can help push this category toward the unknown holy grail I'm looking for. Until then I'll use Sticky Brain.

brettcamp · Apr 3, 2005, 09:29 PM

There's a cheaper and version of DevonThink called DevonNote that does most of what stickybrain does and much else. Fewer features than DevonThink but everything I need. you might try the free 30 day demo. I really like it. was using sticky brain 2 but found Devon much better for my info organizing needs.

Randman · Apr 3, 2005, 09:44 PM

Originally posted by brettcamp:
There's a cheaper and version of DevonThink called DevonNote that does most of what stickybrain does and much else. Fewer features than DevonThink but everything I need. you might try the free 30 day demo. I really like it. was using sticky brain 2 but found Devon much better for my info organizing needs.

Sticky Brain 3 is 50% off for .Mac users. That makes it the same price as DevonNote with more features.

bbales · Apr 4, 2005, 08:32 AM

Originally posted by murk:
[BThis type of organizer is not only difficult to describe, but its also difficult to imagine the the thing you are really wanting. All I know is, I will know it when I see it. Here's hoping Tiger technologies can help push this category toward the unknown holy grail I'm looking for. Until then I'll use Sticky Brain.

[/B]

Couldn't agree more with the "I will know it when I see it" remark. I'm still looking.

I've read rave reviews in the past for Info Select, which is a freeform database as well. But it's windows only. I even thought about getting Virtual PC and then the software, but that seemed a tad expensive...

driven · Apr 5, 2005, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by midwinter:
As you seem to have found, SB is difficult to describe. I use it, pretty much, as my brain. Almost every piece of text I generate gets dumped into it. Web pages I find interesting? In, too. PDFs? Sure. Receipts? Yup. It's a place for you to keep information, categorize it, group it, search it. All kinds of things.

OCD

ROFL!

I'm personally hoping that the developers incorporate the SpotLight search tool in Tiger.

I have the previous version that was free for a while on .Mac. It's not worth paying to upgrade ... YET ... but I can see that it might be if they incorporate desktop search ...

midwinter · Apr 5, 2005, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by driven:
ROFL!

Well, you have to admit that the dude had a nutty.

threestain · Apr 12, 2005, 03:28 AM

hmm, I've finally been persuaded to test drive SB 3.4, and I'm really not sure whether I know what I'm doing. I can see what its meant to be for, and I can see how it might be very useful, especially when writing papers on scientific papers and so on, but I'm not sure its worth $40 (or �20ish proper money). Is there a student "I can't afford food, honest, that's why I'm buying software" price?

Randman · Apr 12, 2005, 03:37 AM

You don't have .Mac?

threestain · Apr 12, 2005, 07:27 AM

nope - as I have a Gmail account, and a good uni account I could never really justify the �69 a year for a little storage on .Mac. Plus I only have one mac so syncing them up doesn't really figure...

JudieKaren · Apr 13, 2005, 08:05 AM

I ponied up the $39 for Sticky Brain, thinking I would use it after the 30 day trial, but I wound up abandoning it for iNotePad http://www.vojousoftware.com/inotepad.html

It's only $14.00 and I can organize things the way I want to organize them. Have you ever printed out the manual for StickyBrain? Twenty-one pages of 9-pt. type. Sheesh!

threestain · 03:13 PM

I don't know, I'm having a fiddle with StickyBrain now, and it seems to be pretty good...

However, I've now got a question - if you drag the icon from a folder window into a SB note, does it create an alias or does it copy everything into the note? Just cos I've done that and it seems to make the program go mental and hang for ages. I'd really like it to just put in an alias, but...

threestain · Apr 14, 2005, 06:24 AM

anyone help me with the alias/copying folder thingie?

midwinter · Apr 14, 2005, 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by threestain

anyone help me with the alias/copying folder thingie?

I'm note really certain what you're getting at, but when I drag a PDF icon into SB, the PDF is copied. And since everything with SB is a database, I assume that everything is copied.

threestain · Apr 15, 2005, 04:38 AM

ah excellent. Would explain the hideous chuntering it causes.

Basically I have note into which I dump stuff about the course I'm doing at the moment. What I wanted to do was create a shortcut from that note to the folder in which I store the lectures on that course. I don't really want to duplicate the entire folder within SB, but if there's no other way I suppose its going to be the way forward... Drat.

Love Calm Quiet · Apr 15, 2005, 07:53 AM

How about data reliability/security. If I'm going to throw all kinds of critical info, various file types (receipts, jpg, pdfs), I want to be sure I can reclaim it.

What happens if app crashes with a file open. In years I experimented with inexpensive shareware and had data files corrupted that couldn't be opened/recovered - and had proprietary file types I couldn't open with something else.

For any of these notetakers/organizers... what can be said about the format in which they store data? Its reliability? recoverability?

driven · Apr 15, 2005, 08:06 AM

Most of the formats (if not all) are proprietary.

I was using OneNote on the Windows side for a while and it's the same thing.

Back about 7 or 8 years ago (maybe longer) I wrote a DOS program that did things VERY similar to what these programs were. It too used a proprietary file format, although I can't figure out why. (Easier perhaps?) When I ported it to Windows 3.0 and later 3.1 (and finally, in it's last version, OS/2) I used the .INI file format. On OS/2 this was a proprietary binary format, but in Windows it was clear text and readable. Nice. (Except that I UUEncoded the binary stuff, so that was ugly and I used a custom read method.)

Back then there wasn't a real market for this type of software. Maybe I should revive it. <GRIN>

CatOne · Apr 15, 2005, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet

How about data reliability/security. If I'm going to throw all kinds of critical info, various file types (receipts, jpg, pdfs), I want to be sure I can reclaim it.

What happens if app crashes with a file open. In years I experimented with inexpensive shareware and had data files corrupted that couldn't be opened/recovered - and had proprietary file types I couldn't open with something else.

For any of these notetakers/organizers... what can be said about the format in which they store data? Its reliability? recoverability?

Do you READ any of the information about the product? Stickybrain stores all of its information in the OpenBase database. It's a DATABASE. They're designed to be VERY tolerant of application crashing, etc. And you can set it to do backups as often as you want -- daily (keeping the last 5 copies), etc.

It's a good, reliable application. But if you're throwing all sorts of JPEGs and PDFs in there, it can get HUGE (i.e. gigabytes in size).

Also, currently OpenBase doesn't run on the Tiger betas, so StickyBrain won't work on 10.4 until OpenBase fixes the database issue they have (it's broken w.r.t. Rendezvous/Bonjour).

Love Calm Quiet · Apr 15, 2005, 01:03 PM

Nope, sure don't. But I appreciate you're making up for my laziness.
I also appreciate USERs' experiences (e.g., with crashes & recovery) - not that I don't trust the Authors' pages, but... well, there's nothing like a bunch of MacNN power users to seriously test durability.
Also, I really don't know enough about databases to know if the fact that "They're designed to be VERY tolerant of application crashing" means that the design intent succeeded. For Filemaker, for example, I have learned to avoid certain (supposedly legitimate) maneuvers within it to avoid it crashing WITH damage to files - and the need to recover data.
Anyway, thanks for adding some insight on Stickybrain.