Anybody Using Mind Mapping (with Accordance) for Preaching?

[Alistair]

What Scrivener does is use spaces instead of tabs in bullet points, numbered paragraphs and indents, so when I bring my work in to Pages or Quark or whatever I have to tidy that up manually.

 

I use Scrivener because I write non-linearly, usually several projects concurrently.

Edited July 24, 2015 by Alistair

[Clint Cozier]

This is really off topic but......as long as we're running through the apps people use to shape sermons and hold information, is anyone using Nota Bene? It has most of the tools we've discussed in this thread (database (bucket app), bibliographic management, outliner, word processor) in one (tight?) bundle of related applications with the word processor at the center of it all. I've played with it for years, but just can't quite fall in love with it for content creation. That, and the lack of iOS tools. I still love curling up in a coffee shop to write a sermon, and my iPad is the best tool for that. Still, it seems to me all the parts are there and I've spent a lot of time recreating Nota Bene's functionality in OSX. 

 

Any users out there?

[Michel Gilbert]

Hi Clint,

 

Not sure if this will help, but I tried NB recently and decided to not go with it.

 

I didn't find its word processor to be any better than Word. It isn't Unicode compliant; I couldn't even paste some Unicode fonts into it. To be fair, they say they are working on it. Also, my Windows (and I presume OSX) system keyboards didn't/(wouldn't) work in NB. To be fair, it looked like I could make custom keyboards in NB, but these first two problems were deal breakers already. Finally, I didn't find any reason to switch to NB's outliner.

 

Instead, I found substitutes for all of NB's features. First, like Alistair, I "write (also think) non-linearly, usually several projects concurrently," so Scrivener worked better for me than NB. Scrivener also allows you to outline whole folders and files, not just the headings in a single file. Second, I substituted DocFetcher at http://docfetcher.sourceforge.net/en/index.html for NB's search engine, which searches many more file types than Orbis. Third, I substituted Zotero for Ibidem. I'd probably use Sente 6 on a Mac at http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/site/Sente.html .

 

I also use these substitutes along with BibleWorks 10. Its word processor is excellent (head and shoulders above the rest), and is Unicode compliant. It takes one click to switch from Greek to Hebrew to English, which changes the font and system keyboard automatically (to what you set it). Also, you can search in one file or all BW files within the program, much like in NB. BW10 is cheaper than NB with the Greek and Hebrew module.

 

Some might wonder why I already recommended NB to those starting out. All of its features are designed to build momentum from the moment you begin using it, i.e., writing everything in it, and building your bibliographies. I also thought that those working with ancient texts would appreciates its three levels of footnotes/endnotes.  

 

Clint, you love your iPad, and I love mine. I just posted that Word now supports Hebrew on the iPad. Also, Scrivener is coming to the iPad (in beta release now). So I'll continue to read and make notes in BW, including compiling my own user lexicons, use Accordance mostly for syntax searches (head and shoulders above the rest), copy to Scrivener, compile to Word, and be able to do these on the iPad soon, only needing iTeleport for BW on the iPad.

 

Regards,

 

Michel

[Jacki]

I use TheBrain by Brain Technologies for my articles and research and for keeping up with just about everything.  I use it on the Mac and iPad, but there is a PC version now also.  

[Alistair]

I tried TheBrain ages ago but wasn't much impressed, certainly not by the price.