I'm a bit of an information packrat/junkie. O.k, I'll fess up and admit it: I'm a big information packrat/junkie. As I wander thru my day I write myself lots of notes on stuff I run across or things I need to do or remember. A routine behavior in which I know I am not alone.
Sometimes my notes are on paper...which I often promptly forget are in some pocket or the other and then my wife later finds their remains in the bottom of the washing machine; or I jot them down in some program on my computer and they get lost somewhere in the bowels of the machine.
Lots of snippets of information scattered across numerous files and pieces of paper and never able to find them when I need them. At least, not quickly. So, they get lost and forgotten until I happen to stumble across them again. The only bright spot is that the notes on my computer don't get run thru the washing machine and wind up in crumbles on the bottom of my hard drive....
There are, of course, lots of software solutions out there. I won't resort to hyperbole and claim I've tried them all...I have, however, tried a bunch of them. Software solutions, I mean. I haven't pursued any of the psychiatric solutions.
The basic requirements that I've been trying to find include some kind of free form database that offers the ability to tag my notes with lots of keywords so I can, eventually, find them again. I'd prefer that the software not stuff everything into one humongous file like treepad, keynote, evernote or the many variants of tiddlywiki. And, I like the idea of having my keywords easily accessible in some kind of tree format (as some of the previously mentioned programs provide). Oh...I also want it to be cheap (free) and, of course, easy to use.
Enter WikidPad. WikidPad's website describes the software as "a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas, todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down."
Despite my own initial learning-curve bump, I quickly discovered that I like WikidPad.
The nice thing about WikidPad is its versatility and the fact that I can keep my various notes in a wiki-like file structure on my local computer. No Internet connection required. I can manipulate pages and pages of content as my heart desires. And, I can tag and cross reference them with as many attributes as I wish...hopefully, with enough relevant keywords that even I will have a chance of locating them again. All my various snippets of information can be captured, cross-linked, managed, easily updated, all on my local machine and, most importantly, I can go back and find them again.
I found the program to be a routine Windows XP install with but one exception: there is a warning on the website to use ASCII characters only in the folder name to which WikidPad will be installed. So I made sure not to throw anything strange in the directory name and avoid spaces. I have no idea if it will work on earlier versions of Windows (the website says it will) or on Vista. The help file indicates that it will also install on a USB stick, but I haven't tried it yet.
While I like the program, the help file of WikidPad is a bit....terse. In fact, since I really don't speak Wiki, it was downright overwhelming. There is a WikidPad Yahoo Group and the folks there seem to be friendly and helpful. There are also several WikidPad sites around the Internet, including the WikidPad's Track Homepage. The homepage provides some info on getting started, but I still struggled a bit when I first worked through their info.
While WikidPad was easy to use once I got up that first steep learning curve, in the beginning as I searched for help I ran across more than a few queries from folks who seemed just as bewildered as I. We were all asking, "How do I get started using WikidPad?"
So, since I have now rambled on more than enough I'll stop here and my next post will be a step-by-step guide on how I got started with WikidPad.
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