Atle Iversen (Founder of PpcSoft)

PpcSoft iKnow for Mac OS X and Linux

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:00:00 GMT

PpcSoft iKnow is a tool designed for Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7.

However, to avoid lock-in we have created a simple, text-based dataformat that can be viewed and edited in any standard text-editor on any platform.

In addition, thanks to the wonders of virtualization you can run PpcSoft iKnow in other OS'es using virtualization software like VMWare.

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Using PpcSoft iKnow for E-learning

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Electronic learning (or E-Learning or eLearning) is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process.

In companies, e-learning usually refers to the strategies that use the company network to deliver training courses to employees.

PpcSoft iKnow is a tool in the intersection between learning, information overload, social media and personal knowledge management. There are more channels and sources for learning today than ever before, but this may also increase the information overload that people are struggling with and reduce their ability to learn.

PpcSoft iKnow is not an e-learning tool, but rather a tool to complement e-learning.

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Personal Knowledge Management, filtering and information overload

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Why is knowledge management (KM) so difficult to implement in most organizations ?

Can personal knowledge management (PKM) be the answer ?

Many of the best and brightest in the KM field got together for a TweetChat where they discussed Personal Knowledge Management (transscript), and it seems that many believe that PKM is growing in importance compared to "traditional" KM.

And how do you avoid information overload ? Is it just a matter of filter failure ?

Can personal knowledge management (PKM) be the answer here as well ?

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PpcSoft iKnow reviewed by TechRepublic

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

A great review of PpcSoft iKnow in TechRepublic.

"If you are willing and able to work within iKnow's workflow, it is an outstanding application. In OneNote, I tend to dump entire Web pages in, and then use the highlighter tool to mark the text that interests me. What I end up with is a collection of Web pages that I need to look through to find the useful information, and then wonder how it relates to the other items I marked.

With iKnow, you would either copy just the relevant information, or reword it to fit your needs, and it all links together. In a nutshell, iKnow requires slightly more up-front effort and care than OneNote or Evernote when creating the notes, but once they are made, using the information is much easier."
- Justin James, TechRepublic

Comments:
Unfortunately, the reviewed version had a bug which resulted in a broken tag system - this bug has been fixed !

PpcSoft iKnow Help

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

The Windows Help system has gone through many changes over the years.

"The Windows Help system's bad reputation is so widespread that many folks simply disregard it altogether and have done so for such a long time that they have forgotten that the Windows Help system even exists"

Unfortunately, Microsoft is still struggling to decide what the "ultimate" help system should look like, and this makes it very hard to get a consistent help system for all applications on the Windows platform.

So where does all this leave us ?

There is no perfect solution, so we decided to use this approach:

1. Avoid the need for help by making things as easy-to-use and simple as possible
2. If you need help, try to make it automatically available when and where you need it
3. If everything else fails, provide a simple help file that can be easily updated.

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Price, service, features

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

The Project Triangle is typically used for the choices Fast, Good and Cheap - where you are asked to pick any two.

The triangle reflects the fact that the properties are interrelated, and you cannot optimize all three.

The Project Triangle is mainly used for (surprise) projects, but can be used for both physical products and software as well.

For physical products, the choices are often Price, Service and Quality as better quality is usually more expensive.

However, for software you don't differentiate on quality (well, competitors often differentiate on quality, but the same company does not release both a high and low quality version of the same product).

To make PpcSoft iKnow available to as many people as possible, we have three different editions. They all have different price, service level and features.

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Note: Life

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
- Abraham Lincoln

Improve your life - and others'...

- Do Love
- Do Laugh
- Do Learn
- Do Listen
- Do Forgive

- Be Good
- Be Positive (thinking and behaving)
- Be Honest (with others and yourself)
- Be Healthy (excercise your body & mind)
- Be Fun

Summary: Enjoy life - and help others enjoy their life !

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Yellow notes

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT

Small yellow notes (or Post-its) are used in various articles as examples to show you how simple a small summary/reminder can be.

All you need is a title, a short description (and maybe a link or two)
- and you're done !

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Best of 2009

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Here are my top 10 posts in 2009 (most popular).

1. KM 3.0: This time it's personal
2. iKnow vs. OneNote vs. Evernote
3. Synchronizing multiple computers
4. The power of checklists
5. Productivity Secrets
6. Personal Wiki
7. Wikipedia + Google = iKnow
8. Usability, Simplicity, Productivity
9. Capturing vs. Sharing knowledge
10. Second-sibling problem

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Note: xPeople

Sun,27 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

If you want to store a lot of similar notes, like a list of contacts, list of products or list of common support questions or answers, you should create a template first.

A template is an ordinary note like any other, but you use it differently.

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Full-text search

Wed,16 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

The full-text search is used to find text across all notes.

The results of the full-text search will be shown in a special mode to visually indicate that you are no longer in 'edit mode' but in 'search mode'.

The full-text search in PpcSoft iKnow is very powerful, and we have put in a lot of effort to optimize the usability.

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Personal Wiki

Fri,11 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Can PpcSoft iKnow be used as a personal wiki ?

Certainly - it is a great personal wiki !

A personal wiki is a wiki maintained primarily for personal use. Personal wikis allow people to organize information on their desktop or mobile computing devices in a manner similar to community wikis.

There are basically two types of personal wikis:
- multi-user wikis with personal editions
- wiki-applications designed only for single users

PpcSoft iKnow is in the second category:
A desktop application designed for a single users (without the need for a database engine or a web server).

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Font size (QuickSearch)

Thu,03 Dec 2009 06:00:00 GMT

When you want to find a note (or search for text in any note) you use the QuickSearch box.

Even a small improvement can make a huge difference in usability, and the font size is larger in the QuickSearch box than the rest of the application.

Can such a small detail be that important, you may ask ?

Even the mighty Google has increased the font size in their search box to improve usability (no, I don't think they 'stole' the idea from us even if we did it first :-)

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Title of an item

Mon, 12 Sep 2009 18:37:00 GMT

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