Marc's Outlook on Productivity

ContentSaver - a worthy alternative to Onfolio

A while back, I wrote about Onfolio, which you've probably read about on at least a dozen blogs by now. I really liked Onfolio for it's elegant interface, seamless integration with Internet Explorer, and rich publishing capabilities. After living with Onfolio on a dialy basis and reading the reviews from other bloggers and comments in the Onfolio forums, I was forced to arrive at the same conclusion many others have. Onfolio needs more work.

The launch times I was experiencing with Onfolio installed were abysmal and the larger my Collection got, the worse the problem became. I could improve things slightly if I remembered to hide the Onfolio dock before exiting IE, but I kept forgetting. This performance issue will probably get better as time goes on and newer versions are released. And, I have to acknowledge that my system is far more complex than most people's given my inability to say "no" to a cool-looking new piece of software.

In my research, I came across a number of references to ContentSaver as a viable alternative for collecting, organizing, and sharing web research. I've been running ContentSaver on my system for almost a week and my initial impressions are extremely positive. ContentSaver and Onfolio do a lot of the same things but the approach the two programs take are quite different.

One of the main differences is the way each program integrates with Internet Explorer. On folio attaches a full implementation of itself in a dock which is the root cause of the performance issues I mentioned above. If you're running IE, you're running Onfolio. ContentSaver, by contrast, is a separate application and the only impact on IE is the addition of a simple toolbar.

From left to right, the buttons are:

1. Save: Saves the current page to your ContentSaver database in the default "New Documents" folder.
2. File and Save: Opens a dialog box that allows you to select what folder in ContentSaver the current page should be saved, assign a category to the saved file, add notes, and more. The drop down portion of this button (the small triangle) lets you choose a folder on the fly.
3. Note: Captures the URL of the page you're viewing and any comments you want to add. This is a great option for adding dynamic pages whose content updates frequently to your collection.
4. Launch ContenSaver: opens the ContentSaver application (default hot key is F12).
5. Save Multiple Web Pages: Save pages linked form the page you're browsing. Invoking this opens a window with a list of all links on the current page from which you can select those that you want to add to ContentSaver collection.
6. Show/Hide the ContentSaver toolbar

There is an excellent screen shots page on the ContenSaver website that shows off many of the applications great features.

I'll post more later on the capabilities of the application in terms of organizing and sharing what you've saved but you might want to go grab a free 30-day evaluation right now and give it a try.

ContentSaver

Benefits and Key Facts:

• Never lose track of researched topics from the Internet


• Store every interesting fact in your personal knowledge base


• Organize and evaluate any gathered material easily and quickly


• Edit and annotate documents so that others can understand your choices


• Instantly access information, even when it has already disappeared from the Web
• Share your findings with others


• Use the collected knowledge in your daily work