Comments on: Imagining new tools for humanities scholars http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/ Exploring what digital scholarship is and how to do it in the context of the humanities Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:32:03 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Elizabeth http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-810 Elizabeth Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:53:23 +0000 http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-810 You might take a look at a program called Storyspace at http://www.eastgate.com/storyspace/index.html. The software is commercial and expensive (at $295), but the product is in web-ready hypertext with no proprietary restrictions on its use (and no special reader required). I believe they have a trial version. I tried it a few years ago and was very impressed with it, but couldn't afford it. I believe you could also accomplish your vision using Adobe Acrobat and pdf files. There are several programs that will produce pdf files from your word processing files, but with Adobe's own (expensive) software you can edit them, create bookmarks, links, etc. I once turned a large (400-page) report into a set of smaller linked files using Adobe Acrobat, but it wasn't easy or intuitive. You might take a look at a program called Storyspace at http://www.eastgate.com/storyspace/index.html. The software is commercial and expensive (at $295), but the product is in web-ready hypertext with no proprietary restrictions on its use (and no special reader required). I believe they have a trial version. I tried it a few years ago and was very impressed with it, but couldn’t afford it.

I believe you could also accomplish your vision using Adobe Acrobat and pdf files. There are several programs that will produce pdf files from your word processing files, but with Adobe’s own (expensive) software you can edit them, create bookmarks, links, etc. I once turned a large (400-page) report into a set of smaller linked files using Adobe Acrobat, but it wasn’t easy or intuitive.

]]> By: lms4w http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-62 lms4w Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:20:37 +0000 http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-62 Amen! You might check out MDID (http://mdid.org), an open source image management and presentation tool developed by James Madison U. It has many of the features that you're yearning for, such as the ability to establish image collections, tag objects, put together presentations (using a pretty nifty light table interface), archive slide shows, etc... Although it has some limitations (i.e, the presentation tool isn't as flexible as PowerPoint), art historians here at Rice have been quite happy with it. Amen! You might check out MDID (http://mdid.org), an open source image management and presentation tool developed by James Madison U. It has many of the features that you’re yearning for, such as the ability to establish image collections, tag objects, put together presentations (using a pretty nifty light table interface), archive slide shows, etc… Although it has some limitations (i.e, the presentation tool isn’t as flexible as PowerPoint), art historians here at Rice have been quite happy with it.

]]> By: David Voelker http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-60 David Voelker Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:02:38 +0000 http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-60 I'm not sure that this qualifies as a research tool, nor is it needed exclusively by humanists, but wouldn't it be great to have a software application that allowed us to import, organize, tag, and sort PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides? Basically, I'm imagining a virtual slide library, that would allow you to keep track of the most up-to-date version of every slide. When you assembled a new presentation, you could then search, organize, edit, and export a presentation, without all of the usual, painstaking and inefficient copying and pasting from umpteen presentations. I'm pretty sure that no such thing exists--yet--but it could really streamline presentation making. I’m not sure that this qualifies as a research tool, nor is it needed exclusively by humanists, but wouldn’t it be great to have a software application that allowed us to import, organize, tag, and sort PowerPoint and/or Keynote slides? Basically, I’m imagining a virtual slide library, that would allow you to keep track of the most up-to-date version of every slide. When you assembled a new presentation, you could then search, organize, edit, and export a presentation, without all of the usual, painstaking and inefficient copying and pasting from umpteen presentations. I’m pretty sure that no such thing exists–yet–but it could really streamline presentation making.

]]> By: Sheila http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-9 Sheila Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:46:43 +0000 http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/imagining-new-tools-for-humanities-scholars/#comment-9 Glad you are finding Zotero useful for your work. We at CHNM are also developing an open-source publishing platform, Omeka (omeka.org), for individuals and institutions looking to share their resources or collections online in an archive or through exhibit-style presentations. All of your archived items and exhibits are editable through the Omeka admin pages that, once installed, are available to you through any web interface. It is scalable so it works nicely for an individual looking to share their research in an online format or for a museum seeking to place portions of their collection on the web. We are still in private Beta testing now, but should have a stable release by March 2009. If you are interested in becoming one of our testers, email us: omeka.support@gmail.com. Glad you are finding Zotero useful for your work.

We at CHNM are also developing an open-source publishing platform, Omeka (omeka.org), for individuals and institutions looking to share their resources or collections online in an archive or through exhibit-style presentations. All of your archived items and exhibits are editable through the Omeka admin pages that, once installed, are available to you through any web interface.

It is scalable so it works nicely for an individual looking to share their research in an online format or for a museum seeking to place portions of their collection on the web.

We are still in private Beta testing now, but should have a stable release by March 2009. If you are interested in becoming one of our testers, email us: omeka.support@gmail.com.

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