VoodooPad

Wikis are extremely popular. Using keywords to link articles and pages has made Wikipedia one of the most popular Internet destinations for information. VoodooPad takes the same concept and translates it to a desktop tool for use by individuals. Users can create their own wiki which assembles information that is personally important. Computer users tend to amass a lot of information. They have notes, files, contacts, research, and more in a variety of places on their system. Creating a personal wiki can make it much easier to locate relevant information when it is needed. VoodooPad makes it possible to link pages and files in a way that permits more efficient retrieval. The interface that drives the program looks and functions like a traditional word processor. Users simply enter in the information for pages they want to create. The interface can create tables, bulleted lists, and charts. It also supports adding graphics. The primary file is referred to as a document. Notes added to the document are referred to as pages. VoodooPad can be used to great effect for project management. It is even possible to export data to PDF format. Writers of e-books will love that they can export directly to ePub format and create books in no time at all. Managing writing projects with a lot of research and information is very easy with the program's feature set. The latest version of VoodooPad offers synchronization with Dropbox for file storage to the Cloud. It also supports Java scriptlets.

This review does not mention what for me is the most powerful and important feature of VoodooPad: Autolinking. Say you create a page called "locomotives." At another time, you write something containing the word "locomotives." That word, in the later document, is automatically turned into a hyperlink to the "locomotives" page. This reminds you that you have a page by that name, and enables you to click to it immediately. "Didn't I look into this and write something about it before?" Yes, you did--and here it is. Of course you can create manual hyperlinks from anything to anything, too. But the autolinking function is the closest facility I have encountered to an "associative memory." Sadly, VP has been on what appears to be life support for some time. Clearly, not many people share my very high opinion of the app. I'd love to discuss this further; I can be reached as joel dot orr at gmail dot com. Joel