[IxDA Discuss] Content Inventory Tools

[Chris Pallé]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Sorry I wasn't able to respond, I was  
having issues with the server yesterday.

OmniOutliner seems like it could be a really nice solution as it  
streamlines some of the processes that are needed of Excel... besides  
as postmodern designers, we all know the pitfalls of putting too much  
in an application, right?... do few things and do them well. Outliner  
seems very well suited for content inventories w/o all the added  
tools Excel has to offer. I do agree with the drawback with  
transportability, though.

There is a plugin for exporting to excel, though. Anyone experienced  
this?
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnioutliner/extras/

SiteOrbiter- Thanks, Maria.
Yes. It was a little overwhelming at first. I agree that the  
Concentric map is useless with large content sites. However, the  
useful meat is in the spreadsheet (which you can export and import to  
Excel) if you select "Hide Map" performance is increased.  
Alternatively, you can change the "display mode" (found on the bottom  
of the interface, and change it to "Subset" for an effective way to  
look at files' relationships. Especially when tracking down errors  
and orphaned files.

I have to say, Site Orbiter is not a perfect solution, BUT it handles  
a lot of the dirty work; i.e., getting the links, file types, etc.  
into a spreadsheet quite effectively.



chris.pallé, interactive media designer
--------------------------------------------------------
blueflameinteractive*
732.513.3570
chris.palle at blueflameinteractive.com
http://blueflameinteractive.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispalle
*water logic, meet functional form




On Mar 5, 2007, at 3:47 PM, Will Parker wrote:

>
> On Mar 5, 2007, at 9:20 AM, Josh Viney wrote:
>> I've found OmniOutliner to be a great tool, and should work fairly
>> well for
>> simple content inventory. I use OmniOutliner and can't seem to find
>> something similar to Excel's multiple worksheets. Although, the
>> functionality might be available in OmniOutliner Pro.
>>
>> You may not want to use OmniOutliner if your target audience
>> doesn't have
>> access to it, because docs that have been exported to alternate
>> formats tend
>> to get difficult to manage over time - entropy. I've found Excel to
>> be a
>> great tool for the simple fact that I don't know many people who
>> don't have
>> it installed.
>
> I'd have to go along with Josh on this one. In a case like this, use
> a default file format that is readily usable by all the audiences
> that will actively use the data in the file. If everyone who's going
> to read / write / modify the data has a copy of OmniOutliner, go for
> it -- if not, find the lowest-common-denominator file format.
>
> BTW, note that OmniOutliner does offer very strong scriptability via
> AppleScript, and if you need something other than a tabular display,
> it's relatively easy to create more complex graphic displays (trees,
> nodelists, etc.) in OmniGraffle using OmniOutliner data.
>
> - Will
>
> Will Parker
> wparker at ChannelingDesign.com
> 206-228-3187 (cell-preferred)
> 206-783-1943 (home office)
>
>
> "The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who
> already have it." - William Tozier
>
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chris.pallé, interactive media designer
--------------------------------------------------------
blueflameinteractive*
732.513.3570
chris.palle at blueflameinteractive.com
http://blueflameinteractive.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrispalle
*water logic, meet functional form





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