Re: Field Note Software

Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Fri, 24 Nov 95 19:52:27 EST

I know there are now many specialized tools of the sort
Peter Smagorinsky was asking about, but I personally use
an old favorite, AskSam (now for Windows, with the '95 version
due in the Spring, one hopes). This is a text-oriented database,
well reviewed in the PC magazines (I used it in its old DOS
incarnation since ancient times!), with one of the best
search engines around. You can not only find anything you
want instantly in relatively larger text documents, but you
can also define explicit fields or create them on the fly
even if they are not in the records. (I know this sounds
impossible, but it's not.) You can do such nice things as, say,
find all sentences or paragraphs that contain any particular
word or string of characters within any specified distance
(measured in words, etc.) of any other.

I find it particularly useful for re-analyzing data post-hoc,
or for holding notes of various sorts. You can also scan
text data into it. It is not particularly powerful in its
numerical data capabilities, but it can do simple tasks
like counting and averaging. It can sort anything anyway,
and relevant data can be displayed in a variety of formats.

If you are a qual-quant type, you may want something better
balanced between quantitative and text tools, but if your
data is mainly text, it's great. It will also do mailing lists,
bibliographies, etc.

Available from AskSam Systems (aka Seaside Software), in Florida
via 800-800-1997 for info and sales. JAY.

JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU