The solution for an easy shifting for oneself through the density of web pages is linked browsing or, as some call it, the "Wiki" system. The name is borrowed from the Hawaiian language (fast) and it was first used by Ward Cunningham in his WikiWikiWeb site (www.c2.com/cgi/wiki). The wiki system is all about markup language which is also the basis for HTML. Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is a stylesheet language written in markup language and its use is to style web pages but not only. Beside HTML and XHTML, this language is used in all XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents. The main advantages of CSS include flexibility, reduced size, complexity, accessibility and the fact that all information can be placed in a single location, it can be quickly updated.

ConnectedText is an application that uses CSS language and its main purpose is to help you create well organized and quickly accessible documents. One can keep track of all his ideas and files by structuring them into topics. Starting from a main one, you can link any word or group of words to a related topic or even to a web page. The great part of this system is that this linking option is available for all topics, main or not, and you can always edit your text or change the topic to which a word is linked. The bad part is that one cannot link the same item to different topics, that is why you are required to be well organized in your ideas. It is best to choose the most important topics first and then carry on with different, less "vital", thoughts.

When starting a new project you are asked to enter a name for the folder where the files will be stored. You can either choose from the default application's folder location or from another folder, placed anywhere on your PC. Only fixed or removable media (USB drives) are allowed. Network drives are not accepted. A name for the author and project is required but do not worry for this information can be changed. The title can be edited in the topic's Properties window and the author from the config.xml file in your project folder. In the end, you are asked to choose a CSS file and the developer provides us with four available options (Charcoal, Clean, Clean2, Default) but you can later create your own style sheet.

Writing and editing in ConnectedText is not as difficult as it may seem; both because the author advises us to "Forget HTML" and because of a very explicit tutorial where we can learn The Basics when it comes to language, linking, text effects, images, URL and many more. When you write using the application's language, there are different codes that lead to text formatting results. When enclosing a text between two asterisks (*), it will be marked as bold (**Softpedia** = Softpedia), the code for marking it as italic is "//" (//Softpedia// = Softpedia), for underlined text is two underscore "_" ( __Softpedia__ = Softpedia ) and for strikethrough effect is two dash "-" ( --Softpedia-- = Softpedia ).

One can change the color of the text or its background and even highlight it. Unfortunately, changing the color of a link is not possible using the application. It is possible only by editing the color code that refers to the type of link (to another topic, to empty topic, external, email) in the CSS file you are using for your project. In the next version to be released soon, this bug will be fixed. But be careful because the use of too much inline styles can lead to hard-coding the presentation in your topic text.

In order to link text to another topic in your project, you just have to enclose it between brackes"[]" ( [[Softpedia]] = Softpedia ). If the topic exists when you click on that word, you will be redirected to that topic. If not, a topic will be created and will be named after that text. The application has a built-in internet browser which means you can always link a word or text to a web page by entering the code "$URL:" followed by the web page's address, a vertical slash "|" and the word/text ( [[$URL:www.softpedia.com|Softpedia]] = Softpedia followed by a small arrow-like icon).

The program is able to link text to an image file on your computer or even to a topic from a different project. It is best to place all your necessary files (projects, images) in a single folder to prevent any unfortunate deleting. But not only image files can be linked to it. The application has a smart ability that allows all types of files to be added. Archives (.rar, .zip, .ace), document files (.doc, .odt, .txt) or even .exe files can be linked, for the file is automatically opened by the application to which the extension is associated. Concerning video files, the program currently accepts flash animations (.swf), .avi and .mpeg. If the window is too large, you can always code-reduce its size.

Besides all these text and link features, one can easily create Lists (the options are Bulleted, Numbered, Mixing and Dictionary), Headers (if 4 or more headers are found in a topic, a Table of Contents is automatically created) and edit texts with special features such as Preformatted text, Categories and Indenting. The application has answering codes for any word editor demands. Tables for example can be structured in rows and columns of different sizes, cells can be of any desired colors and shapes and this is the result of a well-written code.

When it comes to easiness and flexibility, ConnectedText has a lot of features to make you enjoy your work. The View tab allows you to open a series of windows such as Topics, Categories, Revisions, Files, Notes or History. The Drag and Drop feature makes its use when trying to copy a file in your project or copy a topic to a new project. If you are using some topics more than others, you can always bookmark them for quick access. The application provides us with a series of icons in order to mark the topics as unfinished, verified, needs attention, flagged or favorite. Keyboard shortcuts are very useful because once you get used to the code they are really at hand.

ConnectedText uses a series of plug-ins in order to add information to topics dynamically. Tex plug-in uses MimeTex to generate images from LaTex code. Python plug-in permits the execution of Python (a dynamic object-oriented programming language that offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools) scripts directly from topics. RSS plug-in permits embedding of RSS (a family of web feed formats) feeds inside a topic. Ploticus plug-in generates charts and graphs from data values and/or a command script. Graphviz plug-in is an open source graph visualization software, where graphs are specified in DOT (script) language. Sparkline plug-in generates small graphics (line and bar) embedded within a context of words or numbers.

The Good

The software uses a very flexible and easy to use system (Wiki), it is extremely customizable and it has plenty of features and plug-ins allowing you to create a well organized and rich document. In our case, the developer answered very quickly, being also very supportive during our tests on the application.

The Bad

While the program was tested, some features such as editing and some windows became unresponsive due to a bug or, as the developer suggested, a hard-coding of the presentation in the topic text.

The Truth

It has some bugs that we encountered, but the support team had knowledge of them and said they will be fixed in the future to come version.


Here are some snapshots of the application in action:



MORE RELATED ARTICLES: Easy Web Editor Review Need Assistance in Building Help Files? Source Code Made Easy VoodooPad: Wiki Text Editor