[Papyrus-L] Possible alternatives to Papyrus

[Andrew Wilson]

I still run Papyrus, in a DOS box under Windows XP. I've been using it 
since I started my doctoral thesis in 1993, and I now have 96273 
references on the database. I haven't found an alternative that handles 
keywords and notecards (or equivalents) so well, and Papyrus is also 
beautifully designed. So I continue to use it despite the fact you can 
no longer paste easily between it and Word, and you can't run the 
auto-extract routine on Word documents, and outputting references as a 
formatted list that preserves foreign accented characters is a pain 
requiring one to open the file using WordPad as MS-Dos text, then save 
as a Word file, etc...  But I've got too much invested in it to change, 
and conversion routines to Reference Manager etc. seem to lose the 
notecards...

I know the topic of updating the software was discussed a number of 
years ago, but if there is a chance of developing a version for Windows, 
I and many others would love to see it !

Meanwhile, does anyone have anyone work-arounds or fixes for the issues 
above...?

best wishes, and thanks again to Dave for creating a fantastic program 
in the first place,

Andrew Wilson
Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire
Institute of Archaeology
36 Beaumont St
Oxford
OX1 2PG
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1865 278247
Fax: +44 (0)1865 278254
Email: andrew.wilson at arch.ox.ac.uk
Web page: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~corp0057


On 10/02/2011 16:12, James Mallet wrote:

> I changed over to Reference Manager a few years ago now (see prev. 

> posts), but I agree with Raisa that Papyrus was very user friendly. I 

> too would love to see updated Papyrus for newer windowing operating 

> systems.

>

> There are still some really annoying things with Reference Manager and 

> probably Endnote too.

>

> One is that, now that Thomson/ISI have a virtual monopoly of 

> bibliographic software (Endnote, Reference Manager, and ProCite), they 

> don't ever seem to bother fix the obvious annoyances with their 

> systems.  Probably for the same reason, the programs are also very 

> expensive for what they do. In spite of not fixing up the program 

> much, they frequently issue new versions, which all cost more as well.

>

> I've heard Zotero is good (and open source), but others have told me 

> that's annoying too, and you have to run it through Mozilla Firefox.

>

> The new one I've heard about is Mendeley http://www.mendeley.com/ .  

> As I understand it you can keep your references online with them, 

> format references for journals, cooperate with word processors, as 

> well as link PDFs and share references and online PDFs with your 

> research group and/or friends. And it's completely free. Sounds kind 

> of like a music sharing site.

>

> However, I suppose it's on the cards that they'll start charging after 

> a while when they have people hooked -- I am not sure how they are 

> financed. I also worry about what happens when the web goes down and 

> you need your references. Perhaps they have some local program as well...

>

> Endnote Web is also similar, I've been told by Hungarian friends, 

> though since I don't use Endnote I haven't tried it.

>

> j

>

>

>

> At 15:45 10/02/2011, you wrote:

>> Hi, Dave.  Wonderful to hear from you.

>> Any possibility of extending Papyrus to work with newer operating

>> systems?  I'm clinging to my old office Mac so I can run Classic

>> under Tiger; at home, I'm using DOSBOX under Snow Leopard (along with

>> Word for DOS).  All so I can run Papyrus.  Which is still head and

>> shoulders above the competition.

>> Raisa Deber

>> On 10-Feb-11, at 12:18 AM, Dave Goldman wrote:

>>

>>> There haven't been any posts here for several months, so I thought

>>> I'd better confirm that the listserv system is still working!

>>>

>>> -- 

>>>    Dave Goldman (dave at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com)

>>>

>>>    Research Software Design            The PAPYRUS Bibliography System

>>>    617 SW Hume Street

>>>    Portland OR 97219-4458 (U.S.A.)

>>>

>>>    Technical Support: support at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com

>>>      Other Questions: info at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com

>>>                  Web: http://www.ResearchSoftwareDesign.com/ 

>>> <http://www.researchsoftwaredesign.com/>

>>> _______________________________________________

>>> Papyrus-L mailing list

>>> Papyrus-L at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com

>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/papyrus-l

>>

>> Raisa Deber, PhD

>> Professor, Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation

>> Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

>> Director, CIHR Team in Community Care and Health Human Resources

>> (www.teamgrant.ca <http://www.teamgrant.ca/> )

>> Health Sciences Building

>> 155 College Street Suite 425

>> Toronto, ON  M5T 3M6

>> phone:  (416) 978-8366

>> fax:  (416) 978-7350

>> e-mail:  raisa.deber at utoronto.ca

>>

>>

>> _______________________________________________

>> Papyrus-L mailing list

>> Papyrus-L at ResearchSoftwareDesign.com

>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/papyrus-l

>

> ________________________________

>

> James Mallet

> UCL

> www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim>

>

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