Our favourite reference management software, Papers3, is now free for iPhone and iPad.. (Papers is mentioned 16 times in Cognitive Productivity.)
Papers3 addresses one of the biggest IT problems knowledge workers face: synchronizing their precious PDFs between devices. And, let’s face it, most of the highest quality knowledge resources are in PDF format.
If you’re reading a high-caliber web page that you wish to use later (for learning or knowledge building), then you should convert that web page to PDF. Why? Because then you can use the same “delving” software and skills on the desktop, and the same software on iOS (but not necessarily the same software across both platforms, of course). Using a potent PDF reader is much more efficient than wading through a web page with a web browser. Most web browsers don’t natively support annotation. There are annotation web services, like diigo; but they pale in comparison to PDF software. (See chapter 11 of Cognitive Productivity for more details.) Moreover, it’s easier to get distracted in a web browser than a PDF reader.
Keep in mind that with Papers3, there are two ways to synchronize your files between your laptop and your iOS device :
- Using Dropbox,
- Using Wi-fi sync.
You can enable the Virtual Disk feature or not. I’ve discussed these options previously on this blog, and I plan to provide some new insights into these options in the future. There’s much more information on the Papers3 support site.
