Hi. I’m Dr Andus (i.e. doctorandus, Latin for ‘he who should become a doctor’), a social science PhD student based in the UK and engaged in qualitative research. I’m interested in software and hardware tools that can help with researching, outlining, and writing, as well as improving personal productivity. I also contribute under this name at the Outliner Software forum, which is an excellent source of information on such tools.
The impetus for starting this blog actually came from another member at Outliner Software, who asked me to provide some tutorials about how I use ConnectedText (CT) – a personal wiki software – for qualitative data analysis (effectively as a CAQDAS). I thought that rather than inundating forum members with long posts on CT, I would set up a dedicated blog for this purpose. Although my initial posts here are likely to focus on CT, I intend this blog to become a place for commentary on a wide range of software and hardware that I use for researching, outlining and writing but also for managing personal information (PIM). I have also set up a page that will contain a periodically updated list of my favourite software and hardware tools (my toolbox). I use Windows PCs (a couple of desktops and a netbook, running XP and Win7), an Apple iPod Touch and an iPad, therefore I will focus primarily on those platforms.
I welcome questions, comments or suggestions related to tools for qualitative research, outlining, writing and personal information management.
Dr Andus's toolbox 