Aspiring practitioners and accomplished professionals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences require clarity and precision in their research, writing, and editing endeavors. Naturally, they seek the optimal tools for the many components of their trade, just as fine artisans do. No one should have to settle for "utility knife software."
By contrast, each of the applications that comprise the Nota Bene Workstation suite delivers exceptional capabilities through their multiple tools in support of research and writing.
The following list of features points to capabilities unique to the Workstation's integrated suite of applications. Here is evidence of what we promise: no other software company focuses on the needs of teachers, advanced students, and scholars in the fields of the humanities, arts, and social sciences.
Take a look at some of the features unique to the Nota Bene Workstation.
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Workstation Overall
| The entry-level Nota Bene Workstation includes three component applications (Nota Bene, Ibidem, and Orbis). Optional components (Orbis+, Lingua, and Archiva) are available separately (although still fully integrated).
Applications are designed for:
- academic document processing
- bibliographic database and citation management
- document search and retrieval,
- on-line research tools
Common interface among all component applications
Underlying data linkages and connections across applications enhance research, writing, and editing productivity
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Component Application
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Unique Features
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Word Processing
NOTA BENE
INCLUDED IN THE NB WORKSTATION
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Built-in academic manuals of style (MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, APA, Turabian, SBL), including built-in thesis/dissertation styles (e.g, Turabian Manual and University of Chicago Dissertation Style)
One-click comprehensive format of document's different-level heads and body text regions (horizontal and vertical layouts and spacing), determined by selected academic style
One-click format and layout of complex paragraph regions (e.g., block text/quotes), including layout and spacing relationships to surrounding paragraphs determined by selected academic style
Up to three independent series of footnotes (each with own numbering system and formatting) per document (thus allowing creation of critical editions of texts such as medieval manuscripts)
Sophisticated end-of-document index marking and generation system that rivals and often exceeds capabilities in stand-alone indexing systems
Everything you write in Nota Bene can be included in an Orbis textbase, and is thus searchable in your future work
Log and Resume (log and subsequently retrieve multiple documents last worked on with last cursor placement in each — i.e, restore last working session, however complicated)
Multiple document views including Page Layout and Outline views; in addition, Codes View provides direct access to formatting commands, and Draft View combines features of Page-Layout and Codes View for easy direct editing of commands
Tabbed access to documents (MDI Multi-Document Interface within a single instance of the program, same as web browsers) economizes on-screen footprint and eases access to on-screen documents
In addition, multiple instances of Nota Bene (up to 10) can be run at the same time, providing the benefits of an SDI Single-Document Interface
User interface includes customization of skins, themes, toolbars, dialog bars and other settings
Comprehensive dialog bar present options to speed up tasks (e.g., entering/editing up to nine types of annotations, including Orbis keywords; quick document navigation tools, Index and TOC markup, and many more)
Phrase libraries for quick access to frequently used text strings
Convert lines to paragraph (used to convert email and other line-delimited text to paragraph format)
Auto-look-up of word (Author, Title, Keywords, etc.) in bibliographic database module, including in PopUp Ibidem search; clickable look-up of word in Full Ibidem
Two options to create and edit tables, including the Research Results Table which provides dedicated table capabilities consistent with design features expected by journals and book publishers such as automatic numbering and cross-reference, horizontal rules, spanner heads, critical apparatus, including Notes, Source (linked to Ibidem), Probability (1-tailed/2-tailed)
On-the-fly insertion of Orbis keywords in document (for subsequent detailed searches)
Immediate word or phrase lookup in Orbis
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Bibliographic Data & Citation Management
IBIDEM
INCLUDED IN THE NB WORKSTATION
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Tight integration with documents, Orbis, and Archiva
Academic style rules-based citations
Customization of citation style for non-standard sources (e.g., unpublished manuscripts, archival sources)
Citations in documents are auto-updated as they are entered (e.g., activation of subsequent cite formats, including subsequent shortened forms, ibid., op. cit., etc.), all in real time
Citation format of all citations in file, including of bibliography/works cited, is auto-updated if the original academic style is changed to another
Customizable record templates
Multiple databases (bibliographic, non-bibliographic) can be opened at the same time
Records can be linked to different types of files for instant access, including both Nota Bene files and other popular formats (PDF, DOCX, RTF, saved HTML, on-line URLs, and Image formats)
Every record has immediate access to Library of Congress, WorldCat, Bookfinder, Google Scholar, and Amazon
Worldwide searches of catalogs from on-line libraries' and research centers
Ibidem linked records connect to retrieved Orbis searches for further record exploration (abstracts, annotations, notes, data in any field)
Note-taking files generated by Ibidem auto-update changes in fields such as keywords
Text and citations in Ibidem-generated note-taking files that are pasted to a different document automatically conform to that document's academic style
Pop-up Ibidem uses small footprint, floating pane provides simultaneous view of document screen
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Document Search & Retrieval
ORBIS
INCLUDED IN THE NB WORKSTATION
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Orbis is closely integrated with Ibidem and the Nota Bene word processor
Find lost, forgotten, and other text — seeing how words are used, and arguments made — in literally ten of thousands of documents, in seconds
Search popular file formats (PDF, DOCX, DOC, RTF) with the ORBIS+ add-on module
Both free-form and user-defined structured file coding (the free-form option means that everything you write in NB can become part of this ever expanding knowledge system, without having to do any special coding)
User-defined retrieval units — default is paragraph, but user can specify sentences, files, or any user-defined unit
Single key lookup of selected word in document, or type words, phrases, or full Boolean-connected search terms in the search bar
Query tree diagrams word relationships (for boolean searches, showing AND, OR, and NOT results of terms within the search)
User-created synonyms expand search queries significantly ("authoritarian" as head word will find text fragments containing synonyms such as "military," "autocracy," "dictator," etc.)
Results shown in single line keyword-in-context style view, with fuller text shown in preview panel below (user can expand context of preview panel, showing search units before/after retrieved match)
Single-key insertion of retrieved text into active Nota Bene document
When the matching entry is from a note-taking file linked to an Ibidem bibliographic record, bibliographic source is identified, and citation data is automatically brought into the document into which the retreived entry is inserted
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On-line Research & Citation-Capture Tools
ARCHIVA
INCLUDED IN THE NB WORKSTATION
ARCHIVA+
ADD-ON MODULE
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Search worldwide on-line library and research center catalogs
Includes its own Z39.50 client for unfettered access to on-line catalog searches
Clipboard Watcher captures web citations from journals included in aggregators such as JSTOR and Project Muse
ISBN numbers are converted into bibliographic records, including those captured from virtually every smartphone barcode scanner [ARCHIVA+]
Contents of formatted bibliographies are converted into individual bibliographic records [ARCHIVA+]
Both Archiva modules are tightly integrated into Ibidem, with all bibliographic data retrieved easily transferrable to the user's Ibidem database (Archiva will check for duplicates)
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