NOTA BENE

A REVOLUTIONARY NOTE-TAKING, REFERENCING, & WRITING SYSTEM


 


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1
NB 10 was designed
for the latest versions of Windows

Nota Bene 10 runs natively on 64-bit versions of Windows (whether 7, 8, or beyond), and is faster, more compatible, and easier to use. (Of course, it still runs on older 32-bit versions of Windows, including XP, Vista, and 32-bit versions of Windows 7 and 8.)

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System screen showing Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit version, on left, with NB 10 running on right

2
NB 10 runs on Macs & under Linux
without requiring Windows

We designed NB 10 so that it could run on Macs and under Linux (on computers with the Intel processor) under WINE, without requiring an installation of Windows. The best news is that all NB features should be available on the Mac — this is not a stripped-down version. See the Mac page for further details.

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NB 10 can even look like a Mac! — pictured using a shareware iTunes “skin” (see #5 below) from “-kol”

3
NB 10 is a “next-generation” program
that opens up a new future of possibilities

NB 10 introduces a whole new generation of Nota Bene, with the first major change in the underlying code base since its original introduction back in 1993 (even all earlier versions of NB for Windows essentially put a Windows interface on a DOS program). This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for Nota Bene — it lets us use up-to-date development tools and “controls” from other developers, so we don’t need to do everything ourselves. Among other things, this means that, now that NB 10 is complete, we’ll be able to implement new functions much more quickly than we could previously.

10 on 10 Click to read the full review to find out more about the advanced features of Nota Bene 10.

4
NB was designed to take maximum advantage
of the new wide-screen displays

The vast majority of computers — including laptops, where the most common resolution is 1366 x 768 — now come with wide screens. Nota Bene takes full advantage of these new systems by providing a variety of optional dialog bars on the left and/or right, showing various useful options without reducing the amount of text you can see. (If you have a narrow screen, or prefer to work without these dialog bars, it’s easy — you can suppress all of them, including all the toolbars, to give a completely clean screen.)

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Nota Bene has very powerful framework/outline and multilingual capabilities, as shown by this screen shot of:
  1. The Framework/Outline Options Bar (showing relevant options and actions)
  2. The Language Bar (to simplify changing languages)
  3. The document proper, fully visible between the margins
  4. The Framework/Outline Navigate/View Bar (to let you view and navigate through the entire outline)
5
NB 10 has a state-of-the-art interface — you can customize to your heart’s content

Nota Bene 10 supports a completely updated interface — everything in the program can be “skinned” and “themed,” and there are new icons for toolbars, a side Dialog Bar that can be easily floated, floatable mini dialogs, enhanced right-click popups, and countless other visual and aesthetic enhancements everywhere you turn. And everything can be customized to match your preferences — you can change the overall appearance with a few keystrokes, or even get a completely clean screen without any of these visual indicators at all (just the menu and “action” line).

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The above screen shows you various different pop-ups — far more than you would normally show at one time
Notice how each screen shot of Nota Bene looks different — you can “skin” and “theme” with a few keystrokes!

6
NB 10 is easier to use than ever before
(our goal: bring new simplicity to your research)

Nota Bene 10 is easier to use than earlier versions — many dialogs have been greatly simplified, there are more context-sensitive pop-ups, new side Dialog Bars that provide very useful context-sensitive information are being implemented, languages are easier to select, new formatting shortcuts have been provided, and new icons have been added, among countless other improvements. There are literally thousands of changes — and yet you can still use the familiar keystrokes that have become so habitual over the years.

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Compare the much simpler cross-referencing pop-up dialog of NB10 on the right with the much more cluttered NB 9 dialog on the left

7
NB 10 is more capable than ever before
(how is that even possible?)

Nota Bene has always offered features and conveniences you couldn’t find anywhere else. Amazingly, NB 10 offers new capabilities at dozens of different places, all with an eye to making the regular functions you use all the time work much better. To take one example, you can now undo and redo when editing notes, and other places (not only in the main Nota Bene file); in addition, you have finer control over the steps involved in each discrete “undo/redo” unit (so if you bold a word in an inserted block, the first undo will only unbold that word, rather than also removing the entire newly inserted block). And then there’s file management — not only does NB now use the common Windows file dialog (making more file-management options available), it also adds new capabilities to NB’s internal file management: There’s a separate tab (color-coded if desired) for each open file, active files are shown as checked on the most-recently-opened-files list on the File menu, pop-up tooltips provide document information for any open file on the Windows menu (as you hover over the name), and there’s a new Document Dialog bar that combines the features of the File and Window menus, so you can see everything related to files at a glance.

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The File and Window menus are shown simultaneously only to show the changes — they are not shown simultaneously in the program

8
NB 10 takes Orbis—the invaluable text-retrieval system—to even more remarkable heights

Many NB users have long considered Orbis, Nota Bene’s unique text-retrieval system, to be the heart of the program.
    “You have my undying thanks for developing Orbis. Among word processors, Nota Bene is king;
    but its crown jewel is Orbis.”
    Harry Vredeveld, Ohio State University
But NB 10 brings a whole new level of capabilities to this remarkable tool, making it easier to use, more powerful, and much more elegant:
    “You've outdone yourselves with upgrading Orbis! It's quite something. More than anything else, it's what has made Nota Bene indispensable to my scholarly work over the years.”

    Mark Haxthausen, Williams College

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9
NB 10 is thoroughly tested and very robust —
and better supported than ever before

NB 10 has undergone thorough testing over a period of three years. Many books have already been written using it, so you can be confident that it’s up to the task. (That’s to say, people have not simply been testing it, they’ve been using it — for the same kind of work that you do.)

At the same time, users of NB 10 continue to get the kind of quality free support for the program (this support will continue as long as NB 10 is our current release) that has been the hallmark of Nota Bene for over a generation. And if you encounter problems, there are now very sophisticated new debugging tools that should help us isolate and fix whatever problems you might run into.

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10
NB 10 continues our generation-long commitment to supporting a community of scholars

NB 10 is but the latest in a long line of programs developed by a small, independent group of developers (it all began as a glint in the eye of a Yale University graduate student working on his PhD in philosophy and religious studies) with but one goal in mind — making the best possible research and writing tool so that your work can be less tedious and time-consuming, thus freeing you to be even more creative.

By making NB 10 your research tool of choice, you continue to support an alternative in software. There are lots of people out there making “one size fits all” software, oriented toward commercial use, but what you need are tools specific to your “trade.”

When you start using Nota Bene, you’ll join a genuine community of committed, passionate, and dedicated users who have trusted their research to the tools Nota Bene provides.

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A small (very small) sampling of works produced using Nota Bene
(the books framed in salmon were created as camera-ready/PDF output from Nota Bene)