ORBIS
COMPLETELY INDISPENSIBLE . . .
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For many users, Orbis is the heart of Nota Bene. More than any other facet of the program, it is that component which most radically makes Nota Bene so much more than simply a word processor. At the most basic level, Orbis does two essential things. It:
Finds lost, misplaced, or forgotten texts
Suggests new relationships between ideas, arguments, quotations, and the like
Once you’ve found the material that interests you, or seen some new relationship that you want to develop, it:
Lets you use the relevant quotation, argument, summary without you having to retype it
And, when combined with Ibidem, the bibliographic data manager, it also:
Knows exactly which work (book or article, etc.) the found text comes from
Inserts a properly formatted citation in the file when that idea, argument, quotation is used
If you already understand the significance of what Orbis can do for you, click the “Continue Tour” button and move on. But if you are still wondering about the benefits of this revolutionary tool—and that’s the right word, for it will certainly change the way you work—take a few minutes to read some additional comments from Nota Bene users describing how they are taking advantage of the remarkable capabilities of Orbis.
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THE ORBIS DIFFERENCE . . .
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“I certainly rely heavily on Orbis. I have 12 megs of research notes, which I have been building up since I began using Nota Bene (ver. 2) in 1985. I also use Orbis to index all my old email and correspondence. I strongly recommend that new scholars (or veteran scholars beginning new projects) invest a little bit of time getting to know Orbis and planning a notetaking strategy to make maximum use of it. But then again, if a researcher already has begun taking notes on computer, Orbis will happily research every word and help find those references one can’t quite put one's finger on.”
Dr. Gerald W. Schlabach —Theology Department, University of St. Thomas
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“I began using Nota Bene in 1986, and at that time I started to put all of my notes on the various things I was reading into files, with the express intent of being able to search them through NB's "textbase" program. I now have fourteen years worth of notes, and regularly use Orbis to consult this resource when I'm looking for information on a particular topic.”
Dr. Lawrence Zbikowski — Department of Music, University of Chicago
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“I use Orbis all the time when I am writing, I keep documents and interview transcripts on my computer, put it on Orbis, and then when I am writing check quotes, dates, look for arguments pro and con, using Orbis as I go. It is a major reason I stick with Note Bene when all my colleagues are using a different word processor. Of course I love Ibidem as well, saves me hours and hours of hunting references.”
Irene Rubin, Ph.D. — Political Science Department, Northern Illinois University
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“I've found Orbis to be a life saver. I just published a book based on 8000 (eight thousand) pages of interviews that I coded and put out as an Orbis data base. Orbis allowed me to handle that much data, put out subfiles grouped by coded topic (that then turned into sections in chapters) and then when verifying stuff allowed instant checking of material. I love it.”
Herbert J. Rubin, Ph.D. — Sociology Department, Northern Illinois University
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“I bought NB for Lingua, but it is Orbis which has prevented me from even contemplating another word processer -- and it is Orbis which I highlight when I recommend NB to friends. Orbis practically wrote my dissertation for me. Okay, I exagerate a little, but it enabled me to retrieve information gathered during a year in the archives and to make connections I had not anticipated. My Orbis textbase has been growing with me as my research advances. I don't know whether I love the power of Orbis or its flexibility more. ”
Dr. Elka Klein — Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University
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“I have many things which I love in Nota Bene. I am completing a PhD in Pauline studies and I do not have the courage to think of such a project without having the power of NB at hand. When I say this, I think especially of the power of Orbis and Ibidem. My huge databases (over 1,300,000 words in my Orbis textbase and over 9,000 bibliographical references in my Ibidem database) make life so easy even at this level of research. Who on earth is able to keep in mind at the level of the detail what he/she read six months ago? There is only one answer: Orbis!”
Sorin Sabou, Ph.D. candidate — London Bible College, Brunel University
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“Where the **** are my notes????” The pleasures of Orbis: You see them everywhere: at the libraries, in the archives, in their offices, at the parks (both on the grass and on the benches), at busy street corners of our cities, and in the pastoral settings of our countrysides. People typing on their computers, usually laptops. They are the modern-day scribes, taking notes on their reading, jotting down ideas, summarizing persons-in-the-street interviews. But later on you may see them frustrated, looking for those ideas, those jottings, those notes in the vast, pointer less deserts known as hard disks. And what if they find them? You see them cutting and pasting, clipping here and there, and at the end of the day they might delude themselves into thinking that they will remember the location of the files, or, sadder still, they promise themselves that they will tidy their hard disks and impose order and logic to their folders and directories. Users of the NBW suite, by contrast, take their notes, and the Orbis module takes care of retrieving them. The NBW users are presented with their notes, they can read, and they can incorporate them -- in their entirety or in parts -- into the body of their documents or into their foot/endnotes. NBW users can do this on the fly with minimal interference to the flow of their writing.”
Dr. Mark D. Szuchman — Department of History, Florida International University
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