SNOWBALL Reference Notes 3.0 is a Hypercard tool designed to help students and other researchers keep track of the notes that accumulate during a large writing project such as a thesis or dissertation. This tool is designed to facilitate flexible reorganization and selective sharing of reference notes with others. It is an update to versions 1.7, 2.0, and 2.1.
Enclosed in this archive you should find:
1. "SNOWBALL Ref. Notes 3.0" which contains the latest release of the SNOWBALL
Reference Notes tool (3.0).
2. "SNOWBALL Base" which must be available if stacks containing SNOWBALL
Reference Notes cards are to function correctly.
In addition to the information contained in the help file accessible from each SNOWBALL Reference Notes card, there are a few things you will want to know:
1. SNOWBALL Reference Notes 3.0 requires HyperCard 2.1 or later. If you plan to continue
using Hypercard 2.0, then you should continue using SNOWBALL Reference Notes 2.1.
2. In order to work properly, each SNOWBALL Reference Notes card must be able
to locate the "SNOWBALL Base" stack included with this package. One good
place to put "SNOWBALL Base" would be in the same folder as your HyperCard
application. Also, make sure that the SNOWBALL Base stack is always named
"SNOWBALL Base." Note that this particular version of SNOWBALL Base only
supports SNOWBALL Reference Notes 2.1 and 3.0. If you are using other SNOWBALL
tools, you will need to replace this stack with the full-featured SNOWBALL
Base stack (which is not currently available to the public).
3. SNOWBALL keeps track of the cards visited in each session, the amount of
time spent on each card, the navigation choice used to leave each card, etc.
This information is automatically saved in text files in the folder that
contains HyperCard. Creation of these text files can be suppressed by
unchecking the "Save Trace Information to a Text File" option on the second
card of the "SNOWBALL Base" stack. The tracing capabilities have been
integrated into SNOWBALL to support my research goals in the areas of
hypertext and knowledge acquisition. Please contact me if you would like
more information about tracing in SNOWBALL.
4. Some of you may have reference notes that you have been keeping using
SNOWBALL Reference Notes 1.7, 2.0 or 2.1. You can move these notes to version
2.1 by using the Export Cards button from these backgrounds. Note:
Experienced scripters may wish to use the 3.0 Export Cards scripts in
their old stacks because this will allow text formatting information to be
preserved in the update.
5. As with the last release, I am not requesting a shareware fee for the use of
SNOWBALL Reference Notes. Instead I am asking for some information about
your reference notekeeping habits, ideas, etc. Please support this
"responseware" strategy by responding to the questions on the last four
cards of the "SNOWBALL Ref. Notes 3.0" stack. Please send this information
to me at one of the following addresses:
US Mail: 1951 South Terrace Drive Internet: fordj@yvax.byu.edu
Orem, UT 84058 johnf@icue.com
6. I am currently working on a tool called "Notes Explorer" that helps researchers
to explore and summarize the contents of their SNOWBALL Reference Notes cards.
Look for this tool soon from your favorite BBS or Internet archive.
Thanks to all of you for your responses. Some of the improvements to this version are the result of helpful feedback from users. I hope that this tool will be as useful to you as many of the public domain stacks I have are to me. Enjoy!
