Wiki Magic in VooDoo Pad

1066 days ago in Articles by John Fuller | No Comments

Keeping track of information and notes has become an immense task. For storing and finding my school notes, I’ve turned to a wiki-based product from Flying Meat Software called VooDoo Pad.

VooDoo Pad is personal wiki software, similar to online wikis like Wikipedia. At its bare minimum it can function as a word processor. You can apply formatting, import PDF’s, draw sketches, and drag and drop images into the documents. While this is nice, VooDoo pad excels in the interlinking and organizational arena. Each page can be assigned tags, placed in categories, interlink between pages, and track backlinks.

VooDoo pad can open and edit multiple wiki files, and export the document in a multitude of formats. One of the formats that VooDoo pad can export to is HTML for the web. By uploading this exported document to a web host, you can view your document from anywhere you have internet access. Another export option is for the iPhone, using the newly-released VP Reader app from the App Store. Unfortunately, documents do not automatically sync when your iPhone is connected to the same wireless network as your computer. Other export options include Microsoft word files, iPod Notes, text files, and XML data. You can also export individual pages to the same formats.

For multiple mac users, VooDoo pad will sync documents using MobileMe. When syncing is active, you can also access the wiki file using a web interface by accessing your iDisk web folder that is automatically updated with each sync. This is a great feature, but I’d like to see the automatic sync sent to the iPhone VP Reader. Unfortunately, you still have to manually sync documents. I’ve had a bit of trouble using the sync functionality, but have (hopefully) cleared things up.

There are also many higher-end features to VooDoo Pad. One of which is the ability to create plugins using Lua, AppleScript, and Unix scripting languages. This gives you a much more powerful handle on your data. VooDoo pad also incorporates spotlight support and encryption on files and pages.

Some other nice features that come with VooDoo Pad include tabbed browsing and saved workspaces. This means that whenever opening up a wiki file, VooDoo pad will restore the last opened page and tab. VooDoo Pad’s interface is highly customizable, allows for external image and text editors, and contains the ability for customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Personally, I haven’t been able to or had the need for utilizing all of these powerful features. The nice thing is that no matter to which extent you want to use it, VooDoo Pad is simple enough and powerful enough for everyone to get started and use to their maximum potential. Flying Meat knows that advanced users and beginners have different uses for VooDoo pad and offers three versions for sale. One is a Pro version, a regular version, and a Lite version. You can a see the feature rundown and comparisons of each on Flying Meat’s website.

VooDoo Pad is an awesome piece of software, and a product that almost everybody can use. You can try it by adownloading the FREE VooDoo Pad Lite and see what you think.