This week I had to prepare a list of digital research tools, i.e., desktop programs (for Windows and sometimes also for other operating systems) and online services, that in my opinion facilitate and enhance research input and output, and sent it to a certain group of linguists. I expand and reproduce it here, hoping that it might also benefit other linguists as well as researchers in other areas and simply anyone who wants to get things done efficiently. I myself use (most of) these digital research tools. All of them, except for EditPad Pro, are free.
- Time and task management: Lightning (add-on for the mailer Thunderbird)
- Note taking (text editing): EditPad Pro (this is what I use most frequently or actually all the time, when I use my computer; I cannot imagine my digital life without this; such an incredible text editor!), EditPad Lite; if you are not familiar with text editors and regular expressions, read Text-Editor.org and Regular Expressions Info respectively; there is nothing more stupid than using a word processor for this purpose
- Mind mapping: EditPad Pro, EditPad Lite; MindRaider, XMind
- Bibliography management: Zotero
- Ebook management: Calibre
- Statistics: R
- Lexical database management and dictionary making: Fieldworks Language Explorer, Pathway, Lexique Pro
- Word processing: LibreOffice Writer
- Desktop publishing: Scribus
- Presentation: Slidy
- Online file backup: MozyHome
- Online file transfer: SendSpace