The first collaborator has already left a contribution to the post, with some very valid observations from the vantage point of a student. The document is still open for additional collaboration.

Rob, the link to the contact form on your blog [nice looking, by the way] seems not to be working. I tried to leave a comment on your blog, but kept getting error messages. So I'm coming to you via my blog's comment facility.

Thanks for your comment on my blog about Nota Bene. Would you be willing to write a Guest Reivew about that program? I own an earlier version of it, but found the rigid document structuring a bit too confining for most of my work -- but I still think it is a fine, powerful and under-appreciated software for its niche.

Also, for the first time in a year, I clicked my way onto your Intense Debate comments page. That answers your question about how often people actually use that facility! And you are one of the few commenters on my blog who's got an IntenseDebate profile. But I'm glad I did visit, because I learned a trick about use of bit.ly -- I'll look into it today and probably follow your suggestions. THANKS.

BTW, my frustration with the Intense Debate comment form on your blog may encourage me to ditch that service and try something else.

Rob, I actually paid for a copy of Nota Bene, version 7 or 8. At the time --and up until now -- I've been struggling with the research, organization and writing of an account of a major historical event from 1800. I closely reviewed all of the word processors and related software for PC's that had a research bent to them, and I even looked very closely at Scriviner for the Mac. For a while I thought that Nota Bene was the best.

However, I found myself slowly using it less and less, for these reasons: I found the rigid structuring and layout of content according to academic standards very constricting for most of my work. I tried to set up my own "layout and format style", but found the process difficult and never got results I liked. And, finally, at the time of purchase, it was not possible to include photos or graphics in the body of my work. Some communications with the Nota Bene help desk [they were very responsive] indicated that graphics capability might come along in a future release, but I have not checked out later releases.

I've never tried Mellel -- have only read user reviews. I'm intrigued, but not enough to get a Mac or the software Parallels, which allows running Mac and PC software on the same computer.

I've always wanted to do a thorough review of Nota Bene on this blog. I agree, it has not received the attention it deserves. It's a powerful program for academic writing.

QUESTION: Would you be willing to do a GUEST REVIEW for my blog?

Readers of this post may wish to visit Word Nerd for a similar interview with Joe's co-author Jon Merz. Find it at: http://bkwriter.blogspot.com/2010/02/author-answe...

Thanks, Dave. Just visited your website. Was especially pleased to see your post of three Stephen King video clips about his take on writing. Yes,, I agree, seeing and hearing the writer himself beats simple quotes in an article.

I just discovered that Amazon has now released a FREE KINDLE APPLICATION for the Blackberry. Yet another way to read e-books on your smartphone.

Mark, just visited your home page. I find it especially appealing for some reason: simple, straight-forward, uncluttered -- and somehow very human and emotional.

And the VIDEO clips! So evocative.

Good luck with your challenges for the year. Let me know when the novel is done.

And thanks for the note about MindMeister. I think you are right on. Mind mapping can be very helpful to some people -- but for me, it's a time-waster. On the other hand, I've seen mind mapping used in group brainstorming sessions, where the technique really shined. An excellent tool for teachers.

Thanks for your observation about the organization. Actually my "table of contents" was firmly set even before I wrote my first post in December 2006. I spent about 2 months conceptualizing the blog before going public. However, the table of contents has mostly been hidden away in a drop-down list where few readers would see it. I wanted to wait until the blog was fully fleshed out before making the contents so visible. Now that I'm getting 3000-4000 unique visitors a month from search engines, I think it's time to make the contents more prominent, leading to this design change.

Your point about the dull-looking header is well taken. Eventually, I hope to spruce up the site's appearance.

Thanks for your interest and comment.

Authorian, while I'm not a fiction writer, I did look at some story structure programs a couple years ago. They were more like story outliners though. Would you be willing to a post, or even a short series, to share your experiences with story development software for our readership?

Authorian, that's the way I think too. Learned to outline in high school, and really like the ease of building outlines with today's software tools.