An item can be an Internet resource, a file stored in your file system or within the KnowledgeWorkshop database. This includes external resources such as web pages, Outlook email, Outlook contacts, ftp sites, and files such as PDFs, Microsoft Office files, images, videos, sound files and more. These are collectively referred to as Files in KnowledgeWorkshop. In addition, KnowledgeWorkshop enables you to create repositories, notes and tasks and access newsgroups. KnowledgeWorkshop can display any item that can be displayed in Internet Explorer. Items that are not compatible with Internet Explorer will open in the native application associated with the item's file extension.
There are four broad categories of items - reference, multi-parent, snapshot and clipping. Each has relative advantages and disadvantages.
A reference item stores pointers to a page on the Internet or a file on a drive i.e. its URL. The content of the item resides at its original storage location on the Internet or hard drive. It is the default when creating an new item.
Advantages:
Since you are only storing information about the resource and how to access it in your KnowledgeWorkshop database each item only adds a small amount to the size of your database.
When you open a reference item it shows the current version. If its content is changed by the author you will see these changes each time you display the item.
Disadvantages:
The reference item source must be accessible for you to view it. If you are disconnected from the Internet or a network drive that contains the document you will not be able to display it. (Web pages can be made available offline however.)
The content
of the item can only be changed by changing the content of the source
file for which you may not have rights.
A Snapshot captures and copies the content of the item as it is on a particular date and time and stores it in your database. It appends the word "snapshot" and the capture date to the item name and can optionally automatically add citation information either above or below the content. The time of capture can be seen in the File tab of the items properties, as can the source URL for the content. When you open the item it shows the content stored in the database and not the current state of the original item (this may have been modified since the snapshot was taken). This provides a powerful mechanism for capturing content that my change frequently - e.g. a news web site. When you create a snapshot of a web page, all the text and graphics contained in the page are downloaded and stored in the database. The web page is then reconstituted from the database when you display the snapshot (this may take a little while for complex pages). If the original author has modified the content of the page on the live web site you will not see these modifications. Similarly, if you snapshot a Word document it is copied to the database and displayed from there. It would not matter if the original Word document in your files had been changed, deleted or moved. The content of a web snapshot can be edited by right clicking on the item and selecting "Open in" and then one of the editing options. The metadata of a snapshot shown in the properties page and the header panel indicates a "Source URL" as opposed to a URL. If you wish to edit a snapshot of a file you should first check it out and then open it in its native application.
Advantages:
A snapshot captures a static copy of a web page or file.
The content of a snapshot can be viewed without a connection to the Internet or shared drive i.e. offline.
The content of a snapshot can be edited even if you don't have rights to change the original.
Disadvantages:
A snapshot shows the content of a site or file at a particular date and time. You must visit the site to see the current content (Tip: Create a reference item for the site and nest your snapshots under it so you can see current and old versions of the site in one place)
Snapshots store
the content of the page and all associated images and scripts in your
database. This
adds significantly more data to your database than a reference item.
A clipping is a subset of information extracted
from a source file that is then used to generate an item in the tree.
This is
accomplished by selecting the relevant information within the browser
or application (e.g. Microsoft Excel) and dragging it to a location in
the tree. This
will generate a new item containing only the selected content and can
optionally automatically add
citation information within the content. As
with a snapshot, the content is captured and stored in the KnowledgeWorkshop
database and is a reflection its state on the date and time of capture.
The content
of a clipping can be edited
by right clicking on the item and selecting "Open in" and then
one of the editing options.
Multi-parenting items is essentially a method to create multiple copies of an item that already exists somewhere else in your item tree. Each copy appears and behaves as a normal item having the same icon as the original and even brings up the same meta data in the header and properties, and shows the same associations in the association pane. However, only one instance of the item is actually stored in your database and all modifications made to any copy affect all other copies.
Advantages
Enables you to place relevant information in multiple locations within your tree without duplicating the content.
You can place snapshot items a multiple locations with little growth in the size of your database.
Changes to any one of the multiparented items affects all other items in the set, so maintenance and modification is easy.
Disadvantages
They can grow the size and complexity of your tree. (Tip: you can use associations to connect items without having them appear as icons in your tree)