7 Keywords: References, Referencing, Bibliography, Dyslexia, Specific Learning Difficulties, EndNote, Idea Rover

"I want a referencing tool that is on every single page – like where I am - Browser, or anything else. It would capture the stuff without me having to write it in – just to press a button and all the title, when it was written – because I get lazy and I can’t be bothered to put references in!"

A friend suggested I try Idea Rover so I downloaded the trial version that allows you to have one project. It was easy to add items to the outline and then use the next button for collecting data. Once you have set up the tool bar button in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox you can just click on the button to store any relevant webpage within Idea Rover. You will see your collection when you return to the program. Finally it will make the bibliography which can all be exported into your word processor and you will see your thesis as an outline with links to all the various sections.

I think this is a useful application for collecting data but sadly it did not make the type of bibliography that I needed for my dissertation as it turned out to be in numerical format. But it does make it easier to transfer the information to EndNote unless your are working from an archive that provides direct access to EndNote when you save the citations. It also helps organise thoughts if you do not like mind mapping!