myBase - Freeform Database, Notes Manager & Outlining Software Tool

Introducing myBase

myBase is a versatile free-form database system that allows entry of unstructured text, webpages, images, documents, emails and even arbitrary files without regard to length or format. All information is compressed with the integrated zip utility and stored in the tree structured outline form. Unlike traditional database programs, myBase accepts text input like a word processor, and provides better methods for capturing, editing, organizing, retrieving, searching and sharing information.

Benifits:

  • Creating personal or corporate knowledge base (full-text searchable)
  • Building tree-based research databases containing text, graphics, webpages and documents
  • Organizing a large and growing collection of notes and documents in one place
  • Securely managing random bits of personal information in your own way
  • A versatile tool managing prodcut/project/customer info databases
  • Capturing webpages/snippets and organizing them with ease
  • Distributing royalty-free standalone knowledge bases
  • Creating standalone .exe knowledge bases running on Windows without preceding setup
  • Writting a book in outline much more efficiently than a standard Word Processor
  • Diary keeper, Todo list, Address book, Documentation/Presentation/Outlining tool, URL/File organizer, RTF editor, Notes manager, eBook maker, .exe DB creator
  • And much more ...

System Requirements

To run myBase Desktop, you will need a Pentium 100 PC or higher, 24MB RAM or more. The operating system should be Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Screenshots

myBase Desktop provides the powerful MDI interface, which allows multiple databases and multiple child windows to open at a time. The main frame looks like the picture below. Click here to see more screenshots

Logic Structure of myBase .Nyf Databases

The hierarchy chart below tries to illustrate how information is organized within myBase. It is virtually a freeform database and fully customizeable;

File system (on hard disk)
|
+--myBase databases (*.nyf files)
|
+--Info items (hierarchical outline, tree structured)
|
+--Virtual items (referring to other items)
|
+--Real items (containing actual data)
|
+--Rich text note (*.rtf)
|
+--Web content (*.html)
|
+--Attachments (*.*)
|
+--Images (*.jpg/gif/bmp/png)
|
+--Documents (*.doc/xls/ppt/pdf)
|
+--Shortcuts (linking to external files)
|
+--Related items
|
+--Applied labels (tags, categories)
|
+--Label items (tree structured, unlimited)
|
+--Label 1 (labelled items...)
|
+--Label 2 (labelled items...)
|
+--Label 3 (labelled items...)
|
+--More ...
|
+--Custom icons (associated with info items)
|
+--Bookmarks (linking to paragraphs inside text)
|
+--Calendar (associated with info items)

Key Features

myBase Desktop is a feature-rich and powerful personal information manager. Below is a simple list of key features that myBase Desktop provides.

  1. Well thoughtout MDI user interface (See screenshots)
  2. Organizing info items in the tree-structured outline form
  3. Categorizing info items with hierarchical labels
  4. UNICODE (UTF-8) support for non-ASCII characters
  5. Built on the cross-platform freeform database engine (available on Windows/Linux/FreeBSD/PocketPC)
  6. Fast load speed, fast access, with low RAM requirements
  7. Large database support (2GB limit in file size for a single database)
  8. Adjustable data compression level ( by Zlib )
  9. Optimization for database file size
  10. Password-protection on database or info items (branch)
  11. Attachment storage support
  12. Rich text editing in RTF/HTML (WYSIWYG) and Web content viewing inplace
  13. Recycle bin support
  14. Undeletion of info items and attachments
  15. Revision history for RTF notes
  16. Webpage/snippets capturing and saving
  17. Item links, hyperlinks, symbolic links and file shortcuts
  18. Customizable icons for visualizing info items
  19. Customizable label tree for categorizing info items
  20. Auto-save and auto-backup
  21. Rtf notes print and preview
  22. Drag-and-drop and cut-copy-paste
  23. Comprehensive import and export specific utilities
  24. Fast indexing engine and quick search, find as you type
  25. Plugin for Google Desktop Search
  26. Free database viewer
  27. Standalone .exe database creator
  28. HTML tree generator
  29. MSWord outline generator
  30. Mindmap spider-like diagram generator
  31. Lite version for Pocket PC
  32. CGI for publishing myBase databases on the web
  33. Importing data from a variety of sources
  34. Exporting data in a variety of formats
  35. Javascript APIs for making particular plugins
  36. And more ...

Plugin Utilities

myBase Desktop has implemented tens of plugin utilities listed below:

  1. Capture -> Import directory tree as hyperlinks or attachments
  2. Capture -> Import files as child items, Text to notes, else to attachemts, each file creates a child item
  3. Capture -> Import MS Word documents as child items
  4. Capture -> Import MS Outlook items
  5. Capture -> Import Mind Map items
  6. Capture -> Import OPML items
  7. Capture -> Import text file by a delimiter, each division creates a child item
  8. Capture -> Import selected items from within MS Outlook
  9. Capture -> Import text from within template files
  10. Capture -> Import info items from within another .nyf database
  11. Capture -> Import web files by URL
  12. Share -> Export info branch and map as a disk directory tree
  13. Share -> Export all text notes and attachments to a specified directory
  14. Share -> Export text notes to a file with text delimited
  15. Share -> Export data records to MS Excel
  16. Share -> Export text notes to a single HTML document
  17. Share -> Export selected text as templates
  18. Share -> Export MS Word outline
  19. Share -> Export Email addresses
  20. Share -> Export HTML Tree
  21. Share -> Export .exe database
  22. Share -> Export Spider-like Diagrams (mindmap)
  23. Share -> Export .mmap documents
  24. Share -> Export .opml documents
  25. Share -> Export info items to another .nyf database
  26. Edit -> Sort selected lines by alphabet
  27. Edit -> Check spelling with MS Word
  28. Edit -> Remove Unwanted Returns/Spaces
  29. Edit -> Batch Format Notes in Branch
  30. Edit -> Batch Replace Text in Branch
  31. Edit -> Calculate Expressions
  32. Edit -> Make Selection Uppercase/Lowercase
  33. Edit -> Syntax highlight for C/C++/STL/C#/JS/SQL source code
  34. Plugins -> Items for today
  35. Plugins -> Items for next week
  36. Plugins -> Word count
  37. Plugins -> Search by Regular Expression
  38. And more ...

How myBase Helps

If you have any of these questions on getting things done, myBase can help.

  • How can I organize a large and growing collection of notes and documents in my research work?
  • How can I securely manage random bits of personal information in my own way?
  • How can I capture webpages including original URLs and organize them with ease?
  • How can I effortlessly create a personal or corporate Knowledge Base?
  • How can I distribute royalty-free standalone Knowledge Bases and run them without any setup?
  • How can I write a book in outline much more efficiently than a standard Word Processor?
  • How can I publish information in the tree outline form on the web?
  • How can I build a tree-based research database containing a number of webpages?

myBase is a 'swiss-army-knife' database program. It's fast, powerful yet easy to use ... With myBase, creating your own full-text searchable databases and getting organized has never been easier. No programming skills required!

What You Get

With myBase and a set of plugins and addon programs, you get:

  1. Knowledge Base Software
  2. Research Database Software
  3. Project Management Tool
  4. Customer Data Management Tool
  5. Personal Information Organizer (PIM)
  6. Notes Manager, Mind Manager
  7. Book Writing Tool, e-Book Maker
  8. To-Do List
  9. Address Book
  10. Diary Keeper
  11. Documentation Tool
  12. Presentation Tool
  13. Outlining Tool, MSWord Outline Maker
  14. HTML Tree Maker
  15. Mindmap Spider-like Diagram Maker
  16. Exe Database Maker
  17. Webpage Capturing Tool
  18. Photo Album Software
  19. URL Organizer, File Organizer
  20. Rich Text Editor, Word Processor
  21. CD-ROM Offline Indexing Tool
  22. and more ...

All this are in a footprint of less than 5MB on your hard disk.

Addon/Plugin Programs

WebCollect addon for IE/Firefox/Chrome

The WebCollect addon adds the convenience of capturing webpages (including graphics) or snippets directly from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browser and saving into myBase databases without having to first save html/mht files and then insert them manually. The usage is very simple, just right-click on a webpage and select the 'Save with myBase' menu item. Very useful!

WebCollect addon is currently available in three versions, one for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4+, one for Mozilla Firefox 2+, and one for Google Chrome. The IE version works with Internet Explorer on Windows 98/ME/2K/XP/2003/Vista/7, the Firefox version works with Mozilla Firefox on Windows 98/ME/2K/XP/2003/Vista/7, and the Chrome version works with Google Chrome on Windows 2K/XP/2003/Vista/7. [ See demo ] [ Download ]

myBase CGI ( for IIS/Apache, Windows/Linux/FreeBSD )

myBase CGI is an addon utility which makes possibilities of publishing myBase .nyf databases via any cgi-bin enabled websites, and viewing content of the databases by using modern web browsers. This addon doesn't run in the standalone mode but requires to work with a CGI-supported web server, such as Microsoft IIS, Apache etc. Those of web hosting plans including the 'cgi-bin' feature would match the requirements running this CGI program. That's to say, if you have a webhosting with the 'cgi-bin' support, you'll probably have the convenience of publishing your .nyf databases by simply uploading them onto the CGI space of the website, your audience will have the convenience of viewing the databases by using a modern web browser. [ Download ]

myBase Mobile for Pocket PC

myBase Mobile is a lite version of myBase Desktop, and is currently available for Pocket PC that runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 2002+. It helps you take notes and organize information in the intuitive tree outline form on Pocket PCs. Like myBase Desktop, myBase Mobile for PPC is also built on the SSG database engine, and stores information in the cross-platform .nyf database file format. Existing .nyf databases created with myBase Desktop still work with myBase Mobile (some limitations apply).

Currently myBase Mobile has just implemented a subset of features that myBase Desktop offers, you'll not expect the full features as you have in myBase Desktop, you'll see myBase Mobile works in the much simpler 'Tree + Edit' mode without MDI frames. [ Download ]

myBase GDS plugin ( for Google Desktop Search )

myBase GDS Plugin works with Google Desktop Search, and makes myBase .nyf files indexable by Google Desktop Search. myBase GDS Plugin is invoked by GDS crawler to handle .nyf files in background. When this occurs, the plugin extracts text from within the supplied .nyf files and then sends the result text to GDS for indexing. [ Download ]

myBase Viewer and Exe Database Creator

myBase Viewer is an addon utility that allows you to view myBase freeform databases (.nyf files), and convert .nyf into standalone .exe databases, so you can distribute knowledge bases or e-books in either .nyf or .exe form. The generated .exe databases run on 32-bit Windows without having to first install the viewer and myBase. [ Download ]

Export HTML Tree

The HtmlTree plugin exports .nyf databases to a set of webpages with a outline tree. The generated html tree can be published on the web for sharing information with friends or co-workers.

Export MSWord Outline

This plugin transfers content of .nyf databases to MSWord and save in the outline view by utilizing OLE-Automation. It's very useful for writters to export content and keep the hierarchical outline within MSWord.

Export Mindmap Spider-like Diagram

This plugin helps export the outline items and generate mind map spider-like diagrams with only a few clicks.

Syntax Highlight

This plugin helps highlight source code snippets stored within myBase. It's useful to programmers. For now C/C++/STL/Java/C#/Javascript programming languages are supported.

Export myBase .Nyf Files to InnoKB Databases

The Nyf2InnoKB addon is a file converter that helps convert myBase .nyf files into InnoKB 2.x compatible databases. [ More info ] [ Download ]

Import data from competitors (KeyNote, TreePad, ActionOutline)

There're some more file converters that help convert KeyNote (.knt), TreePad (.hjt) and ActionOutline (.ao) files into myBase .nyf databases with a few clicks. [ Download ]

Plugin API

myBase software is built on the cross-platform free-form database engine (SSG), and provides a set of API for developing plugin and addon programs. myBase exposes its API in both C/C++ and JavaScript programming language. However, the C++ API is complicated and obsolete. For now, Javascript API is recommended for third-party developers to write plugins. If you have interests in writting plugins, please read the Javascript API Reference.

Download for Free Trial

To download a 30-day free trial version of myBase and addon programs, please visit our download site.