PUBLISHED REVIEWS OF NOTA BENE
Dr. Nathan Parker has reviewed Nota Bene twice. In August 2019, his review was of Nota Bene 12, written when he was a Ph.D, student. It was the “Back to School App Spotlight” in Ask Woody. In November 2024, having completed his Ph.D., Dr. Parker wrote about Nota Bene 14 and about how this fully integrated set of tools made his dissertation research and writing so much easier. He was able to format his papers, handle a book-length manuscript, include Greek and Hebrew (Lingua), manage citations (Ibidem), search his research files (Orbis/Orbis+), bring records from on-line sources to his Ibidem database (Archiva/Archiva+). Overall, he concludes that for academic research and writing, “Nota Bene is the tool to use.”
Nota Bene 10, reviewed by Felix Grant in Scientific Computing World, March 25, 2013. The review was based on a late stage beta edition of version 10, which Felix Grant reports that he used for several months without encoutering any problems whatsoever. Mr. Grant gives a very positive review of the Nota Bene suite of programs. “Nota Bene (NB), generally thought of as a word processor, is actually a remarkably complete academic information management environment, with a word processor as its face.” He goes on to describe Orbis (including changes in v10), Ibidem, IbidPlus, Archiva and Lingua. He says that Lingua “provides the best multilingual facilities of any currently available word processor.”
“Nota Bene 7.0b” by Charles A. Anderson, University of Cambridge, published in Trinity Journal 26 (2005): 167-69. This review focuses on the usefulness of Lingua Workstation for seminary students and pastors, pointing out the benefits of working with biblical languages, academic styles, Ibidem (organization of bibliographic data and automatic formatting of citations) and Orbis (instant access to lectures, papers, notes, sermons). Charles Anderson concludes: “For anyone in academics or pastoral ministry, and especially for those at the beginning of such callings, the advantages of Nota Bene — its integration of components, academic-driven design, and possibilities of customization — make it an excellent word processor.”
“Leveraging Competence into Excellence: A Review of Nota Bene 7.0” by Eckhard J. Schnabel, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL. (SBL Forum, May 2004). Dr. Schnabel likens Nota Bene to David in his battle with Goliath, and goes on to use an example of researching and writing a paper on Noah in biblical and extra-biblical traditions to illustrate the integrated functionality of Nota Bene, Ibidem and Orbis.
“Review of version 7.0” by David A. Hackett, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Texas at El Paso (October 2003). Dr. Hackett summarizes the new features that are introduced in version 7.0, and finds Nota Bene more useful than ever before (“For scholarly writing Ibidem and Orbis are absolutely essential”).
“Nota Bene for Windows Review” by Mark D. Szuchman, Professor of History at Florida International University (Journal of the Association for History and Computing, November 2000). Dr. Szuchman discusses the many benefits of the Nota Bene Workstations, focusing on the capabilities offered by the tight integration of word processing, bibliographic database management, and note retrieval.