Factsmith

Factsmith is a free software package for debate research, featuring a database system, automated formatting, and a variety of built-in research aids. Factsmith's goal is to "free you from formatting and editing so you can spend more time actually researching." It is available as a free download for Windows and Linux.

Factsmith was first released in September 2008, and is still actively maintained, although updates have been less frequent in recent years. It is similar to Evidence Scribe, another research software package with a database model.

Database design
Evidence in Factsmith is stored in a relational database, with each card as a separate entry. Sources are stored separately from the evidence that uses them; if the user makes a modification to a source, all the evidence from it will be updated automatically. Authors function in a similar manner; if the user makes a modification to an author, all the sources from him or her will be updated automatically.

This database design is localized to briefs, however. Changing a source in one brief will not change it in other briefs where it may be used. According to Factsmith developer Daniel Gaskell, this is an intentional design decision, as the practical and technical problems introduced by cross-brief links outweigh their marginal advantages.

Formatting features
Factsmith's interface is designed to make cutting cards extremely fast and easy. Users can press a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+A) from any application, and a floating window will appear. The appropriate information can then be drag-and-dropped into various fields on the window. With the exception of underlining for emphasis, essentially all formatting is carried out automatically by the software.

The final appearance of the brief is determined by so-called "styles", customizable scripts that specify brief formatting. Factsmith ships with a variety of pre-built styles; some mimic sourcebooks, while others are completely original. Users can easily switch between styles with the Options dialog.

Briefs can be exported to a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word, OpenDocument, and HTML webpages, as well as plain text with BBCode (for posting on internet forums.)

Online collaboration
While Factsmith stores its briefs locally on the user's computer, it can synchronize them with an online server so that changes are shared automatically with collaborators. The synchronization server can either be an FTP folder of the user's choosing, or more often an account on Factsmith's free synchronization host, Syncbox.

Alternatively, users can save their brief tree in a shared Dropbox folder.

Other features
Factsmith also contains a variety of special tools intended to assist researchers:


 * A screen-OCR tool to transcribe text from Google Books, locked PDFs, etc.
 * Automatic access dates and article title retrieval
 * Text cleanup tools: remove line breaks, extra spaces, etc.
 * Easy drag-and-drop evidence sorting (manual or automatic)
 * Streamlined screenshot tool for including pictures and diagrams
 * "Bulk Export" all briefs modified since a specific date, for fast tournament prep
 * Customizable standards checking, to warn about missing information in sources, etc.

Factsmith uses its own native binary format (.brf) for briefs, but also includes basic support for Evidence Scribe briefs (.xBrief) and full support for the cross-software OpenBrief format (.obf).

Compatibility with Mac OS X
Factsmith achieves Linux compatibility by providing a special release designed to be used with Wine, a Windows compatibility layer. In theory, this special release should be able to run on Mac OS; but no one has yet succeeded in doing so, despite considerable demand.

The primary barrier is that Factsmith requires the Microsoft .NET Framework, which is not straightforward to install under Mac OS. It should be possible to install it via Winetricks, but the correct method for doing so has yet to be determined.