The reading happens in one place. The writing happens in another.
A reference manager holds what you have read. A word processor holds what you are saying about it. Between them sit a PDF viewer, a file of notes and a browser full of tabs — and the argument has to survive the journey across.
From the first reference to the finished draft
Add a source and Pangur fetches the PDF. Open it and the citations are already picked out. Put a question to everything you hold and get an answer that quotes its passages. When you write, the document cites the library as you go.
Collect
Search, import, drop a file
Read
Full text, facsimiles, citations
Understand
Ask, analyse, connect
Write
Outlines, drafts, documents
← what you write joins the library it came from →
Your sources beside your prose
Open a source and the PDF is there with its citations marked. Put a question and the answer quotes the passages it used. When you write, the library sits in the next pane.
I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
‘Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
A thousand years later, the hunt is the same. Pangur fetches the sources; the words are still yours.
Open your library
Open the workspace and start with the sources you have.