PERRLA

[JBjunior]

I have been using PERRLA for around a decade and have an old payment model (I paid one time when I first bought it and can put it on 3 computers at a time up to 2099). I use it for every major paper and think it adds immense value. If I was paying the new annual subscription model, I don't know if there are better alternatives out there at that price point.

[CarpeDiem8]

I've only used Noodletools, but am interested in exploring other programs.

[sanantone]

So, I have been working with Perrla for a while and I was about to recommend that folks take a look at it, but I just ran into an issue that is making me rethink that.

At least I think the online version may not be ready for prime time as yet. I just a big chunk of work due to some glitch. I was done with all but the last section of my paper and logged in tonight to finish it up and start on the next one when I discovered the last 3 sections that I completed, plus all the edits and other work I did, are now gone. As if I never worked on them at all. It's in the same state where I left it yesterday. Since I'm using the cloud version, it saves like ever 5 minutes so it isn't a matter if not saving.

I've got a ticket open with them but in the meantime I'm going back to Word.

I think EndNote has an online version, but it's mostly used as an add-on for Word.

[Merlin]

So, I have been working with Perrla for a while and I was about to recommend that folks take a look at it, but I just ran into an issue that is making me rethink that.

At least I think the online version may not be ready for prime time as yet. I just a big chunk of work due to some glitch. I was done with all but the last section of my paper and logged in tonight to finish it up and start on the next one when I discovered the last 3 sections that I completed, plus all the edits and other work I did, are now gone. As if I never worked on them at all. It's in the same state where I left it yesterday. Since I'm using the cloud version, it saves like ever 5 minutes so it isn't a matter if not saving.

I've got a ticket open with them but in the meantime I'm going back to Word.

I think EndNote has an online version, but it's mostly used as an add-on for Word.

Luckily the papers I'm working on aren't so complicated to require something as robust as EndNote or Mendeley, but I did consider those options. I want to give Perrla a chance to fix this before I decide to pull the plug for good since I liked the tool up until this point.

In the meantime, I finished up the writing I needed for the final section of the paper in Word, so if I can restore the work from Friday, I should be done with the paper.

I'm working with the Perrla customer service team to try and restore the lost work. They have a versioning system so they can roll back to earlier saves, but so far they all look the same. So part of me is wondering whether I had some glitch on my end that was caching stuff oddly or something.

They sent me the saves log and one thing I did notice is that it looks like they didn't make any saves in the last two hours of my work, which suggests there may have been something weird on my side. From what they tell me if there were changes made during that time, they were likely lost since they didn't get saved, or they were somehow deleted. The CS rep is working with their engineering team to see if they can see if there is a way to restore the lost data, but it doesn't look promising.

My guess is that I'll just have to redo the middle sections of my paper. I mostly know what I wrote the first time so it should go faster, but it's still annoying to have to redo work. It's going to end up wasting several hours that I could be working on my second paper. Of course, by now I've also wasted several hours just going back and forth with CS.

[Jitzman94]

I use PERRLA and cannot recommend them enough.

Last semester I had a research writing course at my local college with one of the toughest professors in the entire school. This guy is a nightmare with a horrendous pass rate and negative reviews on Ratemyprofessor dating back almost 2 decades.

PERRLA formatted my paper's to exact APA specifications, as well as my references. The software is simple and easy to use/navigate.

PERRLA allowed me to focus all of my energy into the content of my writing; it removed the fret of worrying about formatting (WHICH I DESPISE).

EDIT: I was able to pass that course with a 84 which I in large part attribute to PERRLA. I later found out through chatting with other students in my course that I was the ONLY student out of 19 to pass with a B. the next highest grade was a 79. this was only a 200 level research writing course LOL, you'd think the professor was overseeing our doctoral dissertations however.

[Merlin]

I agree, as far as I can tell PERRLA is a great addon for people who are using Word. Unfortunately, I cannot use the app version since it doesn't work with the latest Mac version (Word 16.x from Office 365) so I am forced to use the cloud-based version.

I've completed two papers using PERRLA Complete (which is what they call the online version of the product) and I like it quite a bit, but I don't trust its reliability. Because of the glitch I mentioned earlier in the thread, I ended up losing at least a day's worth of work. The Perrla CS team was fantastic with trying to help me restore the lost data, but in the end they were unable to do so. Whatever caused the glitch either caused the system not to save my changes or it deleted the last several hours of work.

I also found some issues with exporting papers from Perrla Complete to Word. It works fine in principle, but there are oddities like imbedded nonbreakable spaces here and there, and occasionally the spaces between words are lost (usually in headings) so they end up running together in the exported file. Also, for some reason, the exported file doesn't use proper headings but rather imbeds TC field codes with bolded text. So the table of contents looks right but if you change the content you have to first show and then edit the field codes... it took me a while to figure that out.

Now that I know what to expect this is something I can fix on my own pretty easily, but it isn't intuitive. I assume the word app doesn't suffer from these issues but I cannot test it.

So after two completed papers, my final review is a thumbs down for the PERRLA Complete product. At least for now. Maybe they can work out the bugs in the future. Now if I could only get them to update the Mac app so I can use it with Word. I might pay for that if it has all the same features as the cloud product without the remote saving and funky formatting (the latter I assume is just a side effect of the export process).

[acamp]

I use PERRLA and cannot recommend them enough.

Last semester I had a research writing course at my local college with one of the toughest professors in the entire school. This guy is a nightmare with a horrendous pass rate and negative reviews on Ratemyprofessor dating back almost 2 decades.

PERRLA formatted my paper's to exact APA specifications, as well as my references. The software is simple and easy to use/navigate.

PERRLA allowed me to focus all of my energy into the content of my writing; it removed the fret of worrying about formatting (WHICH I DESPISE).

EDIT: I was able to pass that course with a 84 which I in large part attribute to PERRLA. I later found out through chatting with other students in my course that I was the ONLY student out of 19 to pass with a B. the next highest grade was a 79. this was only a 200 level research writing course LOL, you'd think the professor was overseeing our doctoral dissertations however.

Great info - thank you. Did you use the WORD version or the cloud version of Perrla?

[CarpeDiem8]

I am currently shopping around and curious if this program is still worth it? It's $50 / yr, which seems high!

Thanks!

[Merlin]

PERRLA is a great tool, especially if you're on a Windows machine and able to use the direct Word integration. If you're on the Mac, it isn't as good since the Mac integration isn't anywhere near as tight as the Windows version. So, at least from the Mac user perspective, I still don't think it is worth the $50/yr since there are free tools that can do most if not all of what PERRLA offers.

As for PERRLA online, I really liked it at first. But then I lost several hours of work on a paper where all the changes vanished and were unable to be restored due to some glitch. So I don't entirely trust the online version for anything critical. While I ended up using it to complete a few papers, I got into a habit of exporting my work every so often and importing it into Word, which added to the effort and time required to do anything. I eventually migrated to Google Docs combined with Paperpile.

If you really need help with sticking to APA or MLA for your papers, PERRLA is a great option. But you can get the same results using a good Word template and citation manager. That said, it is probably overkill for undergrad work. If you're doing graduate-level papers with a lot of research, it would be a better investment. But you may have better luck with Endnote, Mendeley, or Zotero (or Paperpile like I ended up using).

[CarpeDiem8]

you may have better luck with Endnote, Mendeley, or Zotero (or Paperpile like I ended up using).

Sweet, thank you for your insight as well as recommendations - I haven't heard of Paperpile, thanks for the tip!!!