Feature Comparison

Disclaimer: The following information may be out of date. If you notice any errors, please contact us.

Notes: Blue Book Report 3.0 and 4.0 are no longer available for use, but are retained here for historical interest. Not all categories are equally applicable to all software. Blue Book Report 4.0 did not feature a brief editor (it just formated and stored a database of cards, which could be organized into briefs using a word processor). Verbatim is a Word template for paperless debate, so this tally only considers its normal research and formatting features.

FactsmithEvidence ScribeEvScribe WebBBR 3.0BBR 4.0Verbatim(word processor)
Cost
Free? YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Operating System
Windows YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Macintosh NO NO YES YES YES MIXEDYES
Linux YES NO YES YES YES MIXED YES
Database Structure
Cards separate YES YES YES YES YES NO NO
Sources separate1YESYESYESYESYESNONO
Authors separate YES NO NO NO NO NO NO
Card database2SORT OFNOYESYESYESNONO
Cross-brief sources NO NO YES YES NO NO NO
Brief File Formats
BRF (Factsmith) YES NO NO NO NO NO NO
xBrief (EvScribe) MOSTLYYES NO NO NO NO NO
OpenBrief (OBF) YES NO NO YES NO NO NO
Export File Formats
Word (doc) YES YES YES YES SORT OFYESYES
Word (docx) NO YES YES NO SORT OFYESYES
OpenDocument (odt) YES YES YES NO SORT OFYESYES
PDF NO NO NO YES NO YES YES
HTML YES YES YES NO NO YES YES
Smartphone Webpage YES NO YES NO NO NO NO
Rich Text (RTF) YES YES YES NO NO YES YES
BBCode YES NO NO NO NO NO NO
Formatting Features
Automatic Formatting YES YES YES YES YES NO NO
Format Customizable3YESYES NONONOYESYES
Citations Customizable4YESPARTIALNONONOMANUALMANUAL
Emphasis CustomizableYES PARTIALNO NO NO NOMANUAL
Paragraph Styles YES YES YES NO NO YES YES
Character Styles YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Table of Contents YES YES YES NO NO YES YES
Headers and Footers YES YES YES YES NO NO YES
No Cross-Page Cards YES YES YES YES NO N/AMANUAL
Easy Style Switching5 YES MOSTLYNONONONODEPENDS
Date Standardization YES YES YES NO NO NO NO
CITE-Compliance YES NO NO NO NO NO YES
Data Entry
No Window Switching6YESYESYESYESYESNONO
Drag-and-Drop Entry YES YES YES YES YES PARTIALPARTIAL
Screen-To-Text YES NO NO NO NO YES NO
Line Break Removal YES YES YES NO NO YES NO
Auto Access Dates YES YES YES NO NO NO NO
Title Autocomplete YES YES YES NO NO NO NO
Case Change YES NO NO NO NO PARTIALPARTIAL
Spellcheck NO NO YES YES YES YES YES
Evidence Formatting
Underline YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Strikethrough YES NO YES NO NO YES YES
Bold YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Italic YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Advanced YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Images YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Citation Emphasis7YESNONOYESYESYESYES
Interface
Looks Like Final NO NO NO MOSTLYSORT OFYESYES
Compact Brief View YES YESYESMOSTLYNO PARTIAL NO
Drag-n-Drop Sorting YES NO YES YES NO PARTIALPARTIAL
Undo/Redo YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Online Features
Web-Based NO NO YES YES YES NO YES
Works Offline YES YES NO NO NO YES YES
Online Collaboration YES NO YES NO NO YES YES
Online Storage/BackupYES NO YES YES YES YES YES
Offline Storage/BackupYES YES NO PARTIALSORT OFYESYES
Extra Features
Paperless Debate NO NO NO NO NO YES MANUAL
Automatic Sorting YES YES NO NO NO NO NO
Automatic Updates YES YES YES YES YES NO YES
Version Tracking8MOSTLYNOYESNONOMANUALMANUAL
Built-In Brief Tree YES YESPARTIALNONO YES NO
Bulk Brief Export YES NO NO YES NO NO NO
Internal Email Tool YES YES YES NO NO YES YES
Internal Print Tool YES NO NO NO NO YES YES
Quality Rankings YES YES YES NO NO MANUALMANUAL
Source Standards9YESYESNONONONO NO
Statistics Display YES YES YES NO NO YES NO
Subfolders10YESYESYESNOYESYESYES
Text Speech Content YES NO NO YES YES YES NO
Updated Briefs List YES NO YES NO NO NO NO

[1] BBR has evidence filed under sources, instead of separately; thus they are functionally, but not literally, separate.

[2] BBR and EvScribe Web both use a card database integrally (cards are stored in a central database and can be reused in several briefs.) Factsmith features a card-collection-recall tool. The desktop version of Evidence Scribe allows you to easily find the card, but requires you to copy it manually.

[3] EvScribe Web allows limited tweaking of formatting options, but for the most part the formatting is fixed. BBR's formatting is not customizable at all beyond very basic content options.

[4] EvScribe Web does allow very limited tweaking of citation order, but not enough to list as "customizable" here.

[5] Conventions such as CITE can make style-switching in a word processor much easier.

[6] This does not include manual window-arrangement tricks to reduce switching.

[7] Both versions of Evidence Scribe support hard-setting citation emphasis (for example, always underline organization and date) but not case-specific customization of emphasis.

[8] Factsmith stores modification dates. EvScribe Web tracks modified cards to give you an idea of how much has changed.

[9] The existence of this feature in EvScribe Web is advertised on the website, but some users have reported that it is unavailable in everyday use. A club administrator account may be required to modify the settings.

[10] As of May 2010, this feature is broken in EvScribe Web. This may be fixed in the future.