Archive for 'Note-Taking' Category

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Fitting a ‘better’ Cornell page template into OneNote

11 October 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Note-Taking, OneNote

Well my migration over to OneNote is going pretty good. I’ve used it exclusively now in both of the scheduled 3 hour seminars I’ve attended so far, along with numerous other note-taking tasks, and I’ve got to say I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience and that’s without even getting my teeth into, shall we call it, the ‘power features’ of OneNote yet, such as side notes and note flags etc.

Of course a large part of the ‘moving in’ process has involved a ‘custom fitting’ tweak of the interface i.e. re-positioning OneNote’s toolbars, the removal and addition of buttons etc. and a ‘figuring out’ session on how to incorporate my established electronic filing system, but everything has been straightforward and hassle-free.

My Senior Year: A New Plan for Notes

29 August 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Note-Taking, Organization

After a few years trying different things and a few internships under my belt, I have a new outlook on how tablets help note-taking, and how only keeping digital copies of my notes can be a hindrance. The basic plan for this semester is as follows:

1. Take notes with Tablet PC in class. This includes recording the lecture, if needed.
2. Use breaks after classes to clean and condense notes. Look through the book to add notes as needed.
3. Go home or to computer lab and print notes with one topic per page (to allow for easy rearranging later).

Studying in the humanities – Part 2a: Note-taking for lectures: The ‘before’

28 August 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: Note-Taking, Organization, Study Aids

Well it’s been 2 months since I scribed the first in my series on how I use my Tablet PC (along with other e-gadgets) to study electronically (and as close to 100% paperless as I can) so before I proceed to the next part, I should perhaps apologise for such a lengthy delay. Over the past few weeks I had resolved to finish off part 2 almost daily but every time I did, something new would crop up and prevent me from doing so. Thankfully from now on (or for the time being at least) I’m not as affected by external distractions so subsequent updates will hopefully be a bit more forthcoming.

Unfortunately, due to its length, I’ve had split this part of the series into three separate posts. Yep it’s long and while I seriously detest long posts with a passion (especially when I’m writing them :o)) I think the complexity of the subject warrants it. To ease the torture of you having to read it (if you have the fortitude that is) I have, as I did in Part 1, used as many sub-headings and bullet points as I could and I’ve also tagged on a brief summary at the end. I hope that helps :o)

Ok so without further ado I proudly present (after the jump) the first subsection of Note-Taking for Lectures – the ‘before’ phase

Studying in the Humanities – Part 1: My Electronic Filing System

24 June 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: GoBinder, Note-Taking, Organization, Study Aids

If you’re going to succeed at being an efficient TabletPC based student (regardless of what program of study you are taking) then it really helps to get, and stay, as organised as possible, and even more so when you’re study routine is primarily digital in nature. Thankfully you can go a long way to achieving this simply by having a good electronic filing system for your notes in place. By doing so you’re not only putting yourself into a position to deal with the torrent of information that bombards you during the course of a semester, but you’re also gifted a ‘tool’ that helps you maintain relevant study focus, while at the same time helping you to work more effectively towards meeting your submission commitments. In this, the first in the series on how I use my TabletPC to study at university, I’m going to reveal the filing system I utilise in order to help me keep on top of my workload and take me one step closer to organised ‘nirvana’.

Before I begin there are a couple of points to note. Firstly it may seem, due to the commentary and screenshots I provide, that my note filing system requires the specific use of GoBinder. However I hope it will become quickly apparent that my system isn’t dependent on any particular piece of software and can be easily incorporated into any note-taking application of choice. Secondly, in order to provide the best illustration of my general filing system, I’m backtracking to a series of archived notes from a previous year’s study (imported into GoBinder 2006). Although I’m still as obsessed with keeping my electronic notes as organised as I’ve always been, the structure of my course has changed substantially with a lot less lectures and a lot more independent study to schedule. As a result I now arrange my electronic filing a lot bespoke to the more general method I’m going to be discussing. Oh and I should perhaps apologise beforehand about the long-windedness of my explanation. Although I’ve tried to keep things as concise as I can it does ramble on a bit but hopefully by using subtitles and bulleting I’ve made things a little more readable for you. Ok on with the show after the jump and please try to stay awake :o)

A Tablet PC Substitute?

15 May 2007 Posted By: Frank
Posted in: Blog Related, Choosing a Tablet PC, Low Budget Tablets, Note-Taking

Check out this really cool tablet PC substitute pictured on the left (Adesso’s CyberPad).  It doubles as a notepad to write down your lecture notes, any notes for that matter, and can be plugged into a USB port on your laptop/desktop PC to serve as an inking surface.  I use Aipek’s HyperPen 1200U with an enormous writing area of 12×9 inches on my desktop running Vista.  Hooking up one of these digital tablets to a non-tablet PC computer makes using Microsoft’s OneNote and other inking applications come to life if you currently own a non-tablet PC.  Aipek recently put out a new tablet that is optimized to run with Vista (Slim Tablet), and they also have a similar CyberPad device (My Note Premium). 

Is GoBinder getting swept under the rug?

10 May 2007 Posted By: Robert
Posted in: GoBinder, Note-Taking

I was doing a bit of research surfing earlier (honestly :o)) and I ended up in a place I haven’t been for a while - the GoBinder forums and two threads “Future Status of GoBinder and PlanPlus” and “Announcing the abandonment of GoBinder2006” horrified me instantly. Now I need to make it clear that these are not official announcements but in both threads lies convincing evidence that Agilix are winding down their efforts on GoBinder. It all goes back to Rob Bushway’s November 2006 interview with Agilix’s VP of Marketing Mark Calkins when, according to the topic author, Mark shows little enthusiasm for a future GoBinder release. I know it’s all theoretical talk about abandonment but what worries me is that no-one on the Agilix team has rushed on to the forum to refute the claims. Additionally I’m worried about how little GoBinder marketing buzz is coming out of ‘Camp Agilix’ these days i.e. none. What about patches and updates for GoBinder? Well we were given a major update with SP3 at the end of January, adding among other things Vista support, but nothing since (is that because SP3 really is the definitive bug buster?) and what about GoBinder buzz on the blogosphere? Maybe I’m just visiting the wrong places but I hear little to no chatter on GoBinder these days and there’s certainly nothing coming through on my RSS feeds.

Panic-Free Open Note Exams

29 April 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Note-Taking, Organization

A downfall of wonderful digital notes is, well, your notes are digital. Any exam where the teacher mentions a test is open note and/or open book makes any tablet student wonder just how they’re going to get all their stuff out of their tablet without wasting loads of paper and time. Sure, you can ask if you can use your tablet during the exam, but I personally can’t imagine any of my professors allowing it (though I’ve heard of a few that have).

(Open book exams: we all know they’re the worst type)

So, now what? After the jump are a few of my tips to you from my most recent exam (open note, open book). Please comment if you’ve dealt with this before and let us know what you did to cope.

Sliding over to OneNote…again

14 March 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Note-Taking, OneNote

Yes, OK, I will admit I tossed OneNote last semester when it died right before finals and I couldn’t get to my notes for a week. The extra functionality just didn’t seem worth the hassle.

But I’m not one to hold a grudge. I can’t remember but I think I might have been still using the Office Beta 2, anyway. After a while of opening six PowerPoints, four Word documents and a few PDFs just to do some homework, I decided to try a program that I could group all those files together. Journal also isn’t quite as stable under Vista as it was with XP, so it was worth a shot.

Ink Wiki? Anyone?

6 February 2007 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: Note-Taking, Study Aids

I know they offer personal Wikis for organizing your information (it you’re particularly fond of the Wiki format) but none of them include ink. I’m just want a simple “insert ink-drawn image” tool so it’d be easy to include formulas and diagrams. That can’t be too hard, right?

Why? I’m thinking for study purposes. My classes overlap so much that it’s annoying having everything separated sometimes. Imagine if I could create my own reference Wiki with definitions, conversions, formulas, theories, diagrams, etc. with the added power of ink add-ins. I’m sure some study program does something similar, but I don’t want something so complex (like RecallPlus) that it takes forever to set up and figure out.

Expert Tiny-Writing Cheat Sheets

21 December 2006 Posted By: Tracy
Posted in: General Tips, Note-Taking

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a class where the professor has said, “You’re allowed for the test 1 page back and front of whatever you can fit,” and then you spend about five hours with a cramped hand writing in barely legible writing trying to fit twelve pages of notes and homework onto one paper.

I’ve had several of these classes, and while there are many variations (one 3×5 card, 10 pages of anything, 5 pages handwritten only, etc.), the Tablet PC can be a real time saver (or at least a real hand saver), especially if your notes are already digital.

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