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[tamiam]

Don't even bother with microsoft Works anything. waste of time. Other programs can't talk to it.

Onenote I tried and didn't like, but, well, I'm a full-blown Office person and not ashamed to admit it.

[dr_prephd]

After a week of playing around on One Note, I find I really like it.  I am able to work easily (none of the pesky restrictions and autoformatting of Word), and there is a great search feature that allows me to search all of my entries by key word. Each time I read a new book or article, I just open up a new notes section and start entering information as it strikes me. This will allow me to store all my notes, quotations, links, and assignments in one database and search for relevant information when writing the dissertation. I think it will work well. End Note I'm still messing with, and have only had one paper so far, so not too much reason to use it.

[ahhh_history]

EndNote works well with Word, but I second the advice to avoid Microsoft Works.  Like the plague.  It seems they're giving it with all new computers these days, but I'd rather they skipped it and just left it at Note/Wordpad. 

(Also, Office 2007 has a built-in citation manager.  This seems like it would be nice for small undergrad papers, but it doesn't seem robust enough to handle graduate work.  So do get EndNote, but check to see if you can get a deal through your University.  At my MA institution, I could get it for $20.) 

[dr_prephd]

EndNote works well with Word, but I second the advice to avoid Microsoft Works.  Like the plague.  It seems they're giving it with all new computers these days, but I'd rather they skipped it and just left it at Note/Wordpad. 

(Also, Office 2007 has a built-in citation manager.  This seems like it would be nice for small undergrad papers, but it doesn't seem robust enough to handle graduate work.  So do get EndNote, but check to see if you can get a deal through your University.  At my MA institution, I could get it for $20.) 

Wow, $20? What a deal. I cant remember exactly what I just paid for it, but it was somewhere in the $80-100 range.

... off to search for the fabled Office 2007 citation manager...

[vcats]

I'm reviving this thread because I found it extraordinarily helpful and am now trying to decide which software to invest in (financially, and the time in learning it).

My technological/programming skills are limited. Being able to label the same resources for different projects is very important to me (is it just me, or is there no way to do this in Ref Works? A serious weakness...).

Has anyone used both Microsoft Access and Zotero, and have any recommendations for a user like me? Or other software recommendations beyond these two, which seemed like the winners from this thread?

[captain_obvious]

A friend mentioned to me the other day that she had found some fabulous software that actually lets you take notes that are formatted, guess this, as NOTE CARDS.  You can also buy perforated note card paper for your printer.  I'm totally intrigued by this concept, as I love having my notes digitized and easy to find, but also really need to be able to spread things out and move them around in 3D real space apart from my computer screen.

Of course, she couldn't remember the name of the program when I talked with her.  She's gonna go home and try to find it.  Anyone here know what I'm talking about?

[balancing_act]

A while back, LarryC posted his excellent advice on how to read a book in an hour.  I've found this really useful with scholarly works-- things that have introductions, conclusions, and paragraphs with obvious topic sentences.

Now I'm wondering..... for those of you who read a lot of non-scholarly work, say folks in literature, for example, what are your tips in getting quickly through this material?  Do you really have to just sit down and plow through it, or is there a secret method I don't know about?


thanks!
CO

Calling LarryC or OP . . . where can I find this post?

[balancing_act]

Never mind, I found it.

[balancing_act]

This is a great thread. I would love to hear more of what others are doing to a) read more efficiently and b) keep track of material.

I just started my PhD program and am trying to take some early advice to be "responsible for everything I read." Given the sheer magnitude of pages I am assigned each week, I'm opting to massage my definition of "read" so I may indeed be more responsible for the content.

I came across LarryC's now famous "book in an hour" method a while a back and have put it to use with some slight modifications. It now looks down at me from the corkboard over my desk like some sort of Eight Commandments for not completely losing my mind: Thou shalt not read every word of an entire book, lest thou be tempted to violate a number of the original ten (notably, murder...).

I also use EndNote to manage references, but it is weak for notes. I use a numbered outline style for my notes, which doesn't conform to the actual "notes" field in EndNote. The option exists to link to external documents from EndNote, but this is messy because if files get shuffled your links break down. I use a Mac and I don't have Microsoft Access. Anyone know of any good relational databases for Macs? Open-source perhaps? I don't know much about databases, but tamiam's system sounds enticing...

I use a free program (downloadable) called BibDesk for the mac. I can enter all the book's or article's information, link it, make notes about it. There are many more features BibDesk has that I have no time to learn. It has similar features to Zotero.

[racketsports]

A friend mentioned to me the other day that she had found some fabulous software that actually lets you take notes that are formatted, guess this, as NOTE CARDS.  You can also buy perforated note card paper for your printer.  I'm totally intrigued by this concept, as I love having my notes digitized and easy to find, but also really need to be able to spread things out and move them around in 3D real space apart from my computer screen.

Of course, she couldn't remember the name of the program when I talked with her.  She's gonna go home and try to find it.  Anyone here know what I'm talking about?

Hey captain_obvious, I googled your description, and this is what I found:

How to Take Notes Using the Note Card Method in Blackboard Backpack - Select a note card as your ePaper by right-clicking on a new page of notes. Capture each topic, concept, quote or related group of points on a unique note card. Insert a new note card as ePaper for each new topic.

Does this sound familiar?

[captain_obvious]

iiiiiiinteresting!  It's not what I was thinking of--this was a separate software not connected to Blackboard, but it sounds like it does essentially the same thing.  I will definitely have to look into it....

[tt_wannabe]

Never mind, I found it.

Can you provide a link for those of us that are search tool challenged? :)

Thanks.

[balancing_act]

tt_wannabe, just scroll back a page or two. It's on this thread.