I have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, and the muscles of my right shoulder are aching.
The cause of my malady? Trying to find a goddamn note-taking system for my PhD that works.
It should be simple. I should read the PDF papers I have, take some notes, and write relevant information into the papers I'm currently drafting. But I've spiralled into a vortex of note-taking software and hardware.
The cause of my malady? Trying to find a goddamn note-taking system for my PhD that works.
It should be simple. I should read the PDF papers I have, take some notes, and write relevant information into the papers I'm currently drafting. But I've spiralled into a vortex of note-taking software and hardware.
It all started when I decided to borrow a Wacom Bamboo tablet. I wanted to devise a paperless note-taking system that still allowed me to hand-write notes, and it seemed that the Bamboo tablet was the answer. Hand writing notes versus typing them out has always been my preferred modus operandi. The Bamboo would allow me to write digitally on PDFs, and ta-da! Perfection. Only problem was, I had no idea what software to use.
ALL the PDF annotation software
I searched extensively for a program that would let me handwrite over a PDF using the tablet, that works on Mac OSX and Windows 8, that is also free. Not as easy as I'd hoped! As it turns out, the best programs aren't free (PDF Annotator, Inkbook) or don't run on Mac (AutoInk plug-in for Adobe Acrobat), and the free ones don't easily allow annotation (PDFPen forces you to re-select the pen tool every time you write a new character), or don't allow for smooth writing (Skim, Adobe Acrobat).
It might sound fussy, but when the alternative is cheap paper and my legible handwriting, I want the best I can get. The Bamboo tablet did come bundled with some software that allows you to annotate a virtual note-book (Bamboo Paper - but the handwriting isn't very smooth), or write on screen and it translates it directly into text (Bamboo Scribe), to be pasted in any application. And in fact, the Mac OS allows you to do this too (Ink). But this is just a scratch-pad, and I really wish they'd let you save what you've handwritten, because Bamboo Scribe was the smoothest/neatest by far!
It might sound fussy, but when the alternative is cheap paper and my legible handwriting, I want the best I can get. The Bamboo tablet did come bundled with some software that allows you to annotate a virtual note-book (Bamboo Paper - but the handwriting isn't very smooth), or write on screen and it translates it directly into text (Bamboo Scribe), to be pasted in any application. And in fact, the Mac OS allows you to do this too (Ink). But this is just a scratch-pad, and I really wish they'd let you save what you've handwritten, because Bamboo Scribe was the smoothest/neatest by far!
I really enjoyed looking through approximately one thousand search results that didn't quite lead to
the software I needed.
the software I needed.
Too many programs, not enough time?
This leads to a second problem: integration of different methods/software. At the moment, I use Mendeley to read and annotate journal papers, and as my citation software when writing up my own results. But if I'm annotating PDFs in Mendeley, do I really need another piece of annotation software just to handwrite on them? And I'm currently using Scrivener to draft up my first papers, which has a 'research' area that allows you to pin PDFs, write notes, add pictures... again repeating what Mendeley can do to some degree. And I've heard of other people using Evernote to write up notes and sync information across multiple devices, which would come in handy when jotting down notes on my phone. But again, double-handling is the issue. Or is it...
Bamboo + Evernote
As I though more deeply about this problem, I realised that although Mendeley allows for detailed analysis and note-taking on individual PDF papers, there is no space write about broad scale topics which span a number of papers. You can tag numerous papers with the same subject, such as 'taphonomy' or 'burial', but there is no way to combine all the information from different papers in one document. So why not just use Scrivener to do this? Well, the page layout isn't as conducive to note-taking in this way, but rather drafting and word-processing. Plus, it isn't available on different platforms (WP8 specifically) or online like Evernote is.
During this research, I found out that Evernote (on Windows) allows you to use a Wacom tablet to write directly in the program. Problem solved... or is it? To my dismay, this function is not provided in the Mac version of Evernote, but a work-around using Evernote Skitch to annotate images and import them into Evernote almost works just as well.
During this research, I found out that Evernote (on Windows) allows you to use a Wacom tablet to write directly in the program. Problem solved... or is it? To my dismay, this function is not provided in the Mac version of Evernote, but a work-around using Evernote Skitch to annotate images and import them into Evernote almost works just as well.
The master plan (trial version)
Evernote seems to be the solution to my woes, so I will trial writing up thoughts and ideas that come from reading papers in Mendeley, by creating a .jpg of the Cornell Method template to write onto in Evernote. This way, I can access this information wherever I am, and especially during meetings with my supervisors. I will still use the tagging system in Mendeley, so it will remain my referencing and citation software. But trains of thought and brainstorming will remain in Evernote.
Oh and the pain I spoke about before? That sick feeling that I've wasted a weeks worth of work just trying to figure out the best way to be productive. Add in a sore shoulder for not using a proper ergonomic set-up for the tablet (it was sitting too far to the right when it should have been centered in front of me). I'll keep you up to date and let you know if it was all worth it!
Oh and the pain I spoke about before? That sick feeling that I've wasted a weeks worth of work just trying to figure out the best way to be productive. Add in a sore shoulder for not using a proper ergonomic set-up for the tablet (it was sitting too far to the right when it should have been centered in front of me). I'll keep you up to date and let you know if it was all worth it!
