Software for class notes?

August 28, 2005 11:13 AM

What software for OS X is good for taking class notes, especially ones involving math, fairly quickly?
posted by thecapitalizt to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Best answer: I'm a big fan of VoodooPad, which essentially lets you set up a local wiki. It lets you draw sketches too, which may be good for your math notes. I assume you're on a laptop? It'll be difficult to draw anything using a touchpad regardless, but this might be your best bet.
posted by danb at 11:21 AM on August 28, 2005

AppleWorks has a good equation editor that I've used to take class notes in real time.
posted by cillit bang at 11:39 AM on August 28, 2005

I, too, adore VoodooPad, but might not meet your needs if you have equation-writing stuff. But I loooove it for class notes. It's so good at organizing things that it might end up working for you to do a workaround, writing equations in another program (AppleWorks?) and then cutting & pasting to VoodooPad for organization purposes.
I will evangelize about VoodooPad all day if given a chance, so let me know if you have any questions about it. Or just get the demo!
posted by librarina at 11:54 AM on August 28, 2005

If you want software, I suggest the low tech approach: a text editor and typing in TeX notation. Won't work quite as well as a pencil, but if you gotta type...
posted by Nelson at 11:55 AM on August 28, 2005

Best answer: Perhaps it is overkill but Mathematica is the best by far. The keystrokes used to build complex, formatted expressions are efficient and intuitive e.g. CTRL-/ to place one term over another for division, CTRL-^ to start a superscript, CTRL-_ for a subscript, CTRL-Space to get back to normal formatting, etc. Pretty much anything that has ever been expressed mathematically is within reach.

Plus everything you enter is a live expression that can be computed by Mathematica's analytical engine; its programming facilities are used extensively in academic (especially post-graduate) and industrial research.

Student pricing is very reasonable -- they even have annual and per-semestre pricing that is probably half of what you'd pay for a textbook.

For further reading, here's a comparison of the big four mathematical packages out there.
posted by randomstriker at 12:40 PM on August 28, 2005

This is a problem I've never solved but I'll watch this thread closely for any new suggestions.

I tried to do the TeX solution but found the resulting PDF files were a pain to incorporate: Microsoft Word wouldn't raster the files correctly -- leaving ugly, bitmapped, 72dpi messes, especially at smaller sizes -- and using something like InDesign to incorporate 10s of PDFs and then laying it all out was a tremendous waste of time. And felt like killing a bug with a hammer.

I think I'll go back to Mathematica.
posted by docgonzo at 1:05 PM on August 28, 2005

Response by poster: Sounds great. I'm thinking of getting CalcCenter for students (and maybe CalcWiz if i'm really struggling). Anyone here have any advice/comments positive/negative regarding them?
posted by thecapitalizt at 3:39 PM on August 28, 2005

I didn't think of it right away, but randomstriker is right: Mathematica is the most efficient mathematical notation editor (not the best, but the quickest). I've done MS Word equation editor, LaTex, and Mathematica, and MMA wins. It's great to have otherwise, too. One of my favorite programs on my Mac, actually.
posted by teece at 4:20 PM on August 28, 2005

Best answer: Wow, I wasn't even aware of the development of CalcCentre (I'm still using Mathematica 4.1) -- it certainly seems to lessen the learning curve that is Mathematica's weak point. Yeah, that's probably what you want.
posted by randomstriker at 4:34 PM on August 28, 2005

latex works once you get fast at typing it, and if you have a good reference, and have live preview. The raster fonts are solved in more recent versions, which makes for very pretty, and much more compact, pdf files.

If VoodooPad supports pdf copy/paste, then you could use a tool like LaTeXit in order to get the best of both worlds.

I agree, there is no good unified solution, though.
posted by clord at 11:38 PM on August 28, 2005

clord (23Ker) writes "If VoodooPad supports pdf copy/paste

It does. It asks "Do you want to paste the image, or link to it?" which I love.
posted by librarina at 11:47 PM on August 28, 2005

I haven't used it for math notations, but istorm might be interesting. If there's a wireless network in/near the classroom, heck, you could have a group of people taking notes together to make sure you don't miss anything!
posted by edjusted at 11:55 PM on August 29, 2005