Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with indexcards

Where can I buy the world's most amazing index cards?

mdonley — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:06:16 -0800

Index card quest! I'm looking for a very particular kind I've seen in the past: a small (smaller than standard 3"-by-5", like 2"-by-1"!), possibly pastel-colored set of cards that come on a single, small binder ring (not spiral-bound!) and are enclosed in a plastic cover (not a fabric one!), almost certainly with a snap. I lived with someone in college who used them to practice foreign vocabulary and they were fantastic because they were interchangeable, cheap, easily portable, and readily available at our campus (UC Santa Cruz) bookstore in 2004, which I can't reach this weekend as they're closed. Now I'm moving to Latvia at the end of the month (whoo!) and I'd like to be able to keep key words on the same kind of cards so I can practice my sveikas and paldieses on the go, or when I've got a down moment, or anytime when carrying a big stack of cards is otherwise less-than-good. Ideally the ring would be on my keychain all the time, so it'd be really quite small, and I'd cycle new cards in and out.

I've been to a Staples, an OfficeMax, and a Target, and I've looked all over the place online, and I CANNOT find them. It's not a hipster PDA, and it's not part of the Real Simple organizational stuff sold at Target. It is also not the Mead RingDex, which is too large for what I want to use it for, lacks a cover, and has an extra ring.

I have a hunch that if these exist anywhere, they'll be at a university bookstore, but not having access to one is hampering my search.

If you need an image, this is really close though they're too large, but imagine that the cards are held tightly closed with a snap of some kind. The size I'm looking for is about the size of a keychain-sized supermarket loyalty card.

Finally, I would really, really prefer to just buy them instead of making my own, because I'm super-busy this month getting ready for my move. Thanks for your help!

Virtual Note Cards

al_fresco — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:27:28 -0800

OS X: I'm looking at outliners/organizers for the Mac, and can't seem to find just what I need. I'd like a virtual box of index cards that I can use to make an outline/lesson plan. Here is the ideal way that it would work:

I'd like to be able to store information in little chunks (like virtual index cards) that I can sort by keyword/subject
I'd like to be able to create new cards either by drag 'n' drop or through a Service (create new card from selection) to import text from other apps
I'd like to be able to drag 'n' drop cards into any order to create a set that I can then print (onto index cards), or
I'd like to be able to create an outline with my sorted set

I've found apps that are great for outlining (OmniOutliner, et al) or good for creating cards, but the drag "n" drop set creation is harder to find. I imagine the ideal would be multiple windows, with the main card database in one window (or a drawer), with the ability to drag cards into a new window/document to create the new set.

I have OmniGraffle Pro, and I've had limited success getting what I want out of that, but it is really best for titles or smaller chunks of information, and not subjects that are more fleshed out. I looked at SuperNotecard, but 1) it's a Java app, 2) it seems more geared toward creative writing (rather than presentation/lesson planning, and 3) it hasn't been updated in a while.

Does anyone use anything like this, and if so, can you point me in the right direction? Maybe you have a workflow that uses a combination of apps that is workable. Cheaper is better, of course. Thanks!

Am I asking too much of iCal?

NewGear — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 18:24:49 -0800

[OSX FILTER] I want to print on index cards, but indirectly. Help me figure out how to print to a PDF sized at 3"x5". Okay, so I've decided to follow the crowd (or at least a segment of the crowd) and start using a variation of the Hipster PDA. I want to print out my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars from iCal onto 3x5 index cards. I'd like to use OSX's "save as PDF" function to print the files as PDFs, then take them to work where I can print them to my heart's content for free. The problem is, when I try to print them, the month header and the little colour-coded guide to the different calendar types take up most of the card, and the actual meat of the information, the calendar itself, is all crammed into a space the height of a centimeter, and is run-together and worthless.

Currently, I'm creating a custom paper size of 3"x5" in Page Setup, turning off the "Print To-Do Lists" and "Print Mini-Months" options in the Print Dialog under "iCal", and then saving them as PDF. I'm running OSX 10.3.9, and iCal 1.5.5.

Is there any hope of getting iCal to print nice, clean calendars (monthly, weekly, and daily) onto 3x5 index cards, or am I SOL with iCal and need to migrate to some other program? I was so hoping this would be easy...

Question number 4849

litlnemo — Fri, 23 Jan 2004 04:26:37 -0800

I'm looking for a Mac program for organizing and storing research index cards. (More inside.)