Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with notes

How to make periodic reminders from RSS/evernote?

insperatum — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:45:57 -0800

How can I make periodic, spaced reminders of items from an rss feed (or even straight from evernote) so that I know I will not forget them? I got an evernote account recently, and I'm loving how easy it is to add notes from anywhere (including my G1 =D). That said, what it seems to lack is the feature of reminding you of notes every so often (a feature which reQall does very nicely).

So what I'm looking for is some way of automatically reminding myself of my evernotes, perhaps from the rss feed which it lets me create. Something which would, for example, email me (or better yet feed me) a note reminder every, say, 4,16,64,etc days after note creation would be fantastic. Of course, something which would be able to import my evernotes straight into SuperMemo or some other spaced repetition software would be even better, though that may be a bit ambitious. Any suggestions whatsoever would be very useful though, since I'm at a complete loss.

While I'm here, do any of you guys have other systems for taking and remembering notes? It's just beginning to hit me that how quickly I forget all the little facts that I learn throughout the day, and so I'm trying to build an easy way of being able to say "Right, this little fact is important. Make sure I don't forget it until I tell you otherwise."

Many thanks,
Luke

How can I keep track of academic papers and my handwritten notes on them?

col_pogo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:28:29 -0800

What is the best hardware/software system for keeping track of a) hundreds of academic papers in PDF form and b) my handwritten notes on these hundreds of papers? Bonus if the answer integrates with some sort of citation management software. I am in a PhD program that requires me to read and take notes on a large number of papers. I can see myself in four years time simply drowning in printouts. My problem is somewhat similar to this previous question.

I don't like reading while sitting in front of my computer (typing hurts and easy internet access kills my productivity), so I tend to print out PDFs and take notes all over them while reading in cafes, libraries, on planes, etc. (Zotero's note system, for instance, isn't great for me because I don't like reading in my browser and typing notes). An ideal system would allow to me read much as I do, but make my notes--and interesting quotes and passages from what I'm reading--searchable for when I'm writing papers, studying for orals, etc.

The problem at that moment is that I end up with all these papers and notes that aren't easy to archive and can't be searched. I fear I don't have the discipline to properly archive all my actual paper notes, and hope that there's a technological fix out there for me.

I'd like advice on whether my best option is
a) a Tablet PC (with what software?)--one potential problem with this would be bulk and the distracting internet access.
b) an eBook reader that supports annotation (the upcoming IREX one?) with some sort of arching software to upload to.
c) One of those smart pens that records what you write (Previously). If these really work and can be integrated with good archiving/searching software I can see this being helpful for interviews and class notes, too.
d) Scanning notes taken on paper into my computer and archiving them from there. Something that sounds onerous and that I probably wouldn't actually do.
e) some brilliant technological solution that hasn't occurred to me.
f) knuckling down and getting a disciplined paper archiving system.

Could these options--a) in particular--be combined with Atlas TI? I love that QDA programs let me jump to specific tagged passages--and apparently the latest version has good support for PDFs. Or will OneNote--or some Mac program I haven't heard of--do this kind of thing better?

I have fairly atrocious handwriting, so OCR doesn't seem to work that well (in Evernote, for instance). I was impressed by Vista's handwriting support the one time I tried it, however--and I gather it learns from its mistakes.

I've heard Apple has a similar option, and would be willing to switch to using Macs if their handwriting recognition or the various note-taking programs I've heard about (Devonthink, Scrivener, Papers, others?) can be combined with some sort of note-capturing system.

I also take notes in lots of books. Any good ideas for capturing these notes that might fit with one of the above options?

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help?

scazza — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:02:40 -0800

iPhone not syncing calendars, photos, and triplicated my notes. Help? I am looking for help with this issue AND/OR great resources to help. There are tons of forums, its difficult to find my answer.

It started with my photos. First iTunes would not sync my selected album. I would sync over and over, and it would say it synced but on my phone it would say "no photos or videos." Then it stopped showing any options or albums under "Selected albums."

Then I noticed that it triplicated my notes.

Most importantly, since I really only got this phone years ago for the calendar and never had problems until now, it has stopped syning my calendar. Like iPhoto it has stopped showing any options under "Selected calendars." I am afraid to restore because I don't want to lose the information on my phone. It says it's backed it up, but obviously it's lied to me in the past.

It looks like there's a communication breakdown between iTunes & these other programs; like iTunes can't see my calendars, photo albums, & notes. Do I downgrade my software? I never had problems before. I upgraded to the latest Mac OS as well and that has made a lot of programs crash that never crashed before, my computer crashed 3x yesterday. My calendar is the most important, vital part of having this phone at all. I am starting to panic. My phone is 3G and I'm wondering if Apple is just dropping the ball on supporting not the latest model of their products.

Who can I pay to type up my notes?

zachlipton — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:27:28 -0800

TypeMyNotesPleaseFilter: I periodically find myself in need of this service, which obviously must exist, yet I cannot find. I have a bunch of handwritten notes, not written with any kind of fancy smartpen, but rather, just pencil on paper. I would like to be able to scan said notes myself and send them to some kind of service wherein I can pay someone to type them up and send me back a decently formatted copy with a turnaround time of 12-24 hours. Who do I ask to do this? There are a number of past posts on OCR-related methods for doing this, but I've never used one that actually works. Generally, the transcription would be happening during nighttime in the US. I'd far rather have a reasonable level of errors than pay top dollar for camera-ready copy. Of course, I need a usable level of quality as well.

For the most part, these are notes for personal use, without any specialized medical or legal terms. I've found tons of audio transcription services that will type up conversations, but I'm having a ton of trouble finding the 2009-era quick and dirty (i.e. fast and cheap) equivalent to Allison, Don Draper's secretary on Mad Men for a little word processing.

Bonus points if you've used one of these services before and can recommend them or give tips on their use. At this point, even a better idea of what I should be Googling for would be quite helpful.

Lotus Notes and Outlook forwarding problem

paulyballs — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:55:39 -0800

I use Outlook 2003 in the office. If I receive an email from someone outside the company that uses Lotus Notes and I try to forward that email, the body of the email is stripped automatically when it is forwarded. Has anybody ever heard of this?

Reporter's notebook

Brittanie — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:07:27 -0800

Journalists' notes: how do they take them, store them and reference them later? I am looking for resources and tips on how journalists take and manage notes, especially how they store them for later reference.

I've read this question but specifically I'm looking for info on the actual taking of notes and then organizing/filing them away once the story is finished.

Help me organize research

rbf1138 — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 10:26:50 -0800

Zotero, Scrapbook, Papers, Evernote, etc. What should I be using to best organize materials for a research paper? There are lots of research organization software/browser plug-ins available now, and trying to make sense of which to use (whether standalone or in conjunction) is giving me a headache. I'd like to be able to take notes alongside either text from websites or PDFs, store, sort, and view PDFs, create citations/bibliographies, etc. Which of these and/or other tools will help me do that?

Personal Knowledgebase Software?

AltReality — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:52:27 -0800

I am thinking about setting up a personal knowledge-base of items at work (Help Desk). Looking for a freeware app with a very simple notepad style interface, that will store mostly text based notes. A few preferences inside... I am tired of trying to keep all the data for all the apps we support in my head and on various notes around my desk. My company doesn't have a real knowledge-base solution, instead preferring to keep everything in word/excel documents in a rag-tag folder structure. I would like to keep my KB articles in a stand-alone app...no web space available. Can't store this data on an external site due to it's sensitive nature. So here's the preferences, but all recommendations are welcome :)

Preferences:

Free

Lightweight/stand-alone (not web-based)(Notepad style interface with a sidebar showing a list of articles is what I imagine, but can't find.)

Ability to insert/attach files (Word/Excel mainly)

Ability to export and share data with co-workers

Ability to search would be nice, but not required

I do not need wiki ability. Writing all notes in wiki mark-up would be very difficult, and my co-workers wouldn't want to learn it

I have been playing with Evernote, and it is nice..I may use it for other projects, but I don't think it will quite work for what I'm trying to do.

Where are the digital, musical notes?

HopStopDon'tShop — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:36:24 -0800

Where can I find clear, accurate, small sound files of different musical notes. I don't mind if they're on a piano or a guitar or anything else. But I need a separate recording of each note through one octave, around about middle-C would be ideal but not necessary. (i.e. 12 files, each with a different note on them: A natural, A sharp, B natural etc.) Just for completeness sake: I don't mind paying a fee for these files if necessary.

Looking for a way to take notes without writing.

ComeUndone — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:58:17 -0800

A friend of mine is starting college next month, and she has been diagnosed with dysgraphia (from what I understand, it hinders her ability to write and organize ideas quickly). She'll have a laptop with her in all of her classes, and I'm looking for some kind of solution that will allow her to take some form of notes without it being a huge problem. Ideally, I'd like to find a program that could record lectures and then transcribe them from speech to text. But, I'm assuming that the quality wouldn't be very consistent. If that's not a possibility, is there a program or solution that you've seen that will let you take voice recordings, and then have them be organized by date, subject, class, etc? In my mind, I was hoping for something that organizes all the clips and then lets her search later by tags. Does something like this even exist? Free is good, but if there's a much better solution for a cost, then that's fine too. Any help or anecdotes about your personal experience with that kind of software would be appreciated.

Web app that detects notes?

gwint — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:56:07 -0800

Is there a web app where I can hum or whistle a tone into my PC's microphone and get back what note it is?

I need a secure alternative to Evernote

DerekTheGeek — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:05:13 -0800

Any suggestions on a secure alternative to Evernote? I really like Evernote. I really do. However, I need something that secures my content with encryption. Evernote does a great job of archiving all my notes, pictures, and ideas however the data is all located on their servers in an unencrypted format. Is there any other provider or software that accomplishes the same thing as Evernote yet provides encryption for users data?

Things I am looking for:
1. iPhone/PDA companion app to allow capture and viewing of content away from desktop PC
2. Web component to allow viewing or capture of data
3. Encryption

People familiar with Evernote may be thinking .. "Evernote has all this but encryption .. just wait". This is true but as I am unsure when Evernote is going to support the encryption of user content and I would like to find an alternative in the meantime.

I know there are a few Mac based tools out there (Yojimbo, Together, Journler, etc ..) but I am looking for something on the PC. I love MS OneNote but it does not have a PDA or web component. Any suggestions on what others use? Thank you.

Does anything else play well with Lotus Domino Server?

filthy light thief — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:17:02 -0800

Are there any viable alternatives to the Lotus Notes client for Windows XP? It's the work-provided client for email, calendars and schedules, and whatever else it does. Version 8 is crawling, where the previous version (6?) was at least responsive. More details inside. I've seen people talk about how to use IMAP-compliant mail clients to access their mail off of a Domino server, but I also need to be able to schedule events and resources, which (I'm assuming) connects back to the Domino server to lay claim to resources at set times.

Is my best route to look at ways to optimize my set-up, or are there other programs that could replace Lotus Notes for email and scheduling on the Lotus Domino server(s)?

Additionally: I can install software on this computer, but I don't have full admin rights (at least I don't think so - I haven't tried any significant system tweaks, mostly setting new default programs for image viewing and the like).

Looking for informational note cards

phrakture — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:33:53 -0800

Help me find printable informational note cards I'm looking for something like a DIY Planner, Hipster PDA, or PocketMod that contains informational listings.

I'd really like to create my own little reference guide for different things to carry around with me. I don't have specific information in mind, but I'd like it to be open ended - first aid, log tables, periodic tables, graphs of average penis size per country, you name it.

And no, I'm not all typesetting-cool, so I don't think I'd be able to make something to do this properly with Word/InDesign/Scribus/whatever. I'm really looking for something I can just snag and print.

Any help appreciated.

Do you get ideas in the shower?

metajc — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:52:14 -0800

One thing: Why is it I come up with all these ideas in the shower. What about the shower make it easier to focus? How can I replicate the shower without having to take a shower? If I can't replicate the shower: Is there a good (water proof?) erasable marker for making notes on the shower wall? Or is that all just crazy?

Is the Zimbabwe govornment still printing 100 Trillion Dollar notes?

dent8101 — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:34:57 -0800

Is the Zimbabwe govornment still printing 100 Trillion Dollar notes? I looked in Google for a while and cant seem to find a definitive answer. thanks everyone.

What are my facebook notes doing in Italy?

jefficator — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:50:19 -0800

Why are strangers (especially Italians??) reading my facebook notes? I'm totally cool with it--I love that even more people are reading the updates from my blog. But why on earth is it that when facebook imports my notes, total strangers from around the world start commenting? I don't want it to stop! I just want to know!

Journalists: how do you organize your notes?

NikitaNikita — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:15:48 -0800

Interview and note organization tips for journalists and non-fiction writers? Can any Mefite journalist-types suggest methods for organizing interviews and organizing your thoughts for writing long-ish feature articles or books? Or can you point me to some books/resources that have helped you?

When I write non-fiction news feature-ish pieces with lots of interview sources, I feel like my method of note organization and interview organization is flawed, particularly in terms of optimizing time management and helping me find the best quotes.

For my audio files, sometimes I can find what I need by ear, but other times I feel like I need to transcribe the entire interview. My "system"* often consists of color coding text files, pasting into another word document, etc.

To put it simply, I suppose, I'd like some direction in how to make my writing more of a "process" or a "method", rather than a mental tornado.** I've found a few nice suggestions on prior AskMe posts***, but I'd like suggestions which consider not only text or web resources but also audio and written notes from interviews.

Thanks!

*I use this word loosely -- I'm always switching up my game plan, to see what might work better.

**The tornado has worked thus far, but it is unpredictable (time-wise) and I'm wondering if there's a better way.

***For the sake of posterity:
- a vague question about writing a non-fiction book
- tiddlywiki, etc for random snippets of info and also related
- zotero for wrangling up PDF journal sources
- virtual notecards oneand two

How can I easily backup Outlook?

mr_silver — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:56:38 -0800

Is there an easier and less manual way to export your calendar, contacts, tasks and notes in Outlook? Every month, I perform the following:

1. Create a folder with the current date
2. Export Outlook's calendar to a PST within that folder.
3. Export Outlook's contacts to a PST within that folder.
4. Export Outlook's tasks to a PST within that folder.
5. Export Outlook's notes to a PST within that folder.
6. Zip up the folder.
7. Upload it to a backup side and another computer.

The exporting of the data from Outlook to a file is easily the most time consuming part. Especially since it takes 10 clicks per task to get it into a PST file. As such, I can't help wondering if I'm doing it the most efficiently.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can speed up the exporting of this data?

(I don't want to purchase or use a backup service as I have my own storage area and feel more comfortable with something under my control. Nor would I like to backup to an alternative proprietary file format.)

UbuntuFilter: Help me find a well-organized note-taking or notebook program.

nayten — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:07:26 -0800

UbuntuFilter: Help me find a well-organized note-taking or notebook program. I like taking notes. A lot. For a number of topics. And the good ol' text editor and file folders combo doesn't cut it anymore.

Here's what I envision: I make a notebook for a new topic I'm interested. Say, Movies. When I make this Movies notebook, I'll have a tab on the left side of my program window that has a tab for it, along with my other notebooks (maybe classes I take at college, Music, Beers, and the variety of other things that I like).

When I click this tab, maybe a little dropdown list will come out with the different entry titles on it. Say, Back to the Future filming locations, Movies Staring Keanu Reeves, and Grammy Award Winners. I click the title I'm interested in, and on the right side of the window the text is quickly loaded, I can edit it on the fly, and make a new entry or jump around to others if I like.

Does anything like this currently exist? I'm flexible on the asthetics of the thing-- I just want an efficient way to store information on the numerous topics I'm interested in, and hope to save some bookmarking/Documents folder space with it.

Other options that would be a plus: tagging, image functionality, maybe a to-do list, and printing of notebooks.

Turning data into images/graphs dynamically

kenzi23 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:50:15 -0800

I want to propose to my manager a system/software/configuration to dynamically graph data but I don't know what the technical terms are or what software can do this kind of thing. I need your advice. I am looking for the generic name (or specific software if you have recommendations) for software that can take data from a database (in this case Lotus Notes) and dynamically create charts. More details: we have a database that tracks people, the work they are doing, in/out time, due time, who it's for, where the work is currently located, etc. I want to be able to graphically represent the whole or parts of the data in various ways, gannt charts, maps etc. Ideally there would be certain standard charts that one could click on to get a certain type of overview of the data, but I would also like something where a user can create their own chart from the data. These charts would need to appear with the most up-to-date data.

I don't know what this software is called so I am not successful in googling it. I am looking for search terms. Also, if there is anything specific out there that you know of that can work with a Lotus Notes database that would be good too.

I'm not in IT but I work with technology; I would not be designing the system, just giving a mock-up and proposal. The users of it would be managers/supervisors, also not IT people.

Nana would be so disappointed in me.

Bardolph — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:29:43 -0800

Etiquette-filter: sending thank-you notes late (like, ridiculously, months-to-years late)? Specific questions within. So, I've got a chronic procrastination problem where thank-you notes are concerned. I think I'm a grateful person, but I hate to write and suck at putting feelings into words-- with the result that I tend to postpone necessary thank-yous until so much time has passed that it seems impossibly awkward and embarrassing to send any note at all. (To give some idea of the scale we're talking about here, a few of the items in my current "debit" column include notes:

to three close friends, including a bridesmaid, for wedding gifts 16 months ago (all the "form" notes were easy, but the heartfelt ones... not so much so)
to an old prof for good advice and mentoring 6 years ago (he gave me a decidedly cold shoulder at a conference recently, so I'm guessing this one's dead in the water)
to a good friend re: travel souvenirs given back in September
to my academic advisor for rush-mailing a rec in November

and so forth.) I think if I could think of things as fixable (as opposed to being Forever Spoilt By My Rudeness), then I might occasionally be able to sack up and write the belated note, instead of spiralling down into endless guilt and avoidance. But assuming I'm facing a thank-you note that's been put off months or years past when it should have been sent,

1. How profusely and grovellingly should I apologize for not writing sooner? Should the apology be made in the note itself, or in a separate communication, like a cover note?
2. Does the thank-you itself need to be extra-effusive and/or accompanied by some sort of gift, to "make it up" to the recipient?
3. Is there ever a time limit past which it simply *is* just too late to send a thank-you at all, particularly for relatively small items? Or is some acknowledgment always better than nothing, even years after the fact?

Some helpful suggestions here, but everything seems to be specifically wedding-related; I'm wondering how all this works when applied to thank-yous for professional assistance, or more casual gestures and gifts.

Linux software for an electronic journal

PercussivePaul — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:38:54 -0800

What are some good Linux programs for keeping an electronic research journal? I write a lot when I am thinking about a problem. Writing helps me organize my thoughts. Now that I'm starting a PhD I want to move away from the pen-and-paper method I used in my master's, mainly because organization and information retrieval became very difficult after a year or two.

I'm using Ubuntu Linux (though I could try Windows programs under WINE, I guess). I tried a few programs so far, recently TomBoy, but I wasn't sold on it. I don't like the TomBoy interface where little notes fly up in new windows; I'd prefer something closer to a tabbed text-editor with indexing and timestamps. My style is not so much creating structured information like a database or wiki, but rather dumping bursts of text into the screen every now and then. I don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about organizing information; instead, I want to able to open the program, start typing, and then click somewhere to have it filed away. Any ideas?

Need help with personal knowledge management!

fsmontenegro — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:04:15 -0800

How are people organizing their information (professional and personal) in this day and age? What kind of system is flexible enough to cope with multiple data types (PDFs, DOCs, short text notes, hyperlinks, ...), efficient during collection (when browsing the Web, when reading documents, ...) and won't get in my way when I try to use it? (I looked into existing posts - good start, but I'd like suggestions that also incorporate whole files and not just bookmarks and snippets)

I'm trying to find a coherent system using multiple tools - mindmaps, note taking tools, file search tools and others - so that I can be more productive in storing and finding the right information. A personal Memex if you will, similar to Vannevar Bush's original idea but with proper search.

I'm an IT/Network Security Architect/Engineer. I deal with information on a daily basis - from configuration snippets and links to product documentation to written reports and form documents. Sometimes the entire document is relevant and sometimes a simple summary or just a snippet may do.

I've used mind maps (with MindManager) since 2001 and I love the concept and the tool. I've used it to take notes when studying, to create document structure and then exporting to Word, to capture notes in meetings, etc...

I've recently been introduced to Microsoft OneNote. It also seems very, very powerful in organizing information - notebooks, sections, pages, etc... all searchable and nicely integrated into Windows. I've come to rely on OneNote for screen captures, print outputs and the integration of short notes to my PDA.

I find desktop search tools (initially Yahoo's Desktop - an OEM of X1 - and now Google Desktop, with its' capability to search MindMaps...) to be also very, very good at helping find information, especially when it is in a structured document (Word, PDF, ...)

Finally I know there's other tools out there:
- Wikis (web-based and local storage) TiddlyWiki as a good example
- Evernote
- Scrapbook firefox extension (excellent for local storage of pages!)
- Delicious
- Google Notebook
- Stars and tags in Google Reader and other RSS
- others… heck, I've heard of people using iTunes to manage their PDFs!

I read Lifehacker, I do GTD (I use it in a slightly modified fashion) and I live the inbox zero concept. My issue is not so much task management as information management.

So, what kind of systems are people using for managing their information? What's the best way of keeping track of some configuration details for firewalls I work with? How can I easily store (and retrieve) interesting RSS posts? Suggestions for storing (or not) a PDF whitepaper on something?

Thanks!

Best method for summarizing papers?

painquale — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:56:21 -0800

My approach to academic papers is to read through once, then go back and type up notes on it. The problem is that my notes serve two functions: summary and commentary. What's the best software for making synopses of academic papers with personal annotated notes? Most of what I what I write is done in the original author's voice. It's a summary of the author's key points, arguments, data, and citations to other works. But occasionally I break into my own voice and add some of my own observations or arguments. I want some way to delineate the two (and preferably, be able to easily print the file with or without my personal commentary). I've tried around with a few potential solutions in Word -- making my comments in a different color, putting them in footnotes, using the commenting feature -- but none them seem adequate. I tried hacking something up in LaTeX, but unless there's a really cool package out there I haven't seen, it doesn't seem to be made for this sort of thing. It strikes me that there should be some software out there that is tailor-made for this, or there's some method that I'm not seeing. Does anyone have any ideas? What do other people here do?