NoteBook Discussion Forums: Special Interest Communities - Writers Using NoteBook

all alone ? (commented by ptram)

ptram — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:39:53 +0000

As someone who always starts a project from a mind-map, I would like the drafting abilities of NoteBook were better integrated with the outliner. Now, diagrams are graphic elements. I guess it would make sense to make them outlines with “floating” cells, or link diagram’s with outline’s elements.

all alone ? (commented by Beth)

Beth — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:12:05 +0000

So… five years have passed since the question was asked here about why mind maps work better sometimes, but here’s an answer.

The right side of the brain is the seat of creativity and it functions in spidery, totally non-linear ways. Information is all linked together like brain neurons. So when you are creating a mind map you are creating a 2D version of what your right brain understands – as far as you can show a 3D entity in 2D, anyway. The right brain understands “the bigger picture”.

The most spontaneous/empathic/disorganized/creative people are right brain dominant. So in the act of recording what’s in the right brain, a mind map is unbeatable.

The left side of the brain is the seat of control; of categories, words, and sequential and hierarchical thinking, seeing things as moving from a to b, then c and after that (and definitely not before) d….. Information is linked linearly (in lines) in this way. The left brain understands the small parts inside the whole, and the most controlled/procedural/efficient/analytical people are left brain dominant. So in the act of accessing the left brain, a hierarchical outline (the typical list) is unbeatable.

Inbetween the two kinds of note-making (mind map or list?) you have what I think of as “the heartfelt outpour.” It combines the feeling of the right brain with the language ability of the left. A finished, written article that has meaning beyond bald information fits this category, and such an article, or book, is often the aim of a writer, whichever brain dominance they start from.

Can you tell I’m an enthusiast? :)

Beth

Writing Fiction? Literary Nonfiction? (commented by Beth)

Beth — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:07:37 +0000

Thanks for the link to “The Social Life of Paper”. Being stuck mentally right now between high-tech and low-tech options, I found it very helpful.

Beth

Stickers (commented by Markus)

Markus — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:29:32 +0000

I’ve been using stickers in my research for various reasons. I do a lot of archival research, so when I’m copying my notes into Notebook and I see, as I review, that I’ll need some bibliography on a particular topic, a put a sticker on that item for later secondary research. I also use stickers to keep track of different themes or topics. Another use of stickers has been to mark important information when deciding what I will make the focus of my paper or article.

I’ve also found stickers to be handy for signaling problems that need to be resolved for later.

Published Using Notebook (commented by unquietsoul)

unquietsoul — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:56:56 +0000

Hmmm I went to look at this and it is now a website for some theological program at a university.

Biographer Needs a Jumpstart (commented by ptram)

ptram — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:14:50 +0000

Hi Sarah,

I suggest you to do this way:

- Write a single note or set of notes per each Note (Outline) page. Just use each page as a single index card.

- When done, go to the Summary page. There, create Divider pages as you would with dividers in an index card system, and drag the note pages/index card in the the relevant section.

Paolo

Biographer Needs a Jumpstart (commented by Sarah)

Sarah — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:51:11 +0000

Hi, Hi

I am writing a doctoral dissertation and am considering using Notebook. It looks great, but I have a few questions:

Is it possible to create anything like old fashioned index cards – ie to take notes from a book and enter them point by point in a way that I can change later? I want to only have one file open while I am taking notes, and then go back and put the key words in later.

From the example here – opening different pages – it sounds like I’d have to classify the points as I took them – that’s a different part of my brain than the transcribing one, and I need to engage it at a different time.

Also, is it then possible to move the “index cards” around? to group them in different configurations?

Thanks very much for any help you can offer.
Sarah

Biographer Needs a Jumpstart (commented by waverley)

waverley — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:44:07 +0000

Thanks Paolo.
This sound exactly like the process I’ve been looking for.
Cheers,
Waverley

Biographer Needs a Jumpstart (commented by ptram)

ptram — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:34:27 +0000

Waverley,

I would go to the Contents divider page, and choose Page > Divider Page for each of your sections.

Then, while in the relevant divider page, I would add Note pages as needed. You can even add a new page following the current one, while in a page.

Since waste of paper and space is not a problem, I would create a separate page for each fact. This will be easy to find out in the Contents page, or by opening the side Contents Card.

Also, the Multidex will help you jump to a relevant fact very quickly, and immediately see the inner relationship between different pages.

Paolo

Biographer Needs a Jumpstart (by waverley)

waverley — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:35:56 +0000

I’m working on a biography for a major publisher and have always used index cards to keep track of the thousands of facts that fill my books. But I’m inclined to use NB to keep everything in one place without spilling over into the entire house.
I’ve downloaded the program—and it looks great—but I’m having a tough time getting it to look like something I could use. So…say I am Ted Kennedy’s biographer (I’m not). I’d want to start a notebook whose divider tabs would probably list: “childhood,” “college years,” “John & Bobby,” “Ethel,” “Senate,” etc. etc. And I would hope that I could just keep filling the pages in each section with facts, whenever I found something new to put there. Is this possible? And how do I set up sections so that they appear on those divider tabs?
I appreciate any help anyone can provide.

New Paper Template? (by DanLau)

DanLau — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:59:29 +0000

One of the great things I love Notebook is the paper template I could choose. It helps me separate different types of passages I wrote in one single Notebook file, and back me up with different moody style during writing.

Would there be any new paper template that a user could download in the future? Further more, could I create and insert my own paper template and also share with others?

Notebook 3.0 and word count (commented by Jayson)

Jayson — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:51:41 +0000

And also just one simple concern… dose the Circus Ponies team take suggestions here as their development reference?

The best thing to do, always, is to submit feedback requests (and bug reports) using our support form. That way they get into our the system we use to track the requests and the gauge demand for them.

Best,

__jayson

Notebook 3.0 and word count (commented by DanLau)

DanLau — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:43:12 +0000

Can’t agree more, ptram. :)
And also just one simple concern… dose the Circus Ponies team take suggestions here as their development reference?

How effective is Notebook as a writing tool? (commented by CareyB)

CareyB — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:18:00 +0000

Before I purchased Notebook, I pounded the crap out of all the outliners, and related, that I could find. As I practise GTD techniques, I also looked at the new GTD product from the Omni group.

Notebook is the best PIM (Personal Information Manager – gotta practise what I preach) around. It’s not the best outliner, nor the best writing tool, nor the best GTD tool. It is the best compromise. If you want one product to collect everything, Notebook’s the cat’s whiskers. It’s a pretty good outliner, a pretty good GTD tool, a really good note-taking tool, and a fantastic clipping tool.

Notebook 3.0 and word count (commented by ptram)

ptram — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:32:13 +0000

For us non-English speakers: a character count would be even more useful.

How effective is Notebook as a writing tool? (commented by ptram)

ptram — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:21:03 +0000

The reason I like Scrivener more than NoteBook for writing fiction is that (1) you can see the whole tale/novel if so you wish, (2) the Full Screen mode is the best way to avoid distractions, (3) labels and index cards/corkboard are a great way of dealing with structure, and (4) it has a live word/character count.

At the same time, I feel more at home with NoteBook in my work on exams and academic papers, since integration between clippings, lesson notes in Cornell Note format, outlines, free writing, to dos interfaced with my cell phone, seem to me the most natural way of dealing with this composite task.

Paolo

How effective is Notebook as a writing tool? (commented by DanLau)

DanLau — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:13:31 +0000

Just wish to ask: why Scrivener is better for novels?
:)

Notebook 3.0 and word count (commented by DanLau)

DanLau — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:10:12 +0000

I put one vote on that!
Word count is really needed for any kind of writers. Of course it would be even greater if the upcoming version can include a “sentence count” function!
Sometimes it comes the same importance as Word count, such as for those issue-based publishing projector.

Notebook review (by Darren Todd)

Darren Todd — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:07:33 +0000

For anyone who’s interested, I just posted a review of Notebook on my site, http://www.writerxp.com. I definitely mentioned the forum, which I’ve found invaluable while using Notebook, especially when considering alternative uses. As a writer, there are numerous types I’ve found it useful for, and it – among other likened apps – is one of the reasons I made the Mac plunge.

Acrobat - edits and note cells (commented by rich)

rich — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:00:40 +0000

Hi rhmg

I have been doing this same thing, but with different methods, perhaps not the right ones.

I “load” my PDFs by importing them – not using them as a background – and then double clicking on them to get a text box. In the text box, I can write my notes, which show up in the Multidex. Yet, I cannot edit the PDF, I cannot highlight any words, and the Multidex does not recognize the words in the PDF (yes, they are text not images).

But I am intrigued by your solution. 1. How do you get your PDF in Notebook to edit it as you say you can? and 2. Can you change an already “Imported” PDF to a “Background” PDF as you have done (I know I can add a background in the Inspector, but can I “reuse” the ones I already have imported?)

Thanks for any help and for this interesting post which has a lot of potential for research and writing.

Richard