Category Archives: Notes

Byword – an ideal tool for plain text writing on a Mac

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

I often need to write a piece of text between 200 and 2000 words: an abstract of a talk, a blog post or an administrative memo. This is longer and more complicated than an occasional note but much simpler and … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Writing | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Note-taking on a Mac revisited

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

David Sparks just explained in Macworld once again why plain text is best. This prompted me to update several entries from April and March on taking notes on a Mac. In this post, I describe some recent software developments and share … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Tags and folders | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Note taking software part 2: tango with a twist

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

In this post I focus on the practical side of my note-taking. The main application I use is called Notational Velocity (NV). I started to use NV with Simplenote following MacSparky’s excellent post on Simplenote – NV Tango. After a … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Tags and folders | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Note taking software part 1: what works and what does not

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

Academics need to capturing ideas and pieces of knowledge while doing other things: processing emails, sitting in meetings, listening to students’ presentations, reading books or articles, listening to podcasts, surfing the web. This capture process should be on the one … Continue reading →

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Notes: what’s in the name?

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

Naming notes is very important. Inconsistent naming can really contribute to your fears about note taking. Having to think about a name can interrupt your flow. Messy names will greatly complicate organizing and finding your notes. Thus, names of your … Continue reading →

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Note taking: fears and principles

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

I guess all academics have two two basic fears about note taking. The first is: it will interrupt my flow! If you are reading an article, preparing for a course, writing, processing your email, sitting in a meeting, listening to … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Writing | 2 Comments