Mac Programs for Law School Forum

[Horchata]

FYI you need OSX version 10.5.8 or later. Does anyone know if you have to pay to get a newer version?

[kazu]

Remind self to try out circus ponies this summer.

[carne.asada]

Check out Growly Notes - it's simple, easy to use, and free. I liked it better than Circus Ponies.

[yinz]

Word and keyboard shortcuts.

[Lawst]

Yep, Mac owner here who just got a MBP to replace an aging iBook. I hadn't even thought about getting software for taking notes - I guess the preloaded word processing program (is it still AppleWorks?) is too clunky?
I'm an old. The last time I was in a classroom was about 15 years ago and we took notes by hand, so it's a new concept for me. I mean, laptops were around, but people didn't think to bring them to class for notetaking. Also, back then they were made out of wood and ran entirely on coal with a backup hamster powered battery.

[Naked Dude]

I've seen a few people say (on other threads) that CP is cheaper than OO. They must be outdated threads, because with an academic license (yeah don't forget to get the student discount) OO is actually cheaper, $24.95 vs. $29.95

http://www.circusponies.com/purchase-notebook/
--LinkRemoved--

I'm still using trial versions of the latter. I have nothing to say about CP, because I'm not going to try it (because I don't like the name--jk I'm happy with Omni). If I buy it I'd consider spending the exrta $25 on the Pro version

[Rooney]

http://www.maclawstudents.com/blog/cate ... -software/

Lots of stuff here.
Seems like it's between Growly and Ponies

[Naked Dude]

ok fine i tried CP and i like it

[FantasticMrFox]

Tag
But why not just use Word...? I use Word for class-notes (they even have templates that look like notebook paper but those are distracting) seeing I don't need anything flashy.

One bad thing about Word documents in Mac is the inability to lose the gap between pages when writing a long paper...that bothers me, for some reason.

[Naked Dude]

There's nothing wrong with word, but you are kind of limited in your options, in terms of organization. It would be foolish to open a new document for every class period, so the next best thing is putting everything in one document. I think one can over-organize to the point where it becomes a compulsion and actually becomes counterproductive, but I think one can keep it elegantly simple in CP or OneNote, etc. Tab it just like a notebook, for each class period or major concept, use dividers to separate big ideas in the class if you want. Cool features like an automatic word index, date created feature, etc make it pretty snazzy. Not too much effort on the users part I don't think.

[yinz]

Tag
But why not just use Word...? I use Word for class-notes (they even have templates that look like notebook paper but those are distracting) seeing I don't need anything flashy.

One bad thing about Word documents in Mac is the inability to lose the gap between pages when writing a long paper...that bothers me, for some reason.

Focus on substance over form. If you try CP and it works for you, fine. I used Word throughout. I had a new Word doc for each chapter or section of the class and typed in outline (I. A. i. a.) form, which I then compiled and edited into an outline in one document. So, for a typical day in class my notes would like look like this:

I. [Chapter X Heading]
A. [Subsection Heading]
i. [Case 1 Brief]
a.-e. Case brief, case notes, class notes, misc. (classroom discussion or supplement material).
ii. [Case 2 Brief]
a.-e. Case brief, case notes, class notes, misc. (classroom discussion or supplement material).
B. [Subsection Heading]

Having the fancy features CP or other note-taking systems provide is nice, but largely unnecessary for law school. To me, a word-index and color-coded tabs wasn't enough to justify $50 when I could use control-F or the spotlight fcn.

[TheKingintheNorth]

The notebook templates in Word for Mac appear to be more than sufficient.

I would consult with your friendly XXXX Class of 2014 or Discuss Your XXX Law School thread to be certain OSX runs their testtaking software well enough to make sure you don't need bootcamp. Personally I have an MBP with Bootcamp just for gaming. I have OneNote installed "just in case" but the Notebook template in Word (edit: which appears to be exclusive to word for mac, probably due to the lack of OneNote support in OSX) seems more than satisfactory when combined with the general coolness of the rest of OSX.

[23402385985]

Dot.

Will probably be buying my Mac this week, so this is relevant to my interests.

[random5483]

I own an MBP. I run Windows via bootcamp for OneNote. I prefer OneNote's organization to CP and the other alternatives. I guess if I did not have an extra install of Windows to spare I would have dealt with some other outline/note program.

[blurped]

Has anyone worked with Word for Mac 2011 in Notebook mode enough to know if it is essentially the same as OneNote? I have had some issues with formatting when I create something in Notebook mode and then switch to other viewing modes in Word (within the same document). Thoughts on whether this would be sufficient for law school?

I haven't worked with it in Word for Mac 2011, but in Word for Mac 2008 it was very unstable. I only tried it preliminarily, but saw a lot of online complaints about its instability. Used it for about a day & it crashed multiple times--gave up out of fear it would happen during class one day.

[Lawst]

I've been using Circus Ponies in outline mode all year and I really like it. It makes it easier when I go back to outline at the end of the semester because the format is right there and I can move blocks of text around easily. I think Word has too many features that can be a hassle when you just want to take notes, and its too slow to load, so I use it only for LRW papers.

[laxbrah420]

.

[sidhesadie]

I tried GrowlyNotes and Circus, and I didn't like one better than the other, and Growly is free, so decision made.

it's worked fine for me all year. I don't want my notes taken in outline format because organizing my shit into a cohesive outline is what really cements it in my brain, I don't want the computer doing that for me.

Growly may have such a mode, I have no idea, though, but it's free so you could download it and try it out.

[Legen..waitforit]

tag

[kapital98]

CP has a very customizable user-interface, that can be tweaked to lack all the surrounding clutter that onenote has. I like that I'm able to open one document with multiple windows (outline, notes, case briefs) automatically. This is a time-saver if you are crunched getting to class on time. The ability to have multiple windows with different documents open, that can all be linked together (EX: case brief link in outline, to full case brief) is an advantage in class, & for purposes of managing the extraordinary amount of information that we encounter. Furthermore, it is very easy to export CP documents to word. I think the program lacks some degree of intuitiveness regarding ease-of-use. However, once you adapt to it, the customizability aspect is a big bonus.

...

The foundation of the matter is that CP is mac-friendly, and can be run without the hassle of installing any cross-platform software. Once you get the hang of it, all the hoo-ha about OneNote will pass.

Just to be clear, you can have multiple windows of OneNote open at the same time. You can also customize the UI however you want in the settings. This comes from a long time user of OneNote. A short trial of OneNote is very different than becoming familiar with the program and becoming efficient with it. It would be like using Microsoft Word for 30 days and then saying Wordpad is the same thing because you never used the advanced features or formatting.

With that I mind: I can't really compare OneNote to CP because I'm not familiar with CP. Looking through their site (http://www.circusponies.com/notebook/stay-organized; http://www.circusponies.com/notebook-video-tour) this does not appear to be as efficient or organized as OneNote. It's still probably a better solution for most people than installing a Windows emulator for mac. But that's just my first impression.

Below is a picture of me 1L outlining using multiple windows of OneNote (click on the picture). For the write-on competition I would have 2 windows on OneNote at the same time and Word also on the left-hand side (2556x1440 monitor).

[soj]

TextEdit is overkill. You don't need a fancy note-taking program.

[laxbrah420]

You just need something that nests bullets well. Workflowy (online app) is actually real nice for that.

[one_by_one]

.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I haven't worked with it in Word for Mac 2011, but in Word for Mac 2008 it was very unstable. I only tried it preliminarily, but saw a lot of online complaints about its instability. Used it for about a day & it crashed multiple times--gave up out of fear it would happen during class one day.

Buying a Mac soon but this and other reviews about Office for Mac are sort of concerning. Have lots of other people had issues with Word crashing or losing info? I'm trying to figure out if it would be overkill to run Office for Windows on my Mac thru Parallels (and then I'd have the added benefit of having OneNote.) Thoughts?

If you're using Word I can't see any reason to run Windows on your Mac to run Word. Word itself is perfectly stable and fine (I mean, you can pick a lot of bones with the overloaded features and redundancies and so on, but it's not going to lose your information any more on the Mac than it will on Windows). I also never ran into any problems with the Notebook view. If you want to run OneNote instead, that's a different issue, but it doesn't make any sense to me to run an emulator and add a whole other layer of software because you're concerned about stability.

[Void]

I used a mac and Word for all three years. Used office mac. Worked perfectly. Your notes are only for the purpose of creating an outline at the end of the semester. As long as you take decent enough class notes so that you can read and understand them later, you're fine. Lots of people come into class during the first month planning all kinds of fancy notetaking and organization, but by the time you're a 3L you'll realize it was all a waste of time and energy. Just jot down the main subject during class, then turn your notes into an outline before the exam. Boom. Done.