Organization Scheme in OneNote Forum

[vexion]

This thread is aimed mainly at current OneNote users.

So I'm fooling around with OneNote, trying to get a notebook organized exactly the way I want it for the coming semester. I'm using dood's excellent personal notebook as a guidepost (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7&start=25).

What I would like to do is have a large "master outline" for each class that I only add to, never delete from, sort of the way that Law School Confidential prescribes, and have a shorter "test day" outline that I'm constantly paring down to just the essentials. Those, alongside sections for class notes, case briefs, etc. Would this be feasible in OneNote? Just have a Notebook for the semester, a Section Group for each class, and sections for Class Notes, Case Briefs, Master Outline, Short Outline, Scans (from casebooks/supplements,) something like that?

I'm thinking it would be detrimental to flip back and forth between both outlines, but I'm paralyzed by fear of just having one working outline -- what if I delete something, thinking I've internalized it, and completely forget it a week later?

I guess my questions are, is this a good organizational scheme? What do you guys use personally?

A corollary question; I want to be able to work on the same notebook on both my laptop at school and my desktop at home. Originally I was just going to sync them when I got home, but I think I'd rather just work in the cloud. Does anyone have experience doing this? I don't have access to my desktop right now and I'm relatively new to services like Dropbox. I'm creating a new notebook in my Dropbox folder on my laptop now, will it be accessible from my desktop, under the same Dropbox username, when I get home? Will this plan work? The Office Online help page regarding notebooks on multiple computers (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/oneno ... 51033.aspx) says "We recommend that you do not use shared notebooks with any other file or folder sharing and synchronization technologies." Is this just a load of crap to get you to use "a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web site"?

[mikeytwoshoes]

This thread is aimed mainly at current OneNote users.

So I'm fooling around with OneNote, trying to get a notebook organized exactly the way I want it for the coming semester. I'm using dood's excellent personal notebook as a guidepost (http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7&start=25).

What I would like to do is have a large "master outline" for each class that I only add to, never delete from, sort of the way that Law School Confidential prescribes, and have a shorter "test day" outline that I'm constantly paring down to just the essentials. Those, alongside sections for class notes, case briefs, etc. Would this be feasible in OneNote? Just have a Notebook for the semester, a Section Group for each class, and sections for Class Notes, Case Briefs, Master Outline, Short Outline, Scans (from casebooks/supplements,) something like that?

I'm thinking it would be detrimental to flip back and forth between both outlines, but I'm paralyzed by fear of just having one working outline -- what if I delete something, thinking I've internalized it, and completely forget it a week later?

I guess my questions are, is this a good organizational scheme? What do you guys use personally?

A corollary question; I want to be able to work on the same notebook on both my laptop at school and my desktop at home. Originally I was just going to sync them when I got home, but I think I'd rather just work in the cloud. Does anyone have experience doing this? I don't have access to my desktop right now and I'm relatively new to services like Dropbox. I'm creating a new notebook in my Dropbox folder on my laptop now, will it be accessible from my desktop, under the same Dropbox username, when I get home? Will this plan work? The Office Online help page regarding notebooks on multiple computers (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/oneno ... 51033.aspx) says "We recommend that you do not use shared notebooks with any other file or folder sharing and synchronization technologies." Is this just a load of crap to get you to use "a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web site"?

tl;dr

Only you can decide how to set up your OneNote notebook.

[vexion]

Oookay... anyone want to describe their notebooks?

[PSLaplace]

Effective outlining strategies are a very personal thing. I will tell you what I did; it worked for me, but there are plenty of people who did well with totally different approaches.

For me, I would start a "Phase I Outline" about 5 weeks before semester's end. In it, I would synthesize information from a good supplement, my class notes, and case briefs. A well-chosen supplement provides a solid, big-picture structure for this outline, and it's also good for filling in holes in your notes/briefs (and, if you've read GTM, spotting forks). Obviously, though, if the supplement contradicts your class notes, your class notes win (unless you take horrible notes). Production of this outline helps me internalize concepts and see connections between different areas of the course.

Then, about a week or two before finals, I work on my "Exam Outline." The first part is basically a checklist of major issues to look for. I then have it organized (roughly) by issue, and for each issue there is essentially a step-by-step algorithm for addressing and resolving that issue (harder to construct than it sounds), as well as things to look out for. This outline is based almost entirely off my Phase I Outline.

And just to make the pitch again: dual monitors FTW. Being able to have my Phase I Outline on one screen while I produce my Exam Outline on another is invaluable. Having my class notes and case briefs on one screen while I produce my Phase I Outline is similarly invaluable.

[jp0094]

For me

each class gets a notebook

each notebook has a class, brief, and outline section

Class: every class period, dated, with class notes
Briefs: every case as read
Outline: usually do this at end of semester

Worked great for me.

[napolnic]

I use dropbox to sync my notes in onenote and it works great. Just create the notebook in your dropbox file as a shared file. You don't really need the link if onenote offers it to you, just download dropbox onto your laptop and add it to your account and then open it from there.

So yes, the Microsoft advice is crap; the only problems I've ever had is when I lose internet connectivity while I'm taking notes and then you get a conflict copy, but it's very easy to just delete the one that is behind on the times.

[Matthies]

I use dropbox to sync my notes in onenote and it works great. Just create the notebook in your dropbox file as a shared file. You don't really need the link if onenote offers it to you, just download dropbox onto your laptop and add it to your account and then open it from there.

So yes, the Microsoft advice is crap; the only problems I've ever had is when I lose internet connectivity while I'm taking notes and then you get a conflict copy, but it's very easy to just delete the one that is behind on the times.

I used the dropbox solution for awhile but kept having the duplicate copys show up everytime I used the other computer. Ended up just using Miscroft Synch (free) and that's worked perfect since then.

[Netopalis]

I used one notebook per class, with sections for case briefs, class notes, outlines and reminders. The reminders were usually about things I wanted to ask the professor about after class, but sometimes had stuff like test review dates or the dates that I would be on call in a particular class.

I also used separate pages for each case or class day. I thought it was pretty useful.

[rowlf]

One of my computers will be a mac and one will be a pc. Are there any note-taking softwares that are compatible with both (preferably that you can buy and install on more than one computer?)? What syncing software would work with both? Thanks!

[Matthies]

One of my computers will be a mac and one will be a pc. Are there any note-taking softwares that are compatible with both (preferably that you can buy and install on more than one computer?)? What syncing software would work with both? Thanks!

Evernote works on both evernote.com (its free) so does springpad (also free) --LinkRemoved--, rummor has it OnenOte 2010 will be webased in the cluod through your brower, but I have not googled that in a while so not sure if its still going to be in the June release. Miscrosft Synch (free) part of Windows live will synch betweeen mac and Windows