What style do you outline in? Forum

[BarbellDreams]

I had a 3L who did very well give me her outlines and they were basically made to fit in as much material as possible. There was no A,B,C or 1,2,3 format, it was just bolded topics and notes on those topics without any spaces between paragraphs or anything in order to fit the most in. I originally thought this may have been a good idea but lately have been questioning it cause after completing a good deal of my outlines in that format it just looks very disorganized. How do you outline? What program do you use? My Word doesn't seem to autoformat outlines, how do I fix this?

[plum]

I had a 3L who did very well give me her outlines and they were basically made to fit in as much material as possible. There was no A,B,C or 1,2,3 format, it was just bolded topics and notes on those topics without any spaces between paragraphs or anything in order to fit the most in. I originally thought this may have been a good idea but lately have been questioning it cause after completing a good deal of my outlines in that format it just looks very disorganized. How do you outline? What program do you use? My Word doesn't seem to autoformat outlines, how do I fix this?

i recommend OneNote, the outline/bullet-tab feature is way more intelligent than Word (which is retarded and gets easily confused), and knows how to fix itself and can be easily modified. i use the whole I,II,III/1,2,3/a,b,c thing because it's easier to organize arguments when D argues 3 reasons, the Court has 5 subpoints etc. You can then copy and paste the outline form OneNote into Word if you really want to have it in that format too, I haven't had any problems doing that...

[M.M.]

I had a 3L who did very well give me her outlines and they were basically made to fit in as much material as possible. There was no A,B,C or 1,2,3 format, it was just bolded topics and notes on those topics without any spaces between paragraphs or anything in order to fit the most in. I originally thought this may have been a good idea but lately have been questioning it cause after completing a good deal of my outlines in that format it just looks very disorganized. How do you outline? What program do you use? My Word doesn't seem to autoformat outlines, how do I fix this?

i recommend OneNote, the outline/bullet-tab feature is way more intelligent than Word (which is retarded and gets easily confused), and knows how to fix itself and can be easily modified. i use the whole I,II,III/1,2,3/a,b,c thing because it's easier to organize arguments when D argues 3 reasons, the Court has 5 subpoints etc. You can then copy and paste the outline form OneNote into Word if you really want to have it in that format too, I haven't had any problems doing that...

Is OneNote hard to learn? I began using it when I first got my computer last year but I was sort of initially just confused and didn't really have time to play with gadgets, and haven't looked at it since, but I hear good things.

[plum]

Is OneNote hard to learn? I began using it when I first got my computer last year but I was sort of initially just confused and didn't really have time to play with gadgets, and haven't looked at it since, but I hear good things.

i mean i don't know everything about it, but all you really need to do to get started on the outline is what you would do in Word (except it's way more superior in onenote), you just open the file, click the outline/tab feature and start typing, and the great thing about it also is that you don't have to keep pressing Save, because it saves with each keystroke automatically. and just like you have tabs in your firefox browser, you can create little tab things on the sides and top of the file and so all your files/outlines for various classes are easily accessible. if you really want to get hardcore about it, you can check out this thread: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=127496

[M.M.]

Is OneNote hard to learn? I began using it when I first got my computer last year but I was sort of initially just confused and didn't really have time to play with gadgets, and haven't looked at it since, but I hear good things.

i mean i don't know everything about it, but all you really need to do to get started on the outline is what you would do in Word (except it's way more superior in onenote), you just open the file, click the outline/tab feature and start typing, and the great thing about it also is that you don't have to keep pressing Save, because it saves with each keystroke automatically. and just like you have tabs in your firefox browser, you can create little tab things on the sides and top of the file and so all your files/outlines for various classes are easily accessible. if you really want to get hardcore about it, you can check out this thread: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=127496

Awesome thanks. I do well with only word but I have a feeling I'm going to have to streamline my note taking when I get into law school.

[nealric]

I just do standard outline form for my big outline:

As in:

I. Main Topic
A. Subtopic
1. Smaller Subtopic
a. Explanation (individual cases usually go here)
i. (Small notes go at this level)


I also do a problem solving outline organized by questions. For example, the heading might be: "Is there consideration?" I then walk through the analysis for determining if there has been consideration.

[goosey]

as i have gotten more comf with onenote I am starting to wish I had done my outlines on there instead of word...word DOES get easily confused and its SO ANNOYING.

i started taking notes for class in outline style for civ pro and crim and am amazed at how much easier it it on onenote.

I use I, II, III..for major sections, then A, B, C for topics in that section and break it down as needed...in the beginnig I tried to make it uniform but now I dont care if the sub and sub-sub topics are using the same designation "i..ii...iii" or not. As long as it is tiered and I can understand that I am extrapolating on the point made directly above and that this all fits under the subtopic and eventually main section, thats all that matters.

I am done with worrying about I. A. 1. a. i. a...kind of thing..its way too much hassel on word

i should clarify that when I say i dont care about uniformity, that is from one main topic to another..not within the same topic. I think if all subtopics within Personal Jurisdiction had different designations that would be hugely confusing. But if subtopic tier 1 in personal jursidiction is "a)" then I dont think it matters if subtopic tier one in Subject Matter Jurisdiction is "1)"

[uwb09]

I just do standard outline form for my big outline:

As in:

I. Main Topic
A. Subtopic
1. Smaller Subtopic
a. Explanation (individual cases usually go here)
i. (Small notes go at this level)


I also do a problem solving outline organized by questions. For example, the heading might be: "Is there consideration?" I then walk through the analysis for determining if there has been consideration.

+1