Optimal OneNote set up? Forum

[Pennicillin]

So I'm planning to use OneNote for all my note-taking, organizing, and anything law school related. I've never used it before, and while I've fiddled around recently, I was wondering if any of you could share some of your configuration with me.

I have my upcoming 1L year as a notebook and classes set up as section groups, with Notes, Outlines, and Syllabus sections. I also have Extracurricular and General Info sections. Can anyone add something they've found useful or think will be helpful?

[do_me_a_favor]

i think im doing something similar, unless im reading your post wrong. i think its kind of established route to
1) make the notebooks on the left-hand side of the screen your classes. so it would look like maybe con law, torts, property, etc. on the left-hand side
2) within those notebooks us 3-5 top tabs to assemble your work on the course. within those tabs you can still use pages!
so i think this works because it feels clean to me. class notebooks on left hand edge. click through the tabs such as "class notes" "reading notes" "overall outline" "exam outline" and do all your work there, utilizing the paging system whenever.

there was a good thread a while back where folks posted their systems and this is where i formulated mine. they all posted screenshots but the links died over time. ill try to maybe post a SS of mine when back at my real PC, but this is a pretty simple setup nonetheless

[Auxilio]

I think this type of organization is going to be pretty irrelevant overtime to be honest. I use a "notebook" for each semester, each class along the top, then one notebook for jobs/extracurriculars/random shit which is organized a little haphazardly.

Each course gets one tab within its semester and then when I convert it to an outline (depending on how good the original is) I just change the individual pages into different format or make a new tab (within same notebook) and copy&paste a lot.

I think it's better to keep the course within one tab because it prints/converts to .doc/.pdf easier that way.

One important thing to use I think is subpages along the right side. So you have clear organization of big groups and smaller sections.

Also, when making outlines I encourage the liberal use of internal links to the relevant pages from summary/attack outline pages.

[Hinshelwood]

I've been using OneNote consistently throughout law school. I'm starting my 5th semester, but I'm PT so I'm about halfway.

Notebooks (on the left hand side) for each semester. Within each Notebook, each course is a section grouping (you can group sections together into section groupings, kind of like sub-folders in a folder). My basic setup for sections (along the top) in each course is:
Course Info
Notes
Case Briefs
Outline

Course Info only has a few pages. One is for the syllabus, I copy/paste it into there at the beginning of the semester. I highlight or make notes to indicate what is due next, what's been completed, etc. If the professor goes over the format of the exam and what he/she will be looking for, I make another page in that section for that.

Notes is the bulk. Once the syllabus comes out, if it is well-organized, I'll set up my pages and subpages in Notes to match the format of the course. Makes it easier for me to find stuff later on. As the semester moves along, I take notes from the readings in the relevant pages/subpages, and then I edit those in class based on what the professor discusses. The way I like to work is to take most of my notes from reading beforehand, with only minimal edits during class, but that's just me. Also, I like to take my notes in sort of an outline format. OneNote is good at hierarchical lists, with bullets and sub-bullets, etc. I don't write complete sentences typically.

Case Briefs - relatively self-explanatory. I set up a format for the briefs, then set that format to be the default for new pages in that section. If the professor digs into the cases fairly deeply during class, I sometimes make hyperlinks to the individual briefs in the notes pages. Makes it easier to go back and forth quickly - especially when you get called on! I like having the briefs all listed as pages in that section because you can fairly easily find it when you're looking for it later on in the semester.

Outline - typically only one or two pages. Towards the end of the semester I start copy/pasting the notes I have in the Notes pages into one page on the outline. Since I already took them in an outline format, it's pretty easy to make the outline. I'll take out stuff that isn't necessary to know on the exam. Usually that outline will end up at about 40-50 pages printed out. I'll then make a copy as a separate page, and further reduce it down to a 15-20 page outline that I use to study from.

I add other sections depending on the course. For Con law, I made a separate section with the Constitution. One page for each article, and one for each amendment. Copy pasted the content from the internet. Then in my notes, when there was a reference to, say, the 14th Am., I would hyperlink it so that I could quickly click over to the text of Am. 14.

[4for44]

This was similar to my set up and it worked well for me. The real key is section groupings. Adds that one extra level not talked about above. Notebooks for each semester is so much cleaner than notebooks for each class.

I've been using OneNote consistently throughout law school. I'm starting my 5th semester, but I'm PT so I'm about halfway.

Notebooks (on the left hand side) for each semester. Within each Notebook, each course is a section grouping (you can group sections together into section groupings, kind of like sub-folders in a folder). My basic setup for sections (along the top) in each course is:
Course Info
Notes
Case Briefs
Outline

Course Info only has a few pages. One is for the syllabus, I copy/paste it into there at the beginning of the semester. I highlight or make notes to indicate what is due next, what's been completed, etc. If the professor goes over the format of the exam and what he/she will be looking for, I make another page in that section for that.

Notes is the bulk. Once the syllabus comes out, if it is well-organized, I'll set up my pages and subpages in Notes to match the format of the course. Makes it easier for me to find stuff later on. As the semester moves along, I take notes from the readings in the relevant pages/subpages, and then I edit those in class based on what the professor discusses. The way I like to work is to take most of my notes from reading beforehand, with only minimal edits during class, but that's just me. Also, I like to take my notes in sort of an outline format. OneNote is good at hierarchical lists, with bullets and sub-bullets, etc. I don't write complete sentences typically.

Case Briefs - relatively self-explanatory. I set up a format for the briefs, then set that format to be the default for new pages in that section. If the professor digs into the cases fairly deeply during class, I sometimes make hyperlinks to the individual briefs in the notes pages. Makes it easier to go back and forth quickly - especially when you get called on! I like having the briefs all listed as pages in that section because you can fairly easily find it when you're looking for it later on in the semester.

Outline - typically only one or two pages. Towards the end of the semester I start copy/pasting the notes I have in the Notes pages into one page on the outline. Since I already took them in an outline format, it's pretty easy to make the outline. I'll take out stuff that isn't necessary to know on the exam. Usually that outline will end up at about 40-50 pages printed out. I'll then make a copy as a separate page, and further reduce it down to a 15-20 page outline that I use to study from.

I add other sections depending on the course. For Con law, I made a separate section with the Constitution. One page for each article, and one for each amendment. Copy pasted the content from the internet. Then in my notes, when there was a reference to, say, the 14th Am., I would hyperlink it so that I could quickly click over to the text of Am. 14.

[allthelawls]

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