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Hi, I am planning to use my computer to produce notes rather than hand write them. Which program is better to use for making notes? I may also print the notes later before exam time.

The advice I got during orientation was use whatever you are most comfortable with. Whether it's google docs/word/onenote/the old fashioned way - no need to necessarily reinvent the wheel for your notes - just do what has worked well for you in the past!

If you want to print the notes, use Word. But don't print notes in lieu of creating an outline.

HLSorSLSHopeful wrote:The advice I got during orientation was use whatever you are most comfortable with. Whether it's google docs/word/onenote/the old fashioned way - no need to necessarily reinvent the wheel for your notes - just do what has worked well for you in the past!

This is entirely correct. If you prefer to take notes in Word, do that; if OneNote, do that; if paper-and-pen, do that. There's no one "right" way to study. You've gotten all the way to law school, and have been a very successful student all the way. Yes, law school's different, but the basics of studying are still the same - you alone still know best what works and what doesn't work for you. Don't try to reinvent the wheel for law school - it won't work and could very well be harmful.

Computer-free classes also exist, especially during 1L, so be aware of that. Approximately half of my 1L classes did not require computers.

Pneumonia wrote:Computer-free classes also exist, especially during 1L, so be aware of that. Approximately half of my 1L classes did not require computers.

I don't think I ever had a class that required computers in-class. But there were a few, especially during 1L, that banned laptops. I'm not a fan but it is what it is, so you should be prepared to do some amount of old-fashioned pen-and-paper notetaking.

I used one note and absolutely loved it. I liked having everything in the same place, neatly organized in color-coordinated folders. One note is incredibly versatile and user friendly, too.

Just chiming in to say, that whatever application you use to take notes, make sure you back them up DAILY. OneNote and Google Docs are great because they do it automatically. But please don't make the mistake I did 1L year of taking all of my notes and creating all of my outlines in Word without backing them up, only to have my hard-drive crash a month before exams.

I use OneNote, but in a slightly different way from most people.

I use my laptop to type out my briefs at home. I go by the syllabus and/or the textbooks to make section headers and daily pages/topics. I put the briefs in subsections under the daily pages. Then during class I use a little 10-inch Android tablet with a smart pen so I can hand write my general notes on the daily topic page. I have my laptop out with my briefs pulled up and type out notes related to the individual cases on the same page as the brief for that case.

This allows me to use a bit of the best of both worlds with regards to typing/handwriting. Obviously typing is faster so you can get more stuff written down. But there's been studies done that show improved learning with handwritten information vs. typed. So generally I hand-write the overarching thematic stuff, and type out the case-specific, fact-based stuff. Using OneNote means I can do both and still have all my notes in one place.

I use Word for my outlines, however. Just easier.

Onenote has two really helpful features:
1.) the search function is great and easy to use (unlike in word)
2.) onenote lets you take audio recordings as well, and they sync up to your typing -- so if you are confused about your notes, you can listen to that part of the lecture again.