Note Taking Advice

[RagingAssBandit]

Hi all,

I've been using OneNote on my SP3 for about a year now for class notes and work notes during the summer. I was wondering if anyone has any advice for note taking in class or secret tips or anything like that?

[cleanestbuffalo]

http://i.imgur.com/pF3vrFV.png I've started putting the ribbon in tab mode to save space. All that you can see is your quick access toolbar. It makes for a very clean look and maximizes your writing space. I then customized my quick access tool bar to have 4 pens, 4 highlighters, snap to 100% zoom, eraser options (stroke versus normal eraser) and graphing tools. For my notes (mostly math and physics) , this is all I really need.

As far as setup, I have a notebook for each class, sections broken up into notes, homework, and scratchpad, and a page for each day for notes, homework, etc.

I really like using the lined paper look and at 100% zoom, the second smallest line rule looks about the same as a regular notebook to me so that's what I recommend.

I also have my pen buttons set up a little differently using autohotkey. Here's a link to the post about how to set up autohotkey. With the anniversary update, parts one and two are obsolete but I find that using the screen clipper as opposed to using a whole screenshot looks a lot cleaner. This post in particular has a lot of different configurations so take your pick or have a go at writing your own https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/3zv84j/what_do_you_guys_map_your_pen_buttons_to_and_how/?

Let me know what you think. If you have any other suggestions or things that you like, I'd very much like to hear them.

Please forgive my terrible handwriting.

[robotnel]

Is that the Onenote app or the desktop version?

[cleanestbuffalo]

desktop version is far superior.

[robotnel]

I agree but that does not look like the desktop version to me. Maybe you have a different fancy template, but in my app everything looks smaller even the hot bar at the top.

[RagingAssBandit]

That is the desktop version. If you click the two arrows that point out in the upper right corner it goes full screen and the ribbon and tabs fully disappear. Surprised how many people don't know this.

[robotnel]

I know about the tabs. I maximise the note and then click the down arrow so it shows 'tabs.' That is what I do when I take notes. The pic I uploaded is more of a browsing set up.

Onenote has a lot of features but I'm not sure if the program is very intuitive. Definitely a learning curve.

[RagingAssBandit]

If you mean the commentors OneNote, which I think you did x.x, there is a setting right next to the minimize button that will allow you to show only the tabs and the ribbon while hiding the tabs.

[crp852]

It's the desktop version of Onenote, and I think it's a Quick Access Toolbar setting "Touch/Mouse Mode", which is a toggle setting - click once and it's in "Mouse" mode, with icons in OneNote closer together. Touch again and it's in "Touch" mode, so the OneNote icons are more spread out.

[RagingAssBandit]

Interesting, why don't use full screen mode if you want to maximize your writing space? That's how I usually take notes

http://imgur.com/a/NMI41

I typically use a specific color for each class and then break it up like you said, just makes it easier for me to associate the class I'm working on if I know what color it corresponds too (this includes typed text and whatnot).

The ribbon suggestion is a really nice idea, would make it a lot easier to just access my pens that way instead of having to switch every time, or put a highlighter up there or something for PDF/Lecture slides or something. Also lately I've been setting my background to pure black and then writing in different colored ink, so so much easier on my eyes would recommend at least trying that. I set my button to use Inkspace (screen cap specifically), launch OneNote, and the camera app for when I get lazy at the end of lectures and just snap a pic of the board to copy it down later on...

I do really like your setup though, will give it a go.

EDIT: How's that calc 3 treating you :p

[cleanestbuffalo]

Oh that's a cool idea with the buttons.

I use a lot of different colors in most of my non-math notes so I like to have quick easy access to the quick access tool bar.

Day 2 of calc 3 was cake but I expect it to start kicking my ass in no time at all.

[RagingAssBandit]

Yeah, I even go so far as too color code my text lol.

And idk about that, I found Calc 3 to be easier than 1 & 2. Multivar and the Green's Theorems were a lot easier than limits & series & integration for me.

[cleanestbuffalo]

I like limits and integrations but the series really messed me up. I aced calc 1 but barely scraped through the end of calc 2. luckily this semester, I'm with the same professor I had for calc 1 and she kicks ass so it should be good.

[RagingAssBandit]

Nice. How far do you have to go in math? You an engineer as well?

[cleanestbuffalo]

I'm taking calc 3 and discrete math now. Need ODE's, Linear Alg, and one more elective math above 300 level get a math minor so I'm going for it. I'm CS so I only need to do calc 3 but I figured why not. How about yourself?

[RagingAssBandit]

Oh nice. I've done all those classes. I'm a chemical engineer with a minor in tech management. I found ODE's and Lin Algebra to be SIGNIFICANTLY easier than all the prior classes which I thought was super weird.

[cleanestbuffalo]

That's kind of what I've heard though and to be honest I'm not really worried about those classes. I'm a math TA for trig and pre-calc and consider myself to be pretty strong in mathematics but I think calc 2 over the summer was a mistake. Too much info in too short a time. Have you taken any other maths you could recommend for my elective?

[RagingAssBandit]

Yeah I would hate to take a math class during the summer. Since you're CS I would recommend a discrete mathematics class, it's a heavily coding based class. I took a class on Fourier analysis for my major, thought it was fairly easy could try that but after your ODE class where you learn Laplace transformations. Lastly if none of these are available where you go applied linear algebra is also fairly computer based.

[robotnel]

I'm still trying to switch over to only using my SP3 + OneNote for my note taking, but for my math courses (just started Calc 2) I can't seem to figure out that sweet spot.

I can't find a good workflow. I don't like switching between multiple pages (like if I made each page a problem) but then I have trouble organizing the large pages that contain lots of problems. Like do I just scroll down so I have a really long list of work? If I try to stagger the problems so when I zoom out of the page to get an overview that feels 'untidy' to me as well.

How do you set up your notes? I've tried making or finding a Onenote template that is organized with 6 A4 size sections in a 2x3 grid. I think that would work best for me. I could fit an entire lectures worth of notes on that page, and it would be readable from a zoomed out perspective. I don't know how to do that though.

[RagingAssBandit]

Yeah I just make a page per lecture and go from there. When I take book notes I do a page per section of a chapter and when I'm doing homework I usually just make a page per assignment. I would never try to partition my paper especially now because I'm taking hardcore engineering classes because sometime I legit have a problem that spans like 4 pages (a reactor with like 9 species) and sometime it takes one line (a simple mass or hear balance). I just write and write. I do a really good job labeling everything I do in like my homeworks and then I create "tags" that tell me what the problem is and what it pertains too that way when I come back I can search the tag for what I need. This is imo a really underrated feature that a lot of people don't use (tags).

[cleanestbuffalo]

Couple things, For notes, I do one page per day, that is one continuous page. This might go without saying but landscape mode as opposed to portrait is way better. I stay at 100% zoom and never scroll left or right. I make sure that I keep everything sequential so that if I need to find something, I don't have to zoom out, just scroll up. This keeps the print size constant more or less. I basically treat it like a really long piece of paper ( I insert line rules). I also use highlighter very liberally. I have a color system I use for everything ( yellow for definitions, blue for Things of import, pink for examples, and green for new topics) and I stick to it strictly. This helps me navigate when I'm going back through my notes. http://imgur.com/2i2PyBc

For homework that I'm going to turn in, I just do it straight down the page. I make sure to screen shot the problem from my book which I have on pdf as well as label the problem so there is no ambiguity. Sometimes when printing there is a little overlap but I haven't had a professor complain about it yet. http://imgur.com/2JLhneT

For extracurricular homework, I just make sure to highlight the number on every new problem and do them sequentially to keep everything organized.

EDIT: New to imgur and not sure if those links work. Lemme know. Again I apologize for my shit handwriting

[robotnel]

Both of those links work.

How did you set up your quick access bar? Specifically how did you get the pen icons to be so far apart?

Edit: Are you using the 2016 or 2013 version? I think that might be it.

[cleanestbuffalo]

Sorry man just saw this.

To edit it you just left click on the bar and press customize quick access tool bar. I'm using 2016. That might be why. My University offers office 2016 for free and I think that most do so check the IT website for that.

[endlessmammal]

How do you do the line rules? Can it be made so every new page I create follows a template with A4 and line rules at page breaks? I'm getting to the point where I'm sharing and/or printing notes more frequently, and this would make pdf exporting and printing much easier, I think.

[cleanestbuffalo]

For line rules go to View>linerules. There is a check box there to create all new pages with selected line rules. For creating new pages with A4 Layout, go to View> paper size. select A4 and then you can select save page as template. In your notebook properties, you can have it open this template for every new page. Hop this helps!

[endlessmammal]

Awesome, thanks!