Best Program For Taking Notes On Pdf For Mac
Vaniria Setser
I have read some old discussions about this topic and would like to get some up-to-date advice if possible. I'm going to start university next year (maths), and I know how important is to have a set of well-organized, well-taken notes, since you have an extremely larger bounch of material to study (compared to high school). Then my questions are:--what are the best techniques to take good notes "in real-time" (if you know what I mean) and without getting distracted (I mean, without getting everything stright from the blackboard to my notebook without passing through my head)?--should I use a tablet/computer to take notes? If so, which app/program do you suggest? Is it advisable to write mathematics with a stylus on a tablet, or it is better to use something like mathamatica? Is it possible to use such devices in real-time?
If you're on page 3, say, and you want to refer to something on page1, mark it with an equation number or a star or something and saveyourself time by abbreviating it: for instance, writing "then using(1.5), we get that (1.1) becomes (1.3)" is a lot quicker thanwriting out all those equations again.
Best Program For Taking Notes On Pdf For Mac
--Go over the notes quickly and write on the top of the front page, bythe date, keywords representing the topics covered that day. Forinstance, "Poisson's formula", or "Proof that $e^i\pi=-1$". Thisway you'll be able to tell in which set of notes a topic is coveredwhen you're looking for it later.
-- Go over the notes and isolate the things that require follow-up workfor you, and put those in your to-do list (you should have one!) Forinstance, "Understand second fundamental form". Then later, use yourresources to take care of these. Do not just stow the notes awayand promise yourself that you'll "go over them" later. Unless youisolate specific things that you need to do, they will just pile upand turn into lumps of stuff you haven't taken care of.
Remember that the art of organization is the art of being honest with yourself: what are you really going to go back and do? What parts of the notes are you really going to look over and use later? Are you writing notes with the goal of advancing your understanding, or just because you want to feel like you're doing something?
EDIT: After a number of years, I would now recommend something like Notability for capture, and Anki for retention. Above all, don't rely on your intuition for when good learning is happening. Read the evidence (e.g. the book "Make it Stick" or www.learningscientists.org). Notes are generally low-utility. (Though of course you do need notes to capture information.)
If you're in a good course where all the technical facts you need to learn are already in the textbook (or in handouts), and the point of the lectures is to provide perspective and intuition about the material in the textbook, then the best way to take notes is not to take any! Dedicate your entire mental capacity to following the presentation and getting an internal idea of what is happening. Then after the lecture, read the corresponding sections in the textbook critically to determine whether the lecture gave you any insights that are not already there.
If you want to do well in university mathematics, you'll need to keep pencil-and-paper with you at all times; both to do homework assignments in your spare time, and to scribble your own stuff and pursue the extra-curricular questions that most interest you.
A workbook filled with lined paper, such that the pages are easy to tear out. I'll explain why in a moment. 128 pages is a good size; in which case, you'll probably need a new workbook every couple of weeks.
How it all works together. Suppose you need to prove a theorem $\varphi$. You state the theorem $\varphi$ at the top of the page, and start proving it. If you make a small mistake, use the eraser. If you make a big mistake, tear it out and start again. Every time you complete a page, you tear out and put it on the left of the page you're about to start writing on. That way, you can see what you've written so far. When you've finally completed the proof, staple all the pages of the proof together; this stapled collecion constitutes the complete proof of $\varphi$. Then slip the stapled pages into your A4 display folder.
I am one of those people who just transcribes the professor's board using a standard black pen, white-out, and fast writing. I do happen to be blessed with fairly good handwriting, and tremendously blessed to have good memory. I have given my notes to friends, who sometimes felt awkward about taking them, until they learned that I never look at my notes again (unless I need to figure out what the homework assignment was, and that's really rare), so giving them away isn't a problem. By the time I finish writing the notes down, I have them pretty well memorized, so I don't bother to organize them.
It drove my Mechanics I professor (confessions time, I'm an engineering student) nuts that I would take notes for 5 classes (including Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra) in one single-subject college-ruled notebook. It works for me, though. However, I don't recommend the practice to anyone who doesn't basically memorize their notes. In fact, the reason I do the single-notebook rule, is because I don't have space in my backpack for five notebooks.
If the teacher is thorough on the board, you can take pictures using your smartphone. There are apps that will then automatically transfer these to your computer in real time. That way you can pay more attention to the material and less to transcribing it.
If you have your computer with you, you can then use it to review notes the teacher has since erased in case you need to in order understand something later in the lecture. Also, if the teacher says anything crucial without writing it on the board, then you can type that up and use it to annotate your pictures.
Make sure whatever app you use to take pictures is noiseless, as you are likely to be prohibited from taking pictures if doing so proves distracting to the rest of the class. In my experience, most teachers don't complain about noiseless picture taking.
I realize some people learn as much or more by taking notes than they do from reading them. In my view, since we can think and read more quickly than we can write, that method is inefficient - but if that learning style suits you then my method may not be for you.
Apart from taking notes with pen and paper there is of course the possibility to use LaTeX. For me that was a great way to learn LaTeX since sooner or later I had to do it anyway. This method of taking notes also has the advantage of being very readable and readily distributable to your fellow students.
On the other hand I also have to give a warning. In the beginning this will use a lot of your attention and it will be hard to keep up with the lecturer. Only after some training of your muscle memory will this become easier. Also if there are charts and diagrams you still need to have a piece of paper to draw them and insert them later.
Without those moments before meetings to chat over the agenda in person, you need to create some sort of format for your meeting. Using note taking apps to prep the team for the meeting, and sharing the note with everyone beforehand, is essential.
During your virtual meetings, things are also much more likely to get lost in the shuffle. Did you know that over 70% of communication is non-verbal? This means that something you say over Zoom may be taken a totally different way than it would in person.
When it comes to taking better notes at work, finding yourself an excellent note taking app is critical for managing your projects successfully, logging next steps, and planning overall strategy. When you are able to record your next steps with one of many great note taking apps on the market, and ideally assign them out to meeting attendees, you are actually able to start getting work done in the meeting.
One of the most popular and very traditional note taking apps, Evernote is used by teams around the world who want one central location for all meeting notes and documents. Within Evernote, you can store all of your notes in one place, and sync notes between devices. You can also capture photos to save in your notes, and add checklists for the next steps.
Notion is one of our favorite note taking apps used by teams for a few primary things, including taking notes, managing projects, and creating team-wide wikis. With Notion, you can store notes and docs in List view, which helps you see quickly the most important aspects of a note and its contents. Users can then assign tasks directly from notes with a few clicks. This is one of the most popular note taking apps that has recently become very popular.
Hugo is a centralized place for all notes, meetings, and tasks. This is a relatively newer product on the market and is basically a central place to gather everything related to any upcoming meetings. In Hugo, you can see a general overview of the meetings on your calendar, as well as any tasks that are related to them. You can also set reminders to alert you to any upcoming meetings so you never forget to set an agenda or prepare.
Simplenote is one of our favorite note taking apps for those who want something straightforward and simple, as the name suggests. Simplenote allows you to sync all notes across devices, and you can view past changes in markdown mode. Additionally, you can easily share lists/notes and meeting items with other people, as well as publish your notes online.
If you are in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Notes (or simply Notes or iCloud Notes) is an easy-to-use and convenient free tool for note-taking. From a quick thought or idea to checklists, images, web links, scanned documents or handwritten notes, Apple notes make it easy to document and access your notes.
Another solution to facilitate your note-taking is Clover. The software works as a digital notebook that blends notes, tasks, a digital whiteboard, and a daily planner into one streamlined app. The solution offers powerful features including infinite canvas, presentation options, and the ability to embed rich media to your notes, so your colleagues can interact with content from YouTube, Figma, SoundCloud, and more.
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