notecards

[buridan]

could we have note cards in addition to notes. where any reference could have many notecards? with each notecard related to one reference with an optional page number field for each notecard?

I know that would give me much more organizational power, especialy if i could list all notecards by book title or book author beyond having fulltext search.

it is like the notecards in zotero, but with the listing and page numbers it would be immensely more powerful.

[Jon]

Hi,

I'll think about that. But note (intentional) that Bookends isn't meant to be a rich note taking application -- there are plenty of apps out there that are intended for this. And now with the ability to place hypertext links to Bookends references in other apps, it makes it easier than ever to tie the two together. You may want to look into this possibility. Another is that you can keep your notes in something as simple as a text editor, and attach one note to multiple references in Bookends right now. This may be improved in the future.

Jon
Sonny Software

[salihburhan]

the problem with using external files (correct me if I am wrong.. I am new with this.. ) is their movement or reorganization.. I am having the similar problem with Bookends.. Once I start to use the abstract and the notes section, I do not want to divide my casual notes by writing them somewhere else again.. I would think the notes section can at least accommodate bullets (italics work fine). And, of course, printing the abstract and the notes.. Something like a printing options where the whole entry can be printed for reference.. (I tried to print in vain.. I don't know how to access the database, maybe thats why.. )

Hope this helps..
(By the way, I was using Endnote and switched, this is by far much better.. Thanks)

[Jon]

Hi,

There are couple of issues here, I think.

1. Bullets. You can enter buttlets yourself. Option-8 = bullet (•).

2. Organization. As long as the external notes have been attached, they can be moved to any other folder in which at least one attachment resides. If you move it to a folder Bookends doesn't know about, just attach it again and all of the attachments you move to the same folder will be found.

3. Print out of all fields -- there is a format called Printout just for this purpose. Of course, you can modify it (or create a completely new version) to your taste.

Jon
Sonny Software

[buridan]

Thanks for the response Jon, for me it is not really 'notes' that i need, as much as notecards. Notecards to hold individual quotations from a book. each book has many quotations, currently i have been bashing them into the notes section, which works, and I use devonthink pro to hold many thousands of pdfs. I don't personally need a the links. I just would like a one:many reference:notecard system, as it would make finding stuff in my notes much easier, because for instance, i have in one of my 'notes' for one book, about 25000 words of notes. searching finds the whole chunk, but if i broke it out to individual notes, searching would be far more efficient. sure... i could do that in another program, but i already have everything in bookends.

Hi,

I'll think about that. But note (intentional) that Bookends isn't meant to be a rich note taking application -- there are plenty of apps out there that are intended for this. And now with the ability to place hypertext links to Bookends references in other apps, it makes it easier than ever to tie the two together. You may want to look into this possibility. Another is that you can keep your notes in something as simple as a text editor, and attach one note to multiple references in Bookends right now. This may be improved in the future.

Jon
Sonny Software

[salihburhan]

OK.. Thanks a lot.. This printing formatting saved me a lot of trouble..

[jmckeown]

> you can keep your notes in something as simple as a text editor, and attach

Yes that is good, but access could be improved. For me the Notes tab in Bookends is spare/empty because I make notes with external editor. (Partly so that DevonThink indexes it, partly due to MacVim-LaTeX flow). I attach that text file to Bookends, but I would like to view it in the Notes tab because the Attachments (PDF) tab usually already has something in (I know it can have more than one but not visible).

John

[Jon]

Hi,

If you're asking for Bookends to display external files in the Notes field, that's not going to work (for so many reasons). The place for display is in the lower pane of the list view (or the attachment tab of the reference view). I think you know that there's a popup menu that let's you see all attachments, but one at a time of course (I'm making this explicit for others who might not pick upon the popup menu).

Jon
Sonny Software

[w.yaqoob]

Bit OT, but could I ask what external application BE users are using for note-taking? I haven't taken the plunge for Devonthink yet, and I currently take all my notes in Word (2008 has a useful navigation pane that automatically structures according to headings used), and attach to relevant book references in BE. But Word can't use BE links. Should I just use textedit, or is there something better out there?

[ozean]

Bit OT

yes, why not post this as a separate topic?

[kheidse]

Bookends isn't meant to be a rich note taking application -- there are plenty of apps out there that are intended for this

...But it would be soooo nice to have it all in one database!! Cuts out so many steps, from the information gathering phase, to the writing phase, to the touching up phase, to backing up the databases, and on and on. For me, that one feature of notecards (searchable, and able to print all notes by reference, author, etc) would complete (the already amazing) Bookends as my one-stop shop for all of my research.
Kenton

[Jon]

Ya think that's what they said at Microsoft when designing Word?

Bookends handles notes, and with the new reference links it takes that up a notch. The new Bookends links to and from items in DevonThink (Copy Links) is also a big step in that direction (I think).

I have had some thoughts about implementing notes as a separate category (parallel to references), but haven't hit on anything concrete that seems useful.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Tony Higgins]

Just one more quick vote "Yes" for adding "note cards" to Bookends. I currently use a note-taking system with 4 categories:
1: "Notes": used to record main points the author is trying to make.
2: "Quotes": used to record key quotes from the text.
3: "Key Terms": used to record how a particular author defines a term.
4: "Key Insights": used to record my own reflections on something the authors has stated or implied.

To have some kind of note card system built into Bookends would be very beneficial. Each "note card" could have 3-4 sections: a drop-down categories menu; a "header" or "title" area; a "notes/quotes" area; and possibly a page number area. The user could keep his or her notes attached to the whole individual sources, or the user could "replicate" the book as individual chapters and keep their notes/quotes attached to each associated chapter.

Then, the individual fields could be searched for particular words, names, or phrases, with the results being displayed in a format like the "list" view. For example, in preparing to write my dissertation, I could search all of my references for the "Key Term" "Affective Domain," and whoosh . . . all the references for which I've recorded the author's definition of Affective Domain would be displayed in the list format.

Finally, it would be great to be able to then create an Affective Domain "static group" or "smart group," drag all of my listed results to that group, and either print out the listed/grouped results, or cut and paste selected results into a word processor (with associated temporary reference ID for future scanning?) . . .

. . . okay, so I'm dreaming . . . but it would be nice.

[Gerben]

Just one suggestion, use Slipbox: http://www.markusguhe.net/slipbox/

Fine note taking app and very easy linking to BE references

Gerben

[rickl]

Thanks for the Slipbox suggestion. I downloaded it and tried it out for a bit, and it looks interesting. I can see how it's easy to link from a slip to a Bookends reference. However, I couldn't work out how to go from a Bookends reference to the slip(s) associated with it, and that strikes me as being the more important direction. How do you do this, or get around this limitation?