Category Archives: Notes

Annotating PDFs with Highlights

Posted on June 8, 2015 by

Note taking in the era of PDFs has clearly become an issue for most people working with electronic documents on a daily basis. As far as I know most reference managers now implement some form of a note taking/highlighting feature. … Continue reading →

Posted in Annotation, Notes | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Paperless scholarship with pen and paper

Posted on February 2, 2015 by

There has been a paradoxical shift in my classroom and my own habits. The students have stopped asking for printed handouts but at the same time they started to take their own notes with pen and paper. Similarly, I use more pen and paper while at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes | 6 Comments

Sources and Methods. And Tinderbox

Posted on November 8, 2014 by

I have just listened to Sources and Methods, a podcast “about interesting people doing interesting things”. This episode was their interview with Mark Bernstein, the creator of Tinderbox app. I fully agree with Mark that note-taking is a very important activity which we … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes | Tagged , | 12 Comments

What software do I really need for academic work on Mac?

Posted on July 4, 2014 by

A reader has just challenged me to re-think the software I use for academic work on Mac. Well, there are over 250 items in my Applications folder, but how many do I need to remain productive? So imagine that I have a completely new Mac with no … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Bibliographies, Email, Files, Graphics, Notes, Presentations, Projects, Tasks, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , , | 97 Comments

Ulysses can assign OS X tags and manage reference notes

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

Ulysses III has recently had  an important update. It now assigns and reads OS X tags. This brings the Ulysses’ value for academics to an entire new level. Ulysses III has already been great for taking project notes (e.g. on teaching or publications) because … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Tags and folders | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Ulysses III and TextExpander in teaching

Posted on April 21, 2014 by

Ullysses III, a note-taking app, stores its ‘sheets’ in hierarchical folders. It is therefore a great tool for keeping project notes, which similarly to project files are best organized in folders. I have previously described using Ullysses for responding to reviewer’s comments on a manuscript. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Notes, Teaching | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

How reference managers could help is in our thinking process rather than just hold our libraries…

Posted on December 1, 2013 by

I must admit I don’t seem to be perfectly happy with what reference manager software have to offer. I am probably unjust and have high expectations. After all, they are ‘reference managers’ and in that sense they are already over-performing. … Continue reading →

Posted in Annotation, Bibliographies, Notes | Tagged , | 35 Comments

Note-taking with Ulysses: beside NValt and Byword

Posted on June 22, 2013 by

Following Csaba’s post on Ulysses, I have been trying it for over one month. Somewhat surprisingly, I have used it quite often. For example, for drafting  grading rules, evaluating research proposals, writing a report for an Academic Board, preparing a … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Writing | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Custom Academic Searches on iOS

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

As a follow-up to my earlier post on academic searches on the Mac, here’s an easy way to replicate most of those custom searches on iOS. The key app is Drafts, which recently received a massive update. Among many other … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Notes, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Byword – an ideal tool for plain text writing on a Mac

Posted on March 16, 2012 by

I often need to write a piece of text between 200 and 2000 words: an abstract of a talk, a blog post or an administrative memo. This is longer and more complicated than an occasional note but much simpler and … Continue reading →

Posted in Notes, Writing | Tagged , | 13 Comments