Best software for note taking and/or outlining

[TruthSeeker1]

     I am not a law student but I have been using Word for note taking in my classes.  I dearly want a program - be it OneNote or something else - that has the following:
          1. a user database of abbreviations
          2. I love Word's autocomplete but it is incorrect sometimes, and so this program should have the highest degree of user customization of its own "autocomplete" features.
          3. anything that reduces my number of keystrokes - I find I spend as much time typing words from my instructors' lectures as other students do writing them by hand.  This is where abbreviations become convenient.
          4. I find that dates and numbers are the most difficult to quickly record in my notes (such as "India's government 1000-1500 AD").
          5. the ability to take notes in a hierarchial format

The highest-possible speed of data entry is most important; other features come second.

ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED!   

[TruthSeeker1]

BTW, I just remembered that one of the nice *secondary*  features would be the ability to sync my to-do list with my Pocket PC.

[jeffjoe]

Based on your list of requirements, you can rule out StoreLaw.

[aryeal]

I've been through OneNote, Outliner, and Flashlaw.  I returned to Word for simplicity.  I just posted my reasons on my Blog.

Some of the applications I abandoned may work very well for someone else.  My best advice is to try them out if you can get them for free.  If you find yourself spending too much time dinking with the software, run for the hills. 

[TruthSeeker1]

I've been playing around with the trial version of OneNote and it seems to be helpful, though any info on other programs is still very helpful.  I also need to find a way to type numbers and dates quickly.  Entering them in word form is too slow; I'd go crazy using the numberpad Fn keys on my laptop; I do not have a Tablet PC so I can't write the numbers directly on my screen.  I could carry around the smallest available graphics tablet, if I knew which was the smallest, but that has drawbacks as well.

[jeffjoe]

If you're using StoreLaw, backing up your data is a must.  If you close out the program without backing up (read saving) you may lose some of your data.

[jeffjoe]

I think I have reached the limit with StoreLaw.  Three things push me away from it.

1)  About five weeks ago, I sent an email to support, telling them that the text editor did not seem to remember the words I added to the spell check dictionary.  They responded saying that it should remember those words and they would work on it and get back to me.  I haven't heard anything from them since.

2) Somehow, I don't know how six of my case briefs disappeared.  I had to reenter them.  I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe I just didn't save it right or something. 

3) Last night I'm making notes on contracts.  I made a change to the note and went back to it later.  The change was gone.  I hadn't shut down StoreLaw or anything like that.  I just moved to a different part of the outline to put in some other notes.  I made the same change again.  Went back and it was gone.  I did it about six times.  The change would not stay.

I'm either going to give Flashlaw another try or follow the advice of others and use Word.

[ptlaw]

I still haven't made up my mind about StoreLaw.  Out of curiousity, have you tried saving your data to another area?  I tried saving my data to my thumb drive just to have it in another place in case of a major problem.  The challenge was getting back to the folder on my hard drive when I wanted to back up again.  I had to remember where to go.  Of course, it would probably help to have all of my brain cells functioning.

PT

[jeffjoe]

I saved it in three different places.  I back it up every few minutes.  It just flat out lost the data.

I've been playing with flashlaw some today.  The problem I find with it is the lack of capability in the text editors.  Very limited.

I still haven't made up my mind about StoreLaw.  Out of curiousity, have you tried saving your data to another area?  I tried saving my data to my thumb drive just to have it in another place in case of a major problem.  The challenge was getting back to the folder on my hard drive when I wanted to back up again.  I had to remember where to go.  Of course, it would probably help to have all of my brain cells functioning.

PT

[jeffjoe]

So now I'm going back the other way.  The thing that draws me back to StoreLaw in spite of the poor tech support is the ability to combine notes and briefs in one place and then selectively include them in an outline.

I created my outline for criminal law in about 10 minutes, because I had the briefs and the notes in there.  It was about 40 pages.  Then I could create a cut down version by leaving out parts of the brief and so on.

I just wish this little bugs would get fixed.  After all, I already paid for the darned thing.