In Class Note Taking: What do you use?

[Emposter]

Incoming 1L here.  This question has two parts.

1) I plan on using a laptop to take my notes.  I'm trying to decide between a netbook and a laptop, with the main considerations being screen size and lack of a CD/DVD drive on the netbooks.  Do instructors ever give out material on CD/DVD?  My school has a DVD drive listed amongst the minimum suggested requirements for computers.  I do have a desktop with a DVD drive for work at home.

2) What do you use to take notes?  I have Microsoft Word 2003, but I keep seeing OneNote being mentioned as the program all law students seem to use.  Is it that much more useful?

Thanks!

[Naked Promise]

OneNote rules all.

[Frogconcept]

Yeah, One Note is pretty much amazing for law school.  I tried using it for a thermodynamics class a couple years ago and quickly abandoned it...it's obviously not for the sciences.  For law, however, it's pretty much the *&^%.  I can consolidate everything.  Once I take text notes, if I do a good job I effectively don't need to carry the text act all for that particular week.

[Matthies]

Just make sure one note and office will run on your netbook, they say the screen resultion needs to be 768 for OneNote, most netbooks are 600, not sure if that means it won't run or you will just have to scroll to see the whole page though.

[alexjudka]

What are the major differences between onenote and regular old microsoft word or mac pages?

[omnipotens]

What are the major differences between onenote and regular old microsoft word or mac pages?

Essentially nothing.  Onenote allows you to type anywhere on the page and is set up so that you can quickly create outlines. I also think it is a lot more intuitive...as in it isn't obnoxious about the formatting stuff. It also has features that let you draw in arrows, and make charts and graphs. Word has all of that as well, I just think it is easier in Onenote.

I use Onenote in class, but I make my actual outline in Word. Onenote is just easier and fast for jotting down things.

[Changed Name]

I think the true beauty of OneNote is the way it helps you organize all your material.  At the beginning of my first semester, I kept going back and forth between Word and OneNote.  I tried to figure out what was the best way to organize my notes.  The problem with Word is figuring out a good system to store your files and the method.  OneNote is good because you can create a folder for each class, and within that folder you can have subdivisions (I used "class notes"; "outlines").  Within those subdivisions, you have separate pages.  So under "class notes," I organized my material by topic (MUCH BETTER THAN ORGANIZING BY DATE).  Under "outlines," I had different pages of "long outline," "short outline," "practice hypotheticals," etc.

Flipping between classes, sections, page is absolutely seamless.  You don't have to go to "Open" look for files or anything.  You're able to search all your folders easily.  It's great.

HOWEVER, one problem that I have with OneNote is printing.  If something is organized on a page of OneNOte, you can't break that page up for printing.  For instance, say in one your Con Law folder, you have a subsection group entitled "outlines."  And under "outlines," you have a page that says "long outline."  That long outline could very well be an X amount of printing pages (let's just assume 20).  If you want to print the long outline, but only want the first five pages, you CANNOT select this as a printing option.  It will only let you print the all of the pages within that single page of "long outline."  Of course, there are work arounds such as copying and pasting what you need into a clean sheet and then printing that portion, but it's still aggravating.

[Naked Promise]

I think the true beauty of OneNote is the way it helps you organize all your material.  At the beginning of my first semester, I kept going back and forth between Word and OneNote.  I tried to figure out what was the best way to organize my notes.  The problem with Word is figuring out a good system to store your files and the method.  OneNote is good because you can create a folder for each class, and within that folder you can have subdivisions (I used "class notes"; "outlines").  Within those subdivisions, you have separate pages.  So under "class notes," I organized my material by topic (MUCH BETTER THAN ORGANIZING BY DATE).  Under "outlines," I had different pages of "long outline," "short outline," "practice hypotheticals," etc.

Flipping between classes, sections, page is absolutely seamless.  You don't have to go to "Open" look for files or anything.  You're able to search all your folders easily.  It's great.

HOWEVER, one problem that I have with OneNote is printing.  If something is organized on a page of OneNOte, you can't break that page up for printing.  For instance, say in one your Con Law folder, you have a subsection group entitled "outlines."  And under "outlines," you have a page that says "long outline."  That long outline could very well be an X amount of printing pages (let's just assume 20).  If you want to print the long outline, but only want the first five pages, you CANNOT select this as a printing option.  It will only let you print the all of the pages within that single page of "long outline."  Of course, there are work arounds such as copying and pasting what you need into a clean sheet and then printing that portion, but it's still aggravating.

Or you just select what you want to print, go to print, and click the 'Selection' radio button. Then it prints what you selected.

[Changed Name]

I think the true beauty of OneNote is the way it helps you organize all your material.  At the beginning of my first semester, I kept going back and forth between Word and OneNote.  I tried to figure out what was the best way to organize my notes.  The problem with Word is figuring out a good system to store your files and the method.  OneNote is good because you can create a folder for each class, and within that folder you can have subdivisions (I used "class notes"; "outlines").  Within those subdivisions, you have separate pages.  So under "class notes," I organized my material by topic (MUCH BETTER THAN ORGANIZING BY DATE).  Under "outlines," I had different pages of "long outline," "short outline," "practice hypotheticals," etc.

Flipping between classes, sections, page is absolutely seamless.  You don't have to go to "Open" look for files or anything.  You're able to search all your folders easily.  It's great.

HOWEVER, one problem that I have with OneNote is printing.  If something is organized on a page of OneNOte, you can't break that page up for printing.  For instance, say in one your Con Law folder, you have a subsection group entitled "outlines."  And under "outlines," you have a page that says "long outline."  That long outline could very well be an X amount of printing pages (let's just assume 20).  If you want to print the long outline, but only want the first five pages, you CANNOT select this as a printing option.  It will only let you print the all of the pages within that single page of "long outline."  Of course, there are work arounds such as copying and pasting what you need into a clean sheet and then printing that portion, but it's still aggravating.

Or you just select what you want to print, go to print, and click the 'Selection' radio button. Then it prints what you selected.

I guess that could work.  But I remember trying and not getting what I was really looking for.  Either way, it's not that big a deal where I'd not recommend it.  I think it's better than using word. 

[RobWreck]

After 2 years of law school I've found that plain ol' Word documents work well enough for me. It seems like you're probably best off using what you're most comfortable with. One Note sounds like it does have some pretty nifty features though... but nobody grades your notes or outlines based on the formatting, so go with what you know.