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Hi everyone!
We all know the excelence of Bonsai as a tool for PIM, GTD, Project Mmt., AdressBook, etc., also for just take a note when you got an idea, or you want to catch some text of the book you are reading.
Well, I'm just planning to make an special OL so that I can store that notes like professionals do in a file box (sorry I don't know how to say in English this kind of drawer where investigators keep their files). You know, the notes in a research work have to follow some rules, like start with the main matter, then a suject, etc., and it have to include the autor of the text you are grabbing, the name of the book, date, etc...
Before I make my experiments on this proyect, I'd like to know if someone have already done something like that. Any experience and ideas will be appreciated.
Alex.
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The Art (and Science) of Taking Notes
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Posted 22 February 2007 - 07:37 PM
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Posted 27 February 2007 - 11:27 AM
Hi Allekz,
I use Bonsai for note taking sometimes. You can always use the 'Contact' field to make a note of the source of your info (whether it's a person or a book title - it's a free-text field). I always set the new item default to Start Date = Today, so that I can use the start date to record when I received the information - I also use Ctrl-D (date stamp) a lot in my Notes field to record when I get some new information or have a conversation on the subject. For categorising items, I set the new item default so that Keywords are inherited from parent items (that way each new item get's stamped with a keyword representing it's catgory). You can also use the Category field to categorise your information by source type (eg conversation, book, internet) or some other categories more relevant to how you're going to use the information.
So, Bonsai is pretty flexible about how you use the fields for grouping, filtering and sorting your data. However, if I'm going to record information in a proper bibliography which I might pull into a document I'm writing, then there will be more fields than Bonsai can handle (eg reference title, authors, publication/journal name, issue number, date, publisher, notes, category, source/web address, etc). At this point, I'm more likely to use an spreadsheet or a database (eg HanDBase for Palm is a cheap option), so I can be free about my allocation of fields and can mail-merge into a word-processed document.
- If you do want to stick to Bonsai for a more complicated bibliography, though, you could always add all these other fields into the note pane, with some kind of special character to tag it (eg if you use <<Ref: reference title>>, you can use an advanced search of the Bonsai xml file in MS Word to pick up all the <<Ref: *>> references). It all gets a bit complicated doing it this way, though.
Does any of that random outpouring give you any ideas?
Stéph
I use Bonsai for note taking sometimes. You can always use the 'Contact' field to make a note of the source of your info (whether it's a person or a book title - it's a free-text field). I always set the new item default to Start Date = Today, so that I can use the start date to record when I received the information - I also use Ctrl-D (date stamp) a lot in my Notes field to record when I get some new information or have a conversation on the subject. For categorising items, I set the new item default so that Keywords are inherited from parent items (that way each new item get's stamped with a keyword representing it's catgory). You can also use the Category field to categorise your information by source type (eg conversation, book, internet) or some other categories more relevant to how you're going to use the information.
So, Bonsai is pretty flexible about how you use the fields for grouping, filtering and sorting your data. However, if I'm going to record information in a proper bibliography which I might pull into a document I'm writing, then there will be more fields than Bonsai can handle (eg reference title, authors, publication/journal name, issue number, date, publisher, notes, category, source/web address, etc). At this point, I'm more likely to use an spreadsheet or a database (eg HanDBase for Palm is a cheap option), so I can be free about my allocation of fields and can mail-merge into a word-processed document.
- If you do want to stick to Bonsai for a more complicated bibliography, though, you could always add all these other fields into the note pane, with some kind of special character to tag it (eg if you use <<Ref: reference title>>, you can use an advanced search of the Bonsai xml file in MS Word to pick up all the <<Ref: *>> references). It all gets a bit complicated doing it this way, though.
Does any of that random outpouring give you any ideas?
Stéph
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Posted 01 March 2007 - 07:31 PM
Yeah, Steph, great ideas! Thank you.
I'm too considering to use another DB App (like the one I got for other uses, SmartList ToGo), but it laks one of the best features I found in Bonsai for this purpose: the ease of searching matters by hierarchy (outline).
If only Bonsai could have the possibility to add as many custom Columns as I'd wish... (At least 10 more?)
Alex.
I'm too considering to use another DB App (like the one I got for other uses, SmartList ToGo), but it laks one of the best features I found in Bonsai for this purpose: the ease of searching matters by hierarchy (outline).
If only Bonsai could have the possibility to add as many custom Columns as I'd wish... (At least 10 more?)
Alex.
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