Taking Notes: Microsoft Word vs. OneNote

[Meryl]

Microsoft vs. OneNote — which one did you use for law school? Pros and cons of both?

In undergrad, I used OneNote for everything and loved the flexibility it offered (writing notes all over the page, drawing things sometimes, easily inserting screenshots into notes...for example I would take a photo of a slide with a diagram and then screenshot it and add it directly into my notes). However, I’m thinking that Microsoft Word might be better for law school since it would be easier for printing and I could organize all my note files as separate from the stuff I did in highschool/undergrad. It also feels easier to save and keep back up copies from Word than OneNote.

Thoughts? 

[kiamia]

I tried to do the OneNote thing in first year and it ended up being more work since I ended up creating my summaries in Word anyways. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're extremely attached to OneNote for some reason. 

[Schooliscool]

49 minutes ago, kiamia said:

I tried to do the OneNote thing in first year and it ended up being more work since I ended up creating my summaries in Word anyways. I wouldn't recommend it unless you're extremely attached to OneNote for some reason. 

What worked well for me was taking class notes in Onenote since it does the bullet points quicker, and seemed overall faster to use and structure than Word. I called it my messy copy, and then would make a clean review with all the useful info into a Word doc.

[ccq35]

Is it bad if I say Google Docs?

[Civil2Common]

22 minutes ago, ccq35 said:

Is it bad if I say Google Docs?

Tbh Google Docs came in handy when my laptop keyboard stopped working and I had to send it in for repair. Bought myself a cheap chromebook and used it to take notes for a good 2 months with google docs. It was definitely a useful tool then.

[ZineZ]

1 hour ago, ccq35 said:

Is it bad if I say Google Docs?

This is what i used for notes almost exclusively. I'd still create the final summary in Word, but Google Docs was so useful for everything else

[Meryl]

19 hours ago, Schooliscool said:

What worked well for me was taking class notes in Onenote since it does the bullet points quicker, and seemed overall faster to use and structure than Word. I called it my messy copy, and then would make a clean review with all the useful info into a Word doc.

Ohhh I like the idea of this — a messy copy and a clean copy. Forces you to go over the lecture notes too which is good. 

17 hours ago, ccq35 said:

Is it bad if I say Google Docs?

Ha, not at all! I hadn’t considered it as an option lol