4 ms·

Do others do a similar thing but with digital notes? I used to take notes on books in notebooks and mark the page numbers. Over time it switched to ebooks with

Do others do a similar thing but with digital notes? I used to take notes on books in notebooks and mark the page numbers. Over time it switched to ebooks with TextEdit, then org-mode for writing thoughts on books/talks. It's nice to break a book down by section or concepts and have it all in one place as opposed to being scattered throughout random pages or listed at the end of the book. It's usually pretty easy to convert ebooks/pdfs to audiobooks or use a TTS tool to read each page, one at a time. That makes it easier to write notes while you're listening to the book. You can also get used to reading around 400 wpm, which is nice if you're a slow visual reader. Since the comments aren't directly in the book, it's not as geared towards English editing as marginalia is. It's great for summarizing technical material though or learning new concepts!

confounded 8y ago
Out of interest, how do you tend to structure the org-files? Do you enjoy reading long-form text at a laptop/desk? I’ve made a few attempts to do this (often with org-mode, pdf-tools, and interleave-mode), but I’ve always gone back to printing and scribbling on paper. It just feels more natural, but my notes end up being more ephemeral. I’d like to be able to sync and search my notes very much, however! Any tips?
- greenyouse 8y ago
  Sure, I usually set org files up by book/talk > chapter/concept > (any further level of nesting)+. Here are a couple examples. From watching "Abstract" on Netflix I did one entry for the show with a bunch of random notes because there wasn't as much structure to the content. Most of my book notes more or less follow the book > chapter > sub heading pattern. Tech talks usually have a format like talk title > subject > details. I've stuck to using one file for most of my notes the last few years. You should play around with it and see what works best for you. Reading with a desktop or laptop has been easier for me since it's more familiar. I'm not really a fan of mobile phones or kindle readers. Evince or fbreader work OK on linux. You could add espeak or another TTS tool for speaking text. On OSX there's acrobat with voice over. Screen readers exist but are harder to control. The tools for reading via TTS are pretty primitive right now unfortunately. I'm pretty bad at syncing notes... I've primarily done it with rsync over ssh. If you save things back to a server and sync from there that could work. Otherwise there's easier stuff like Google Drive or Dropbox.
amorphous 8y ago
Absolutely, I use Skim to annotate PDF files. On Kindle, I often highlight or take notes. I wish there was one central service that would merge all my annotations from separate devices.

confounded 8y ago

Out of interest, how do you tend to structure the org-files? Do you enjoy reading long-form text at a laptop/desk? I’ve made a few attempts to do this (often with org-mode, pdf-tools, and interleave-mode), but I’ve always gone back to printing and scribbling on paper. It just feels more natural, but my notes end up being more ephemeral. I’d like to be able to sync and search my notes very much, however! Any tips?

greenyouse 8y ago
Sure, I usually set org files up by book/talk > chapter/concept > (any further level of nesting)+. Here are a couple examples. From watching "Abstract" on Netflix I did one entry for the show with a bunch of random notes because there wasn't as much structure to the content. Most of my book notes more or less follow the book > chapter > sub heading pattern. Tech talks usually have a format like talk title > subject > details. I've stuck to using one file for most of my notes the last few years. You should play around with it and see what works best for you. Reading with a desktop or laptop has been easier for me since it's more familiar. I'm not really a fan of mobile phones or kindle readers. Evince or fbreader work OK on linux. You could add espeak or another TTS tool for speaking text. On OSX there's acrobat with voice over. Screen readers exist but are harder to control. The tools for reading via TTS are pretty primitive right now unfortunately. I'm pretty bad at syncing notes... I've primarily done it with rsync over ssh. If you save things back to a server and sync from there that could work. Otherwise there's easier stuff like Google Drive or Dropbox.

amorphous 8y ago

Absolutely, I use Skim to annotate PDF files. On Kindle, I often highlight or take notes. I wish there was one central service that would merge all my annotations from separate devices.