Science Class Notes and Evernote

[Uryupinsk 0]

Hi to everyone,

 

First I'm sorry about my english, I'm French.

 

I'm using Evernote for about 2 years when I was in med school (switched this year to biology). In 2 years my workflow has changed many times because I want to go totally paperless. In some classes there are some math and chemical formulas and I like to type them instead of using a sheet of paper when this is not exceding a certain size. But I'm a bit perfectionist and I like to have beautiful formulas but writing them easily and in plain text. So here's my workflow :

 

I'm using Emacs org-mode (which is similar to Markdown in term of markup language) and write my formulas in LaTeX. Org-mode can export the org file into multiple formats, like HTML, PDF or even ODT. So when I have a new lesson :

 

1. I create a new org file that I put into a new Evernote note.
2. I edit this file in Emacs, and changes are saved directly into Evernote.
3. I write misc notes inside that Evernote note.
4. At the end of each course I export it in PDF then put it in my note, so it's easily searchable.
5. I put other docs, like lecture slides and scanned diagrams, into separate notes, then put links into the first one.

I use this method too to write my WordPress blog articles and by exporting the org file in HTML...

 

This method is convenient because the writing process during lecture is very, very fast, and produces great looking PDF with beautiful formulas.

 

But it lacks of flexibility because to make my edits to the note searchable in Evernote I have to edit the org file, then export to PDF, then put it into Evernote. So I only use this method for lecture notes; for small notes I type them diretly into Evernote.

 

Why I don't use Pandoc ? Pandoc is great but, on Windows, there is no editor that can export a file using it, and I don't want to use cmd every time I have to export a file. Also there's a pandoc-mode on Emacs but it doesn't like Windows paths...

 

I hope my workflow will be helpful and I'd love to share thoughts with you on this topic.

[Amie Harpe Longstreet 12]

Dear Uryupinsk,

 

I am not familiar with any of the programs you mentioned.  I use the Microsoft Mathematics plugin for Microsoft Word for this purpose.  It is good for documenting scientific formulas.  I use it to show statistics formulas in the correct scientific notation in my papers.  Below is a link to the Microsoft webpage about the plugin.  I hope this information is helpful.

 

Amie

 

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17786

[Hackademic 8]

If you were interested in writing in Markdown or MultiMarkdown, but want the HTML to reside in Evernote, the Markdown2Evernote service by Brett Terpstra and Martin Kopischke is great. I've also updated it to add wiki functionality. If your interested, my most recent blog post discusses my update, has a download of my version, and links to Martin's most up-to-date version as well: http://bit.ly/17eSfGg 

[jackwilson 0]

Well formulas are very important for any subject specially math. If we can learn it we can easily solve questions. I have learned all the formula from a math course online site and use it in my whole course. 

[vfitzjarrald 7]

Hello!

 

I wanted to chime in (Sorry for the late post, I have been on vacation) with a program that might simplify your workflow for blogging.

 

My primary blog is wordpress, and I cannot seem to find a nice way to get Evernote into it. Your idea of exporting using emacs to HTML is a good one, but I still think that it may have some problems in the long run (formatting, excess code reducing page speed, etc.). Now there are ways to mitigate the problems that emacs may bring in, but there is another solution as well and it is one that is backed by Evernote: Postach.io.

 

I have a Postach.io blog that is listed as a sub-domain on my primary wordpress site (which you can setup fairly easily by editing your site dns). What Postach.io does is communicate directly with Evernote and post articles based upon the notebook and tags you associate with a note. For example: I have a "Public Blog" notebook in Evernote that is tied to my Postach.io site. When I add a note to that notebook, it essentially becomes a draft blog post. If I tag that note with "published" the note will appear - in a matter of seconds - on the live version of my blog. Postach.io reads markdown within notes if you want to add some styling to the system. Basically this would simplify the "Export to HTML" part of your workflow, allowing you to publish directly to your blog from within Evernote.

 

You can create one blog for free on Postach.io. Give it a try and see if it can work for you. 

 

For an example of how we use Postach.io in the Classroom, you can see this blog post, or to see my Travel Postach.io Blog (as an example, click here). 

[cben 0]

There is also https://Marxi.co- markdown editor (based on the excellent StackEdit) that stores in Evernote and supports math.

But it's paid after 10 days.