(Archived) Keeping track of bulleted topics

[ThinkerTDM 3]

Hello!

I am typing in my notes (I'm using the mac version of evernote), and I find myself sometimes losing track of the bulleted topic I was working on, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to work around it.

Here's an example. I am currently typing up a note on asthma treatments- an outline, essentially. While everything is (somewhat) outlined, I'd like some way to indicate that "this" block of information is related to the short acting bronchodilators. I've copied and pasted what I have. I tried to color code it, which isn't ideal. My goal is to basically- highlight it, I guess.

Now, here's what I've tried:

writing it out, then scanning it- not ideal, and I'd like to spend more time working the material in my head, than scanning it in and trying to get it through the scanner.

Writing it out, and taking a picture of it- even worse.

I've also tried typing it in word, then copying and pasting it. Does any one have any suggestions?

• two varieties
  
  • short acting (SABA's)
    
    • drug of choice for:
      
      • relieving acute bronchoconstriction
        
      • preventing exercise induced asthma
        

      [*]not used for long term maintenance

      [*]take effect within minutes

      [*]active for up to 6-8 hours

      [*]SE (dose related)

      • tachycardia
        
      • tremor
        
      • mild hypokalemia (uncommon)
        

      [*]albuterol

      [*]levalbuterol

    [*]long acting (LABA's)

    • active for up to 12 hours
      
    • used for mod to severe asthma
      
    • never used as mono therapy
      
    • agents:
      
      • salmeterol
        
      • formoterol
        

[gazumped 10,332]

? Give the start of that block of text a unique code that won't appear anywhere else -Mxyztplk - and save a search to your toolbar ?

[James M. 15]

Off-topic, but I like the way your formatted the document. It reminds me of Outline View in MS Word, which is very handy on occasion. If only there were a way to collapse a paragraph and the sub-topics and move it around easily...

[jbenson2 2,146]

I'd recommend Workflowy.com - you can select a portion of your outline and paste it straight into Evernote.

It allows indenting and outdenting, moving, completing (and hiding), searching and zoom.

I copied your example into my Workflowy.com, exported it and pasted it here:

two varieties

• short acting (SABA's)
  
  • drug of choice for:
    
    • relieving acute bronchoconstriction
      
    • preventing exercise induced asthma
      

    [*]not used for long term maintenance

    [*]take effect within minutes

    [*]active for up to 6-8 hours

    [*]SE (dose related)

    • tachycardia
      
    • tremor
      
    • mild hypokalemia (uncommon)
      

    [*]albuterol

    [*]levalbuterol

  [*]long acting (LABA's)

  • active for up to 12 hours
    
  • used for mod to severe asthma
    
  • never used as mono therapy
    
  • agents:
    
    • salmeterol
      
    • formoterol
      

[ThinkerTDM 3]

Excellent suggestions, thanks! My problem is not so much searching for topics, but my skimming reading style not allowing me to keep track of exactly where I am on a page. It's more of a personal problem, but I find that as I am reviewing my notes, the deeper I drill down, I tend to lose track of the "breadcrumb" that lead me to the segment I am reading. Since it's an outline, theoretically, the line above should tell me, but in my outlining style, the actual topic is at least several lines above.

I love the workflowy interface- I found that one can click on the bullet and the formatting re-arranges. Very nice.

A nice formatting suggestion would be to have a "breadcrumb" trail on the top that indicates where you are, like this:

Asthma > treatments > short acting bronchodilators > agents

it could be placed above the outlined area. I am not familiar with the programming interface of evernote at all, but if I were to program it in HTML and PHP, I would use the <ul> list elements to tell me each crumb piece. Then as I scroll up or down, it could tell me what I was reading about.

[peterfmartin 221]

Evernote bulleting/outlining is very sad, and there's no indication it's going to get less sad in the near future.

I love Workflowy for my task management, but it's a great outlining tool in general.