Using evernote for math and science

[Johnsen 0]

Hello everyone! :-) 

 

I`m a student who uses evernote everyday in school, which is approximately 6,5 hours a day. I really like using Evernote, and it is very easy to take notes and finding them again in the blink of an eye. Although I am a bit frustrated that it is very hard to take notes in math and science, because there is no specific button in Evernote which makes you able to write a formal. For an example, you can´t square a number. Example. If I had to write a formal in math, where I had to square a number and lets say it is the number two it would look like this in evernote 2^2. It looks really dumb and really unorganized so I was wondering if there is any hidden possibility for squaring a number in Evernote? and if not where can i write to the developers of Evernote and tell them about this issue? 

 

Thanks in advance for your answers :-)

[Johnsen 0]

What I am trying to say is how do I make it look like this 2² instead of this 2^2?

 

[Extropy 68]

Wolfram Mathematica

 

Mathematica is very much more than a note taking application, but I use it for any kind of technical notes with equations, as well as a powerful math tool.

 

As a student, you should be eligible for a very good discount, or might even have access to it through your school/university. Get used to the keyboard shortcuts and do a lot of copy/paste, and you'll be entering equations quickly in no time. It is also very useful for solving and manipulating these equations, making plots of curves, etc.

[Extropy 68]

Here is an example of some notes I have taken with Mathematica, showing pasted graphics, a table, and some color coded equations:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3865353/Mathematica%20note%20taking.png

[Johnsen 0]

Thank you for answers. I will definitely look into it and ask my high school whether or not they have access to mathematica. 

[Jackolicious 808]

Cmd-Ctrl + and Cmd-Ctrl -

Or in Format -> Style

[Johnsen 0]

Thank you so much for this! Now the next two years won`t be as painful when taking notes  

 

- Have a nice day! 

[Eric Bittner 2]

Johnson:  I'd highly recommend learning to use a good old fashioned pen and notebook for science/math courses.  During lecture, you need to be thinking about the content and context rather than trying to record/typeset information.   There's some sort of intangible connection between drawing something by hand and understanding its context/meaning.   You can go back at home and transcribe to Latex/evernote/etc.   Just my $0.02 as a professor to a student. 

[jannaspicer 0]

If Evernote would support drawing (tablet/pen) natively, it would be a slam dunk. Alas, since it doesn't support this, I may have to switch over to One Note - which I'm not looking forward to.

Evernote product managers: please comment on the expectation for if/when this feature will be supported. It is VERY important. Thanks!

[DTLow 5,736]

Did you look at the sketch box feature?
My preference is to use a dedicated note taking app (Notability), and then save the result as a PDF attachment in Evernote.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On 3/8/2016 at 9:11 AM, Eric Bittner said:

Johnson:  I'd highly recommend learning to use a good old fashioned pen and notebook for science/math courses.  During lecture, you need to be thinking about the content and context rather than trying to record/typeset information.   There's some sort of intangible connection between drawing something by hand and understanding its context/meaning.   You can go back at home and transcribe to Latex/evernote/etc.   Just my $0.02 as a professor to a student. 

Good point, professor.  Actually there are scientific studies that support exactly that.

From Scientific American web site, By Cindi May on June 3, 2014
A Learning Secret: Don"t Take Notes with a Laptop 

Quote

Students who used longhand remembered more and had a deeper understanding of the material [than those that used a laptop]

 

[DTLow 5,736]

>> Classroom >> Notes >> digital

Use Pen and Notebook might not be a great answer for someone asking for assistance in using a digital device to take notes (just my opinion)

Also, there's no reason longhand (handwriting) can't be used on a digital device.
In fact I prefer handwriting to typing when taking notes (iPad)
I'm not fond of Evernote's handwriting support, but I use the Notability app with great success, as well as myscript.com/stylus/ an alternate keyboad that allows handwriting.
I store these notes in Evernote.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

1 minute ago, DTLow said:

Use Pen and Notebook isn't a great response for someone asking for assistance in using a digital device to take notes.

You're welcome to your opinion, but that is all it is.

Using pen/pencil/notebook could be the very best "response" they get out of this forum, if it means they actually learn and retain more.

But it's not my advice.  It is the advice of the above professor, and of numerous scientific studies.  Even handwriting on a digital device is a distraction, because there are still things you have to worry about trying to use the hardware/software.  Not so with handwriting on paper -- by now it is a native ability that requires no thought.  There may come a time when handwriting on an electronic tablet is as natural as, or better than, handwriting on real paper.  But, IMO, we are not there yet.

There are plenty of suggestions on what hardware/software to use.  One or two suggestions on the bigger picture are not unwarranted.

[chemie 17]

@Johnsen - if you are a student may be it will be worth your time to learn LaTeX. It has a learning curve but is very good for creating good math assignments.

However if you want to use Evernote and have a Mac then you can easily create a superscript keyboard short cut for Evernote. In my case I create cmd+Shift+ "plus Sign" for superscript.

[DTLow 5,736]

On March 22, 2016 at 4:14 PM, JMichaelTX said:

Even handwriting on a digital device is a distraction

Maybe,
There's also the opinion of Socrates in The Phaedrus - the written word is the enemy of memory (It's not my advice.  It is the advice of one of the founders of Western Philosophy)
For myself, I'm striving for the benefits of digital over paper

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

10 hours ago, DTLow said:

For myself, I'm striving for the benefits of digital over paper

So am I.  That's why for many, many years most of my note taking as been done on a laptop.

One way to take advantage of the supposedly better learning by manual writing, is to manually write in a real notebook, then scan into Evernote.

• Supposedly Evernote can OCR your handwriting (good luck with mine)
• But then, as part of review, you could type your notes from the Evernote scanned image.
• Best of both worlds.

[BSR 208]

14 hours ago, JMichaelTX said:

So am I.  That's why for many, many years most of my note taking as been done on a laptop.

One way to take advantage of the supposedly better learning by manual writing, is to manually write in a real notebook, then scan into Evernote.

• Supposedly Evernote can OCR your handwriting (good luck with mine)
• But then, as part of review, you could type your notes from the Evernote scanned image.
• Best of both worlds.

Speaking of best of both worlds, you can still nab the Evernote Edition Moleskine notebooks which make digitizing your handwritten notes even more streamlined. Personally, I also find I retain information much better when taking handwritten notes, so having an easy way of getting my handwritten pages into Evernote and making them searchable is crucial to my workflow!

You can still grab one from Moleskine here. 

[DTLow 5,736]

Here's an article that seems to fairly present the paper/digital discussion

https://blog.todoist.com/2016/02/09/pen-and-paper-productivity/

>> @JMichaelTX  One way to take advantage of the supposedly better learning by manual writing, is to manually write in a real notebook, then scan into Evernote.

For taking classroom notes, that has been my approach too.  As @JM mentioned, using a digital device adds a level of distraction and complexity. 

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

On 6/1/2016 at 0:16 PM, DTLow said:

>> @JMichaelTX  One way to take advantage of the supposedly better learning by manual writing, is to manually write in a real notebook, then scan into Evernote.

To be clear, my personal approach is to use a MacBook Air laptop to take notes, combined with my iPhone to capture whiteboards and presentations being projected on a big screen.  For me, I am able to capture much more detail by typing than I ever could by manual writing.  And it will certainly be more legible.

But, if one subscribes to the theory that we learn more by manual writing, then I was offering an approach to make best use of technique.
See my post above for details.