When I was in college, I looked forward to virtually every term paper (or essay) because I always enjoyed the research and writing process. Besides, most of the time I received very good grades. As a result I came to realize that keeping track of research notes on longer or more research-intensive papers could rapidly become cumbersome. Plus, from time to time, invariably near the end of the research process, one of the carefully organized decks of index cards would land on the floor, turning organization into chaos.
Enter Mindola Software, who in 2008 released version 2.8.7 of SuperNoteCard ($29.00 for the full version.) Fundamentally this program takes the humble 3" x 5" index card and moves it to the computer screen. In the full version the number of cards per deck is almost limitless, with multiple decks of cards per project possible.
I have been working with this program for a while now and the more I explore its capabilities and features, the more I find to fall in love with. Currently I am developing a critical essay in which I extend the standard interpretation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to the male to female transsexual’s transition quest. SuperNoteCard is allowing me to both outline my thoughts and notes much more quickly, and without the risk of a dropped or mislaid notecard deck, but it increases the usefulness of each card.
As cards are filled in, color coding them for inclusion in user defined categories is fast and easy, plus the software keeps track of which cards are in which category. With more than one category tag possible for each card, this feature represents a real functional improvement over physical cards. Plus the software automatically keeps track of the cards and card information by category so you don’t have to. Now that is efficiency.
When additional information needs to be added to a card, the software also allows the addition of flags to cards. Each flag has room for moderately lengthy text. Like your categories, the software keeps track of your flags in their own list, which can be consulted whenever needed.
An added bonus is found on the Help tab. Click on “Strunk and White’s Elements of Style” and the software automatically connects you with Bartleby.com, the Internet’s leading collection of books that can be read and explored free of charge on the Internet. This is a very pleasant surprise given that the collection includes a wide range of classic works of literature, science and philosophy as well as classic and more recent reference works.
This last feature has the potential for saving a lot of time and aggravation when, in the middle of a writing project, you discover you need some essential piece of information, or wish for some familiar quote to spice up your text, and can’t find it. With SuperNoteCard help is a click away since Bartleby’s makes the Columbia Encyclopedia (December 2007 update edition) available free of charge, along with its 80,000 plus hypertext reference links. Also, the site has several collections of quotations in addition to Bartlett’s famous collection.
When the current project is finished it can be output to standard word processing software as a Rich Text Format (RTF) file, and it can be printed out as well. As an option, data can be both input into current or new projects or output to disk as .txt files.
Using this software package in conjunction with either Word Perfect or Microsoft Word improves their usefulness on research projects that is quite refreshing and liberating. How? By taking the stress out of background note taking and information organization. Indeed, any project for which recording information on note cards makes sense can be pursued in SuperNoteCard.
In summary, in my opinion, who should consider this outstanding addition to the writer’s software toolbox? Anyone who is at all serious about any form of writing (as well as anyone with an extensive recipe collection.)
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