Lesson+3

**Lesson 3: Electronic Notecards**
Some of you prefer to read text, some of you would rather view the How to Create Electronic Notecards and Outline: an Overview (link in Cite Your Sources box). You are encouraged to use the Help feature in NoodleTools whenever you have a question or problem. If you prefer, instead of reading all the text on this page, just skim the headings below and use the explanatory links (in blue) as you work in NoodleTools.

What are notecards?
The **notecards** feature in NoodleBib is designed to help you extract, organize and synthesize information you find during the research process. NoodleBib’s notecards are “e-index cards” with some important advantages. You can:


 * Access your notes from any computer via a Web browser
 * Link your notes to your sources to avoid accidental plagiarism
 * View your notes alongside your bibliography entries in order to assess the value of each resource
 * Create notes of your own ideas not linked to any source (“thought cards”)
 * Label notecards with word or phrase “tags” that represent concepts or facts you want to keep track of
 * Color key your notecards for quick visual identification
 * Add visual cues to your notecards as reminders (each cue has a predefined meaning, such as “incomplete,” “need help,” or “used in paper”)
 * Search your notecards by keyword, tag, or source association to view and organize notes in multiple ways
 * View, arrange and organize notecards on a virtual tabletop quickly and easily
 * Create an outline and move individual notecards or piles into topics or subtopics
 * Export both your notecards and outline to a word processor where they can be edited and printed
 * Share both the notecards and outline with your instructor

Notecards
Once you create and open a new project in NoodleBib, there are two ways to access the notecards feature: the **Notecards** and **Bibliography** screens. Since you can view and edit all of your notecards in //either screen//, you’ll find that you develop a preference for working in either the **Notecards** or **Bibliography** screen as you take notes.


 * Options available from //either// screen:**
 * 1) Create, edit, delete, and export/print notecards
 * 2) Tag notecards with words or phrases that represent important facts or ideas
 * 3) View notecard comments (or add/edit/delete notecard comments if you are an instructor viewing a shared project)

Clicking **Bibliography** in the navigation bar takes you to your list of citations. In the **Notecards** column next to each citation, you’ll find a **New** link that allows you to create a new notecard. If a citation is already associated with notes, you will see the number of notecards you created and a **Show** link to view the notecards below the citation.


 * Options available only from the Bibliography screen:**
 * 1) Quickly display the notecards for a particular source to help you assess the value of the source or to remind you if you have finished taking notes
 * 2) Show or hide notecards depending on your needs, via the **Notecard display** links near the top of the screen. The “Show only notecards that have comments” option is the primary mechanism for a student to view new notecard comments from an instructor.
 * 3) Full details of the notecards are always shown
 * 4) Both notecard comments //and// citation comments can be viewed (or added/edited/deleted) from this screen

When it comes time to organize and outline, click on **Notecards** in the navigation bar to see the **Notecards** screen.


 * Options available only from the Notecards screen:**
 * 1) Create, edit, and delete notecard piles
 * 2) Organize notecards on a virtual tabletop via drag-and-drop
 * 3) Organize a “pile” of notecards under a main idea
 * 4) Order notecards within a notecard pile
 * 5) Add or delete color tags and visual cues
 * 6) Rename and delete word/phrase tags
 * 7) Search notecards by keyword, tag, or source association
 * 8) Export/print notecard piles, a group of selected notecards, or all notecards
 * 9) Create an outline
 * 10) Associate notecards with topics or subtopics in the outline via drag-and-drop
 * 11) Export/print the outline alone, or with the contents of your notecards

**Creating a notecard**
Notecards can be created from either the **Bibliography** or **Notecards** screen. However, if a notecard is created from the **Bibliography** view, it is automatically associated with a particular citation. A “thought card” (a notecard that contains your own thoughts or a reminder to yourself, not tied to any citation in your source list) can only be created from the **Notecards** screen.

Creating a new notecard → From the **Bibliography** screen, click the **New** link in the “Notecards” column of the source…

Figure 21: Creating a new notecard (Bibliography screen)

. → …or from the **Notecards** screen, click the **New Notecard** button (top-left of the Notecard Tabletop).

Figure 22: Creating a new notecard (Notecards screen)

→ The **New Notecard** window will be displayed.

Figure 23: New notecard form

Provide: → A **title** – typically 1-3 words that identifies the topic of the note. **Note**: Titles should be unique so that you are reminded of the content of the notecard when you see an abbreviated summary in the mouse-over view. → The **source** of the note (if any). Citations that you have already created can be selected from a dropdown list of your sources. When you create a new notecard from the **Bibliography** screen, you will not see this source field, since the notecard is automatically associated with the entry you are working with. → A **URL** (if applicable). This may or may not be the same URL that you actually use in your citation. For example, if the URL is very long and complex, the style rules may not want you to include it in your citation, but it would be useful here on your notecard, to allow you to access the resource quickly. → **Pages** from which the quotation is retrieved (if applicable). → **Tags** (see the //Notecard tags// section later in this chapter for instructions). → A direct **quotation**. If your source is a Web document, simply copy and paste the material directly from the Web page. On a PC, you can do this by highlighting the material on the Web page and typing Ctrl-C, then clicking in the text area on the **New Notecard** screen and typing Ctrl-V. → Optionally, you can scroll down and add information into the **Paraphrase** and **My Ideas** fields (see “Approaches to note-taking” earlier in this chapter). A **spell-check button** is available in the tool bar of each text field to assist you with spelling.

→ Click the **Save** button. → Notecard names should be unique – if the new notecard title already exists, you will be prompted to choose a different title. → Your new notecard will be saved. → If you are creating the notecard from the **Bibliography** screen, the screen will automatically scroll so that you can view the new notecard… → …or if you are creating the notecard from the **Notecards** screen, a graphical representation of the new notecard will appear in the “New Notecards” region of the tabletop (top-left). Drag the notecard out of the “New Notecards” region onto the tabletop (or click the **Move 10** button directly below the “New Notecards” region to move ten at a time), where you can group it with similar notecards, add it to a notecard pile, etc.

**What is a notecard pile?**
A pile is a group of notecards that share a common theme, support an idea, or center on a particular topic. A notecard may only belong to a single notecard pile. On the **Notecards** screen, a pile is represented as a stack of notecards with a number on the front that indicates how many notecards are contained in the pile

Creating a notecard pile
Unlike notecards, notecard //piles// can only be created and manipulated on the **Notecards** screen.

Creating a new pile via drag-and-drop (for piling 2 notecards) → On the **Notecards** screen, drag-and-drop one notecard onto another notecard on the Notecard Tabletop. → A **New pile** window will appear, prompting for the pile title. Enter a brief title and click the **OK** button. → Pile names should be unique; if the new pile title already exists, you will be prompted to choose a different title. → The two individual notecards will be replaced on the tabletop with the new pile.

Creating a new pile via the **Add to Pile** button (for piling many notecards) → On the **Notecards** screen, **Control-click** on notecards and/or notecard piles on the tabletop that you wish to combine into a new notecard pile. The selected notecards and piles will appear highlighted in yellow. → Click the **Add to Pile** button at the top of the **Notecards** screen. → On the pop-up window, select the **Create New Pile** option and provide a new pile title. → Click **Submit** and the new pile will be created in the “New Notecards” region. Drag-and-drop the new pile from there onto the tabletop where you would like it.

**Viewing and modifying a notecard pile**
Once a notecard pile has been created, simple drag-and-drop actions allow you to add and remove notecards, combine piles, and move notecards between piles. For example, to combine two piles, simply drag-and-drop one pile onto another. To add a notecard to an existing pile, drag-and-drop the notecard on top of the pile you wish to add it to.

Notecard piles can be expanded on the tabletop so that you can work with individual notecards within the pile. To expand a notecard pile, hover your mouse over the pile and click the **Expand** link in the summary pop-up

To remove a notecard from a notecard pile, simply click on a notecard in the expanded view of the pile and drag-and-drop it outside of the dotted rectangle that represents the pile. Or, if you want to add it into a different pile, drag-and-drop the notecard onto another pile on the tabletop.

To view the full content of all of the notecards in a pile, click the **View Details** link in the expanded view of the pile.

When you are done viewing and making changes to the notecard pile, click the **Close Pile** link to return the pile to its original state.

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