I have helped my sisters through enough malware and viruses on their PCs to know that Macs are the way to go if this is something you're worried about.
The one thing I don't love about it, though? No OneNote! I get so jealous every time I see my sister (a Twenty-Something Intern) using that fabulous program. And every law student that I've talked to has raved -- absolutely RAVED -- about the ease of using OneNote to help build your notes and outlines for classes during 1L. And so, even though I love my Mac, I honestly considered switching to a PC for law school just so I could run OneNote (and have more tech help on campus, and run ExamSoft, etc.)
I checked out a couple of substitutes, and considered running OneNote through Parallels, but none of them just seemed that attractive. Parallels seriously slows down your computer, and the other programs I tried were all missing...something.
LUCKILY, I stumbled upon this WONDERFUL substitute. It's easy to use, almost just as user-friendly and easy-to-manipulate as OneNote, and best of all, completely free! Mac users rejoice, I give you: Growly Notes!
You can add text, data, pictures, movies, sound clips, links, calendar entries, and a million other things to your notes in Growly Notes! It's easy to organize your notebooks and outlines exactly how you want them, you can use the click-and-drag method to do just about anything within the program. And it's so pretty!!
If this colorful view isn't your cup of tea, you can always change it to "serious" mode, which is a little less fun -- all business in serious mode! But either way, it gets the job done. You can add as many sections or pages as you want to each different book, and the pages can look however you want, you can choose for a multitude of templates.
So far I've been really pleased with Growly Notes. I'm able to compile all of my different lists and thoughts into one organized place, which helps clarify my thought process in the end. I like that you can add any pictures or PDFs to any page wherever makes the most sense to you and layer images and text beautifully and seamlessly. I don't like that it's difficult to share notebooks with someone who doesn't have a Mac and Growly Notes.
I think that this program will come SUPER in handy for classes. And if it doesn't, well, at least I didn't waste the $65 that Circus Ponies would have cost me.
Boss status... Apples to apples?
ReplyDeleteI should write a blog post all about Apples to Apples! :)
ReplyDeleteCan you post if you come across any screen shots or templates of how anyone has used growly notes in the law school setting? I'm starting at UVa in the fall and just downloaded growly at your suggestion. Enjoying reading your blog, and seeing you go through the same things I am! Thanks for all of the useful info and research you are posting!
ReplyDeleteHi there - Thanks for the tip Growly Notes. I'm a law student too, and thinking about using it for second semester. Did it work out for you? The organizational convenience of Growly is very appealing to me, but I fret losing info (my notes per class were 80-120 pgs.) and the program isn't meant for long files I believe. Thanks a bunch! Hope things are going well for you :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Claudia! Thanks for checking out my blog. I really enjoy Growly Notes. It helps me organize without really thinking about it, which is always good. It's worked great so far, and I have no plans to change my set up for the foreseeable future. I posted a screen shot of the way I organize my GN later in my blog.
DeleteAs far as losing info, I've never lost anything. I think that the program only shut down once, and it automatically saves all of your notes every time you close the program out. My notes aren't quite as long as yours, but they're pretty close when printed, so I don't think you should have a problem either. PLUS, the tech service is awesome. The guy who "invented" GN is the one who answers pretty much all of the questions, and it only took him 24 hours to get back to me when I had a question that I emailed him.