SuperNoteCard: Carrying Index Cards to the Max

November 19, 2008 by Tom Colvin
Filed under: 2-Organizing Your Workspace, 3-Collecting Ideas, 3-Miscellaneous Topics, Uncategorized 
An index card in a card catalog

Image via Wikipedia

Many writers turn to index cards to make notes about work in progress.  These cards are traditionally filed away in card boxes, perhaps carefully organized by topic.  Writers in particular like to tack cards onto cork boards, creating a visual outline of their work.  A lecture at a past Maui Writers Conference recommended notes scribbled onto stenographer notebook pages and filed into manila folders, a system utilized also by followers of David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology.

SuperNoteCard harnesses the computer to accomplish these tasks, following the index card metaphor and extending into capabilities that cards alone cannot achieve.

Here’s the developer’s description:

SuperNotecard is modeled around the time-tested technique of using 3 x 5 notecards to organize and prepare written compositions. Traditionally writers use notecards to record facts, jot down ideas, or sketch out dramatic scenes and then organize them. The organizational process includes shuffling the card order, categorizing cards with stickers, and manually creating relationships between cards. Some get fancy and use colorful rubberbands, cork boards with pins, or cards without the lines.

The intent of this software is to take the traditional approach a few steps further. SuperNotecard exports directly to any word processor, offers search tools, an intuitive, visual categorization mechanism, character profiling, reference databasing, and makes it easy to flag and notate content for later revision. SuperNotecard is part outliner, part word processor, and part content manager: everything writers need to bridge the gap between a handful of good ideas and a formatted manuscript.

I first became aware of this software a couple years ago, while exploring Sebastien Berthet’s Chapter by Chapter, which is designed to utilize SuperNoteCard as a plugin.  [Expect a review of CbC soon.]  During my initial analysis of the program, I found that it fell a bit short of my needs as a writer organizing lots of historical research.  Since that time, it has undergone additional development, adding tools to organize references and handle notes submitted by cellphone while on the run.  Version 2.8 has just been released.  I’m giving it another test drive for my own needs; it looks very promising indeed.

Certainly other writers will find this tool — $29.00 to purchase — very useful.  You can download the program for a 30-day trail.  The software homepage does not itself do an adequate job of explaining the various capabilities of the program.  I recommend that you look at the software manual, which will download onto your computer.

While you are at it, you may wish to evaluate EverNote as well.  I’ll be reviewing it soon.  At first glance, however, it appears EverNote excels at general notetaking, while SuperNoteCard is superior in organizing notes into stacks and outlines directly useful to writing projects.  Personally, I think both programs deserve a place on a writer’s computer.

If you try either or both, please share your thoughts with us.

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