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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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Comment by
Debra
20 Nov 2008
Oh no. I have a tendency to switch from on program to the next mid novel, in the quest to find the solution. I've tried supernotecard before but never got to grips with it before the trail ran out so I unistalled it. Now I'm tempted to try it again, because it does work well with cbc, and cbc is a simple but really useful way of managing longer works like novels. The “oh no” is because I'm in danger of spending all my time migrating my novel from one program to the other instead of getting on and finishing the damn thing.
Comment by
tomcolvin
20 Nov 2008
Debra, that's been my dilemma for the past two years! I spent more time
searching for that holy grail program than I do writing. Just witncess this
blog, which is a testament to my failings.
Comment by
Debra
21 Nov 2008
But when we find it, just think how productive we'll be, Tom.
I *am* now trying out supernotecard again, and it's making much more sense this time around. I tell myself that switching to something that makes sense to me rather than struggling with software that's not really helping will save time in the long run.
Comment by
tomcolvin
21 Nov 2008
.Actually, Debra, I'm finally beginning to feel that all the computer pieces
are together for me, after all this time. A large part of that are the
recent developments in online facilities that help writers that move around
a lot. I'll be posting about Syncplicity within a few days — it's an
amazing facility that keeps everything in sync among my three computers.
And, yes, SuperNotecards has evolved toward the point where I'll perhaps
adopt it.
Comment by
Jason Block
26 Nov 2008
Hi All. My name is Jason. I develop SuperNotecard and wanted to quickly add that the SuperNotecard trial does not expire in 30 days. Instead it reminds you to purchase the program when it counts more than 7 cards in any single deck.
Thanks for giving SNC a try and please don't hesitate to contact me with feedback at http://www.mindola.com.
Comment by
tomcolvin
26 Nov 2008
Jason, I'm pleased to see that you continue to develop SuperNotecards. I
particularly like the option to chose a fiction stack of cards or a
non-fiction one, with support for references. I'm still playing with this
version, but with this one you may finally have hooked me.