Notes for Works?
Hypertext-infused philosophy personal database software
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jasonwinning
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Hello! First, thanks for this fantastic software! I'm sure it will be very useful for me in my studies!
Just a quick question: I like to keep extensive notes about the works I'm reading, some times chapter by chapter (if it is a book). What is the best way to do this? Should I simply create Notes and add the works as key works? And then perhaps sub-notes for each chapter? Or is there a way to do this in the Works tab?
[TL;DR: main response is in first 2 paragraphs]
Hi Daniel, it depends on whether the chapters themselves are independent works (i.e., whether they would get their own line in the bibliography section of a paper). If they are chapters but not independent works, I normally wouldn't create a separate work record, but I would if they are independent works. If there is a separate work record you can just put your notes in its description.
If there is not a separate work record (e.g., you are making notes to individual chapters of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason), individual sub-note records with the work record for the book set as key work might be the way to go. In that case, keep in mind that an additional tool at your disposal is the ability to assign a "search key" to each note record. In the main note record, or in the work record's description, you could then create a kind of table of contents in the form of a multi-level list with links to each note record.
One other thing to point out: I personally use a tiered system to take notes when reading. My first-tier (rough) notes are often made in the form of annotations in the PDF file, or even in a separate word document in a folder assigned to a note record for that work, or in a Misc. File record (I do the separate document when doing a really deep analysis). These are my rough notes that mostly help me at the time of reading and aren't really a finished product that is immediately usable (without spending considerable time going back through it all) months or years later. I then use these materials to create the "second" tier of notes in the form of records in Hypernomicon, either in note records or by creating debate/position/argument records; these are intended more for long-term usefulness.
But I can also go back and see what annotations I added to a work file by viewing it in the Preview window. In the attached screenshot, I created a Misc. File record for a word document that is an in-progress, very detailed outline of the book, and I have also opened the preview window to look at the annotations in the book. Eventually the plan is to go through the outline and incorporate the information into Hypernomicon records, but it's taking me a while because my analysis of the book is so in-depth. But in other cases I might just create records (debate/position/argument) on the fly or do Note records like you suggest.
One of the things that always annoyed me about other software for managing notes and PDFs is they treat your PDF annotations as if they are at the same "tier" as your other notes; Hypernomicon therefore leaves your PDF annotations alone and doesn't dump them in with your other notes and record descriptions, but makes it easy to jump to them in the preview window or jump to the work in question (even if it doesn't start on page 1) in the PDF file in an external viewer. If Hypernomicon did try to import notes directly from PDF annotations, I feel like the annotation function would no longer be as useful; I see it as primarily helping you in the process of reading, and therefore inherently more tentative and subjective than what you would write in debate/position/argument/note record descriptions.
Thanks, that was helpful. I'll see how to implement that!