The Worst Thing You Can Do As A Human Is Use Microsoft Word To Take Notes

By Ben Zweig

We’ve said time and again that bringing technology into the classroom can be transformative. But if we learned anything from our steamy interview with Professor Renzi, it’s that technology is only helpful when we use it correctly.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve noticed a disgusting trend among students taking notes in class: the use of Microsoft Word. We’ve seen it in every form and version, even CloudOn’s iPad virtualization. It makes us want to run around in the middle of class screaming in agony. (Okay, it makes the author of this post feel that way, but you will too after you convert.)

For Microsoft Word to be a suitable tool for note-taking, it needs to fulfill the five basic principles of a notebook:

1. Quickly flip through all of your notes
2. Organize notes by subject
3. Portable
4. Small
5. Attach anything, be it a drawing or sticky note

If we’re looking to replace the notebook with technology, at the very least we should be able to hit those principles. So, how does Word stack up?

1. You can’t flip through your notes unless they’re all in the same document. And that makes no sense, because scrolling or using the “Find” command to locate a specific section is clunky and there’s no sense opening everything you’ve written every time you want to modify your notes. FAIL
2. Word doesn’t offer any solid system for organizing related documents unless you switch to the Notebook Layout, which lets you create virtual section dividers. They’re really not designed for 15 weeks of notes, though, since the tabs bulk up quickly. Plus, you can only introduce one layer of tabs, so there’s no way to organize any deeper. MOSTLY FAIL
3. Notes created on Word can be opened anywhere if they’re stored in Dropbox, but portability and editability isn’t so seamless if you want to access those notes on mobile devices or computers without Word. MOSTLY FAIL
4. Word is a huge application. During startup millions of services you’ll never use for basic note-taking are activated, eating memory and time. It’s hardly lightweight. FAIL
5. You can store some stuff, like drawings, charts, etc., but that content doesn’t play well in the Notebook Layout. There’s no way to store clips from webpages, files, or anything non-graphical. FAIL

Word doesn’t work well for these purposes because it’s not designed to replace notebooks. It is a word processing application, well-suited for publication of stuff that will eventually go on paper. That’s it. You don’t care about margins, footnotes or page setup when you write in your notebook, so why should you care about it on your computer? Using Word adds unnecesary complexity and turns your notes into documents, separate and unrelated.

A digital replacement for the notebook needs to act like a real notebook, but better. It’s 2012, so these extra wishes aren’t too much to ask for:

1. Search through all of your notes in every class, or just one class, or just one topic
2. Access and edit anywhere
3. Tag your notes with topics, authors, whatever
4. Record audio and sync with type
5. Email, print, share
6. View word definitions

Below are a few of our favorite alternatives. None hit every mark, but each is a million times better than Word. Guaranteed.

Evernote (Mac/Windows/web/mobile) is the most popular note-taking application, although that doesn’t mean it’s the best. What it does mean is that it integrates with tons of apps and services, and is without a doubt the most connected note-taking app on the planet. And it’s got a few killer features: Add an image, diagram or photo of handwritten notes and Evernote will recognize and index the text, plus you can save any element of any webpage to your notebook. When you run a search, Evernote will check things you’ve typed, scanned, photographed, saved from the web, etc.

Pear Note (Mac/iOS) might be your best bet if you wish you could relive every lecture. This app is incredibly smart about linking video, audio, slides and text into one master timeline, which can make some classes infinitely easier. Studying for a test and confused about something you typed because the professor spoke too quickly? Click the sentence to view the accompanying audio (slowed down, if you want), video, PowerPoint slide or whatever, all with live tracing of when you typed what. (Microsoft Word can do something similar, but not nearly as well.) And the killer feature: Export it all to one genius webpage (like this) for seamless sharing. It’s missing in-app organization and searching (though you can do that with Spotlight), so it ain’t perfect. But for the heavy lecture, there’s nothing better.

Microsoft OneNote (Windows/iOS/Android/Symbian/Metro) is Microsoft’s note-taking solution, and some people swear by it. Its killer feature is searchable handwriting input and compatibility with tablet devices. Unlike Word, your notes aren’t tied to document layout, so you’re free to organize as you would in real life. There’s no Mac app, so we’ll just put this in the corner.

DEVONnote (Mac) emphasizes productivity, learning how you organize your notes in order to make educated suggestions for future filings. It lets you store just about anything and treats webpages like centralized bookmarks, so they load right in the app. DEVONnote stores unlimited undos and redos and has a few neat tools to keep you focused on just taking notes, and nothing more.

SOHO Notes (Mac/iOS) is a worthy alternative to an Evernote, but jam-packed with features like collaborative networking and task syncing. But at $55 for the app and its compatible iPad and iPhone sidekicks, it’s far overpriced for most users.

Know an app we didn’t mention? Do tell us in the comments.