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January 20, 2006
Tools of the trade
While I'm doing a lot of analysis now, I'm also trying to keep up with the writing so I won't be swamped with it all at once as I get closer to the end of the semester. To me, writing is its own special agony. Nothing helps alleviate this--I just have to force myself to plow ahead. But there are tools that help me prepare and get organized. They don't make the writing any easier, per se, but make what is a 'tough row to hoe' at least a straight row and let's me know where I'm going. (Keep in mind that many of these are offered at discounted prices for students and that FreeMind is free!)
Useful tools of thesis-writing trade:
| • | EndNote - reference manager |
| • | Adobe Acrobat - not just the Reader but the fully-functional program |
| • | Freemind - mind-mapping software |
| • | Adobe Photoshop Elements - digital image editor |
| • | MS Word - yeah, I know, but I have my reasons (see below) |
These software programs can be used in a wonderfully synergistic way. For example, I use EndNote to store all of my references. But it also stores files! I can store one file per reference. Almost all of the references I have are journal articles and reports, and most of these are available in PDF format. So I just insert the Adobe PDF file right into EndNote which adds a unique ID to the file and copies it into the EndNote library folder on your computer.
And I can launch the file right from EndNote. I'm not limited to PDF files. I also store Word files of manuscripts and reports, and JPG files of pictures, tables, and figures I've stored as their own reference entry.
I've already mentioned how useful Adobe Acrobat is for viewing publications, and this can be done with the free Reader version. But there are some nice features of the full Standard version that enticed me to purchase it. For one thing, I can manipulate files a bit more. I can select text for copying, highlight and make comments to the document as I read it, and take screen clippings. Some of these features do not work if the document is locked, but most of the documents I've come across are not locked. Another nice feature is that I can delete pages or add/combine pages in a document. This is handy with really big documents that are offered only in segments--I can combine them into one document on my machine.
An additional feature I've used quite a bit is the web capture. I can open a web page in Acrobat and save it as a PDF. This is a handy way to save web pages as references in my EndNote database. I use this a lot for press releases and federal reports from sites like the USDA or CDC when PDF versions aren't available.
A final feature I've grown to love is the Adobe Acrobat Organizer. This is a place to manage and store PDF files in an organized way. The Organizer keeps a history of recently-viewed files as well as a file manager system. In a way, this overlaps with the EndNote feature as a way of keeping track of PDF files, but sometimes it's easier to find files in the Acrobat Organizer since it keeps a screen shot of the document. It's also a quick way to save something I want to look at later (notice the "To be read" folder).
Now that I've got my references all organized, I actually have to start synthesizing that knowledge into my thesis, i.e., I have to start writing. How to begin? I've got all of this stuff swirling around in my head and it never seems to come out in a clear, orderly manner. That's where FreeMind comes in. Wonderful, wonderful FreeMind. I've talked a bit about the program before. It's a way to outline your ideas--to get them down--without having to worry about order right off the bat. That's what I hate about traditional outlines: whether it's bullets or numbers, I'm still fixated with order because I type things one after another. With FreeMind, just jot down your ideas as a bunch of blobs (nodes) around a central blob. I keep the central node something stupidly vague and short, like "methods chapter." Once I've done my first 'mind dump,' I go back and arrange things. I usually keep FreeMind open in the background to add things as they come to me. I've even used FreeMind to take notes as I'm reading a book or journal article.
One of the great features about FreeMind is that I can insert images and links. When I come across a key table or figure I want to discuss, I just insert it so it's right there for me to take notes on. (I'll create a screen clip and open it into Adobe Photoshop to tweak it, if need be, and save it as a JPG.) The links work well for referencing larger things or to serve as place holders for coming back to. These links can be internal to other nodes in the mind map, external, like links to files on my computer, or hypertext links.
After I've got a good map down, I export it as HTML and bring it in to Word so I can flesh it out into a finished document. It exports as a hierarchical outline. I take each piece of the outline and fill it into a complete paragraph. It helps a lot if I write my FreeMind nodes as paragraph topic sentences to begin with. For more on this, see my previous post or go directly to John Carlis' "Design: The Key to Writing (and Advising) a One-Draft Thesis" (under Selected Papers on his personal web page). I highly recommend it!
The reason I use Word is that it supports EndNote's "Cite While You Write" feature. As I'm writing, I can just plop the necessary citation into my document and EndNote does all the formatting, and even creates a reference list at the end of the document. I've looked into the open source word processors like Open Office Writer. The Writer is very good, but without the easy citation feature, I went back to using Word.
Well, there you have it. It may sound like a cumbersome Rube Goldberg system, but I've found it helpful. Now, back to writing...
Posted by rigd0003 at January 20, 2006 12:43 PM | PhD Process