Hi. Mmmm... It's a dificult question, so personal. If one has enough notes to complete... perhaps 15 or 20 pages, it's worth using one of that tools you named. For me, personally, prefer Atlas.ti.

Please try Google Doc and see if it fits. Good luck.

If you find other interesting tools, please share. Thanks.

Thu

Thanks! I'm lucky enough to have organised a meeting with a great anthropologist at my uni tomorrow so I will share any useful tips after that!

Hi Carmel,

Great question!

I think any software tool will do for the final archiving of notes. I use NVivo.

But maybe also pay attention to the way you 1) produce reflexive notes in the field and 2) the way you use your reflexive notes in the analytical phase.

I use a system of keeping 'observation notes' apart from my 'reflexive notes' in colums or opposite pages in a note book. Its healthy to be aware of these two different types of notes and not to mix your own preliminary interpretations into your observations.

Also, its good to force yourself to pay as much time with the reflxive notes as the observational notes.

There are options for treating the notes as 'data'/nodes in Nvivo, which may increase the usability of the notes in the analytical phase.

Regards,

Thilde

Wow, very interesting. I have never tried many of those apps. Thanks, Lucas, for sharing all this.

Thanks Lucas for the info. I just obtained a Livescribe Pen just for the purpose of managing and capturing my thoughts. Its a perfect tool to for instant capture. Google docs is good but if you your reflective notes have any confidential information make sure you have the right security assigned to your document.

I'm using the iPad app iAnnotate for making notes during interviews, and iThoughtsHD for mindmapping, also on iPad. Notetaker on iPad is great for handwriting (when typing is too intrusive). For my analysis I use nVivo, and I import documents make elsewhere as pdf's into this programme - eg memos as part of my grounded theory work.

When I'm writing I work on my home computer, and use Windows 7's 'snip' tool to cut then paste into OneNote to hold excerpts I particularly want while writing. I attach pdf's to Endnote, so I can find them (!), and I use Dropbox to have everything wherever I go!

I sound like an advertisement but most of these are either free or inexpensive, with the exception of nVivo and Endnote which are supplied by the University.

Thanks Bronnie for sharing. Sound great! I'll give it a try.

I just come across this page with a lot of suggested tools for notes. I don't have time to check the quality of those tools, however, I just want to share with you:

Annotation and Notetaking Tools

https://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/w/page/17801642/Annotation%20and%20Notetaking%20Tools

Check out for yourselves! Which one do you think really useful?

A great find, thanks!

Thankyou everyone for your ideas! They are really helpful. I also have a livescribe pen and absolutely love it, it is such a great time saver and I find it is much less intrusive and more convenient than having my ipad or laptop with me at the school. I have now downloaded iAnnotate for my iPad and it is fantastic.

The other tool I've been using is mindmeister.com - I've been using this to create maps of the room layout and where people are sitting etc to help jog my memory and to potentially use for analysis later in terms of student groups and interactions.

Dropbox and Evernote are my other two favourites.

Now I think I have to stop procrastinating and looking through tools and just start writing!