Learning Helpers — or how I entered the 21st century at last
Very recently I did an online course, with an exam at the end, to get another certificate. All attendees got a Student Workbook, a strict 9–5 schedule including a 30-minute lunch break, two five-minute breaks, and an instructor who was quite demanding (still a nice guy, though). Then the test, which was scheduled for 90 minutes at the end, that is after the last session, of the last day.
Now, why should I write about that?
Because I actually thought first and then attended the course. Like, what most people do, preparing myself before starting the course. The reason for that, apart from spending €2500 for the course which meant I was really invested into passing the test, was that I had to prepare a lot of other things as well; Macs, iPads, and so on.
My thinking was: OK, I do have that workbook, which did consist of nothing but fragments of thoughts and topics to be discussed during lecture time. So, how about making notes during lecture times? Check. Now, how to make notes which might even be useful? Annotating the workbook as a PDF in itself would get messy within minutes, there is too much to write down and plastering a PDF with sticky notes doesn’t really give me a nice overview. And then there is the next obstacle in sight — how do I want to take notes? Typing on a keyboard, scribbling on an iPad or, turning medieval, printing the thing and use a pencil?
Luckily, other people didn’t pretend to live in a cave for the last ten years or so, and they even developed something I could use. Just a bit of googling around got me two apps which seemed up to the task, LiquidText and MarginNote 3.
Which to choose?
There is something to be said to keep one’s price structure simple because after toying around with LiquidText I glanced at the In-App purchases:
Are you guys serious? OK, let’s try to get to the bottom of this. What I want, of course, is the app itself for my Mac and my iPad. That appears to be €55 flat. I can live with that. Here’s the catch: having those apps on my toys is one thing, I’d also like them to, you know, sync, so I have my stuff everywhere. That is where LiquidText Live comes along, the subscription service. Now, Apple’s App Store isn’t paramount in displaying such information in a matter I might be able to understand easily, let’s switch to the website. The gist of it is that I’d pay either a monthly fee of about €10 or get the whole year for €96. No reason whatsoever to get LiquidText Live Unlimited — quite the mouthful — for €120, easily doubling the amount of money they ask for the apps.
Sync is done using Microsoft Azure, and I think that’s the reason for the subscription fee. LiquidText is available for Windows as well, and if I were forced to use Windows, I’d want that to sync as well.
MarginNote 3’s buying options are way simpler:
The screenshot above is for the macOS version, the iPadOS/iOS is sold separately for €13. Sync is done with iCloud Drive. While free, it can be somewhat slower. Definitely no real-time sync, as LiquidText promises (and almost delivers).
Formats
Apart from PDF, LiquidText imports Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint files as well; MarginNote 3 works with PDF and ePub files, and can import stuff from Evernote and MindManager. Both can import pictures and Webpages.
Exporting is a different topic. LiquidText exports either to a Microsoft Word file, or a PDF file. MarginNote 3 export to PDF, OmniOutliner, MindManager, Evernote, Devonthink, and finally Microsoft Word.
Using both
Both are strikingly similar in many ways, either one is a copy from the other, or it is just UI follows function. You can mark some area — whatever you want — and just drag your selection out or your textbook (LiquidNote) or let automatically create a separate note right after you finished marking (MarginNote 3).
MarginNote does create a kind of mind map by default, that works really well if it can ascertain the structure of your document — a no-brainer in an ePub file. For PDF files, it depends on how they have been created (there should be some kind of law against publishing unstructured PDF files. There isn’t).
Decision Time
Normally, I would go further and test way more features until I’m satisfied. This time, I do make an exception because that auto-mind-mapping done by MarginNote 3 is just awesome. Imagine having a chapter and every note, every selection you’re doing gets morphed into a mind map, with the root node being that chapter. Regardless of it just being selected text, a picture, or a handwritten note (that is, something you wrote with your Apple Pencil) — if you like, Margin Note 3 will organise it all for you. Which, as it happened, is brilliant.
Conclusion
That being my first dive into this kind of apps, my lack of knowledge shows and so it should. Yet, even me being very much late to the game, I was thrilled to have found something tailored to how I want to structure my notes. And, looking back, what one does need is blindingly obvious. The genius is in providing those tools you’ve never thought you’d need until you do. Margin Note 3 is almost perfect, so much so — I completely dropped investigating LiquidText. Sorry.
