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Writing and Note-Taking Tools

New Guide: A Software Ecosystem for Research, Zettelkasten Note-Taking, and Writing

The following is a supplemental new guide especially suitable if you are doing research projects over a long period of time. The system is inspired by the "Zettelkasten" approach to note-taking.  

Purpose of this Guide

 This guide:

  • provides information about how to access "writing platforms" and related tools available at Lehigh for writing articles, reports, books, theses, and other documents 
  • identifies questions to ask in selecting a platform, especially for the benefit of persons involved in large and extended writing projects
  • provides links to places where you can learn about using features of these platforms you have not known about
  • provides a link to information about citation management software you can use in relation to a writing platform
  • Provides a set of ideas about note-taking systems using the writing platforms or independent of latter
  • suggests where you can go for help and training.

Why is it important to consider what platform to use, or review what you already use?

If you do not consider these questions, you may miss out on using a platform that better suits your needs than the one you already use. You might not know that your chosen platform has some features that escaped your attention and can make your writing more efficient and organized! You may not want to embark on a project--especially a sizable one--if you haven't spend some time thinking about the questions in the next page of this guide.

Even if you do not use one of Lehigh's platforms, and select another one (e.g., Scrivener, or Authorea), this guide can give you ideas about what features you should look for and the questions you need to ask yourself.

Platforms supported at Lehigh  

For access, see "Access & Documentation" page:

  • Googe Docs: Part of Lehigh's "G-Suite", Google docs is often used for collaborative, Word-like capabilities 
  • LaTeX/Overleaf: LaTeX is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting mostly used for writing technical or scientific documents. Overleaf is a cloud based LaTeX editor.
  • Microsoft Word:  The very commonly used word processing software downloadable via Office 365.