NoodleTools Guide: How to Use Notecards

Tutorials on this page:

How to Link Notecards to a Source
How to Add Tags, Color, and Visual Cues to Notecards

Other tutorials from the NoodleTools Help Desk:

How to use the Notecard Tabletop and Detail views
How to create and manage notecard piles
How to search notecards
How to export or print notecards

There are two ways to link a notecard to source: 

1. On the Sources screen

To the right of the source, in the Notecards column, click New to create a notecard, and the new notecard is automatically linked to the source that you are working with. 

2. On the Notecards screen

If you are on the Notecards screen, create a new notecard and select a source from the Sourcedropdown list.

To change the source in your notecard

If you are editing an existing notecard (from either the Sources or Notecards screens), you can change the source information by selecting a new source from the Source dropdown list. See above image.

To link multiple notecards to a source

To link multiple notecards all at once to a source, first go to the Notecard Tabletop view and select any number of notecards. They will display with an orange selection rectangle. Click Link to source. 

Select the source from the dropdown list and click Submit to save the change.

Using tags

A tag is a way for you to identify and label concepts within each notecard. Examples include geographic locations, years or time periods, and key concepts. Before you save a notecard, you can add tags that you think may be useful. Later, you can locate groups of notecards by searching on a particular tag/concept.

To associate a tag with a notecard as you create it, on the Edit notecard screen, simply type the tag into the Tags field on the bottom left. To associate an existing tag with the notecard, simply select the tag from the My tags menu on the bottom right.

Add or remove tags from notecards

There are two ways to add or remove tags:

1. Edit the notecard and change the tags  in the Tags field. 
2. Use the Tags menu above the Notecard Tabletop.

1. First, select the notecards you wish to add or remove the tag from.
2. Click the Tags menu and select Tags on the menu to display a list of existing tags. If you are removing a tag, look for the tag on the list that has a checkmark next to it and click on it to remove the checkmark. To add a new tag to the notecards, select a tag from the list.

Notecard colors and visual cues

In addition to word and phrase tags, NoodleTools allows you to add Color and Visual cues to the notecards you create.

To add color to one or more notecards:

 1. First, select each of the notecards you wish to add or remove a color from.
2. Click the Tags menu above the Tabletop, select Color on the menu, and click on one of the six colors.

3. To remove or replace a color, select the color you want to remove, or select a different color.

Unlike tags, only a single color can be applied to a particular notecard. If you apply the color red to a notecard that already has the color green, the notecard will be changed from green to red. The bird’s-eye-view also displays a colored square, rather than the default gray one.

One application for colors is labeling pro and con arguments for a debate (green for pro arguments, red for con arguments). Or if you were comparing three different versions of the same myth in various sources, you might choose to assign one color to notecards pertaining to one version, a second color for the second version, and so forth. Later, you can search your notecards by a color and certain tags, compare common attributes among all three myths, then pile and order notecards with a particular combination of color and tags on the tabletop or insert them into your outline under a new subtopic.

Visual cues are a set of six predefined visual reminders that can also be added to your notecards: Needs further research, Need help, Incomplete, Original thinking, Important, and Used in paper.

To add visual cues to one or more notecards: 

1. Select each of the notecards you wish to add or remove a visual cue from.
2. Click the Tags menu above the Tabletop, select Cues on the menu, and click on one or more of the six cues.
3. To remove or replace a cue, select the cue you want to remove, or select a different cue.

When applied to the notecards, these visual cues show up as icons on the notecard on the tabletop, calling them to your attention immediately.

Renaming and deleting tags

Click the Tags menu above the tabletop and click Manage tags to edit a tag or delete tags (removing them from all notecards to which they are currently applied).

NOTE: Tags are not case-sensitive. For example, the tag “Washington DC” is equivalent to “washington dc”.