App: Columns - Cornell Notes
Developer: Lawrence Weru
Genres: Education, Productivity

Without taking notes, only 10% of what you hear may last in memory [1]. With good note-taking, that number can go up to over 80%. Despite the benefits of note-taking, 1 out of every 3 students do not take notes. 

Two-column note-taking is one of the most frequently recommended note-taking formats by universities and high schools. Also known as Cornell note-taking, it's a note-taking strategy that helps you take thorough notes in an efficient way, while allowing the notes to be used for review and self-quizzing.

Columns makes it easy to do the Cornell method of note-taking on your Mac.

Benefits

- Retain more of what you study
- Organize information in a useful format.
- Take amazing notes during a meeting, while listening to a lecture, watching a film, or reading a book.
- No prep-work required such as drawing lines and templates onto your sheets. Instant two column notes wherever, whenever.
- Especially useful for language learning - One of the well-researched use cases for Cornell note-taking is its effectiveness in improving language skills and its components. [2]

Features

- Instant Two Column Notes
No more forcing a word processor to do what it wasn’t designed to do. Columns is built from the bottom up for the Cornell Notetaking format and strategy, complete with title column, detail column, and summary footer. 

- Write Clearly
Use custom text formatting to give your notes structure and make the important points stand out.

- Easy Organization
Put sheets into folders and sort them by name or date. Star the important sheets for quick access.

- Easy editing
Notes are a work in progress. Edit and rearrange your notes as you go.

- Find everything you ever wrote
Use the Cosmic Search to search through all of your sheets, notes, and summaries. Results are filtered and highlighted in real-time as you type. Click on a search result to be taken to its sheet.

- Print to printer or to PDF
Print out your sheets as full-spec Cornell notes. Fold along the vertical split to quiz yourself just like old school Cornell notes.

- Increase / Decrease size
Increase or decrease the size of the app elements.

- Focus mode
Just want to focus on the current sheet? You can hide the Folders and Sheets panes by clicking the hamburger menu button on the top-left corner of the app.

- Fullscreen Mode
Fullscreen compatible

- 100% Keyboard Navigation Compatible
Typist? Power-user? You can write and navigate through a sheet using just your keyboard. Custom formatting options have keyboard shortcuts.

NOTE-TAKING IS A SKILL

Research suggests note-taking is a valuable skill-set, but warns that not all note-taking is equal [3]. Therefore, four tips are given to the note-taker:

Verbatim note-taking is, perhaps, the least effective way to take notes.
Notes should be considered a work in progress.
Notes should be used as study guides for tests.
The more notes that are taken the better.

WHAT ARE TWO-COLUMN NOTES?

Two-column note-taking (also known as Cornell note-taking) is a note-taking strategy and format. This format is one of the most frequently suggested note-taking formats by universities and high schools.

The page is structured into two columns. Major headings are written on the left column and elaborated upon on the right column. The elaborations may take the form of bulleted points, summary statements, definitions, new information, or synthesis of prior and new knowledge.

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Research cited:

[1] "How To Study In College" by the late Professor Walter Pauk of Cornell University.

[3] Alzu’bi, 2019; Zorn 2017; Baharev ,2016; Davoudi, Moattarian & Zareian, 2015; Rahmani & Sadeghi, 2011 &Hayati, 2009; Jacobs, 2008;

[2] Marzano, R. J., Pickering, K. J., & Pollock, J. E. (2001). Classroom instruction that works: research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Release notes:
Sheet sharing - Now you can share your sheets with anyone. Click the "share" button to get a shareable link, accessible from any web browser and even mobile devices.