Chromebook for academic use: Dr Andus

Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 24, 2019 at 06:43 PM

Dr Andus, thank you for your reply. I appreciate it. And I apologize for misunderstanding the extent to which you’re using your Chromebook.

Through trial and error I have managed to work out some of the issues I had with apps, so that is a good thing.

I had remembered wrongly what reference manage you were favouring. A few years ago I looked at Papers, and was intrigued with how it utilizes Google Drive. I was leery, however, of being so fully committed to GDrive, and found Dropbox more to my liking. I had already started to use ReadCube/Papers (it was just Read Cube then), and I continue to like it. Also, I was learning to work with Citavi. For the time being, I will stick with ReadCube/Papers, and consider replacing it when Citavi gets its on-line version.

I want to see how well Word on-line or the app work on Chromebook, since my profs specify Word (except one who uses Word but will accept Google Docs or a PDF).

I like your suggestion re Workflowy and Dynalist. I shifted from Workflowy when Dynalist started to move forward, and the former appeared stalled. I prefer Dynalist for a number of reasons, including being able to have more than one outline. Now I am thinking how best to set Dynalist up as my dashboard per your suggestion.

The Chromebook, even in its 14 inch version is light. I like how quickly it starts up, the high definition display, and its overall speed. Also the fact that it is good quality hardware, with a very thin metal case at a far cheaper price than an equivalent Windows machine. I believe I can add a memory chip, and I can use a flash drive for extra storage.

Most journals I work with I get in PDF form, and use comments and highlighting, though I make most of my detailed reading notes the old fashioned way, by fountain pen, and that is unlikely to change.

Once again, thanks for your reply.

Daly

Dr Andus wrote:
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>>So, I am thinking about using Papers, as Dr Andus is doing
> >Hi Daly,
> >This must be a misunderstanding. Sorry, if I gave you the wrong
>impression. I have not yet switched fully to Chrome OS for all my
>academic processes. I live in a schizophrenic situation, stuck between
>Windows and Chrome OS, with some processes in one or the other, or
>duplicated in both.
> >Also, the service I was thinking of switching to is Paperpile, not
>Papers (of which I don’t know anything about):
> >https://paperpile.com/
> >The thing about Paperpile is that it directly integrates into Google
>Docs, so it would be about replacing the MS Word + EndNote combo for me,
>with PDFs stored in Google Drive (rather than my Windows hard drive, as
>it is at the moment).
> >>Dr Andus, what would you suggest in
>>terms of making the most of the Chromebook?
> >>Overall are you still satisfied with Chromebook? Do you have any advice
>>on how to make the most of it?
> >Daly, it sounds like you’re more ahead in this process than I am.
>Unfortunately at the university where I work, we’re still stuck in the
>20th century, generating and emailing around thousands of MS Word and
>Excel files daily for no good reason. Needing to clear my Outlook box
>because people knock it out by sending me big attachments is still a
>daily problem.
> >But I’m slowly plotting my escape (though a Windows machine will still
>be needed at some point in the process, where journals specifically
>demand a Word doc to be submitted, or to be able to collaborate with
>colleagues stuck in Word).
> >Anyway, the ideal situation of doing 90%+ of the academic processes
>(research, reading, writing etc.) would require a high-end and recent
>convertible Chromebook with a lot of processing power and RAM and with a
>stylus, coupled with a number of subscriptions of relevant services.
> >For collecting data, it would require Paperpile or similar, to reference
>files (PDF etc.) saved onto Google Drive. Though initially Google Keep
>(using the Keep Chrome extension) might also work for capturing URLs or
>quotes on the go, before further processing (to be put in Zettelkasten,
>for instance, or Paperpile).
> >WorkFlowy or similar (Dynalist) could serve as a meta dashboard for
>organising todos and links to files, to keep an overview of everything.
> >For reading and annotating PDFs, I’d use the Chromebook in tablet mode,
>with the stylus, using the Kami web app, then exporting the annotated
>files and storing them on Google Drive.
> >For reading notes (as a Zettelkasten), I’d set up Dokuwiki hosted by an
>external service (e.g. A2 Hosting), so I could link to entries from
>WorkFlowy and link to PDFs stored on Google Drive.
> >For outlining I’d use my usual tools, WorkFlowy, Gingko, MindMup,
>Bubbl.us, and Keep (for selecting and ordering quotes and notes for
>writing-up). Also Keep and Squid (Android) for any handwritten notes or
>drawings (with the stylus).
> >For writing up, I would use Google Doc with a nice distraction-free
>midnight theme (using the “Distraction Free Mode” Chrome extension),
>using Keep in the sliding side panel for any selected notes or quotes to
>refer to, and Paperpile to do any academic referencing.
> >As I said, the very final formatting (for a given journal style) may
>still need to happen in Windows in MS Word, but that would be
>post-production I can live with.
> >While the above approach may sound complicated, the upside is that most
>of these services are very fast, they would be each just a Chrome tab
>away from each other, all backed up online (so not vulnerable to local
>failure or theft), directly linkable to each other via URLs, in the
>superfast environment of Chrome OS.
> >Yesterday I tried dictating into Google Doc on a Chromebook, and I was
>blown away by how much faster and less hassle it was than doing it in
>the latest version of Dragon Naturallyspeaking (which cost me a huge
>amount over the years) on my Windows laptop.
> >Unfortunately the above system is still mostly a fantasy because I
>haven’t had the time to set all of it up yet, though most of the pieces
>are in place, and I have been using them, but not in a fully integrated,
>seamless way.
> >Another benefit of the above system is that it would be OS agnostic
>still, so one could still carry on using it while being forced to use
>Windows or other OS, on account of it being web-based and operable from
>a browser.
> >Daly, thanks for asking, as it helped me clarify some of my thoughts
>about it and get me a step closer to turning this fantasy into reality
>:)
> >If ReadCube Papers works for you though, then that’s great, as it means
>there is yet another way to do all this on a Chromebook.