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Tools for the College Trade

As we enter yet another year here at Stevens, or for some, their first year altogether, some of us may be faced with the all too familiar struggle of organization. As we move our lives to the internet, our work and school lives follow. The physical notebooks we know too well are being replaced by online note-taking software and libraries are being swapped out for easily accessible pdf versions of books.

Before I begin I would like to address, particularly to new students, the storage01 drive accessible to all Stevens students. Within this drive is all of the software used for classes here at Stevens such as Solidworks for modeling and word processors. I know for a fact this drive is helpful for engineering classes such as Graphics and Design. To access this drive, go to myStevens and click on IT Service Desk. On the right, there will be a link explaining how to access the drive.

In the past, for basic word processing, OpenOffice would be the go to for anyone without storage01, or even cash. However, due to OpenOffice’s declining support, a former extension of Open Office called LibreOffice is rapidly gaining popularity. The amusing part of LibreOffice is the amount of former OpenOffice developers that have created LibreOffice. Or you can use Word because it is offered to you in storage01. That works too.

My personal favorite calendar setup would be Google Calendar/mac Calendar. Because these two calendar programs can be synced, I regularly use it for everything from class schedules to appointments, and even assignments. If I decide to log on to Google and add an event, I can be sure to expect a reminder on my iPhone through Calendar, regardless of cross-platform suspicion. With the amount of people using both platforms, it is very important to see some cross-platform utility.

For the note-takers, i.e. everyone that cares about their grade, my go-to would be the notebook. Literally a paper notebook with the rings and the lines and the neat little folders. Some habits just don’t die I suppose. But if I had to go completely virtual I would easily use Evernote. Besides the fact that is has a really cool looking logo, Evernote offers many features. My most used features would be reminders and notebooks. I don’t really know why Evernote appeals to me other than aesthetic but that’s all I really need for note-taking.

In the end, I would experiment with everything you have and see what fits. Happy fall semester!

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