Printed material has far higher resolution (~600 dpi) than even the best computer screens
(~100 dpi); see the illustration of 300 vs. 600 dpi, below. For this reason you will read more
accurately, and with less fatigue, if you stick with the paper version. Still, we inevitably read
much more screen-based material now.
Markup on the screen: It remains difficult to mark up screen-based materials effectively.
The extra steps involved are distracting, as is the temptation to check email or websurf.
Also, with screen-based markup you often have to click on a note in order to read it, which
means you’re less likely to do it later. It remains far easier to mark up a printed copy!
However, if you’re disciplined, recent versions of Acrobat, Apple Preview, and third-party
PDF viewers such as PDFpen, iAnnotate, and Goodreader allow you to add comments,
highlighting, and so on to PDFs. Voice recognition can make this a lot easier. Today, I
routinely read and annotate PDFs on an iPad, using voice recognition when I want to make a
note. Some of these readers, as well as ebook readers such as Kindle, allow you to export
only your highlights and notes. This is a great way to make yourself a condensed version of a
document. Paste it into the notes field of your citation manager and it’ll always be at your
fingertips. Hunt around on the web for ways to do this kind of thing on an industrial scale
(especially with Kindle books).
When taking notes about something you're reading (as opposed to marking up the text),
you'll be tempted to cut and paste the original text in lieu of making your own notes in your
own words. Cut-and-paste can sometimes work well, especially for things you might want to
quote later. However: in general it defeats the two main purposes of note-taking: (a)
learning and remembering (by rephrasing in your own terms), and (b) condensing into a very
short form. The same is true of links: though useful for keeping track of sources, keeping a
URL will not by itself help you remember or understand what's there, even though it may