Websites mentioned: BulletsToTable.com
Almost everyone takes their notes in bullet form. This system makes a lot of sense - it's orderly, concise, easy to rearrange, and perfect for a list of to-dos. But what happens when you build a hierarchical list with a few levels?
- Group A
- Simon
- Introduction
- Closing speech
- Paul
- Logistics
- Reminder emails
- Maha
- Notes
- Facilitation
- Simon
- Group B
- ...
The information is all there, but it's messy. Your mind is forced to process it in a specific order, which it immediately objects to. The same information would be much better presented as a table, but:
- There's no way to convert from a hierarchical bullet list to a table in most note-taking apps / word processors.
- We don't make our notes in a table format, because that would be weird.
To get around this problem, I created BulletsToTable.com, where you can copy over your list and convert it into a beautiful and easy-to-understand table:
| Group A | Simon | Introduction |
| Closing speech | ||
| Paul | Logistics | |
| Reminder emails | ||
| Maha | Notes | |
| Facilitation | ||
| Group B | ... | … |
Much better!
It's a shame this functionality isn't built natively in apps like MS OneNote or Outlook, though chances are that it will appear eventually. Until then, we have our web-apps to rely on!