Power Research and Writing on the Mac: Workshops in Digital Workflow Applications

Three Digital Humanities Center workshops will focus on scholarly workflow tools on successive Friday mornings.  Attend any that interest you.

February 13th, 20th and 27th
11:00 am to 12:30 pm
Butler 306

These are designed for users with Mac laptops, who are encouraged to download a demo version (as described below) of each of the three softwares prior to the class. 

 

1) Introduction to Sente for PDF and Bibliographic Management (Friday, February 13th) 11am-12:30pm,  306 Butler Library

This workshop will introduce students to Third Street Software’s application Sente for Mac, which combines many of the bibliographical management aspects of Zotero with a full-service PDF capturing, note taking and organization system. Participants will learn the basics of how to setup libraries, capture and organize their PDFs from online databases and personal libraries, use some of Sente’s organizational features, annotate PDFs, and synchronize with iPad and iPhone applications. Participants will also learn how to export notes and be introduced to Sente’s “cite and scan” feature for producing formatted citations.

All participants are asked to bring their own Mac laptop, and download and install the trial version of Sente (http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/site/Downloads.html) ahead of time. 

 

2) Introduction to Scrivener for Mac (Friday, February 20th)
11am-12:30pm, 306 Butler Library

Do you hate Microsoft Word? Welcome to the club, but there is a great alternative! This workshop is intended to be a crash course in using Scrivener for writing and researching your academic projects, large and small. Scrivener is an amazing application that brings much more flexibility, fungibility, and functionality to all aspects of the writing process. Participants will learn the basic Scrivener interface , as well as its unique organizational features including: how to label and re-arrange information; import, export, and compile documents; visualize segments in the outliner and cork board views; and how to write using Scrivener’s unique full-screen mode.

All participants are asked to bring their own Mac laptop, and download and install the trial version of Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php) ahead of time. 

 

3) Introduction to DEVONthink for Mac (Friday, February 27th)
   11am-12:30pm, 306 Butler Library

Feel like you’re drowning in data? Would you like to better capture, organize, and search your own digital data (Word files, PDFs, web clippings, notes, etc.)? In this workshop participants will be introduced to a powerful piece of software for document and data management on the Mac called DEVONthink. Similar to Evernote, DEVONthink allows seamless capture of web research and online clippings plus features a powerful AI that helps users draw heuristic connections between the pieces of data contained in their databases. Participants will be introduced to these features, be shown how to setup databases, and also introduced to DEVONthink’s various tools (ex. automatic OCR) and scripts that allow interaction between various applications in a workflow and the automation of tasks. 

 All participants are asked to bring their own Mac laptop, and download and install the trial version of DEVONthink Pro Office (http://www.devontechnologies.com/download/products.html) ahead of time. 

 Questions?  Please contact Bob Scott (scottr@columbia.edu) or call the Digital Humanities Center, 212-854-7547.