Notecards are quick reference items you can use to organize thoughts, information, and create a hierarchy of research. Notecards can be associated with citations or created independently. They help you connect information from your source and your own thoughts and takeaways.
Notecards can be a very effective studying and organizing tool!
The Notecards screen has two functionalities - Notecards and the Outline. To use the Outline tab, click the Outline checkbox at the top!
Click on the 
button to open the notecard creation screen.
You can search all of your notecards using this search box.
You can search using a multitude of data points, including the source (citation), collaborator (others who manage this project), and even colors assigned to notecards!
The Notecards tab allows you to manage your notecards in a visual way. Click on notecards to open them and drag them around to arrange them differently.
Think of it like a table!
There are many ways to organize notecards in NoodleTools. After creating a notecard, it will appear in the Notecard tab. There you can click and drag to visually organize your cards.
Drag notecards on top of another to create a "pile", a group of notecards. You can name this pile.
Each pile shows how many notecards are in it. Click the horizontal arrow to open a drop-down of all included notecards. Click on the pile to open a dropdown, where you can directly create notecards to the pile. You can also pin the pile (keeps the pile at the top of the Notecards Tab) and delete it using the dropdown menu.
After clicking the button, the Notecard creation screen will pop up.
Input your notecard's title (the name that appears on the card on the "table") and the source the notecard pertains to. While "source" is not required, it is highly suggested! You can also insert any tags (searchable words to help organize). Applying a page number lets you reference the notecard to a specific page or set of pages in the source document.
The direct quote from the source citation you chose for this notecard.
Paraphrasing or summarizing information helps us retain said information. Try to rewrite the direct quotation in your own words - words you can easily internalize and memorize when looking at the notecard in a pile!
Think of "My Ideas" as your comments on the quotation. What would you ask about the quotation - what questions or thoughts do you have? Linking personal thoughts to a notecard will help you process and internalize information better.
Think of the Outline tab as another way to organize your information. While the Notecards tab is visual, Outline is hierarchical.
The Outline tab starts with 1 topic and 1 subtopic. Drag notecards from the Notecard tab onto a topic or subtopic in the Outlines tab. The notecards will then appear underneath the topic or subtopic, indicated with the 4 box icon. Dragging a pile to a topic or subtopic will add all of the notecards to that entry. Note: You cannot add duplicate notecards to topics or subtopics.
Click the + icon to open the dropdown menu. You can select "Add Topic" to add a high-level entry or "Add Subtopic" to add a lower-level entry attached to an existing topic.
You can use the arrow buttons to move and alter the hierarchy of your topics. The left & right button will alter hierarchy, letting you create topics out of subtopics and organize more levels of subtopics.
