Fountain Pen Use At Work In The Digital Age

[mtmowl]

Yes! I keep my teaching notes in OneNote, organized by chapters.

 

The notes are first mostly handwritten (printed for clarity) on lined paper with a fountain pen. This, because an injury makes typing laborious; the pen is easier. A quick picture taken with the Office Lens app on my iphone or Surface Book, and the notes are automatically filed in the current chapter in OneNote. OneNote makes embedding photos and videos quite easy, and with the Surface book, one can even annotate images or notes with the stylus on the screen.

 

I find the ability to write, do math and draw diagrams freehand with a pen (FP, of course!) a great boon in getting the material across.

 

BTW, I project these notes by way of a large Smartboard.

[welch]

Emily, I am a computer programmer (AKA "software engineer"), have been since about 1980, and nobody sniffs when I use a fountain pen. A Parker 51, an "all business" pen, rather than a glitzy piece of jewelry-that-writes. At meetings, we "discourage" people from using pads or laptops because we want people paying attention to the meeting...not to a device. We might type customer requirement specs into Word, but we annotate documents in pen or pencil. When marking up a document, I will use a fountain pen unless it has been printed on paper that won't take FP ink, which is too often, unfortunately...then it's usually a pencil.

[rickygene]

Emily,

I am in my mid 50's and have been an avid user of digital technology at work as soon as I was allowed to bring my PC into my office (mid 80's). I have used PDAs (Palm Pilot) since they were available and continued to do so until the iPhone came out. I currently use iPhone, iPad and laptop at work and count myself as a fully paid up member of the digital (older) generation . Nevertheless, I take handwritten notes at meetings and use a notepad and pen throughout the day. I scan meeting notes and whiteboard snapshots when needed. I find I take better notes than my colleagues who use laptops and tablets as they tend to just type verbatim. All of my longer document writing is fully digital.

 

I think the demise of handwritten notes is as imminent as the 'paperless office'.

[Mech-for-i]

there is nothing wrong or special about mixing digital mean and good old paper and pen .. I see no real reason of any sort to question such usage ... what get the job done, get the job done and it might be age old technology or bleeding edge tech.

[Cincinnatus]

I am an Electrical Engineer but take all of the meeting notes with a fountain pen and paper. I will send out a recap of the notes through email but retain my note books. Ironic as it may sound I work in a super high tech industry yet can't stand technology. The weekends I leave my phone on the kitchen counter and spend time in my wood shop.

[Sandy1]

 

Hi,

 

My ideas flow best from the FP in my hand, not a keyboard. Consequently an FP is for me.

 

Also I use a lot of non-ASCII characters, so any sort of character recognition is to date beyond the scope of AI interpretation.

__ __

 

Do not record the the mundane: we have video/audio iNet etc for that stuff.

> What you heard or saw is just mostly background noise, though does give context/texture, and there can be devilish detail, but that's more for personal / creative writing.

> I was blissfully unaware of Kardashians until informed by my stateside nieces, but I wrote nothing down.

> I've written about a three-eared barn cat, but is that useful to you?

 

So from the get-go I wonder what you're writing down? One needs to exert control at the creation of a record, rather than try to control it later on.

> My extemporaneous field notes are ever so brief, though if I think there's meat on the bone can later be expanded to a great extent .

 

 

What is worth writing down is what you learned.

 

 

The mechanics of media conversion, indexing, retrieval, etc are important, but secondary, so don't devote inordinate amount of time / effort to that. (In other Topics I've suggested taking photos of daily work product, tag that with a few KeyWords then upload to a Cloud.)

 

As we have Archivists and Registrars who lovingly shepherd the past,

I have fingers crossed that you will learn to separate the wheat from the chaff, then focus your efforts on moving into the future. We are straining at the oars to out-pace Time.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited June 27, 2017 by Sandy1

[EmilyB613]

This is a great discussion! I will get to your responses after work today - thank you all!

[tamiya]

I don't love my Metros any more than my Newton...

 

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s232/kopi-0_bucket/misc%20RC/DSC04021.jpg

 

Played with iPad Pro with Pencil at the A Store when it first came out and whilst it's an impressive bit of kit, betcha kiddies today don't realise my Apple handheld tablet gizmo HAD a pen way back in 1992!!!

[cjr]

I like to take notes using fountain pen and paper. I then scan them using my iPhone with Scannable into Evernote. Once in Evernote, they are automatically OCR'd and searchable. I get the benefits of both worlds! Tactile experience of pen and ink and the usefulness of a fully digital text.

[alexander_k]

For almost ten years I did everything with mobile devices (does anyone remember Pilot?) in order to demonstrate to others how digital technologies could be used in an efficient and comprehensive (or, if you prefer, inclusive) manner. It worked quite well but for my poor eyes that were really tired after a day's work with computer and smartphone screens. After that project was finished, I went back to my lovely fountain pens and paper. I still use digital means for note-taking and related tasks but only if really necessary. I prefer to use analogue means more and more. Like the OP and others it's quite easy to scan handwritten notes nowadays but more often I have the pleasure of throwing away notes and texts I no longer need. Unlike computer files, there's little if any chance that they'll reappear on the cloud, on a back-up hard disk or a forgotten server. I thoroughly enjoy this ability to discard and forget. I know people don't do that any more but there's already too much digital garbage without me adding to it.

[Mister5]

I've used things like a Samsung Note Pro 12.2, which is the closest I've come to writing.But I still come back to using pen and paper when I want to write, its just not the same.

 

There are technologies like voice recognition that have come a long way for automating dictation, and that has been a boon.

 

Day to day I use a fountain pen for my notes, and no one cares.

[senzen]

Not many people have used fountain pens for several generations, unless you're from a country that still assumes school children will, so for most people more than old it's ancient, like writing on papyrus or with a feather.

 

For a long time I tried to organize my ideas using mindmapping apps on different platforms, but nothing worked quite as well as different colours with several fountain pens on decent paper: it just makes me want to write more while separating the topics better. At the end of the process I just turn everything into short presentations. Perhaps a gizmo that captured my writing while using a fountain pen would be useful, but the principle would be the same. Other apps like Evernote didn't work out for me.

 

An intermediary step I'm going to try is to try to use my (two year old, which makes it practically vintage) wide keyboard Blackberry Passport to capture ideas when using a pen and paper isn't practica. Perhaps Notational Velocity / Acceleration will work to keep notes synced; I say perhaps because as a quirky limited medium, the Passport is only semi compatible with Android apps... Like fountain pens and bad paper.

[inkstainedruth]

A friend of mine is a tech writer. She has her pens and inks color-coded (red ink in a red pen, etc) and takes notes at meetings (she prefers fountain pens over BPs for ergonomic reasons). She said last summer that the engineers where she works used to think that her using different pens and inks was "cute" -- until they realized that what she was doing was using different colors of ink on purpose (rather than just as an affectation: "Person X is going to working on this part of the project next, and I've got those notes in red; Person Y is going to doing another part and those notes are in purple...." Then it was "Ohhhh -- what you're doing makes *sense*...."

Not sure what she does afterwards, whether it's scanning in the notes or re-typing or what (I was too busy playing with her pens at that point and asking what the inks were... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Same as you! I love fountain pens and technology as well. Working as a Software Engineer and still love using fountain pens. But there are times when I use my Surface Pro to draw or write. Still pen and paper gave me the best experience.

Emily, I am a computer programmer (AKA "software engineer"), have been since about 1980, and nobody sniffs when I use a fountain pen. A Parker 51, an "all business" pen, rather than a glitzy piece of jewelry-that-writes. At meetings, we "discourage" people from using pads or laptops because we want people paying attention to the meeting...not to a device. We might type customer requirement specs into Word, but we annotate documents in pen or pencil. When marking up a document, I will use a fountain pen unless it has been printed on paper that won't take FP ink, which is too often, unfortunately...then it's usually a pencil.

Software engineer here as well, and while once upon a time I used to try to take notes digitally on my laptop or something, I've found that pen and paper (especially fountain pen) works better for me and helps me retain more from the meeting. I even use the pen to work out problems like figuring out bugs or other issues on paper. It just seems to get my synapses firing better.

[Driften]

Back when I worked at T-Moble in application support I took all my meeting notes with my fountain pens. At one company I worked at that did computer network security software the CTO also used a fountain pen in meetings. Currently I work from home so don't use pens as much as I used to.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

Just to add bit:

 

It seems to me that by monitoring your retrieval - what you want to be reminded of - you'll narrow down what is of interest, or be puzzling and worthy of pursuit. It is those things that should be cultivated and grown.

 

For example, I've an interest in celestial navigation for mariners. That triggered a desire to learn - not be taught - how the old fellows observed the retrograde movement of Mars, let alone solved that mystery. Not as simple as the Butler in the library with the candlestick.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited June 28, 2017 by Sandy1

[EmilyB613]

Hi guys,

 

I can't believe how many replies this thread has received! From all ages - which is great.

 

I think we use whatever we want to use. My best friend (my age) pulled me into the fountain pen world and I have never looked back. BUT, my major is in digital marketing, so you can see that I work with computers all the time.

 

It's like me having a 1969 Hermes 3000 manual typewriter - I think as the older I get, the more I appreciate the tools other generations have used. For me? Digital age rules. However, I want a balance between the two, to not forget what generations before us millennials have used. I'm not hipster by any means - I just appreciate things from another time and place.

 

(Oh, I do have my dad's Technics SL-BD25 turntable - but that's another story for another day)

 

Use what you want!

 

Thanks all!

[Plexipens]

I keep six fountain pens at hand hanging on my desk's top drawer. My co-workers are entertained by the variety of inks used, but also how strange such 'antique' instruments seem in the hands of one so fluent and immersed in the current technologies......

 

I just tell them that is a past life dominating that part of my current revision.

 

Please, don't start a discussion on tube audio gear versus, ......... please ...... don't ..........

Edited July 1, 2017 by Plexipens

[Beechwood]

At Lloyds of London the use of a fountain pen is standard amongst 3000 employees, most underwriting boxes still sign and stamp brokers slips and once you choose your ink colour you keep it for life to avoid the very small risk of error or fraud.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Maximan

[Namo]

I am a teacher (college) and a (mainly academic) writer. FPs are for writing lessons, notes taking and first/second/third drafts. This is the right tools for the job. I can take it in my pocket with a notebook and go anywhere I want. I can work on a small table in a café or a pub, totally not dependent of electricity.

 

Computer is for the "first final" draft. Phone and tablet for quick note taking g and occasionally for reading. Several years ago I went on a six month sabbatical and had a book on the way. I scanned my (voluminous) notes and had it all in my tablet. Winning electronic technology there.