Notes on Your iPod

Own an iPod? Then this is something you just have to try! You can do this at any age too. Students at any grade level can do this or if you're someone who just likes to write a good bit of reminder notes to yourself, you can do this. Or, if you happen to know someone who might be able to take advantage of this tip, give them a head's up!

Personally, I am a student myself and if your iPod is your life, like mine is, there are not too many places you will go without it. I actually have a class where most of my assignments and notes are on the computer or on a Web site. I used to print the notes or the assignments out every day, but then I ran into a couple problems. The papers got dirty, they wrinkled up, they got thrown away by accident or they just got lost. All of that wastes paper and ink, so I wanted to come up with an alternative. I did just that and I'm here to share it with you today!

I now put my notes on my iPod. Yes, you heard me right! I rarely forget my iPod, so the information I need is always there for me and it is so convenient. I can look up my information from just about anywhere I am and guess what; you can too!

Here is how you do it. Now, if your notes happen to be on the Internet (in an e-mail, etc.) and you are some place where you don't have access to the Internet, you can save your data on a floppy disk for now. You can also do this with a flash drive if you prefer. Go ahead and copy and paste your notes onto the disk and save them.

Now, here is how you save your work to the floppy disk. Put the disk in the floppy disk drive on your computer, which is probably the second drive on your computer tower. (If you're using a flash drive, just insert it into the USB port you want to use. Then just follow the rest of the directions the same, but in terms of a flash drive). The drive may be somewhere else, depending on the type of computer system you are using. The disk will slide right in and you will hear a clicking sound. This means you have the right drive and the disk is ready to be used.

Now, once you get back to a place where you have an Internet connection, find where your notes are posted and pull them up on your computer screen. You will need to open the program Notepad as well. To do this, go to Start, All Programs, Accessories, Notepad. Click on Notepad and it will open up.

Once that's open, click back to where your notes are and just let Notepad stay in the background. Click on the Edit file and a list will come down. Go to the bottom of the list and click on Select All. This will highlight the whole page. Now, go back up to Edit and click on Copy. Now, bring Notepad back up on your screen again. Once you have that done, go to Edit and choose Paste.

Next, go to File in the Notepad window. Click Save As and another window will open. Now, find the "Save in" area at the top of the box and click on the down arrow to choose A:/ Floppy. Now, go down to the "File name:" spot and type in whatever you'd like to name your notes. Make sure the name relates to your notes, so you will be able to find them easily the next time you need them. Once you've done that, click the Save button. Now, you can take out your floppy disk or your flash drive.

Now, when you want to access your notes again, you can insert the disk back in the floppy drive, open the Notepad program and go to File, Open. From there, you'll see a place that says "Look in" and this will be where your computer will look for your notes for you. Click on the down arrow and choose A:/ Floppy. You will then see the name you saved your notes under and you can double click on that to open your notes.

If your notes are in an another program, such as Word, WordPerfect, etc., open that program and locate your notes. When you find them, just copy and paste them into Notepad and save them so you can proceed with the iPod part of this tip.

Now, get your iPod. You should have two cords that came with your iPod. One is to charge it and the other is to transfer music to it. Get the cord that goes into your USB port. Put one end into your computer and the other in your iPod. When you plug your iPod in, your iTunes will open as well. You can just close that out for now.

Now, switch back to the Notepad window once again and go to File, Save As. A window will come up that looks something like the picture below. Your window may look a little different, depending on what you have saved on your computer already. Click on the down arrow.

A list will then come down. Go and click on whatever you named your iPod. For example, I named my iPod "The Blue Box" and it is listed under the N:/ drive on my computer. So, click on whatever you named your iPod. After you have done that, go and double click on the Notes folder. A window that looks something like this will come up:



Click the Save button and then look at your iPod. It will say "Don’t Disconnect." Most of the time, when it is through transferring the data, a checkmark will come up on the iPod screen to let you know when it's safe to disconnect it.

To check and see if your notes were successfully transferred to your iPod, go back into the Notepad program and go to File, Save As again. Click on your iPod, double click on Notes and you will see your Notes come up.

To check them on your iPod, go to Extras and then go to Notes and there they will be! You can even listen to your music while you are looking over your notes. Just go to Songs, pick the song you want to hear and then go back to your notes. How cool is that?! Hope you enjoy!

~ Tweety