Free Useful Software for Law Students

If you're new here, you may want to learn what this site is about or check out the most popular articles. If you like what you see, make sure to sign up for email updates or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Jason Chen has compiled a nice list of free open source software available for download. Several of the applications could be particularly useful for law students (on any student for that matter):

1. Open Office- It’s like MS Office, but it’s not. Not only is it free, it’s also compatible with different file types. You don’t have to worry if your Professor uses Keynote or Powerpoint for their slides or Word or Wordperfect for their notes. Another plus is the fact it’s one step more of getting out of the clutches of Microsoft.
2. Evernote- I currently use MS OneNote. It has been extremely useful in my note taking during undergrad and law school. Instead of having click through several Word documents during a class, I just have on folder open that’s subdivided between briefs, notes, and outline. Very nice. Very easy. Had I known about Evernote when I made the decision to fork over $100 for OneNote, I would have gone with Evernote. It has the same features as OneNote and it’s free. Get it. You’ll thank me later.
3. Audacity- This comes in handy for when you want to speed up your Sum and Substance mp3s. They saved me lots of time during finals.

Tags:

Why not subscribe? Here's what you're missing out on!

• Massive Resource List for Online Learning
• Tax Refunds Will Be Delayed: Plan Accordingly
• What’s Your Setup?

3 Comments

1. Andrew Flusche on 12.01.2007 at 09:46 (Reply)

   OK, I’ve checked out the EverNote website. It looks cool. I’m just trying to figure out why I should go with it, instead of my trusty Word outlines? Can EverNote produce a better set of notes, easier?

2. The Frugal Law Student on 12.01.2007 at 14:15 (Reply)

   Probably not. EverNote doesn’t have a text formatter, so there’s no indenting to make really good outlines. The way it could come in handy during class is that you can create a not for all your briefs and a note for your class notes. Instead of having to constantly maximize and minimize windows to get to your brief or notes, you’ll have them all there in one convenient window. No more hunting and searching. It also has a search feature that allows you to search for a word through all your notes. So come finals time, if you feel like you’re missing something in your outline for Property, just type in “Future Interests”. EverNote will bring up all the notes that have that phrase.

3. Andrew Flusche on 12.01.2007 at 20:02 (Reply)

   Thanks for your input on this. I think it might be worth a quick download and test. I tried OneNote a while back & it didn’t quite fit my needs. But maybe EverNote will.

Leave a comment