Library Services
Select “New Project” in the upper right corner to begin.
In the first field, give your project a title relating to the assignment or class.
Next, choose the citation style. The options available are MLA, APA, and Chicago Style. You will want to choose the citation style accepted for your class.
For Citation level, select “Advanced”. This will make sure the most citation options are available to you.
Click “Submit”.
Now, you will have different options available on the left sidebar for your project.
“Sources” allows you to add sources/citations to your project.
“Notecards” allows you to take notes and organize your project.
“Attachments” allows you to keep track of the different attachments you may need.
After you choose an option, Sources, Notecards, and Attachments all have a green button in the upper right-hand corner that allows you to add to them.
Click on the “New Source” button to add to your sources within NoodleTools.
First select an option under “Where is it?” indicating where you located the source. In this case we will select “Website”. If citing an ebook or scholarly article, select the “Database” section.
Next, you will want to select an option under “What is it?”. In this case, we will cite a webpage.
On the next page, you will provide information to complete the citation of your source. The information here may vary by source type. In this case, begin by adding the URL, the date of publication, and the most recent date of access.
For the next section, you can add contributors (authors, editors, etc.) as well as a description of the format (if necessary), the title of the webpage, and a spot for an English translation of the title if it is in another language. The article chosen for this example does not have an associated author so this has been left blank.
In the next section, list the name of the website where the article was obtained. In the case of this example, the article comes from the Associated Press. There is an area below this to add annotations. Annotations are typically short and concise evaluations of sources. This area is very helpful if you are asked to write an annotated bibliography.
Click “Save” in the upper right corner.
Based on the information you provided, a citation has been automatically generated for you.
While NoodleTools can format your citations for you, it is important to have a working knowledge of the citation style you are using to check for errors in formatting. If there is a difference in citation preferences between NoodleTools and your professor, it is important to follow your professor’s guidelines.
If you need to edit a citation for any reason, click on the drop down menu on the right of the citation and select “Edit”.
This will bring you to the page from before. Any changes you make will automatically alter the citation once you save. If you notice an error in formatting or wish to make changes directly to the citation, click “Tweak this citation manually” in the right-hand corner.
On the next page, there will be a box titled “Manually-edited citation” where you can make the desired changes.
Click “Save” once you are finished to save your changes.
There are certain citation items that are unique to academic sources. One of the most common is a DOI, an identifier unique to each article in a publication. You can typically find the DOI on the information page for an article within a database.
You will also need the name of the specific database you are using.
You can typically find the pages of the article within the journal and the publication details on the information page as well.
Sometimes an academic journal may publish a special issue on a particular topic outside of their normal publication schedule. You will want to enter the details of the special issue in the "Advanced (Periodicals)" section.
Notecards allow you to organize ideas and plan your project. Click on “Notecards” on the left-hand side bar.
Now, select “New Notecard” in the upper right-hand corner.
Begin by giving the notecard a title and choosing a source to go along with it. In this case, I used the source from the previous example. Tags can also be given to notes to help organize your ideas.
Next, move to the “Direct quotation” box and enter the quote you would like to use.
Move to the “Paraphase or summary” section to add a summary of the quotation in question.
In the “My Ideas” section, you can add your own thoughts. This is a great way to begin sorting your thoughts and preparing for your own writing.
Click “Save and Close” in the upper right-hand corner to save your notecard.
Notecards can be used as a way to keep track of individual quotations from sources and organize your ideas. Once created, Notecards can be managed in two ways: “Tabletop view” and “Detail view”.
“Tabletop view” allows you to spatially organize your ideas. Several options are available for each Notecard.
The options available from left to right: “Add to Pile”, “Link to a source”, “Add a tag”, “Apply a Cue”, “Apply color”, and then the options from the drop down menu—"Pin Notecard”, “Rename”, or “Delete”.
“Piles” are a way to organize several Notecards together that may be related to each other. For instance, it would be a good way to organize having multiple Notecards about a single topic. The number in the bottom right corner shows how many Notecards are in each pile. The drop down arrow in the top right corner lists the cards that have been added.
Applying colors and tags to Notecards is another great way to organize your Notecards. The searchbar in the top right allows you to search for Notecards based on tags.
“Cues” allow you to flag Notecards based on what type of attention they might need. This is a great way to keep track of the changes you need to make without becoming overwhelmed.
If you need a more in-depth look at your Notecards, the “Detail view” provides more detail.
If you have media or files for your project you want to keep on NoodleTools, you can add attachments to your project by selecting “Attachments” in the left-hand sidebar.
Next, select “New File” in the upper right-hand corner.
Afterwards, you will need to locate and upload the content from your device. You can also drag and drop files from your downloads folder.
Below the “Select files from your device” option is a list of supported file types that be uploaded to NoodleTools.
Lastly, once the image or file has been uploaded, there will be a preview. It will likely automatically generate a file name, but this can be changed to the file name of your choice.
When you are done, select “Save” to upload the file to NoodleTools.
On the “My Projects” page, hover over your project and select the plus symbol underneath “Sharing” to share your project with your professor.
Your teacher will provide you with a Project inbox name that you can use to share the project with them. To the right of “Share with an Inbox”, select “Share”.
Enter the Project inbox name provided by your professor, and add your name in the field below. Then, select “Done”.
If you need to collaborate with classmates, they can also be added using the “Student Collaboration” window. Select “Add Student”. This will create a drop down menu.
Enter the student’s Personal ID and choose whether to make them a “Full collaborator” (with the power to edit the project) or a “Peer-reviewer” (who can only view what you’ve already put in the document.
Lastly, you can configure public access to your project.
Select “Configure public access” to bring up a drop down menu.
“Disallow all public access” keeps your project private.
“Public source list” allows your sources to be publicly viewable but not copyable.
“Public source list, copying allowed” allows others to copy sources from your list.
"Allow entire project to be copied" allows attachments and Notecards to be copyable as well.
