[Tex/LaTex] Cornell Notes – A lyx or latex solution needed

lyxnotesparacolparalleltemplates

I teach academic writing to computing students and one of the tasks they have to carry out is to compile a set of research notes which can then be developed into an essay. I find that the Cornell format is the most useful for the students to use as it relates chunks of researched information to cues and cue questions.

The Cornell format divides each page into two columns. The cue column which contains questions and cues takes about a third of the page width on the left hand side and the notes column takes the remaining two thirds of the column on the right hand side.

The student makes notes by recording a cue or a question in the left hand column and then makes a note in the right hand column by recording a chunk of research information in the right hand column.

The picture below shows the typical layout of a page.

Cornell Method illustrated simply

In the past the students have prepared these notes using pen and paper but I would like to use Lyx/LaTeX to prepare their notes as Lyx is also used for typesetting their essay, the result of the research process.

I know enough about LaTeX to know that a package like parallel would take me some of the way to implementing this but my students would have difficulty with raw LaTeX and would be better with a Lyx template.

So, I would like to know of any approach or packages that could be used to create a Lyx template that provides the Cornell Notes functionality described above.

Thank you.

Best Answer

Here's something that adapts Fran's answer to be a bit more in the spirit of standard Cornell Notes.

Cornell notes 2up

\documentclass[a4paper]{article} 
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{skins}

\title{
\vspace{-3em}
\begin{tcolorbox}[colframe=white,opacityback=0]
\begin{tcolorbox}
\Huge\sffamily Cornell Notes on Something   
\end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcolorbox}
\vspace{-3em}
}

\date{}

\usepackage{background}
\SetBgScale{1}
\SetBgAngle{0}
\SetBgColor{red}
\SetBgContents{\rule[0em]{4pt}{\textheight}}
\SetBgHshift{-2.3cm}
\SetBgVshift{0cm}

\usepackage{lipsum}% just to generate filler text for the example
\usepackage[margin=2cm]{geometry}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzpagenodes}

\parindent=0pt

\usepackage{xparse}
\DeclareDocumentCommand\topic{ m m g g g g g}
{
\begin{tcolorbox}[sidebyside,sidebyside align=top,opacityframe=0,opacityback=0,opacitybacktitle=0, opacitytext=1,lefthand width=.3\textwidth]
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=red!05,colframe=red!25,sidebyside align=top,width=\textwidth,before skip=0pt]
#1.\end{tcolorbox}%
\tcblower
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth,before skip=0pt]
#2
\end{tcolorbox}
\IfNoValueF {#3}{
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth]
#3
\end{tcolorbox}
}
\IfNoValueF {#4}{
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth]
#4
\end{tcolorbox}
}
\IfNoValueF {#5}{
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth]
#5
\end{tcolorbox}
}
\IfNoValueF {#6}{
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth]
#6
\end{tcolorbox}
}
\IfNoValueF {#7}{
\begin{tcolorbox}[colback=blue!05,colframe=blue!10,width=\textwidth]
#7
\end{tcolorbox}
}
\end{tcolorbox}
}

\def\summary#1{
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture,inner sep=0pt, outer sep=0pt]
\node[anchor=south,yshift=-1ex] at (current page text area.south) {% 
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}%%%%
\begin{tcolorbox}[colframe=white,opacityback=0]
\begin{tcolorbox}[enhanced,colframe=black,fonttitle=\large\bfseries\sffamily,sidebyside=true, nobeforeafter,before=\vfil,after=\vfil,colupper=black,sidebyside align=top, lefthand width=.95\textwidth,opacitybacktitle=1, opacitytext=1,
segmentation style={black!55,solid,opacity=0,line width=3pt},
title=Summary
]
#1
\end{tcolorbox}
\end{tcolorbox}
\end{minipage}
};
\end{tikzpicture}
}

\begin{document} 
\maketitle

\topic{This is a question}%
{The first piece of evidence is mandatory}%
{Now add up to five\ldots}%
{\ldots additional pieces of evidence.}

\topic{Here's another question.}{\lipsum[1]}%
{\lipsum[2]}%

\summary{This is a longer box that floats to the bottom of the page.}

\topic{Here's another question to begin the new page.}{\lipsum[3]}%
{\lipsum[4]}%
{\lipsum[5]}%

\summary{And another summary that will float to the bottom of the next page.}

\end{document}
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