Two Main Panels: one for writing, the second for ideas/searching
 

Hi there,
I would suggest two main panels, for writing (the first) and research (the second) purposes, as suggested by the picture simulated below.
Thanks
Anthony

You could use the Notes pane - each item has its own independent RTF notes in that pane. You could play with the layout so that the Notes pane is rather large and then write in the Item Details pane and keep track of ideas in Notes.

Thanks for the workaround. Yet I have two serious problems with it.
1. In the Writing panel I use Word (within the frame). I am unable to run Word (through IE) within the Item Notes frame.

2. In my test Item Notes are always linked to the items of Data Explorer. So if I change the item in DE (for research purposes) the Item Notes frame changes with it.

But I could be wrong since I am a novice to UR.
Thanks.
Anthony

Another workaround....

I do it this way...

Create a new text item.

Double click or Ctl-J to edit externally. That opens a window with my item in Word which I use for writing.
Navigate in UR to the item I want to take notes on and take notes into the new UR item opened externally.

Close Word and yes to save changes back to the UR item.

I normally use 2 monitors which makes this quite easy to do.