Jot This Down! An Overview of Popular Note-Taking Applications
December 16th, 2006 (7:27am) Judi Sohn 97 CommentsTweet This
The brain can only hold so much throw-away data at one time. In this age of digital overload, there’s little room left over for temporary phone numbers, phone messages, notes from a conference call meeting, reminders that aren’t big enough to be full-blown tasks, etc. When someone says, “take down this confirmation number…” do you reach for a pad of paper or your keyboard? There are folks that love their pen and paper. I’m not one of them. I hate my handwriting, and I have enough paper clutter in my life thankyouverymuch. I much prefer to keep track of my life digitally. Even when I’m away from home, I use the keyboard on my cell phone (Cingular 8125) or the stylus to jot down quick notes that will sync with my laptop when I get back to it.
For folks looking to move to the digital way, here’s some suggestions you can try once you’ve determined that you need more than Mac OS X Stickies or a desktop littered with .txt files. I’m not talking about outlining or mindmapping applications that let you organize your thoughts and notes and relate them to each other. That’s the next step. This is just for those little snippets of dates, times, facts, links, ideas, and throw-away-but-maybe-you-need-to-save notes that can get out of control or lost easily.
Check out the comments below and on Digg for some more fantastic suggestions…thanks, everyone! Flying Meat’s VoodooPad and Barebones’ Yojimbo seem to be worth a look under OS X. Tomboy under Linux.
Mac OS X:
Sidenote: It’s like an online drawer for your Sticky notes. Slide it out, type stuff in, close again. Lightweight and free, it “sticks” to the side of your screen. Unfortunately, the notes aren’t searchable, so name your notes carefully to find them again in a pop-up list. Correction: the notes are searchable through Spotlight.
mynotes: Takes Sidenote and Stickies one step further for a $17.95 price tag. What are you buying? Note searching, for starters. But you also get an interface that feels like the Mac OS X Address Book (and it communicates with the Address Book too to grab information about contacts to add to your notes). Collect your notes in groups (to keep receipts separate from conference call notes and blog ideas). Like Stickies and Sidenote, your notes are auto-saved which is the biggest advantage over taking your notes in something like TextEdit. The most intriguing feature of mynotes is its ability to sync notes directly to an iPod. There’s no encryption of the notes, so I wouldn’t store your bank passwords this way.
Windows XP:
EverNote: Available in both a free and paid version, this popular application is a must-have for quick note-taking. Of all the applications I’ve tried, it’s my first choice. Instead of the “each note is an island” approach, EverNote is like using an endless roll of paper for your notes. New ones get tacked on to the end. The main difference between the free and paid version is in syncronization features and handwriting recognition. If you have an external tablet or Tablet PC and you like taking handwritten notes on your computer, you’re going to want the paid version. Currently at version 1.5, a 2.0 version is in beta. Evernote lets you tag your notes (they call it “categories” but it functions like tagging), browse notes in a timeline, and so much more. Web browser and Office plug-ins allow you to capture material for your notes easily from other applications. If there was a version of Evernote for Mac OS X, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. For now, I run it in Parallels. It’s that good.
Microsoft OneNote: Take EverNote, throw in tight integration with Microsoft Office applications and collaboration features (along with a $100 stand-alone price tag) and you have Microsoft OneNote. I used the 2003 version for a little while a few years ago, but I found it slower to use than EverNote. OneNote syncs one-way with your notes in Microsoft Outlook, so if you’re an Office fan then OneNote may be a good choice.
Your Turn:
There are a lot of choices for taking down messages, notes and snippets of information that you collect from meetings, online and other sources that you should only be hunting for that pen if you want to. I’ve only presented a few on each platform to get started. What do you use? What about when you’re on the go…do you take notes on your cell phone or PDA…what are the choices there that you like?
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I’m in a text editor all day long anyway. Do these give you anything that notes.txt doesn’t other than eye candy?
I have my own personal Wiki for this purpose.
Awhile back, I also got to the point where Stickies just wasn’t going to work for me on the Mac. I started using Yojimbo by Barebones Software at http://www.barebones.com.
It’s a bit more than just a text editor, more like a database where you can keep random information. I store URLs there that I want to look at later, a list of various blogs, PDFs to read or keep, passwords, and other account information.
You can set up folders of information, called collections, which is useful for organizing. It grabs all your external data and puts it into its own database which means you can handily backup all this stuff from one file location.
It is for Mac OSX only.
I’ve been using Notational Velocity for this on my Mac. It’s free, database-driven, and has a dead-simple Spotlight-like search that covers both title and content, so don’t worry about what you name those notes. It doesn’t get any easier…
Very good tips. I find myself scratching stuff down all the time as I switch between screens. I’ll check some of this out.
OK…back to blogging about Oracle-related technology…
http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/
OneNote 2007 adds quite a bit of functionality over 2003. I started using it as part of the original technical Beta and will never go back. Integration with Office is now much more intuitive and its also two-way. The search functionality is much improved and now OneNote OCRs anything you print or scan into it. They’ve also built in some rudimentary audio-search capability.
It’s a significant upgrade that’s worth your while checking out.
I am a huge fan of Tinderbox by Eastgate. It’s currently only in Mac but a Windows version is on the horizon. It’s perfect for keeping notes, larger writing tasks, mind-mapping and tracking your digital life in. It’s quite pricey to begin with but Eastgate provide superb support and the application is truly superb. It’s probably more important to Office to the kind of work I do.
I use Yojimbo or VoodooPad (both OS X), but I’m leaning towards using TextMate and a plain jane text file.
I have been using this semester and all though its geared towards college note taking, I feel its more intuitive than MS Onenote.
http://www.stu.dicio.us/
Sorry for the double post. I tried to be a web guru
While i have only just started using BasKet myself (in fact, only installed it tonight), it is used by a great many people and generally considered amazing… A KDE application, so it’ll only run on Unix platforms (sorry Windows people) :)
GoBinder is the best note taking tool in my opinion especially for students. I gave the two-week trial a shot three semsters ago and ended up purchasing it after just four days.Haven’t looked back since.
MyInfo is the one for me. There is a small licence fee now, but it allows you to structure your notes in a parent/child format, You can also paste images, links and infact browse web pages within a not. Check it out at http://www.milenix.com.
For Linux: http://www.beatniksoftware.com/tomboy/
I’m surprised that noone has brought up Freemind, which is a ‘mind mapping’ software. It uses a basic tree structure for rapid note taking, is open source, built on java (i believe), and is overall very useful and quick.
I second the vote on Tomboy for Linux. The beauty of it is that it can act like stickies, or a wiki-like mindmap, meaning you don’t need seperate apps for both.
On Linux, I use Tomboy for stickies and a simple wiki — it’s great for quickly jotting things down, since I have its icon always displayed on my top panel. But when I need to do some more serious notetaking (for school and such) I use Zim Desktop Wiki. It’s a more robust wiki app that I find perfect for use when I’m taking notes in preparation for writing essays.
I use google notebook, its available as firefox extension and sits at bottom left corner. Since my firefox is open pretty much the whole day, making notes is a breeze.
mmmmm… Notebook for OS X. *NOTHING* compares! by far the best note taking app for OS X, and it can even look like a real Notebook if you want it too :-)
http://circusponies.com
i like quicknotes plus, http://www.conceptworld.com/QNP/default.asp its nice and easy to use.
jotterpad.com is the only logical choice, web and phone access to all your random data. An application that is locked to one device is not the way to go !
Go the web !
How about Voodoo Pad? This is a really great wiki app for the Mac that is worth taking a look at…
I use cl1p.net for note taking. It’s really fast, just enter any url that starts with cl1p.net and write down a note. Then just enter the same url later to view or edit.
These apps seems good for note-jotting and category organization, but for really robust info organization I really recommend MyBase. It’s well-supported and mature. I’ve used it for a few years now and I have deep multi-level hierarchies of information. I use it to organize every aspect of my web design biz and client files, plus keep extensive files of all kinds of things I’m just interested in–articles on solar power, car maintenance logs, gift ideas, writing ideas. It has RTF-style note editing, file attachments, a very good Web content plugin to save web pages/snippets, and some important professional features like encryption, the ability to export your entire content tree to a self-contained EXE file, or to a dynamic collapsable HTML tree. It manages multiple databases & handles images well, and can import whole folders of RTF or TXT files into an actual tree, or export to it. I seriously love the crap out of this program and recommend it big time. Windows-only program for now, though.
Stickies (http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk) is an excellent piece of software. Simulates Post-its on the desktop screen, highly customizable. Now you can move the clutter of yellow Post-its around your screen to your desktop!
I find Onenote bloated and unhelpful. Being unable to export its files easily is one of the main reasons I decided to kill it. I know it’s obsolete, but I’ve just switched everything to keynote. Maybe a mistake, but it’s free, and so far, it’s held 4 years’ worth of dissertation notes without complaint.
notepad + google desktop
need I say more
Don’t forget to try Wikidpad and Notepad, both of which are Desktop wiki programs. A review of each can be found here
Tomboy is unbeatable. And free. And open-source.
What more do you need ?
I found StickyPad from http://www.greeneclipse.com/ for Windows a really neat tool. In addition to creating all those (can color) post-it notes, it also contains an alarm feature which is great for those one shot things to do.
You can shrink the notes to desktop icons if the screen gets too cluttered.
useful information
I’ll give EverNote a whirl
I have been using MacJournal for 2 years now and I am supper stoked on it. great for jotting down quick notes as well as full on writing sessions. you can manage your documents into journals and sub journals, lock them down with encription or have them send direct to your blog depending on what you want. It is at versions 4 and very stable. I can’t say enough good things about it.
I’m also a big fan of personal wikis for note-taking – it gives you a lot of flexibility over how you structure and layout your notes, plus the links between pages within text is brilliant.
For note-taking on Windows or Mac, with the ability to sync to a powerful Palm OS PDA version, nothing I’ve seen beats NoteStudio – I used it for years and love it.
For Windows Mobile, I’ve not found anything quite like it which is a little frustrating – I ended up having to write my own!
Oh – I meant to say, if anyone wants a copy of my Windows Mobile note-taking personal wiki, you’d be very welcome.
I wrote it for myself, so I’m not looking to charge anything for it! :-)
I use quicknote from firefox extension. Copying text selection from website is easy.
For KDE, also the kJots programme is a nice tool.
Hasn’t anyone tried TiddlyWiki?
Have you tried 3D Topicscape. Ideal for finding your way around when your collection of notes gets too big and you can’t remember the right keyword.
Interesting thread showing the great variety of tactics, constrains, and habits in note taking… And for those who are still sticking to their Moleskine, who need to capture handwritten or printed information that is available yet sits outside of their keyboard+web+screens digital world, there is qipit !
qipit is the easiest way to get printed or written information enter your digital lifestyle from anywhere you are, with just your cameraphone.
I’ve been working on qipit for a few months now and must admit that it really does turn my camera phone into a mobile copier, that I use equally for capturing information (stuff I draw, sketch, write, sign) and for sharing it (replying to a paper invite, filling a form and sending it back,…).
Yesterday my eldest son needed to send a school exercise to one of his friends. Although we have a multipurpose fax/printer/copier machine at home, it was actually faster to take a picture of the exercise, send it to copy@qipit.com, and put my son’s school friend’s fax number in the body of the mobile e-mail.
Two minutes after I got a call from the parents ; they were not only thankful, but also amazed with the quality, and did not believe the copy had been generated by a cameraphone !
Please feel free to give it a try at http://qipit.com and let me know how it goes.
Enjoy !
Phil
EverNote is almost perfect.
Frankly, I’m a pen and paper guy. I occasionally update a text file and have the free version of EverNote installed, but I don’t feel as productive and as organized as I do with a small, inexpensive notebook and a pen (for example, try most of these techniques while sitting in a doctor’s office, in the grocery store, or stuck in traffic). Still, the underlying theme behind every approach cited is the fact that each individual has found an approach and stuck with it. Perhaps the tool isn’t the thing; it’s using a single one consistently.
If you’re working on linux, you should try Kontact.
Used keynote for a while, but it was missing some features I wanted (tagging and so on), so I in the end I decided to write my own. you can find it at sourceforge here:
Hmm, for some reason the url above didn’t show up… anyways put it in as my website, so my name should point to it.
WikidPad – cross-platform, open-source, free, desktop-based, python+wxWidgets note taker. Just great.
If you have a Windows Mobile powered Pocket PC there is now a version of OneNote for that too, syncs with you desktop copy as well.
Although I do however love my 1962 Parker Duofold and still use it everyday.
I’m surprised I’m only the second here to mention Tiddlywiki. My romance with Tiddlywiki is based on pure passionate love. Off/online capability, plugins, happy helpful community, when so many note taking systems limited themselves through functionality, for Tiddlywikis, the sky is the limit. The Monkey Pirate version is my favorite, the GTD version of that is great too!
I like Google Notebook. Great to keep track of and searching notes. Nonfunctional if you are not on the internet.
I also like Google Notebook, mainly because it’s always accessible no matter where I am. If Evernote could be easily shared between computers, that would be great.
I was just going to ask whether anyone knows a note taking software that it is geared towards math and related fields?
I’m shocked, shocked I say, that no one’s brought up Notae (http://www.codepoetry.net/products/notae) yet. It blows this other crud away.
Mindmapping software are the ultimate note taking software: they allow you to easily create the most effective deliverable. I’m using FreeMind:
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Thanks for the list!
Right now, I’m using a (desktop) search engine software for taking notes. The software, which is called “Galaxy-It Search,” allows you to add notes to previews of search results as well as use templates like in mind mapping and lotus blossom diagrams to capture and organize ideas. Galaxy-It Search has a zoomable mapboard that can contain up to 81 ’sticky notes’ or double-sided index cards/flashcards. So far, I’ve been able to meet all my demands for notetaking and creative problem solving using Galaxy-It Search.
Thanks for the list! Ended up using myNotes.
We created a free online personal knowledge base tool – notebook G – for note taking, storing and categorizing tidbits of data, and any other type of structured or unstructured information. Check it out at http://www.notebookg.com
— Greg
i’ve recently started using mori for the mac. it has great smart folders like itunes so you can set up different searches to find the content that you need. i also use omni outliner for more structured documents. tinderbox was a little overwhelming for me and the interface didn’t help.
Yojimbo is the SHIT! I can’t live without it since it sycns via .Mac over all 3 of my machines.
OneNote 2007 vs 2003.. woo hoo
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nottr is pretty slick online note taking tool.
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If I am online, all notes are taken in Backpack. If I am offline, then I use a simple text editor (usually Crimson Editor) and just jot down notes using Textile, so that I can add to Backpack later.
I have been using IDailyDiary for some time and am very happy with it
I actually use one of those mindmapping programs, Freemind, to take notes. It is freeware and it’s also really cool in terms of following trains of thought. It may be best for someone that is mroe driven by visualizing the connections than just basic note taking, but it is still an option.
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
an online version compatable with any web browser (well, most) is http://mynoteit.com
I never realized there were so many options to choose from! I like the interface and power of OneNote 2007 and I’m looking forward to syncing with my Windows Mobile 2003 device (once I get the Patcher installed…).
Is there a comprehensive comparison of these note-taking/wiki applications available somewhere?
I’m still looking for a perfect solution that offers rich editing like OneNote with easy web access (OneNote requires Sharepoint or webDAV for online collaboration).
Anyone know a program that I can use now, or is close to it?I’m going to try all the profucts you’ve mentioned that I haven’t already. I am on Mac Pro, use PC rarely, but would if sharing stuf like this was easier. And if its all there now, please point me.
What I Need:
1.pad is always there, or i-click away
2.contact info is easy to add to address book, or
can be entered simultaneously
3.can be filed on OX desktop and PC (as in Intel Core Duo using both platforms)
4. can be filed into folders without Import-Export Rube Goldberg System
5. can intuit content and bring up possible connections
6. free, or free-ish
7. suggests contact inclusion, and if told yes, just does it
7. suggests project inclusion, ditto, as separate note wherever project indicates;
8. OR——-
Pad is always on, keystroke creates Note, Title, autofills address book, and offers links to folders/projects, and is visible on request
9. Just a comment from a user who is not a techie, just a user: Two corporations’ cultures hate each other so much that they can’t get together even when they get together.Why build a macbook that allows both platforms but nether side is helpful about how they work. These machines will change everything, but Gates/Jobs have to be more pro-active about cooperating with one another, and serving (dare I say it) us? Catch up to your product, gentlemen, and the thechnology you have handed us.
ClipCache (xrayz.co.uk)
It’s a clipboard extender/manager, but can easily be used for note taking – worth every cent of it’s fee.
Thanks Dan for suggesting Quick Notes Plus.
Conceptworld has release a new version Quick Notes Plus sticky notes program called NoteZilla Sticky Notes
Check out http://www.ubernote.com as a not taking app.
Speaking of wikis for note taking, don’t forget to check out Luminotes at http://luminotes.com/
Luminotes is a personal wiki designed specifically for note taking and making links between your notes. It’s web-based too, so you can get to your notes from any computer.
For a Windows platform, I recommend trying NoteScribe. It’s a note-taking software designed for use in school, business, and home, and is far more affordable than other note-taking programs on for windows. Give it a try with a 30-day free trial!
Jake
http://www.NoteScribe.net
I have been using IDailyDiary for some time and am very happy with it
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When it comes to note-taking,
“Consider the following three critical criteria
Ease of Use;
Functionality;
Flexibility of the Data (your notes) and the Software itself.
On the last one, is the data proprietary? If yes, bad, other than that tool you won’t be able to do much with you valuable notes. Would other developers be able to add Add-ons like Mozzila’s Firefox?
If yes, then the note-taking software’s capability would not be confined by the limited resource of the software company.
“
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I’m working on a new note-taking application. It’s called Squareleaf.
The idea behind it is that its on online whiteboard for sticky notes. I built this to scratch my own itch: I keep a lot of todo notes and stuff online and I wanted to be able to organise them however I wanted, rather than being forced to put them in a difficult to organise list. I wanted control.
It would be great if you’ve got time to check it out