Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#11

Post by atiredturte » Mon, May 13, 2019, 11:20 AM UTC

ssorc wrote: post #6

Notion has tables; is there specific table functionality you need that they don’t offer? https://www.keepproductive.com/blog/notion-tables

Their tables are more like databases. I am looking for a simple, static table that I can enter lots of information into.

I log every day in a week as a 7x4(or so) table, and each cell contains a lot of information. Notion's tables are just not cut out for it. I've messaged their support several times asking for this feature, since their product is otherwise perfect, but basic tables of this nature are simply not on their roadmap for the foreseeable future.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#12

Post by cweagans » Mon, May 13, 2019, 2:11 PM UTC

atiredturte wrote: post #5

sandreas wrote: post #2

Perhaps Typora? ( https://typora.io/ )

Looks really pretty! However, it seems to only be available for computers (no mobile support)

You can use any Markdown editor on mobile. ia writer is a good one for both android and ios.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#13

Post by greggeter » Mon, May 13, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

What kind of sync issues are you having? I agree it takes a beat or two to get mobile to sync up once the app starts, but I have not experienced any troubles that would make me want to look for something else.

OneNote really does hit all the high points for me. The most important being free-placement of text anywhere on an infinite-size page.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#14

Post by tajstar » Mon, May 13, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

I would give https://coda.io/welcome a try it should meet all the criteria that you mentioned. I use it on the daily.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#15

Post by was_boring » Mon, May 13, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

ssorc wrote: post #6

Notion has tables; is there specific table functionality you need that they don’t offer? https://www.keepproductive.com/blog/notion-tables

Notion's tables are ironically too complex to use but not powerful enough to provide good functionality. It would have been better if they just had a a simple table like in Word.

It's like they tried to jam airtable into their product.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#16

Post by anoncake » Mon, May 13, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

I use Org. It's part of Emacs, which you may consider either a dealbreaker or a feature.

While Emacs itself does not really work on mobile (unless you run it in a terminal), there is a companion app for Android called Orgzly. Unfortunately it is quite limited. For example, it does not support tables. (Since Org files are plain text, you can view and technically edit them, but the latter is a pain.) It's good enough for taking quick notes so you don't forget them and to look at existing ones.

For syncing, I use Syncthing, which works flawlessly. Conflicts have to be resolved manually though. Orgzly also has built-in support for syncing via Dropbox. I've never used it as it involves manually pulling and pushing to the server as in a VCS rather than working in the background.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#17

Post by s_m » Mon, May 13, 2019, 6:29 PM UTC

Google Docs?

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#18

Post by atiredturte » Mon, May 13, 2019, 11:45 PM UTC

tajstar wrote: post #14

I would give https://coda.io/welcome a try it should meet all the criteria that you mentioned. I use it on the daily.

I've never heard of it. Looks promising! Thank you!

Edit: While the tables aren't perfect, this seems to be the best option so far.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#19

Post by ducatdusk » Tue, May 14, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

You've not said what platform you primarily work with but if you use MacOS/iOS then I can highly recommend DevonTHINK.

Re: Ask HN: Good Alternatives to One Note

#20

Post by shostack » Tue, May 14, 2019, 10:44 PM UTC

ssorc wrote: post #6

Notion has tables; is there specific table functionality you need that they don’t offer? https://www.keepproductive.com/blog/notion-tables

I tried Notion but honestly found it to be overly complex for what I had primarily done in Evernote. Am I must missing some key workflow concepts with it?