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Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#321

Post by haasted »

wool_gather wrote: post #318
haasted wrote: post #290

I’m currently working on adopting The Archive ( https://www.cultofmac.com/535825/the-archive-is-the-best-pla... ) into my workflow. It ticks a lot of the boxes other people mention in this thread: markdown for interoperability, filebased and quick searches.

I looked at the screenshot and said "wow that's ugly". Then I saw the caption: "Don’t worry: The icons on the left can be made much less ugly." Nicely done. Good to see the best features of Notational Velocity being carried forward. I like the sound of iCloud syncing, too.

The location of the md files is configurable, so it can be synced with any platform. Personally, I’m using Dropbox.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#322

Post by jimbosis »

I really like Federated Wiki, which was created by Ward Cunningham. I run it both locally (for private notes) and on a VPS.

I find it is a computer tool that actually helps and encourages me to write and organize information and does not impede me in this activity. ("Clippings" together with a program called FinderNote on Mac OS Classic are another.)

Github repo with set-up instructions: https://github.com/fedwiki

Site with introductory information: http://fed.wiki.org/view/welcome-visitors

"Sandbox" to get a feel for how it works: http://sandbox.fed.wiki.org/view/welcome-visitors (NB: This is an older version of the software, but the core features are still pretty much the same.)

FinderNote for Mac OS Classic downloads:

https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1795-findernote-2-0

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/findernote-20

Edit: Add FinderNote links.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#323

Post by ruduhudi »

zachlatta wrote: post #53

I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment. After trying Evernote, Workflowy, Notion, wikis, org-mode, and essentially everything else I could find, I gave up and tried building my own system f…

Add nextcloud for sync. There's a nextcloud notes app on f-droid.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#324

Post by h1d »

paultopia wrote: post #64

If on the Mac ecosystem, Bear is Apple notes but with fewer sync bugs and more useful features (like a close cousin of markdown and amazing tagging). I've switched to that for notes that might stick around for a while (from Evernote and Apple notes, though I still forward emails into the former as a convenient archive). For transient notes (like shopping lists etc.) I just use drafts on iOS. Seems to work for me afte…

I like Bear's more polished look but as far as I can find through a dozen apps I tried, only Apple Note allows documents to be encrypted. It's sad no app cares about it.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#325

Post by pandler »

paultopia wrote: post #64

If on the Mac ecosystem, Bear is Apple notes but with fewer sync bugs and more useful features (like a close cousin of markdown and amazing tagging). I've switched to that for notes that might stick around for a while (from Evernote and Apple notes, though I still forward emails into the former as a convenient archive). For transient notes (like shopping lists etc.) I just use drafts on iOS. Seems to work for me afte…

Bear is awesome. I like it enough that the thought of finding an alternative hasn’t occurred to me in a long time.

As others have mentioned, organization can feel like a bit of a pain sometimes with how you have to organize with tags, but it hasn’t really hindered me as much as I thought it would.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#326

Post by h1d »

crazygringo wrote: post #235

Google Docs for long-form notes (meetings, classes), Google Keep for short-form (grocery list, to-do, etc.). Nothing beats the fact I can use it instantly across all devices (not Apple-only) and it's free.

I'm done giving Google anymore information for them to analyze out of my account. Never going to use Google's product that requires logging in.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#327

Post by ljm »

zachlatta wrote: post #53

I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment. After trying Evernote, Workflowy, Notion, wikis, org-mode, and essentially everything else I could find, I gave up and tried building my own system f…

I’ve always favored physical notebooks (there’s something about putting pen to paper that you just don’t get from a laptop and keyboard), but I’ve since played around with org-journal on emacs to track my programming work and the fact the buffer is only one shortcut away makes it really welcoming. I can put it in git, version it, and it’s plain text as you say so as long as I maintain some kind of structure I can code against it.

Now if I added some stuff to automatically link to JIRA tickets or GitHub PRs, or even specific commits if I go to that level, that would be fantastic.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#328

Post by a3n »

Boulth wrote: post #289
zachlatta wrote: post #53

I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment. After trying Evernote, Workflowy, Notion, wikis, org-mode, and essentially everything else I could find, I gave up and tried building my own system f…

> I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years. When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment. I strongly agree with this. Actually I'm surprised that creating one's own tools is not more widespread in our industry as I consider this a quite…

Making our own tools in software used to be more common.

Although the difference between tool-making and yak shaving is itself a yak shaveable debate.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#329

Post by asdojasdosadsa »

asdojasdosadsa wrote: post #250

I've tried several different, SimpleNote, KeepNote, EverNote... and so on. I have come to a conclusion, that using the default iOS note app is enough for me. Using paper notes while @lectures and rewriting them sometimes to Notes. I'm also using another method of note taking, which I prefer more, but which is not always accessible on the go. I stumbled upon a script here and modified it a little. (changed vim to nano…

Not able to edit this anymore, but here's the original (&thread) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16357917

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#330

Post by marchenko »

hwj6etsd90lb wrote: post #13

Turtl: https://turtlapp.com/ Largely because it's open source and privacy oriented, encrypted client-side. It's not as convenient and feature-rich as OneNote, but entrusting Microsoft with all my notes seems crazy.

I love Turtl's interface, tagging system, hosting options, multi-OS setup, and privacy stance. Turtl would be my go-to solution if they supported .md import/export. I think they have .json export planned for the next release, which might be tractable with a bit of pandoc manipulation, but not ideal.
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