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Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#62

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 too am thinking of going this route so as to reduce dependencies on custom software for something as important as note taking. However, how do you handle images in such a system? For instance, I sometimes take pictures of a whiteboard discussion and paste them as is in One Note - how do I do the same with plaintext files?

I have two folders: notes/ and uploads/. I've been uploading any attachments (images, PDFs, etc) to uploads/ with a timestamped name (ex. "2018-07-15_interesting_document.pdf") and linking them from the associated note.

At first this was pretty annoying, but then I wrote a couple scripts to automate the upload + naming process. Now it's as simple as running the script and getting the Markdown reference copied to your clipboard (ex. "![Interesting Image](../uploads/2018-07-15_interesting_image.jpg)").

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#63
Workflowy is great for quick, structured, hierarchical note taking. It is basically a text only bulleted list of lists. Navigable by keyboard or mouse and syncs to whatever phone / desktop etc you have.

Too expensive by half, and I don't think it is client side encrypted which is a deal breaker for anything sensitive. I really enjoy the simplicity though, great for checklists, writing papers, and all those little rare but important non-calendar based lists, ie. books to read, music to buy, etc.

My ideal note-app would be like workflowy, but allow de-hierarch-ising the list mentality. I mean, workflowy is basically a database back end and I can link tags between lists. But why not just have all the tags separate in the first place? You could have the constructed hierarchy tree to the left (ie bullet list), and the links tree to the right so you can see how the entries both compose and decompose.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#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 after years of frustration with Evernote and Apple notes.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#67
For quick notes about things I might want to search for later (e.g. books to consider buying): Notational Acceleration (Android clone of Notational Velocity), and nvpy (python GUI app, cross platform), synced to Simplenote.

Notes I'm going to share with others (e.g. interview notes, or important things to consider when we do X): Google Docs or Word (stored in corporate OneDrive), so that they're editable and people always have the latest version.

I tried Dynalist (workflowy clone) and like it, but somehow I stopped using it after using it regularly for a month or so. Not sure it's the product's fault, though.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#68

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…

> lain timestamped markdown files linked together. Edited with vim and a few bash scripts, rendered with a custom deployment of Gollum. All in a git repo.

That sounds a lot like zimwiki,except it uses a media wiki derived markup, but does have wysiwyg ui. http://zim-wiki.org/

Re: Ask HN: Favorite note-taking software?

#69
post #8

I feel like I've used them all. OneNote, Notion.so, NotePlan, Outliner, Mac Notes, Scrivner, Evernote. I personally seem to gravitate towards OneNote for pure note taking. I personally like Notion.so more for notes that refer to tasks, using Notionas more of a task management and organization app vs pure note taking. Outliner is a great app for quick note taking in nested format.

I'm a huge fan of Notion.so. They offer personal plans, and a free plan to students. They've helped me organise my life - I've built a small personal "wiki" of study notes, WIP writing, calendar plans & email drafts. I recently persuaded a friend to get it (so we can collaboratively work on a startup idea) and it's worked really smoothly. We both love it. Can't recommend enough.

Fan of Notion as well, great product.
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