You should check out www.breakdown-notes.com.
(disclaimer: my project). Only feature missing is code highlighting.
Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
131–140 of 142 posts
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#132I like paper and notebooks the best, but I'm using OneNote for work. OneNote is one of those annoying but "good enough" software products that I don't really like, but I'm using it because it's free.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#133Paper in big binder. I've tried for very long to find a good electronic solution. Up to and including writing my own wiki with various extensions customised to my diting style, and hunting around for every note taking app under the sun. The problem, I find, is that nothing beats the flexibility of being able to take out multiple sheets of paper and move them around, annotate them, put them back in. It creates a flexi…
I do all my thinking on paper, but I have a large blocker at the moment: indexing my notes. Have you found a good solution for this?
I have a fat notebook with lots of pages. I write an index in the back, with a colored "tab" on the edge of the page corresponding with that index item. Any time I make a note about that item - call it "blog post ideas" for example - I mark the edge of the page my note is on with the corresponding index item.
I don't think I'm doing a good job of explaining this, I'll see if I can find an example of this online and link it.
Edit: I did a quick google search and found an example that's similar to what I'm doing. This works well for me: http://lifehacker.com/mark-page-line-edges-to-organize-your-...
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#134Xournal on my x86 tablet running Ubuntu. Love having the xournal files go to my personal server that I can browse through with my laptop or desktop later on, anywhere, anytime, without having to bring around binders and notebooks. I also like that you can erase and move blocks of ink around.
Which tablet do you use for Ubuntu ?
Late (i was sick :() but http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_227132.html
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#135I use Jupyter notebooks and write in markdown.
It has repeatedly been observed here that Quiver and Jupyter have a lot in common. One thing I'm missing with Jupyter, though, is a convenient infrastructure for dealing with a large number of small notes. Are you using one notebook for each note?
Yes, though I break it up into different (labelled) sections, so I don't have a large number of files. It may just work for me since I tend to write longish overviews of things (papers, concepts, experiments, etc.).
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#136I recently built a ultra-simple tool for exactly this: https://github.com/pimterry/notes
Keeps notes as markdown organised by folder on disk, delegates syncing to whatever you're already using for everything else (Dropbox, Seafile), and just provides a minimal flexible command-line interface over the top to search them, explore through them, and edit them with any editor you like.
The tool itself is tiny, but with this I get everything that EverNote used to give me, none of the lock-in or painful web UI, and I can get at it from any other device too (by just editing them in Dropbox from anywhere).
Note sharing: Dropbox already does that. Code highlighting: your editor (probably) already does that. Image uploads = putting an image in a folder. Keep it simple.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#137Workflowy. It's the lowest-friction tool I have used for notes and ideas. Using tags, it can be used as a great hierarchical project/task management system. I still use Evernote for quick storage and access of images, pdfs and long-form notes as the search is great. However, their tag/notebook organisation system has annoying redundencies and is clunky in places. I would love to bin it but can't find a suitable alter…
Workflowy has organized my life and brought some order to my brain in a way that is invaluable to me. If only the put a bit more effort into the product... literally nothing has changed in the past 3 years. not a single feature! I could excuse them if the mobile apps were good enough, but that is not the case at all.
Check out Dynalist - https://dynalist.io/
It's "Workflowy that hasn't stalled out"
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#138i'm a mess but i use gmail.
primarily because i can easily open it on any device, any time, any where. i make use of labels and also add keywords while i write so i can easily search.
google gets my complete trust here.
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#139Paper in big binder. I've tried for very long to find a good electronic solution. Up to and including writing my own wiki with various extensions customised to my diting style, and hunting around for every note taking app under the sun. The problem, I find, is that nothing beats the flexibility of being able to take out multiple sheets of paper and move them around, annotate them, put them back in. It creates a flexi…
I use a three ring binder with thick grid paper and awesome Japanese notepad with grids ( http://www.jetpens.com/Midori-MD-Notebook-A5-Grid/pd/13607 ). Pens are an addicting technology. Top 5 list of various pens. https://www.penaddict.com/top-5-pens/ I also buy a cool pencil case ( http://www.jetpens.com/Kokuyo-Pencil-Cases/ct/2929 ) My only difference is when I was in graduate student I used OneNote with 2003 Table…
I highly suggest fountain pens, I like Lamy. I feel like I can write a lot more without fatigue. You don't have to press as hard. Also, if you're not a person that loses pens they end up being cheaper.
I also found that A5 grid paper on Amazon for a little cheaper[1]. But I'm curious how well the binding holds up. Because if it holds well it'd be a great switch for me.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Midori-MD-Notebook-Grid-Paper/dp/B009...
Re: Ask HN: What do you use to take notes?
#140To answer the question in the title, much as I love computers, nothing beats the flexibility and carefree nature of paper. I can draw diagrams, block out pseudocode, etc. I've thought about maybe a Surface would be nice for that, but haven't really tried it. I think you'll have best luck with multiple tools like you're doing now.
Have you tried a Boogie board[1]? I've heard they are good but I haven't tried it and I'm wondering if anyone has.
[1]https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-9-7-Inch-eWriter-ST10200...