Nothing has been as frictionless as nvALT[1].
Plain text, full text search, and point it at iCloud/Dropbox/Drive and now you have your notes fully synced.
I’ve spent far more time than I care to admit trying out new note applications...
Tired of note-taking apps
51–60 of 481 posts
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#52The best note app I found is a journal app. I’ve been using Day One for more than a year now, and it’s holding Evernote’s promise of remembering everything.
I do use Apple Notes too beside Day One for temp notes (email drafting, edit texts, links to check & trash, etc), but it’s on my journals where my knowledge-notes reside.
What people like from real notebooks is that you don’t have to think about organization, you just start a note in the next blank page. With Day One that’s what I got (even by email), and then, once I need to search for something in my personal log, I can organize stuff with tags or backlinking notes.
The “On this day” function also helps, as you can prune old ideas or notes that were a dead-end.
Personally, I’m sold.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#53My theory about handwritten note-taking is that the bandwidth difference between thinking (fast) and writing (slow) is somehow extremely beneficial to the process of generating creative and evocative output. There have been so many journaling sessions which I started with the absolute conviction that I had nothing new to say, and after 4 pages of extremely creative and detailed ideas, surprising even to me , I had no…
The secret here is about the input: a key stroke on the keyboard is always the same movement, more or less, while letters are each a different symbol/drawing. There's very little creativity to pressing keys on a keyboard, while handwritten text is unique to each person, in time.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#54Same - shifted to one note and then that made me start writing notes on paper.
Unless the writing experience on the tablet improves to match the real world, it’s just not going to be good enough.
Procreate on the iPad has some of the best redo/undo gestures and some excellent inking.
If they used that engine to run a note program, and allow a way to sync across ecosystems - it would be the best written note taking app bar paper.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#55Samuel Suresh's YouTube video titled "How I Take Notes with My iPad Pro in Lectures" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ql-yeY9u0) makes some pretty good points for taking handwritten notes on a device.
Akkshaya Varkhedi says in the article a couple downsides to handwriting notes on paper are:
1. Can't add screenshots, images, links, etc. 2. can't easily search for content.
Using something like Goodnotes addresses both of those items. You can take screenshots, add images, and links, and even use the devices camera to capture images (like the whiteboard/chalkboard during lecture). And (depending on how good your handwriting is), there is a search feature which searches the words you've written—and those words can be converted to type if you want to add them to a document without needing to re-type it.
Buying a tablet and stylus (like iPad and the Apple Pencil) to solve the two points paper notes does not solve seems a bit overkill—but in todays world, if you're a student going into University and need to purchase a device, those tablets are looking mighty attractive versus a standard laptop.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#56After trying dozens of tools, I've come back to just using text files. Easy to edit, sync instantly with dropbox, compatible with everything. Images or other stuff just stored in folders. Word/excel files for more complicated stuff. Nothing beats files and folders.
Also use a physical notepad for writing ephemeral things down because the tactile feeling of writing and crossing things off is very satisfying.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#57After trying dozens of tools, I've come back to just using text files. Easy to edit, sync instantly with dropbox, compatible with everything. Images or other stuff just stored in folders. Word/excel files for more complicated stuff. Nothing beats files and folders. Also use a physical notepad for writing ephemeral things down because the tactile feeling of writing and crossing things off is very satisfying.
> After trying dozens of tools, I've come back to just using text files.
One day all of you will learn the way of the Unix.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#58Same - shifted to one note and then that made me start writing notes on paper. Unless the writing experience on the tablet improves to match the real world, it’s just not going to be good enough. Procreate on the iPad has some of the best redo/undo gestures and some excellent inking. If they used that engine to run a note program, and allow a way to sync across ecosystems - it would be the best written note taking ap…
> Procreate on the iPad has some of the best redo/undo gestures and some excellent inking.
Yes, same with Concepts (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/concepts/id560586497)—(initial... it feels a tad less user-friendly than procreate, but stores drawings as vectors and you can work with an infinite canvas. Check it out if you like Procreate:) It's great for im promptu diagrams and hand written notes.
Now, the three finger swipe gesture on iOS (Notes, annotations) just pisses me off. It's slower, more error-prone and different than any other App. I wish Apple followed Procreate/Concept on that one.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#59I think the reason writing things down is stickier than the apps is because they have a dedicated “always on” quality.
I wonder if you could get part of the way there by having an iPad or remarkable tablet that is just always on and charged ready to take notes.
Re: Tired of note-taking apps
#60I too am paralyzed by the number of choices available. I've found that a simple todo.txt in Sublime with a Notes syntax highlighting package is all that I need. https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Notes