Tired of note-taking apps • Hacker News Board

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#271

Post by GekkePrutser » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:37 PM UTC

jasonv wrote: post #142

dmje wrote: post #128

Funnily enough, I don’t think there is a really good one. There’s lots that almost do it but not quite. - Evernote: no note linking - Bear: lovely but no web or android version - OneNote: appalling in the way only MS can be - SimpleNotes: too simple - Zoho: too ...urgh - Keep: too Googley - Apple notes: too Appley - Standard Notes: too buggy I’m clearly a fussy sod. But really, just a nice, oss, local files, ability…

What I really don't understand about OneNote is the default to a white-board-like free form placement mode for text blocks. If you move it a little, accidentally, it's not aligned the same as the other notes. This really put me off when I first started using it, and at a client site, it's really the only option. Otherwise, the organization system is something I've come to like/live-with, but still -- why the boxes th…

Yes and if you type one backspace too many it will delete the whole box and place it at an off-centre location when you click to make a new one.

There's a workaround though: Click on the title and then press enter and it'll create one again in the right spot :)

But yeah OneNote is bloated, slow, has the typical MS UI boneheadedness... But it's what I have to work with at work :'(

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#272

Post by mstngl » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

After this thread became a discussion of competing, sometimes extreme approaches, I want to add one alternative. Markdown files, organized in folder hierarchy and synchronized by the service of choice are fine for me - for notes and knowledge collection. Recently I started to add the superpower of tags and links to other files by using Apps like Obsidian[1] and Zettlr[2] which are very similar. The great advantage is, that you just show these apps the par of your notes folder and are not maintaining notes in an app-specific environment. The syntax for tags and links is simple and will not disturb massively even if opening the files in a text editor.

This approach merges the simplicity of plain text, the power of tags and links and keep this independent of the of synchronization, backup or future development of these apps or anything in this stack of tools.

[1] https://obsidian.md/ [2] https://www.zettlr.com/

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#273

Post by m3kw9 » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

_abox wrote: post #255

tammer wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that in a number of ways Apple Notes is one of the most advanced in terms of features. Yes, it doesn’t bombard you with its functionality and at first glance is a simple place to jot notes (perhaps its greatest strength). But dig into the feature list, and perhaps help me find a similar application that: 1) can combine tables, rich text formatting, and in-line sketches 2) can store any file type in-line…

Big minus: Only works on Apple platforms :( I use macOS and iOS all the time but I also use Windows, Android and Linux. So sadly most of Apple's services don't work for me. Even though I know they're really good. I really wish they'd expand their horizons a bit. Microsoft stuff works on pretty much everything so why not theirs? I had no idea it was that good though, because of the above reason I never really used it.

You could still access it from web. The interface isnt bad, but it’s web, so no native UI.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#274

Post by galkk » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:40 PM UTC

Andrex wrote: post #250

I migrated from Chrome Scratchpad to Google Keep when the former got killed as Google is wont to do. And I've been pretty happy with it, though I am a simple man with simple needs. My biggest angst with using Keep has been uncertainty over Google's interest in it, they did kill the original note taking app I used, but it's been getting pretty good updates for the past few years. And each note has an "Export to Google…

I dropped Keep after finding (hard way) that there's no way to revert accidental edit if you switched note.

I love card view though, I wish OneNote had it.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#275

Post by m3kw9 » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

If you are iOS user apples notes is the best. Is like the camera theory that the camera with you all the time is the best camera. In this case is always gonna be around, auto back up, no install needed, available on all devices. The best part is it does 90% of what the most advanced note apps does.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#276

Post by Spooky23 » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

balladeer wrote: post #244

tomduncalf wrote: post #81

Personally I find Apple Notes the most convenient for quick jotting down of ideas etc. It’s not the most advanced in terms of features but it loads instantly, is quick to use and is available on all of my devices. Have tried numerous alternatives but they’ve never stuck e.g. they’re slow to start up or are fussy to use or don’t work well on one platform. For deeper sketching out of ideas, diagrams etc I really like C…

Other than a combination of fiddling inside ~/Library and some more SQLite circus there's really no way to make Apple Notes notes portable (across platforms) and even such circuitous hacks might break in any update or upgrade. That's a big enough no for me. This is one of those instances when the perceived Apple's walled garden convenience just falls flat. I personally prefer FSNotes (it has a long way to go but it's…

Escaping a walled garden into a subscription based text editor seems like a pot/kettle scenario.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#277

Post by wistlo » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

Plain text, for me, after being burned multiple times.

Occasionally, I'll fire up Word to paste in screen shots, but for most everything, I now write it out in plain text in Notepad++.

I felt burned when Microsoft's abandoned the Outlook Journal, where I had collected years of notes—notes that were almost all plain text.

Microsoft came out with OneNote and I watch colleagues diligently recording their thoughts there, but not me. Plain text, from here out. I may eventually print them and put them in a binder, so I can have "papers" that survive me.

The git solution intrigues me, but I would use my words and little else if I recorded notes there.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#278

Post by jorgekong » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

rajesh-s wrote: post #193

dmje wrote: post #128

Funnily enough, I don’t think there is a really good one. There’s lots that almost do it but not quite. - Evernote: no note linking - Bear: lovely but no web or android version - OneNote: appalling in the way only MS can be - SimpleNotes: too simple - Zoho: too ...urgh - Keep: too Googley - Apple notes: too Appley - Standard Notes: too buggy I’m clearly a fussy sod. But really, just a nice, oss, local files, ability…

I see you didn't mention Markdown. My solution for the last couple of years to this problem is to have all my notes organized into folder and .md files. A couple of advantages: - I can move around different IDEs/apps since there are a lot of different solutions for every platform there. - Same goes for search and links between folders. Rely on git for version control of the files themselves. - It gives you the flexib…

Same, I've settled with a multi-OS IDE for taking notes. The main issue is trying to get shortcut keys for Markdown such as toggling a list. I haven't found a good extension either on JetBrains or VSCode ... maybe the only way is to personally write the extension haha

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#279

Post by GekkePrutser » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

barrenko wrote: post #86

j0hnml wrote: post #78

The biggest issue I have with note taking is not the medium or app, it’s the fact that I would often write something and never look at the note again. This essentially made the act of note writing, at least for me, futile since I rarely remember my notes as I’m writing them. The best solution for this, I’ve found, is to still take notes on the bigger picture but then to add the smaller details, definitions, concepts…

For me the biggest point of writing is to remember and then safely forget about stuff.

Me too!!!

I find since I moved from Tomboy to OneNote that my memory is significantly worse.

Tomboy didn't support pics so I was more tuned in to meetings as I was actively processing info in order to note it down in my own words.

Now in Outlook I often tune out when I feel something is less relevant, and I lazily take screenshots "in case I need to look at it later". Then, when something comes up that is more relevant to me I'm tuned out and need to catch up. I also remember information much less long because it never really entered my brain at all.

So yeah it definitely helps for that purpose, at least for me.

Re: Tired of note-taking apps

#280

Post by celeritascelery » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 6:45 PM UTC

This is why I love Emacs org-mode. You can create the note taking app that you want. Don’t like something? change it. Which it had feature X? Add it. There so many great packages already that often what you want is done for you.