Note taking systems
Unless indentified this information comes from
PC Magazine http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2423146,00.asp
https://evernote.com/
Web
| Windows | Windows 8 Touch | Mac | iOS | Android | Windows Phone |
BlackBerry | Browser Extensions
Given
so many supported platforms, you may think Evernote covers all the
bases. And indeed, no one covers more. Evernote makes it effortless
to take notes and store info online for access anywhere, on any
device. We liked the Web-based
version so much
we gave it 4.5 stars and an Editors' Choice award; same with the
mobile
version for iPhone
and the desktop
version for MacOS.
Evernote makes almost every single "must-have apps" list because it does so much for free. You can send Evernote 60MB of data traffic per month as you make and take notes, but there's no limit on how much you can store. There's also almost no limit on what you can store: photos, videos, emails, webpages, and documents. But you'll eat up that 60MB fast with a lot of video "notes." A $45-a-year premium version adds even more features, such as the ability to work offline (the free version requires an Internet connection), search inside stored files, and increased capacity to store files (up to 1GB a month).
Ultimately, Evernote can be used as a backup for just about anything. If you visit a webpage with an interesting article you'd like to read later, you can use a variety of methods to store it such as the Web Clipper extensions and bookmarklets that make it a one click process, or Evernote Clearly, which formats an article into an easy-to-read block of text. Plenty of other apps also support Evernote, along with some hardware, including many scanners. You'd be foolish not to have Evernote in your note-taking arsenal.
Lifehacker says:
http://lifehacker.com/5837191/five-best-note-taking-applications
Evernote helps you remember everything-and by everything, we really do mean everything. The service’s webapp, desktop apps for Windows and Mac OS, mobile apps for iPhone and iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and even WebOS mean that Evernote can help you take notes, save them, tag them with a location, create and organize notebooks, and share them anywhere you are and on any device you happen to have on you. Evernote is great for taking notes and organizing them, but it’s just as good at letting you capture, scan, and save objects in real life, clip web pages you browse, and share them with friends, colleagues, and classmates.
WorkFlowy
Web
| iOS
WorkFlowy
falls neatly in the middle between basic to-do list and mature word
processor. It's a Web-based note-taker/outliner/brainstormer that
works just about any way you want it to.
You can create page after page of information where one bullet leads to a next bullet, nest more bullets or numbers under each, on and on. Whatever you write is searchable, so you can go on with a point, or just create a new bullet. Click the bullet itself and all the nested info will toggle in or out of view—this is called "folding text." You can tag points in the outline to make it even easier to search.
You only get one list for free, but that's probably enough. Pro users who pony up $49 per year get unlimited lists, plus backup and password protection, and eventually offline editing. There is already offline editing available in the WorkFlowy app for iOS; other platforms like Android don't have an app, but a third-party tool called Workflowy Agent in the Google Play store provides access if the browser won't.
Web
| iOS
Simplenote is
simple but powerful, allowing you to create notes that automatically
store online and sync with the iPhone app. You can share and
collaborate on notes with others by tagging your note with an email
address. Simplenote also saves multiple versions of each note in case
someone erases vital info. Notes are searchable by tag or content.
You can even make a makeshift blog out of the notes by publishing
them; you'll get a shortened URL to share, allowing others to read
it. Post an update to the note and the "published" note
updates as well.
If plain text isn't your favorite thing, Simplenote also supports Markdown, a lightweight markup language that translates it to nicely formatted HTML on viewing. There's a premium version for $20 a year that throws in sync with services like Dropbox, allows sending notes to Simplenote by email, and RSS access to changes in notes.
A host of third-party note apps integrate with Simplenote, including some favorites in this story. You can get the full list here. Syncing them with Simplenote gives you desktop-based local note storage, as well as online backup accessible while mobile, even on platforms Simplenote doesn't yet support. It's the best of all worlds—you can't escape your own note-taking.
Lifehacker says:
http://lifehacker.com/5837191/five-best-note-taking-applications
Simplenote is easy to use, free, and has a robust user and developer community behind it creating apps and utilities that plug into the service to make it even easier to use. Simplenote lets you easily jot down your thoughts and organize them by tag, search note contents and tags later to find what you need again later, search through revision history for your notes, share them with others, and access them on any web-enabled device. Simplenote does have premium accounts, but all of the service’s basic functions are free. There are Simplenote apps for the web and iOS, but developers have built dozens of notetaking apps that work in conjunction with Simplenote for Windows and Mac OS.
Google
Keep
Web
| Android
Ultra-fast
Google Keep doesn't
really compare to more fully featured services like Evernote or even
OneNote (see the
next page), but it can still do a lot, such as store voice and photo
notes. You can access, edit, and search notes on Google Keep on any
connected device. Keep is technically part of Google Drive, so it
uses the same abundant storage you have for Drive and Gmail.
The voice notes—only available on the Android app—are not just stored for playback, but transcribed to text you can send to others. With Keep there's not much to learn. The Android app works beautifully; for other mobile users, the mobile Web interface still does the job.
The simple Web interface might be a little off-putting to those expecting some glitz in their Web apps. Nevertheless, it could be the perfect replacement you've sought for the sticky notes on your desktop, be they digital or analog.
7
Sticky Notes
Windows
Modern
versions of Windows come with sticky-note apps, but this one has
every feature the crippled native app is missing. You can run it
portably (from a USB drive) so it works anywhere; you can format
notes by font, color, size, transparency, and more; and there's a
manager app to adjust multiple notes at once. They even look 3D on
the screen. All note data can be backed up to the cloud.
ArcNote
Windows
8 Touch | Android
It's
a fudge to include ArcNote here—typing is not something you can do
with this note-taker app—but it's a nice way to capture images of
presentations and handwritten notes on a whiteboard, then turn them
into stored and sharable PDFs. Shame it's only on two platforms.
Fetchnotes
Web
| iOS | Android
Cross-platform
sync, much like you'll find with Simplenote, is what Fetchnotes is
all about. You start with tags even before you make a note; the
interface expects you to categorize notes ASAP. Tagging a note as you
go is the same as using a Twitter hashtag (just add a "#"
symbol). Notes can be added via email or text message.
Notational
Velocity
Mac
Notational
Velocity has several things going for it beyond its straightforward
approach to making and retrieving notes (no images, definitely no
multimedia files). It's only been developed for the MacOS X so it
looks great on the platform, and it syncs with services like Dropbox,
Simplenote (previous page) and iOS apps like PlainText.
It's open source, so the code is available for development on other
platforms.
OhLife
Web
Keep
a private journal using the easiest possible interface: email. OhLife
emails you at whatever time of day (or week) you think is best and
asks how your day went. Send a reply, including a photo if you want,
and it's stored in your private OhLife account to access and edit
later.
OneNote
Web
| Windows 8 Touch | Windows Phone | Android | iOS
As
part of Microsoft Office, OneNote naturally has a Windows-bent, but
the software does have excellent mobile versions to amend, organize
and create notes, as well as an Office
Web App version.
But it's the Windows desktop version where OneNote shines as storage
for things you find, as well as a full online notebook. The problem
is the desktop version is not actually free. It's available as part
of an Office 365 subscription, or with full purchase of Office 2013,
but not on its own. Using the mobile
versions or even
touchscreen Win8 versions without the power of the desktop version to
back it up isn't worth the effort. But those living a life fully
integrated with Microsoft Office products should embrace it.
ResophNotes
Windows
ResophNotes
is like Notational Velocity, except on Windows. It creates text notes
and retrieves them, and that's all it needs. It supports Markdown
text-to-HTML conversion, syncs with Simplenote and Dropbox for online
backup (so you can access notes while mobile), and comes in a
portable version you can carry on a flash drive and use on any
Windows PC.
Scribble
Web
Scribble makes it possible to start building your own wiki full
of notes almost instantly. It uses Markdown syntax for editing pages
so you can type and type without distraction—it'll look pretty
later. Adding collaborators is simple, and you can insert all the
notes you like. With the free version you're limited to five wikis,
but you can have unlimited collaborators on each.
SpiderScribe
Web
This
mind-mapper/brainstormer looks so good because it's Flash-based. It's
free for starters when you only need three private maps for a single
user. Unlike some other mind-maps, SpiderScribe lets you embed
outside info, from images to video to maps.
Springpad
Web
| iOS | Android | Kindle | Browser Extensions
Think
of Springpad as Pinterest for note-taking. It has the same kind of
image clipping and storage options, but sans the social aspects.
Meanwhile you can make notes, all of which are synched across mobile
apps. Organize "Springs" by tag or category—text, images,
to-do tasks, Web links, files, events, and more. Read
our review.
Lifehacker says:
http://lifehacker.com/5837191/five-best-note-taking-applications
Springpad takes the hassle out of organizing your notes and thoughts for you, and organizes everything without your help. You have to set up a few basic categories, but of all of the note taking services, Springpad is probably the best at automatically guessing what it is you’ve just clipped from the web, snapped a photo of, or uploaded to your notebooks and organizing it without your help. Products you’ve saved automatically go into a wishlist and you’re alerted on price drops, notes go into notebooks organized by topic, and more. Plus, Springpad’s webapp and mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and Android mean you’re never without your notes and the ability to access them. Plus, the service just updated to incorporate your Facebook friends’ likes and interests to your account.
CherryTree
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/cherrytree-portable
Cherry Tree is a free hierarchical note taking software for Linux and Windows. Main difference between this note taking software and majority of others that we’ve talked about before would be that here you can add notes in a hierarchical manner. Each master note can have unlimited number of child notes where additional information about the main note can be added. This can be used for further development of the main note, for example.
Image down below shows us one master note in the left sidebar, and all that empty space under it is reserved for adding new sub-notes. Empty space on the right is where you edit the contents of the note, once you have it selected from the sidebar. Contents of the note can be text, images, code boxes and even tables.
RedNotebook
https://sourceforge.net/projects/rednotebook/
I have a separate page for this. This I used for a long time. Then i bought a tablet. It does not work on a tablet. So began the search. If your on a laptop, notebook or desktop, I recommend this for daily use and journaling.
Sssuite
http://www.ssuitesoft.com/ssuitefandangodesktop.htm
Loyal says:
This is a java-based sotware maker. They have a java-based word processor and note taking. The note taking is new. I have not looked at it yet. They have all kinds of apps that are open source. You can run them where ever java is installed.
Nix
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nevernote/?source=recommended
Synchronizes with Evernote servers
Local data caching
Cross platform
Local-only and synchronized notebooks supported
Database may be encrypted locally