I often find myself wanting to just jot a very quick note down, sometimes with a "classification" (ie to what the note refers in terms of where, how, who, etc it applies) but there's not a system out there that I am currently aware of that does what I need. I want to be able to make each note by using a single or maybe dual hotkey to bring a single small window into focus on any of my 9 PC's around the house/workshop (so it MUST be networked at least on a LAN to start with), and likely tick a few 'classification" boxes (unclassified, ToDo/bring up today, 7 days, Need to invoice, Need to assign this to a client, Add to Business Contacts, Add to Personal Contacts, Add to "one of my XYZ clubs" Contact Lists, Assign to XYZ person or company, and so on). Complete action may take 15-30-45 seconds tops to get the thought into the system so it's not lost and can be actioned when time permits.
The idea is that it is VERY quick and simple to at least capture an initial thought of an action required or action taken so it is not lost nor breaks the workflow, and at a quieter moment can be inspected and further classifications added, from any station on the network. I feel it would be vital to have an auto-classification system based on keywords typed. It MUST also have "filter and show results AS YOU TYPE" method of searching exactly as Evernote does it. This would be a separate "list" used to locate any item of information in whatever list(s) the note(s) you're after currently resides in (including note maintenance to get rid of dupes, orphans, merge notes, etc)
I noted that several others are still on the hunt for the "right" notetaking system that suits them and was particularly interested in "urlwolfs" comment a few posts ago in another thread that capture and classification are separate and should not disturb the workflow". I tend to agree but further qualify his statement by suggesting that possibly some minimal tickboxes and/OR (more likely) the words used in writing the note can be used to automatically classify which list a note is shown on when sitting down to manage notes many times during the day. That way the note is made and classified simply by the choice of words used, initially. Remember that this is for "bullet point" style of notes, not a complete dissertation on the history and likely future events that may surround the reason for the note).
It is quite possible that such a system could be standalone, maybe use an SQLite db ? but with an API that allows it to be treated as a front end to other information software ?
I have been a big fan of Evernote for a long time, and still am but a bit disappointed with its increasing bloat and cluttered navigation, but Evernote does not have a single small(ish) text window available immediately (as it used to) with absolutely minimum clutter PLUS allow you to set some preliminary note classifications (within a 10 to 15 second window of activity to specify classifications)
I like the idea of Evernotes assigning a classification to a note as that does allow you to have multiple categories/folders watching/assigned to a single note depending on the way you are retrieving info, but even that method of selecting categories is too slow (and yes I have done many auto-categorisations in Evernote based on keywords) Last decent version of Evernote was their v2.1.327, then it went online. (Evernote as my Contact List beats any other system on the planet for finding a contacts multiple details FAST, including ancillary notes.)
I am trialling (free) Sticky Notes (
www.sticky-notes.org which is a redirect from
http://sticky-notes.net) and while I like the hotkey to call up or hide every note simultaneously (which I am treating as lists that I add to or transfer to a Done list (with a date when actioned)) am finding it unstable with (hotkey) showing or hiding every window if the program does not have focus, and standard text formatting keys (CTRL-I, B, U for eg) are dysfunctional and often have to use highlight with mouse then rightclick for italic/bold/underline which is very clunky (slow!). Notes shared over the LAN are not interactive notes either. While this Sticky-Notes shows a great deal of promise, again, it's not quite right (and yes I know I'm using it as (short) lists instead of an individual note per box.)
I use Lists for
all completed actions (Done), plus individual lists for Personal, Now (Clients only as Personal is for my private actions), Later, Friends, Invoicing and some others.
Would like to be able to enter a QUICK note and use the appropriate words to have it appear on the relevant list(s) (as per Evernote an action may be seen from more than one perspective so I might see something for writing out a client invoice appear on both the "Invoicing" and Now (Client Actions) lists. Lists should not appear when a note is entered - the lists need to be called separately by global hotkey. Drag and drop notes between lists once made. Right click a note on a list and select Done (auto date/time as it transfers over to the Done list. Personally I don't like seeing actioned items (with strikethrough) on a list of things yet to be done but do agree for the need to confirm that something was actioned ! Some people like seeing strikethrough notes of completed actions on the same list as items to be actioned but AFAIC that clutters things up.)
Has anyone heard of any software that may do this cleanly (I detest cluttered UI's) or has any coder had any thoughts along these lines for a new project ?