Author Topic: General brainstorming for Note-taking software (Read 900590 times)

urlwolf · « **Reply #775 on:** October 26, 2009, 12:08 PM »

Guys,

The more I use wave for notes, the more I realize one thing:
Collaboration is the future, and it's here already.
Writing notes with more people is superior.
Notes to oneself are ok, but one should design for the more general
case, then n=1 is an special case.

Now, office 2010 offers collaboration in real time. Wave does that too.
My prediction is that from 2010 on, everyone will be used to documents
that can be changed in real time by more than one person.

Right now, a notetaker that offers real-time collaboration, and works
fine offline too is the way to go. I think Microsoft oneNote will get there first -they have it working already in their beta-, or someone doing a desktop client for wave.

If the latter, it could be open source and useful in more platforms.

Anyone using wave for notes here?

Dormouse · « **Reply #776 on:** October 26, 2009, 12:16 PM »

I looked at Notezilla and it says "Stay Neat: Organize sticky notes inside folders to avoid clutter on your Windows Desktop." Does that mean I can view stickies within the program window instead of on the desktop?
-rgdot (October 26, 2009, 10:11 AM)

You can have hierarchical folders of stickies where each sticky (whatever size you want) is completely visible, or can be on top of each other or moved in whatever arrangement you want. They can easily be moved from one folder to another. Can be on desktop if you prefer.

If you have a lot it is difficult to see them all at the same time even if you have a very big screen.

rgdot · « **Reply #777 on:** October 26, 2009, 12:18 PM »

If my Wave invite makes it (lol) I will attempt to use it for notes (and collaboration) too, even though I am more inclined to use something offline right now.

Downloading Onenote now.

Thank you Dormouse, I will download the Notezilla trial as well.

rgdot · « **Reply #778 on:** October 26, 2009, 07:14 PM »

Side note:
So I go to MS's Onenote page (http://trial.trymicr...te&culture=en-CA) and download the Onenote 60 day trial. Now I am getting Windows update prompts for '2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service pack 1', Who says I have 2007 Office installed?

And 2007 office is not listed as a requirement for Onenote 2007 but maybe it is? then again Onenote seems to be working, at least the few minutes that I have tried it.
I have a fully patched version of Office 2003, may be I should have downloaded Onenote 2003?

Paul Keith · « **Reply #779 on:** October 26, 2009, 07:41 PM »

@rgdot, try Compendium. (Download the alpha release, even the developers recommend it.)

http://compendium.op...ownload/download.htm

It's what I use for that purpose since I don't like the list look of most notetakers.

The downside is that you won't get as much viewable notes because it's not in a list. (You do have a mini-map view if you press Alt+V + V though)

It's also buggy. (but stable enough)

Everytime you import your backups, all your notes with entry spaces gets destroyed and you get a /n mark per blank space.

For example this post would become:

It's also buggy. (but stable enough)/nEverytime you import your backups.

It does have that hover effect you are looking for though.

Edit: My apologies if I didn't mention it out front. I keep mentioning it in my posts, it was starting to sound redundant.

rgdot · « **Reply #780 on:** October 26, 2009, 07:47 PM »

Thanx for the recommendation and link Paul, I will try it, looks interesting

Dormouse · « **Reply #781 on:** October 27, 2009, 04:33 AM »

SNow I am getting Windows update prompts for '2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service pack 1', Who says I have 2007 Office installed? And 2007 office is not listed as a requirement for Onenote 2007 but maybe it is? then again Onenote seems to be working, at least the few minutes that I have tried it.
I have a fully patched version of Office 2003, may be I should have downloaded Onenote 2003?
-rgdot (October 26, 2009, 07:14 PM)

By definition,if you have OneNote installed, MS will see that as Office; no idea how integrated the updates have to be, but maybe it is just the way they describe them.

Whereas to many people the 2007 versions of many Office components are worse than 2003, OneNote "007 is much more useful than OneNote 2003. You made the right choice there. And you'd probably be getting similar messages about Office if you had gone 2003 anyway.

Maybe someone who knows will comment on these bits.

urlwolf · « **Reply #782 on:** October 27, 2009, 05:22 AM »

btw onenote 2010 beta is out. I'm not sure how I got access, but it must not be very difficult. I think I filled a form as an academic.

rgdot · « **Reply #783 on:** October 27, 2009, 10:47 AM »

@Dormouse, Thank you, makes sense. Just made me laugh when I got a service pack that was ~194MB
Onenote and Compendium look nice, in different ways, may be I will look into Onenote 2010 somehow. Going to play with them more. Keeping my eyes open for others as well, including Notezilla and Evernote.

superboyac · « **Reply #784 on:** October 27, 2009, 11:05 AM »

@Dormouse, Thank you, makes sense. Just made me laugh when I got a service pack that was ~194MB
Onenote and Compendium look nice, in different ways, may be I will look into Onenote 2010 somehow. Going to play with them more. Keeping my eyes open for others as well, including Notezilla and Evernote.
-rgdot (October 27, 2009, 10:47 AM)

I don't like Evernote's web version. Not because of the features, but more because I strongly prefer using localized software. I still use Evernote's version 2. Keep at Onenote, it may be just the thing for you. The consensus is that Onenote is one of the few applications that Microsoft got right.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #785 on:** October 28, 2009, 02:25 AM »

Office 2010 public beta is supposed to be out soon. I've been using Outlook 2010 and it is a vast (like 2x) improvement over 2007. Haven't really played with OneNote too much so far, but from what I've read it sounds like a useful upgrade too.

urlwolf · « **Reply #786 on:** October 29, 2009, 05:50 AM »

Well... looks like people use wave to collaborate on a doc, say a blog post...
And the results are ... mixed.
Here is a commentary, with link to the copy/paste of the resulting wave. It is horrendous from the point of view of writing style. It could be the 1-hr time limit, or it could be that we are not used to writing collaboratively.

Writing is hard enough when done in isolation. THe hope is that writing collaboratively could help, but these first examples suggest that it doesn't.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #787 on:** October 29, 2009, 06:06 AM »

urlwolf, it's kind of hard to spot the Wave link in the post.

You might want to post a direct link to it. (Although I was under the impression that you can't share a url via Wave)

rjbull · « **Reply #788 on:** November 02, 2009, 02:28 PM »

I don't like Evernote's web version. Not because of the features, but more because I strongly prefer using localized software. I still use Evernote's version 2.
-superboyac (October 27, 2009, 11:05 AM)

Same here. I didn't want my data held hostage on someone else's servers, forcing me to keep paying to access what I had laboriously gathered. Besides, I'm in the UK, and don't really trust the quality of Internet connections. Evernote 2 was the way to stay.

tomos · « **Reply #789 on:** November 20, 2009, 03:52 PM »

I have read this thread and all or most others on organizing and I wanted to get some feedback.

What has been on my mind is finding a note repository or PIM that is capable of presenting a view of all my saved notes or appointments or tasks and to me this is important, not just their respective titles or headers but a more detailed view. There are examples that come close like Do-Organizer and others which have 'reports' but I believe these are more tailored for printing purposes. May be what I am looking for is to have my notes arranged on the screen like a mind mapper but again may be.

Any thoughts? Point me to one discussed in this or other threads that may come close?
-rgdot (October 25, 2009, 11:10 PM)

I almost posted a link for Text Block Writer - well why not - Text Block Writer which I havent tried yet but came across at this great blog here which it turns out is yours

lol

superboyac · « **Reply #790 on:** November 20, 2009, 05:48 PM »

I have read this thread and all or most others on organizing and I wanted to get some feedback.

What has been on my mind is finding a note repository or PIM that is capable of presenting a view of all my saved notes or appointments or tasks and to me this is important, not just their respective titles or headers but a more detailed view. There are examples that come close like Do-Organizer and others which have 'reports' but I believe these are more tailored for printing purposes. May be what I am looking for is to have my notes arranged on the screen like a mind mapper but again may be.

Any thoughts? Point me to one discussed in this or other threads that may come close?
-rgdot (October 25, 2009, 11:10 PM)

I almost posted a link for Text Block Writer - well why not - Text Block Writer which I havent tried yet but came across at this great blog here which it turns out is yours lol
-tomos (November 20, 2009, 03:52 PM)

I'm going to have to compare Text Block Writer with OneNote. THey seem very similar. What are the strengths of each one?

rgdot · « **Reply #791 on:** November 20, 2009, 06:02 PM »

Thank you tomos. Text Block Writer is one of the ones I like and been trying along with the other recommendations like Compendium, OneNote, Notezilla

@superboyac I guess the main broad difference is that OneNote supports many kinds of notes besides just text input.

superboyac · « **Reply #792 on:** November 20, 2009, 11:18 PM »

rgdot: nice blog, by the way. I just saw it for the first time!

rgdot · « **Reply #793 on:** November 21, 2009, 11:09 AM »

Thank you superboyac

beszpilman · « **Reply #794 on:** November 23, 2009, 11:49 PM »

Guys,

The more I use wave for notes, the more I realize one thing:
Collaboration is the future, and it's here already.
Writing notes with more people is superior.
Notes to oneself are ok, but one should design for the more general
case, then n=1 is an special case.

Now, office 2010 offers collaboration in real time. Wave does that too.
My prediction is that from 2010 on, everyone will be used to documents
that can be changed in real time by more than one person.

Right now, a notetaker that offers real-time collaboration, and works
fine offline too is the way to go. I think Microsoft oneNote will get there first -they have it working already in their beta-, or someone doing a desktop client for wave.

If the latter, it could be open source and useful in more platforms.

Anyone using wave for notes here?
-urlwolf (October 26, 2009, 12:08 PM)

After many years of searching for the perfect notetaking application for my GTD system, I've finally found the perfect home in Onenote. Prior to discovering about the only software Microsoft has ever gotten that much right, the most promising applications I tested had come from DC's notetaking apps round-up. But those apps are really showing their age.

Now, let me tell you what exactly makes Onenote a killer application (it's quite specific and personal, actually):

It is the most robust outliner I have ever seen. That it natively treats EVERYTHING as an outline (including images, tables, etc.) and is able to collapse entire portions of the outline and yet still offer notebook>sections>page hierarchy is exactly the kind of organization I need to manage all my life's information. I could actually keep dozens of scanned books organized in a SINGLE page, all collapsed into TOC's and then into a title listing, only I don't cause there's no need to.
They have made an amazing, amazing design decision (though I'm pretty sure it wasn't intentional) by making each section a physical file (.one), instead of each notebook. What it means is that I'm able to navigate my GTD project list (where each project is a section) through Launchy, by indexing .one files at my notebook's folder. Do you know what it feels like to try dozens of notetaking apps in the hopes that one will accidentally give you the exotic feature you want, only to suddenly stumble upon it in a program as complete as Onenote? I thanked the heavens and still do.
Allows me to tag next actions within my notes and then pull them all in one single list, though that implementation is quite lacking.
It offers fantastic support notetaking tools such as the sidenote, screen clippings and audio recordings. I mean, I have previously owned a Livescribe pen but found myself aching to use it's audio "linker" with typed words as well as inked. Onenote does exactly that. And it includes an awesome OCR engine, just like that (you could pay more for a standalone OCR engine than you pay for Onenote). These features here are just icing on the cake, the kind I didn't know I needed until I had them.

Most important are the first two features. They make GTD project notes management a dream come true. I wonder if anyone else in the world feels the same or if I'm the only one whose inbox is filled with extensive ideas and notes to self on a variety of projects, everyday. I've taken the project notion of GTD deep into my heart and think in terms of projects all the time, and I'm capture-heavy at that.

I don't think I could ever again consider a notetaker that didn't offer the above advanced features. I realize being stuck with a MS product is quite close to selling your soul, but I can't help myself, they've nailed it.

I'm not using Wave for notes yet, but I just thought: what if we create a wave to address these features and needs of collaborative notetaking software? Then we could not only experience collaborative notetaking but take notes about notetaking! Talk about meta. And collaboration really is the future, it's the one thing I find myself missing from Onenote, aside from native html support.

urlwolf · « **Reply #795 on:** January 26, 2010, 08:19 AM »

I was stuck with oneNote because of the same wonderful features described here. However, I Jumped ship to linux partly thanks to keepnote.

It saves html, so you are free from vendor lockin and can do version control.

Many good design decisions here, maybe worth a post of its own,...

superboyac · « **Reply #796 on:** February 11, 2010, 07:53 PM »

I've been using OneNote more and more lately. it's a really great program. Nice interface, and fast to work with. I guess the three programs I am using for notetaking now are InfoQube, OneNote, and EverNote (v2).

Evernote is still great for just jotting random bits of stuff down and forgetting about it. because it will be super easy to find. But I use Evernote very little overall.

Onenote is taking the place of Evernote. I'll stick any clips, any random information in it. And the way you can freely place stuff all over the place is the best.

Infoqube is what I use in the most formal manner. Meaning I know for sure I want to keep this information and it's important. The problem with Infoqube right now for me is that I use it a bit too seriously. Like I said for Evernote and Onenote, I use those two programs to just slap in information. I never do that with Infoqube. With IQ, I always think a little more about where to put it. It has to do with the interface. IQ is much more business like and hardcore than the other two. It makes me feel like I don't want to make a mistake. I almost treat it like this: I'll stick some info in Evernote or Onenote quickly, and when I'm really ready to store it for good, i'll transfer it to IQ somehow. IQ is my true information database. I wouldn't call the other two my "database". They are more like post-its. But that's good and bad for IQ. But Pierre is continually adding features to IQ. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually adds a Onenote-like feature where you can just freely insert notes in a whiteboard-like space.

Armando · « **Reply #797 on:** February 11, 2010, 10:23 PM »

I've been using OneNote more and more lately. it's a really great program. Nice interface, and fast to work with. I guess the three programs I am using for notetaking now are InfoQube, OneNote, and EverNote (v2).

Evernote is still great for just jotting random bits of stuff down and forgetting about it. because it will be super easy to find. But I use Evernote very little overall.

Onenote is taking the place of Evernote. I'll stick any clips, any random information in it. And the way you can freely place stuff all over the place is the best.

Infoqube is what I use in the most formal manner. Meaning I know for sure I want to keep this information and it's important. The problem with Infoqube right now for me is that I use it a bit too seriously. Like I said for Evernote and Onenote, I use those two programs to just slap in information. I never do that with Infoqube. With IQ, I always think a little more about where to put it. It has to do with the interface. IQ is much more business like and hardcore than the other two. It makes me feel like I don't want to make a mistake. I almost treat it like this: I'll stick some info in Evernote or Onenote quickly, and when I'm really ready to store it for good, i'll transfer it to IQ somehow. IQ is my true information database. I wouldn't call the other two my "database". They are more like post-its. But that's good and bad for IQ. But Pierre is continually adding features to IQ. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually adds a Onenote-like feature where you can just freely insert notes in a whiteboard-like space.
-superboyac (February 11, 2010, 07:53 PM)

Interesting. I think I understand what you mean... But I also suspect you feel that way because you might have not tried "enough" to achieve the same efficiency with IQ. I'm speculating here.

What I can say is that I now use IQ exclusively -- for notes and/or day to day complex data management** -- and I find it ideal to jot random notes, and stick random clips of info into it (that's why I have a pretty big DB...). (**Well, I still use outlook for contacts, calendar and e-mail... for the moment. I'm waiting for syncing capabilities before switching to IQ completely -- well e-mails are going to remain in Outlook, or maybe I'll switch to something else like thunderbird)

So... For clipping and random notes, I actually use IQ almost exactly like Evernote. Clipping is as easy as Evernote (select --> win-c, or select something in ie or firefox --> right click and choose "InfoQube: copy content"), but more precise as you can assign all kinds of data to the clip almost right away. You could decide to have the "inbox" field checked for all these random notes, or choose something else in the "other fields" drop down menu, or whatever you decide (due date, . It's pretty straightforward, and once it's set you can either leave it like that or change it depending on the content of the note/clip. (I work very fast with IQ, so I tend to assign specific fields and use the "wikitags" text box to enter tags each time I clip something...but then, I don't use the WikiTag text box for WikiTags but for personnal tags...that's the beauty of IQ... everything is very flexible... IMO).

It's very quick... I can retrieve Data as easily now with the quick search dialog (ctrl-f) which syntax is similar to google's. There are also many options as to how to display the search results (in which grid, etc.), which is fantastic.

IQ's main disadvantage is mostly the beta factor. One needs to be willing to put up with all the upgrades, updates, broken features for a couple days...

But I find it's worth it.

But I digress..
So... What is it that don't find as quick with IQ (thinking EverNote here)?

As for the "OneNote" white board... Yes, you can't really "draw" in IQ insert pieces of text anywhere on a white page, and move some text boxes around. But since I never really found a use for that I don't miss it -- I prefer to jot notes in an outline and insert details in the HTML pane if I need pictures etc. Mind mapping functionalities will be developed (there are some already, but embryonic)

[BTW : what could I say about my affiliation to IQ so that people don't raise any eyebrows here ? I actually don't really know how to qualify my function now -- let's say... Debugger and strong supporter ?

What I mean is that I'm not formally working for Pierre and don't make any money out of IQ. We were eventually supposed to collaborate formally, but it's been postponed.]

J-Mac · « **Reply #798 on:** February 11, 2010, 10:38 PM »

Armando,

I thought that you were working for Pierre. Didn't happen?

Thanks!

Jim

Armando · « **Reply #799 on:** February 11, 2010, 11:02 PM »

Hi Jim, it's exactly the way I described it. At the moment, I'm not formally working for him, like I said. We're more friends and I believe in his work, his software, etc. I have other projects going on, he's busy developping IQ... But in the future, it might happen, who knows -- "consultant" job... I'll let you guys know, that's for sure.