I had a discussion in the Personal Message area of DCF, about OneNote and PIMs. I figured a lot of it could be of common interest, so I have duplicated some of the post here:
You say (**1): "I'm still searching for the best PIM system.", but I'm not so sure that there
is a "best" one. What I perceive is that there are lots of
different good ones, of which a few may meet your needs/requirements - e.g., (say)
Lotus Agenda, ConnectedText, TreeProjects, InfoSelect, OneNote.For example, a criterion you have (like me) is
(**2) a preference for a local desktop-based app + database, so, all of the above PIMs could potentially meet that criterion, and so on.
You say (**3): "I like having the occasional cloud alternative/option.", and so do I. OneNote seems to fit that bill pretty well, but you could also use the technology available to turn your non-Cloud desktop-based app and database into a sort of Cloud-backed service. For example, I use
MEGAsync, which has a 50GB free starter package. I have put all my music media files into a MEGA Cloud drive, that appears as a folder on my C: drive, and which is continually syncing with the Cloud-based files. I used to hold all those music media files in a directory
C:\Workdata.007 (Media 1), but I moved them from there to the MEGA folder (i.e., and to the Cloud). I then set up a Reparse Point to that MEGA folder, and named it
C:\Workdata.007 (Media 1), so that became a virtual folder. My music media players and audio and MP3 Tag editing software have always used that folder name as their Library and they continue to do so. Any edits/writes to that virtual folder or its files are reflected in the MEGA folder and synced to the Cloud whenever I choose to connect.
I have done something similar with several other applications, including the PIM
InfoSelect, syncing their databases and the application itself to OneDrive. This was where I discovered that OneDrive is insecure in that Microsoft will sometimes delete some executable files in the apps, if they don't like the file(s) for whatever reason - so they're only good/reliable for data storage, and even that is not certain, unless its one of their apps - e.g., (say) OneNote. Long live encrypted sync
à la MEGAsync!
You say (**4): "In the coming months I'm going be working on a project and I'm considering using it as an opportunity to seriously try out Microsoft Onenote."
Whilst you are at it, I would suggest that you also try out
TreeProjects:
*
http://www.rgdot.com/bl/2011/09/11/smereka-treeprojects-powerful-personal-database/ *
http://personaldatabase.org/Now,
regarding encryption and security, here's an interesting thing:
Telegram(
https://telegram.org/)
Telegram is
FREE for all use. It requires a smartphone to use. Like
LINE, it just uses your phone number as a base ID, but that's where the similarity stops. You can use it on any number of devices, and you can also use it on a PC as a desktop app.
You could copy media files, data files, app files - any files - into what's called a
Channel (in the
Telegram Cloud), and it's stored there, fully encrypted and preserved intact for as long as you want. You could do that from the
Telegram desktop app, then Access your Telegram account and that Channel from
another PC using the
Telegram desktop app, or from a smartphone using your
Telegram app/ID. When you try to access the files saved to a given Channel, if those files are not already stored on the device (smartphone or PC) that you are using,
then they are downloaded from the Channel, to that device. The potential is mind-blowing, and people are already taking advantage of that potential. You could, for example, (say)
backup your
OneNote Notebooks to the
Telegram Cloud that way... and if you wanted to give a person (or persons) access to a particular
OneNote Notebook, then you could let them have read access to that backup in the relevant
Telegram Channel...
You say (**5): "The prospect that Microsoft might be phasing out the cloudless version of Onenote does have me a little bit wary about trying it out.", and you also consider using OneNote from an old copy of MS Office 2013.
- Evernote killed off their rather good desktop app, focused on a Cloud-only business revenue strategy and stuck to it - though I suspect they probably could have regretted it since. It could have been a cash-cow for them.
- In Microsoft's case, they would seem to be decidedly NOT a Cloud-only business and have many examples of where their software continues for ages, or is responsibly and gracefully sunsetted (and even kept backwards compatible in the Windows 10 OS) - the most recent being, I think, Microsoft Money Plus Sunset
- I would recommend a wait-and-see approach regarding OneNote. Trial/use it anyway. It seems unlikely that it will be killed off for several years yet.
A licence for MS Office 2019 Plus is available relatively cheaply - e.g., here. - It was possible to get MS Office 2016 Plus relatively cheaply, but I am unsure if it is still available - e.g., here.
- As regards using MS Office 2013, I wouldn't recommend it as the OneNote functionality would be kludgy - it has been vastly improved on since, in ON 2016.
