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Best note-taking setup with tablet and keyboard?

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IainB:
I'd echo comments at Re: Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant.

It all depends on requirements.

From my perspective, I was aiming for a Cloud+Client PIM that included keyboard note-taking (mandatory) and could be extended to tablet use (highly desirable) and multiple device iOS use (nice-to-have), for myself and my 12 y/o daughter. We are mulling over which tablet to try at the moment.
The basic mandatory requirements are listed at the above link, so I shall not repeat them here except for this, which is critical (to our requirements):
2. Data Types: The system must be able to store and make use of my Information in all its various modes/forms - including files (object linking and embedding), plain text, rich text, html (e.g., web pages), image, automatic OCR of imaged text in any image captured, audio (recording and playback), audio transcripts and searching of phrases in audio (and now video).

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Cost was the major constraint.

So I settled for max $10.00 (ten dollars) - refer MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

That included the whole suite of programs in MS Office Plus 2013 (some of which I do not need/use - e.g., Lync, InfoPath) and OneNote.

I refer to OneNote as a "PIM", though it has multifold uses, including note-taking. The integration of OneNote with other MS Office apps (e.g. including Word, Excel, Outlook) seems nothing short of superb - seamless and intuitive. That extends to max/full functionality integration with SkyDrive, Internet Explorer, and Win8 (so I am planning the migration to Win8/8.1 now).
The OneNote integration with the Windows OS is like an iceberg.
For example:

* (i) Press the Windows Start button, type in a term to search for, and you will get a display of everything that has been indexed by Windows, including any references in unencrypted OneNote notebooks. (You can of course search for the term from within OneNote, to find the same term across all OneNote notebooks.)


* (ii) Use the OneNote clipping tool to capture the image of the portion of a web page, and it will be immediately saved to OneNote and OCRed, so that you can read the "alt text" of any text in that image - MDI has apparently been integrated into OneNote. This also applies to PDF and fax document images in the notes. The alt text in any image gets indexed too.

Some of that integration in OneNote has to be seen to be appreciated. A longish trial is the only way to absorb it all - but at only $10, it can't hurt.
It is mindblowingly good and I can find no real faults with it, only disappointments to my expectations, arising from prior experience.
For example:

* Whilst OneNote+SkyDrive would seem to far exceed the design/performance objectives of the farsighted DEC/digital "groupworks" (or whatever it was called) project for the "Holy Grail" of campus/group collaboration in the '90s, I would like to see OneNote display the same level of documentation integration between Word and Excel And Access as was achieved in Ashton-Tate's Framework IV between document text and spreadsheet and database. (InfoSelect 8 came a little way towards this.)


* OneNote offers a useful form of tree navigation, based on an intuitive notebook, page and tab paradigm. I would like to see an optional tree navigation structure (optional for them as wants one), similar to that in (say) InfoSelect 8 - which has one of the best I have ever used. InfoSelect 8's navigation also has an innovative bulk tab/categorisation and filtered display function that I have never quite seen the like of anywhere else. (@mouser's CHS incorporates something very similar in its SQL capability.)


* OneNote offers a quite sophisticated manual tagging function that integrates with Outlook Tasks and which is the primary reason I am now trialling the use of Outlook - having previously always avoided Outlook like the plague. However, what I would have loved to see would be the ability to automatically tag notes depending on the content, and for tags to be able to be placed in flexible tree(s) (parents/children) able to be switched as inclusive or mutually exclusive sub-groups of children, and to have conditions and actions (the actions triggered by "if this, then that") a la Lotus Agenda. (@mouser's CHS incorporates something slightly similar in its SQL capability.)

Also:
(a) Under Win7, OneNote seems to have been (re)designed for tablet integration and seems very good indeed, but is apparently still better integrated with the OS under Win8.

(b) Refer: Microsoft OneNote 2007 - some experiential Tips & Tricks. (It seems that anything OneNote 2007 does can be done by OneNote 2013, and then some.)

Dormouse:
For this purpose, I'd discount Windows unless you specifically require access to Windows programs. Too expensive, too heavy, unnecessary.
-Dormouse (January 12, 2014, 07:07 PM)
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Actually, the tablets are not the same as what you might be accustomed to.

I purchased a Dell Venue Pro 8, and it was $329 for a 64GB tablet with full windows 8.1 and office, is comparable in weight to the iPad Mini, and if I wasn't already tied into the iOS infrastructure, I'd be really happy with it.-wraith808 (January 12, 2014, 08:20 PM)
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I do have a W8 combo laptop/tablet (few months old) and find the tablet usage far less intuitive than Android or iOS. And for the main use of the Windows progs, I go to my (thankfully still W7) desktop. I think the comments on cost stand (maybe not always in relation to iOS, I accept) - that Dell with 32gb is £249 in the UK. I agree that weight depends on the options you compare, so my comment might be misplaced there.

However, I do think that for a single note use, and with minimising the extra cost being important, the choice really comes down to Android or Chromebook.

dr_andus:
However, I do think that for a single note use, and with minimising the extra cost being important, the choice really comes down to Android or Chromebook.
-Dormouse (January 13, 2014, 04:54 AM)
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Thanks for your suggestions. In the end I have decided to go with the HP Chromebook 14. I was able to get it for GBP250.10 at the HP Student Store.

Key selling points vis-à-vis other (incl. forthcoming) Chromebooks: largest screen on the market (14in); largest keyboard, white, so it's illuminated by screen when dark; most RAM (4GB); best battery life (9.5 hrs); free 3G+ connectivity for 2yrs, free 100 GB Google Drive storage for 2 yrs; boots in few seconds and afterwards it's instantly on, when woken from sleep. Most software in Chrome App store are free (though I'm sure it won't be like that forever). Edit: forgot to add that I can also install Linux on it.
 
It will be mostly for use at home and in the office. Otherwise I still have my iPod Touch for taking notes when I'm out and about.

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