Fastest note taking tool?

[lifeh2o]

Is there anything like Run where I simply press e.g. win+r right a simple small note, or paste it and it goes out of my sight? On Run I can save only one thing at a time momentarily, and with a small keyboard mistake I can lose that note.

I am imagining something like run, press a shortcut, write anything in the simple popup text box, press enter, it disappears and text is saved in a plain line be line list. press another shortcut and a simple popup display that collection of text. Is there anything like that already? I googled a lot, all todo and note taking tools are bulky with many features.

[anandcoral]

Hi lifeh2o,

Yes there is one. I use it always.

Quicknote http://www.quicknote.de/

Regards,

Anand

[Tuxman]

http://activaid.telgkamp.de has some extension which does that.

[40hz]

Try Softvoile's Flashnote.  Available here.

Or CintaNotes if you prefer something along the lines of Evernote. Available here.

[wraith808]

Notesholder Pro is nice.  The only thing that keeps me from giving an unmiitigated thumbs up is the lack of any kind of sync, a proprietary back end, and a lack of responsiveness from the developer.  But it is nice.

[rjbull]

+1 for CintaNotes 

NotesHolder is nice, but I gave up on it because one version of NotesHolder Pro kept getting flagged as a virus (oddly, the free version didn't), because of the aforementioned lack of developer response/updating, and because trying to use its reminder feature was driving me round the bend.

[phitsc]

There's also hamradio's hamNotes plugin for FARR.

[Dirhael]

Notation might fit the bill.



I just started testing it myself, and I like it so far. Just hit WINKEY+N and start typing your note, then ESC to hide again. In the next release, according to a comment on lifehacker, the developer plans to add a Markdown preview as well (for now, it processes markdown to html when exporting). I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

[rjbull]

Notation might fit the bill. [...] I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

-Dirhael (August 12, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Their Web page says

Portability: Keep your notes synced among your devices using Simplenote

I wish people would routinely produce no-install versions, so much easier to make quick tests...

[Dirhael]

Notation might fit the bill. [...] I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

-Dirhael (August 12, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Their Web page says

Portability: Keep your notes synced among your devices using Simplenote

I wish people would routinely produce no-install versions, so much easier to make quick tests...

-rjbull (August 13, 2014, 09:43 AM)

A portable version would also make it quite easy to work with services such as Dropbox. That said, as a workaround I just moved the %appdata%\Notation\Notes folder to my Dropbox folder (which I've got stored on my NAS), and just symlinked it back. Now it syncs just fine, although it requires you to restart the app on the other PC's if modifying or adding notes on another.

[wraith808]

Notation might fit the bill. [...] I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

-Dirhael (August 12, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Their Web page says

Portability: Keep your notes synced among your devices using Simplenote

I wish people would routinely produce no-install versions, so much easier to make quick tests...

-rjbull (August 13, 2014, 09:43 AM)

A portable version would also make it quite easy to work with services such as Dropbox. That said, as a workaround I just moved the %appdata%\Notation\Notes folder to my Dropbox folder (which I've got stored on my NAS), and just symlinked it back. Now it syncs just fine, although it requires you to restart the app on the other PC's if modifying or adding notes on another.

-Dirhael (August 13, 2014, 11:12 AM)

I just use simplenote, truthfully.  And I use Resoph notes on one computer... that can sync with simplenotes and save the individual files to dropbox.  It's pretty seamless.

[Dirhael]

Notation might fit the bill. [...] I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

-Dirhael (August 12, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Their Web page says

Portability: Keep your notes synced among your devices using Simplenote

I wish people would routinely produce no-install versions, so much easier to make quick tests...

-rjbull (August 13, 2014, 09:43 AM)

A portable version would also make it quite easy to work with services such as Dropbox. That said, as a workaround I just moved the %appdata%\Notation\Notes folder to my Dropbox folder (which I've got stored on my NAS), and just symlinked it back. Now it syncs just fine, although it requires you to restart the app on the other PC's if modifying or adding notes on another.

-Dirhael (August 13, 2014, 11:12 AM)

I just use simplenote, truthfully.  And I use Resoph notes on one computer... that can sync with simplenotes and save the individual files to dropbox.  It's pretty seamless.

-wraith808 (August 13, 2014, 11:28 AM)

I suppose that would be the easiest way, yes It's just that I don't really trust all these sync services to be available for years to come, some of those I've used in the past are no more.

[wraith808]

Notation might fit the bill. [...] I'm also hoping for some form of Dropbox sync feature..

-Dirhael (August 12, 2014, 08:56 PM)

Their Web page says

Portability: Keep your notes synced among your devices using Simplenote

I wish people would routinely produce no-install versions, so much easier to make quick tests...

-rjbull (August 13, 2014, 09:43 AM)

A portable version would also make it quite easy to work with services such as Dropbox. That said, as a workaround I just moved the %appdata%\Notation\Notes folder to my Dropbox folder (which I've got stored on my NAS), and just symlinked it back. Now it syncs just fine, although it requires you to restart the app on the other PC's if modifying or adding notes on another.

-Dirhael (August 13, 2014, 11:12 AM)

I just use simplenote, truthfully.  And I use Resoph notes on one computer... that can sync with simplenotes and save the individual files to dropbox.  It's pretty seamless.

-wraith808 (August 13, 2014, 11:28 AM)

I suppose that would be the easiest way, yes It's just that I don't really trust all these sync services to be available for years to come, some of those I've used in the past are no more.

-Dirhael (August 13, 2014, 12:07 PM)

When they become unavailable, you use something else.  The most important thing is the data.  You're still using dropbox... so the only added thing is simplenote.  But... there's a lot of ways to achieve the same thing.

[lifeh2o]

Thank You everyone for this collection of small note taking tools

Notation: light weight, fast, shortcut rich
CintaNotes: directly make note from selected text, Big UI yet simple, portable
QuickNote: old, light weight, fast, save notes as text, reminders, portable
NoteHolder: directly make note from selected text, easier reminders, portable
FlashNotes: portable

Not checked hamNotes for FARR and http://activaid.telgkamp.de (didn't understand the lagnuage)

[silat]

Try Softvoile's Flashnote.  Available here.

Or CintaNotes if you prefer something along the lines of Evernote. Available here.

-40hz (August 12, 2014, 08:16 AM)

I have used Flashnote for many years. It is great for simple note taking.

[thomthowolf]

One that has not been mentioned, but that I love for this purpose is anuran by our own Skwire.  Fully portable, and pops up take the note and then have it timestamped and available later.