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Author Topic: OneNote, Evernote (and Tagspaces?) . Best practice for multi-platform use.  (Read 8269 times)

Dormouse

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After through Iain's OneNote insights thread recently, I again reviewed my usage of these programs. Didn't want to clutter his thread with my personal issues, so starting my own.

I have never been much helped by the comparisons on the net because they always seem to be written by people who use one and have a limited insight into the other; compounded by not being familiar with their functionality on all the platforms I use. I've never been expert on either program, which is why I'm happy to learn more, every now and again. But I have used both from soon after they launched (sometimes more and sometimes less) and I have always used both rather one only (have Office365 and Evernote Premium).

Evernote for clipping, speed and similarities across platforms; visually intuitive and works well without organisation. OneNote for stuff that requires more organisation, or more functionality, and where speed isn't an issue, though often irritated by quirks and omissions; but it does seem to be getting much more corporate love recently with some emphasis on other platforms.

I also have been frequently  discomfited by the moving boundaries of the entry boxes - not at all controllable on Android - but impressed with the idea of using tables as containers which I think I will find very useful. I still don't find it clipping as well as Evernote, or working so fast, and still seems cumbersome for random and unsorted notes, but I can see myself using it much more. If only...

.. it's tagging was more functional. So ironic.  :-[ I can remember being one of those who protested when Evernote dumped hierarchical folders and shifted to tags. But now I really appreciate the value of tagging as a system and OneNote's isn't good enough. And  hierarchical folders aren't the same thing. So, with that insight, I've been thinking of moving heavily to a system organised around a tagging hierarchy for everything; still keeping folder setup as it is now.  No problem on Evernote and I can use the same system on OneNote, so far as it is able. And hopefully the same for files using Tagspaces - though I've not used it before and it may fail woefully in practice. Doing that on Dropbox and Google Drive should give me access on all platforms. I certainly won't be organising more than a small amount of stuff in this way, but I can see it helping a lot with many projects, and smooth my use of multiple platforms.

Steven Avery

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> Evernote for clipping, speed and similarities across platforms; visually intuitive and works well without organisatiion

I was hampered by the fact that the simple structure of Evernote with Notebooks and Notes, and how you say "Done" and stuff like that is somewhat rough.  Today, I had a few minutes and sorted it out.  They really need (unless I missed it) to emphasize a "Help" or "Learning" mode that gets you through the basics.   They have a way of making things look stark, and the buttons don't have text underneath (modifiable?), you hover.  There is nothing real complicated, but they manage to make the simple intimidating.

Now, I like Evernote.  Maybe I will look at Premium and web features.

Notezilla will remain my master home based note system (and on my laptop when travelling), it really has some incredible elements.

Evernote is something I will use at least when I am travelling (replacing Google Docs.)   The multiplatform, the decent organization, looks good, now that I am past Stark City.   I don't think they have a dashboard, kanban, type of mode (ie. like Google Keep and the best, Notezilla, which works with multi-structure.)   Although Notezilla has integration with iPad, etc for a few reasons I don't see that as simple, straightforward, and non-$ as Evernote ... when travelling.

So for me it is Notezilla and Evernote, at this time. 

For document processing and storage and holding (research), right now Google Docs is the main one, I am not currently using the Rightnote types of programs.  Often on the desktop I use the Atlantic Word Processor for the actual composing.  It handles the Greek fonts pretty good that I sometimes need for posting on Bible issues, my main loss is when the color RTF gets lost in moving text from one spot to another.

Steven
« Last Edit: June 19, 2016, 01:34 PM by Steven Avery »

conceptworld

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Thanks Steven. A couple of weeks back we made Notezilla apps for Android & iPhone/iPad completely free. Just FYI.

Regards,
Gautam Jain
Notezilla: http://www.conceptworld.com
Support: http://www.conceptworld.com/qa

Steven Avery

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Thanks Gautam.

My concern is that I need one note system that is totally system independent.  Looks decent on all systems, keeps the same data (preferably as close to real time changes on multiple platforms as possible, on this Google Docs is very strong, I have not tested Evernote.)  Google docs, though, seems weak on the notebook-folder-access implementation, at least by what I have seen so far, perhaps there is an add-on.  And you can make folders in Google Drive, but Google Docs seems to ignore them in showing you your documents. And Google Keep seems just too weak for anything robust.

Evernote, despite some "blah" elements, seems to cut that mustard really well, if I am thinking of some one program on my tablet, or laptop, and home computer.  As a browser program (like Google Docs) it does this well. (And I pin it to the taskbar on Windows.) I can incrementally update it on any of the sources quite transparently.  Evernote for me is best for active current notes, maybe 5-10 notebooks, like what am I doing today, or what are the travel notes for the next week or two.  I'm unsure whether I would use Evernote much beyond this "current, immediate" sense, for holding documents, work in process, etc. It is not pretty like Notezilla, and does not use real estate that well.

Notezilla shines, for me, as the permanent quasi-complex and handy note system.  Remember, you also have the popping up to a webpage, with a good implementation.  And you have the Notes Browser systems, which I find stronger than Evernote notebooks (which apparently can be enhanced with stacks.)

===================

And I also use Xerpi as a startpage that holds a bunch of information, however, I cam concerned that it is pretty much abandoned in development, blog and support.  It works great, but I recently did not succeed in even trying to change my password.    However, no alternative has ever been close as a start page implementation.

Linkman is another general information holder.  With massive amounts of info combined with url access. I revolve a lot of my activity around Linkman access. This is often my prime research tool, with careful grouping of related notes through keywords.  Then from that comes writing (e.g. Atlantic Word Processor, email, direct to forums.)

Listpro is still pretty good for a simple database.

=====================

What have I missed?

Steven
 
« Last Edit: June 27, 2016, 06:55 AM by Steven Avery »

Steven Avery

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Ok, when I have the Evernote Windows (ADDED: ie. Desktop Client)  "App" installed (which will be any "home" computer, simply not a library or friend's puter) I can paste a picture right in and it shows up fine on the web. 

That is sufficient for my general need.   I'll simply want to learn how to use something like Imggur to similarly do a temporary clipboard paste (using Alt-Prt-Scrn followed by Ctrl-V ) when I am away from my home puter.  I realized about the Windows App when I went back over this discussiion:

Paste images from clipboard in Evernote Web interface?
https://discussion.e...rnote-web-interface/

Similarly, there does not seem to be a "Home Screen" on the web interface.   I asked about that here, with no reply yet.
https://discussion.e...e-screen-on-the-web/

Steven
« Last Edit: July 22, 2016, 12:34 AM by Steven Avery »

wraith808

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So, with tagspaces, unless you use the hosted cloud version, or the USB version, the installations are totally separate, correct?