structured plaintextfile based note taker

[justice]

What i'm looking for could already exist, but i'm not sure how to find it.

a notetaker app that opens and structures a series of textfiles in a folder structure. At the moment most people either use software like onenote or evernote to keep all notes together, or plain text files scattered over their system. What I am looking for is to keep the flexibility of plain text (being able to edit/copy/rename/sync the node anywhere), but with some organising features - just some kind of tree structure where every node is an actual plain text file. Not the proprietary or database format used by all notetakers.

Quicknote comes close (http://www.quicknote.de/qscreensen.php), but i just want to use my own textfiles in it, not use quicknote to create them then save them to text files.

I hope I make sense, please tell me if I don't

[Ralf Maximus]

Wiki!

UPDATE: Re-reading your request, the "using your own notes" requirement wouldn't fit in with a personal Wiki, or at least the ones I've played with.  You could cut-n-paste though.  The advantages would be the ability to hyperlink on-the-fly to other related ideas within your project.

Still might have merit, but doesn't meet your exact needs.  Sorry.

[Armando]

AM-notebook from “aignes” (the WebSite-Watcher developer -- member here) could be what you're looking for. http://www.aignes.com/notebook.htm

Each note is stored in a separate file and has lots of formatting possibilities to write clear and well designed notes.

http://www.aignes.com/notebook.htm
http://www.aignes.com/notehelp/index.htm

But I wonder what fomat is used for the notes... RTF?

Do you want your notes to be kept tidily in one folder ? Or do you just need something to organize text files into a tree structure ? the second option is not hard to find : UltraRecall, MyBase, Surfulater or maybe even SQLNotes : just drag & drop your files there *as shortcuts* and organize them in a tree like structure.

[aignes]

http://www.aignes.com/notebook.htm
http://www.aignes.com/notehelp/index.htm

But I wonder what fomat is used for the notes... RTF?

It's the native format of the component I use for notes - http://www.trichview.com

But you can export all notes to RTF format (especially with version 5.0 which is currently in beta).
http://www.aignes.com/beta.htm

[biltong]

This is my first post, so please forgive any errors I make (or if I have misunderstood what is requested...)

There is an application I use a lot, which may be what you are after.  It is no longer in development, and has now been turned over to the community.  There are a lot of users out there who want this developed further, as it is a really nice bit of software.

It is called KeyNote, and the original web page is here:
http://www.tranglos.com/free/keynote.html

It has been moved to SourcForge.net, but nothing much has happened.

Take a look!

Haydn

[justice]

Thanks everyone for all your good suggestions.

Regarding  AM-notebook. It would be the software of choice if I needed more formatting options but I want to keep the flexibility of using something like notepad if i just want to make a quick edit to one of my notes or use my search tool of choice but when using the program most of the time have all the notes organised together even though they're on different physical locations. Their software is always high quality so I'll give it a go!

Do you want your notes to be kept tidily in one folder ? Or do you just need something to organize text files into a tree structure ? the second option is not hard to find : UltraRecall, MyBase, Surfulater or maybe even SQLNotes : just drag & drop your files there *as shortcuts* and organize them in a tree like structure.

I'm looking for the second option and I didn't realise these programs all do that.

I'm trying out Keynote now though and the 'virtual tree node' seems to do what I asked for, let's see how it stands up.

[lanux128]

It has been moved to SourcForge.net, but nothing much has happened.

welcome aboard Haydn! even though KeyNote is not being actively developed, it's author sometimes visits this forums and in fact he has released a minor update for the DC community recently.. here is the link:

• A minor update to KeyNote - only on DonationCoder

[lanux128]

I'm trying out Keynote now though and the 'virtual tree node' seems to do what I asked for, let's see how it stands up.

justice: quotes from these two topics might help..

Well, if you want edit single notes with an external program, e. g. Word, you might try to use "Virtual Notes". In this case the notes are stored outside of keynote, the default is rtf. You can make a virtual node by selecting a note and selecting Virtual node from the context menu. These notes can be edit with an external program and then you can refresh them in keynote.

Source: http://www.tranglos.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=312

I haven't used virtual nodes but they are explained in the sample.knt file.
Normally all data is inside an keynote file so you don't need them.

If you have external files eg. logfiles then you can create a virtual link so you can edit this external file inside KeyNote (plain text or RTF format).

Suppose you have an KeyNote files describing a logfile (or others) then you can create a virtual node to the file and edit the file without a separate editor.
A external program has written to the logfile and you can read/edit then inside KeyNote as if the data was in the KeyNote file.

If you have already a file (text or RTF) then you don't have to convert it to KeyNote but create a virtual node, the file stays on it own on disk and you can edit it as was it in KeyNote as you like.

Source: http://www.tranglos.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=277

[PPLandry]

a notetaker app that opens and structures a series of textfiles in a folder structure. At the moment most people either use software like onenote or evernote to keep all notes together, or plain text files scattered over their system. What I am looking for is to keep the flexibility of plain text (being able to edit/copy/rename/sync the node anywhere), but with some organising features - just some kind of tree structure where every node is an actual plain text file. Not the proprietary or database format used by all notetakers.
make sense, please tell me if I don't

Armando proposed SQLNotes and being the developer, I'd say that it can do that right now. Simply drag-drop files from windows explorer onto a grid and you can have 1 click access to your files. In such cases, the file is not stored in SQLNotes, but on your disk, as a file. You can organize the file links in outlines (with fonts, colors, etc) (plus folders, plus other stuff which you do not seem to need for now)

SQLNotes comes with a build-in editor so you have the choice of using your editor or the built-in one. If using the built-in editor, an autosave mode does just that. No prompts, just edit, change item, edit, etc. Nothing to stop the flow.

A number of improvements are coming which may be useful for you:
1- folder monitoring: tell it which folder to monitor and it will create entries automatically as files are created
2- file link through a windows shortcut: big advantage is if you move the file, the link is maintained

And if it doesn't do just what you want, I can certainly make small changes to accomodate your needs:
www.sqlnotes.net

[biltong]

Thanks lanux128!  I really thought the program was dead, and it's great to see there is still a little light out there.  I will download the update!

There was a little interest on SourceForge with a number of people who wanted to take on KeyNote and develop it further, but that seems to have quietened down again.  Such a pity, as it is a marvellous piece of software.

[AbteriX]

Sorry, i didn't have read all here, but...
"structured plaintextfile based note taker"  ==> MemPad ==> http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/wmem.htm

HTH?

[Armando]

aaaahhh. That's it. Nice Abterix!

[bikerman]

Hi,

I came across this little freeware application. You can use it to keep all your seperate text files together as it will index and search a whole folder of text files for you. Pretty neat ..... and free 

http://tombo.sourceforge.jp/En/index.html
Malcs

[johnk]

I'm resurrecting this thread as it ties in with my own search for a text file "organiser".

Lately, I've come to the conclusion that I'm "over-engineered" when it comes to organising my data. I use OneNote and Ultra Recall. Both good applications.

But in reality...most of the data I want to keep track of is plain text. Probably 95 per cent of it. And good as those two applications are, they are slow compared to working with a good text editor.

So I'm also looking a lean, fast program that helps me work with plain text files in one place. It must have global search.

So far, MemPad (mentioned by AbteriX above) seems to be a reasonable option.  It works well and seems to have the required features. However, MemPad keeps all the data in its own database (which seems to be a plain text file that has been "tweaked" slightly), and I'm not sure about taking that route. I haven't ruled it out, I'm just wondering if separate text files per item is a better way to maintain speed and integrity as your database grows.

AM-Notebook is tempting. I had dismissed it because I had lazily assumed it used the MS richedit control to generate formatted text files (with all the associated bloat). But as the developer says above, it uses a different control, TRichview, which seems to generate sensibly-sized files.

AM-Notebook is now a contender, so I'll give it a thorough trial. Ultimately though, I'd prefer something strictly plain text, to keep things simple, small and, hopefully, speedy.

Any more suggestions on this question? I'm actually surprised there are so few programs in this space.

[justice]

Just in case it helps, I'm using WikidPad now to keep my notes. It's not plain text, however the additional wiki like features help me to organize and cross link information (and build table of contents for each category) which is a genuine benefit over plain text. I installed a copy at work and home and the wiki database is held on a JungleDisk drive (amazon s3 but could just as well be webdav for example). The wiki can be exported to html / xml and the application is open source, which means my data and application will be available in the future. Minireview on Donationcoder. It's not available on other OSes though which proved to be a pain last week.

However Keynote was really good if you choose to stick with plaintext. I still can't understand how SQLNotes work.

[johnk]

Just in case it helps, I'm using WikidPad now to keep my notes.

I did have a play with WikidPad. And while I would prefer an open source option, I want to be absolutely convinced that a program is solid before I trust it with big chunks of my data. And there are glitches in WikidPad which concern me. For example, when you alter the background colour in the editor, it doesn't work properly. It only adds colour to the lines containing text. Maybe that's not clear. A picture might help:



And you have to edit config files to change the default font size in the editor, for goodness sake...and this is version 1.8.

I still can't understand how SQLNotes work.

Neither can I.  And these days I am a bit unforgiving if I can't work out a program fairly quickly. I also think SQLNotes would just be another case of "over-engineering".

But the more I play with it the more I like the look of AM-Notebook. And just as the discount has expired...

[PPLandry]

I still can't understand how SQLNotes work.

Neither can I.  And these days I am a bit unforgiving if I can't work out a program fairly quickly. I also think SQLNotes would just be another case of "over-engineering".

As the designer of SQLNotes, let me try to simplify as much as possible. It is based on the same principle as Ecco Pro, an award winning PIM. Each notepad can display the content of a folder. The content can be a flat list or an outline of items (think 1-pane outliners). Each item can contain any number of user-defined values (think Excel) plus a text pane (think 2-pane outliners).

Hope this helps!

[Armando]

I still can't understand how SQLNotes work.

Neither can I.  And these days I am a bit unforgiving if I can't work out a program fairly quickly. I also think SQLNotes would just be another case of "over-engineering".

What is it that you guys don't understand in SQLNotes ?

Pierre explained it well. But let me add that the apparent abstractness and complexity is only due to the fact that it doesn't force a rigid model down your throat : it's very very flexible and the UI is built to accommodate almost any kind of data organization. Not just tasks, contacts, etc.

In fact, it's very similar to some other software you're used too (if you haven' used Ecco in the past). You can structure your own grids (who hasn't used excell, outlook or even access ?? same thing : grids for which you choose which columns displays what, etc.!), your can create your own forms to allow quick data entry (like in outlook or access, but much more easily -- you can see the different forms in the property pane), display the same data in different ways in different grids (now that's not found in outlook!), link items together, show your items in a flat view or hierarchically, attach external documents to items, have HTML files directly linked to items, etc. IMO, pretty straightforward, and not that complicated. Maybe just abstract at first. (And yes there's a lack of documentation and there are some aspects that are still not intuitive AT ALL : like... no undo for item deletion... Not dramatic, but it depends on the case. It can be fairly annoying.)

I believe that if you take a look at the (incomplete) documentation (starting with the introductory page), it shouldn't be that long before you understand what it's all about : http://www.sqlnotes.net/Documentation/tabid/65/Default.aspx.
The basic concepts : items, grids, columns/fields (can be confusing), rows, forms...
The basic UI elements : Menus etc., Property pane, HTML pane, Grid "pane", Find Pane...

IMO SQLNotes is (or will be) the ideal program for those who want to structure data. Ideas for a novel, projects, tasks... anything. there are still some annoying bugs in there (it's still beta), but I haven't lost any data, fortunately. (A search always shows the data that seems lost, and a simple drag and drop puts it back where I want it...)

[cedardoc]

Hi, I just skim read this and did a search for the word "Blade" and found no mention of it.  Blade Wiki is a text file based wiki where the files are kept in one folder, and the best part for me is you can have the system on a pocket pc if you want and sync it with the desktop version.

Its here: http://bladewiki.site.io/homepage.htm

The only problem is that when you make notes from within the program that have spaces in the title, the file gets saved with a "%20" in the name instead of a space.  The only problem is if you use other programs (like FARR) to find files it's harder to spot phone numbers for example "Doe,%20John%20555-1234".  so I just use periods instead: "Doe,.John.555.1234"

HTH,
DP

[kartal]

John I am using 1.9 beta15. I have no problem with background color. To be honest I have not hit any major bugs in 3 years of my use. I have over 600+ wikiwords in sqllite. It works amazing. Developer was very very active and implemented many things I have asked. 

Btw the config file is part of wikisystem, it is another global wikiword. In a sense you are editing a text file but in the end it is integrated into the tree so you do not really need to folder to edit the config, if I understood your question properly.

Just in case it helps, I'm using WikidPad now to keep my notes.

I did have a play with WikidPad. And while I would prefer an open source option, I want to be absolutely convinced that a program is solid before I trust it with big chunks of my data. And there are glitches in WikidPad which concern me. For example, when you alter the background colour in the editor, it doesn't work properly. It only adds colour to the lines containing text. Maybe that's not clear. A picture might help:
(see attachment in previous post)
And you have to edit config files to change the default font size in the editor, for goodness sake...and this is version 1.8.

I still can't understand how SQLNotes work.

Neither can I.  And these days I am a bit unforgiving if I can't work out a program fairly quickly. I also think SQLNotes would just be another case of "over-engineering".

But the more I play with it the more I like the look of AM-Notebook. And just as the discount has expired...

[Ampa]

I did have a play with WikidPad. And while I would prefer an open source option...

Err... WikidPad IS Open Source (and has been for a long time).

wikidPad is now open source. Visit the project homepage at http://wikidpad.python-hosting.com/

[justice]

We've started using Microsoft OneNote at work for coding snippets and i was impressed with its collaboration and sharing abilities an the ease of formatting so am now using both Wikipad and OneNote. Onenote is not plaintext, not free, and not as light on resources as any plaintext editor bit it's so easy to use. I used it before but using it synced between home and work definately gives it an edge.

Still use wikidpad too and it doesn't disappoint.

[cedardoc]

Hi, yes I know this is an old topic, but my 2 cents isn't worth a whole new one.

I just had to add this really low tech approach to the txt file note approach.  You keep them all in one folder and refer to other notes (works with txt and rtf or whatever) and refer to other notes by using square brackets
like this [projects.txt] as long as there's only one listed per line, then just have this script in a running autohotkey file from the same folder:


;right mouse double click---------autohotkey to launch simple filename (cursor should be on line )
~RButton::

  If (A_PriorHotKey = A_ThisHotKey and A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 500)
{
winactivate   
;Sleep 500  ; wait for right-click menu, fine tune for your PC
  send {esc}{Home}{Home}+{End}
;sleep 100

send ^c ;selects the entire line and copies it
ClipWait, .40        ; wait for the script to catch up.
winactivate
sleep 100
send {home}
linestring = %clipboard%
sleep 500

;find the position of the character "[", call it leftmark
bit1 = [
StringGetPos, leftmark, linestring, %bit1%
leftmark := leftmark + 2

;find the position of the character "]", call it rightmark
bit2 = ]
StringGetPos, rightmark, linestring, %bit2%
rightmark := rightmark + 1



stringlength := rightmark - leftmark


thefilename := SubStr(linestring, leftmark , stringlength)


IfExist, %thefilename%
{
run %thefilename%
}
IfNotExist, %thefilename%
{
MsgBox, 260,, the File "%thefilename%" does not exist. Create the file?
IfMsgBox Yes
{
    FileAppend, %thefilename%, %thefilename%
    SplashTextOn, 320, 100, file created
    Sleep, 400
    SplashTextOff
    run %thefilename%
}
else
    Exit
}
  }
Return


you can even make a new file by just writing the filename in your current document inside the brackets, then right double-click and voila! there's your new file.

Sorry, no tree structure, and any of the parts of this that I wrote (I stole the right double click part from someone) are probably sloppy from a real programmers perspective, but maybe it'll be useful for someone.. :-)

[nudone]

nice idea - is there a problem with the script?

i copied and pasted the abvoe scripty bits into an .ahk file then tried to run it and it just comes up with an error...

[cedardoc]

I took out some stuff I thought wasn't needed, maybe I took out something important by mistake  Try this:



;right mouse double click---------autohotkey to launch simple filename (cursor should be on line )
~RButton::

  If (A_PriorHotKey = A_ThisHotKey and A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 500)
{
;  msgbox double right clicked
winactivate   
;Sleep 500  ; wait for right-click menu, fine tune for your PC
 

send {esc}{Home}{Home}+{End}
;sleep 100

send ^c ;selects the entire line and copies it
ClipWait, .40        ; wait for the script to catch up.
winactivate
sleep 100
send {home}
linestring = %clipboard%
sleep 500
;msgbox linestring is %linestring%
;find the position of the character "[", call it leftmark
bit1 = [
StringGetPos, leftmark, linestring, %bit1%
leftmark := leftmark + 2
;msgbox leftmark is %leftmark%
;find the position of the character "]", call it rightmark
bit2 = ]
StringGetPos, rightmark, linestring, %bit2%
rightmark := rightmark + 1
;msgbox rightmark is %rightmark%

;stringlength= %rightmark%-%leftmark%
stringlength := rightmark - leftmark
;msgbox stringlength is %stringlength%

thefilename := SubStr(linestring, leftmark , stringlength)

;msgbox thefilename is %thefilename%
IfExist, %thefilename%
{
run %thefilename%
}
IfNotExist, %thefilename%
{
MsgBox, 260,, the File "%thefilename%" does not exist. Create the file?
IfMsgBox Yes
{
    FileAppend, %thefilename%, %thefilename%
    SplashTextOn, 320, 100, file created
    Sleep, 400
    SplashTextOff
    run %thefilename%
}
else
    Exit
}
  }
Return




that's exactly what I have that works.  It has all the messagebox things I used trying to get it to work originally, but they're remarked out.  FYI sometimes I get a clipboard error thing the first time where it thinks the filename is empty.  In that case just cancel and it usually works the next time and after that.  Maybe a real programmer might be able to come along and really tune it up.  (that'd be nice)  Anyway, I hope this works for you.