Taking notes is something that happens at all times of the day and just about everywhere I go. I've long searched for the best tool to take notes. I've gone from high tech to a pencil and paper. Paper has officially been retired for me. Too many tools are out there to make my notes way more useful than they have ever been when I write them on paper. This is a review of the goods and bads of some of the tools I've tried.
Freemind is a free tool available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It's really a mind-mapping tool, but I like to use it for taking random notes. It's great for brainstorming, but it didn't suit my needs for storing large volumes of notes that don't really have a connection. For example, it felt weird to have notes about family events in the same places as notes about an upcoming work project. You can insert links to the web, local files, or even other parts of your "mind map". Visual cues can be added to each node on your map so that you can identify notes that represent questions, tasks, important items, etc. The biggest downside is that i have to be on my laptop to add or edit my notes. Another negative was that I found myself focusing more on the tool than on the content of my notes. Finally, adding files and other content to my notes was less than thrilling. Because the links to local files were based on the file's location (and not a note-based copy), I was breaking my notes by moving files all the time. In summary, Freemind is great for brainstorming and less than stellar for regular note-taking.
Microsoft OneNote is a great tool that comes as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. OneNote has TONS of features, which can be both a pro and a con. One of my favorite features of OneNote is the familiar way it's organized. Your notes are set up just like they would be in a paper notebook. They are filed into Notebooks, which have sections. Those sections can have pages, and the pages can have sub-pages. Each page is like a free form word processor document that allows you to click anywhere and start typing. You can easily annotate anything that has been added to your pages by drawing shapes, adding highlighting, or even typing text. The searchability of OneNote notebooks is great. It even allows your to tag notes or pieces of notes as to do items and questions, among other things, and search for them. OneNote has some basic OCR, but it has not performed well for me.
Microsoft has improved the ability to edit OneNote notebooks on the go for users of Office 2010. You can sync your notebooks with the web-based version of OneNote and edit them there as well as on your PC. I haven't used the web version, but I assume it doesn't offer all of the features of the desktop version. However, I have read reviews that state it performs strongly. If you have a Windows Phone 7 device, you can even edit your notes on the go. If you are an avid MS Office user, OneNote is definitely a strong candidate for your notetaking tool.
Evernote is currently my tool of choice for several reasons. I take notes all the time. I am not always at my computer. With Evernote, I can take notes on my laptop, phone, or even on someone else's computer via their web app. Everything is saved in the cloud and synced locally. I can take clippings of interesting things from the web on my phone or PC. Plus, you can get Evernote for Mac, Windows, iOS, BlackBerry, and Android.
Evernote is extremely searchable. Evernote has tagging to allow me to tag notes with subject descriptors. I can also break up my notes into notebooks. With Evenote, I fire up the software, add the note, and go. Organization isn't a priority because everything is searchable. Honestly, this paradigm takes a bit of getting used to for those of us that like to be organized. Sometimes, it feels like it's a bit chaotic. Like OneNote, Evernote can recognize text inside of pictures. In my experience, Evernote's performance is better. Evernote recognizes my handwriting in nearly all my notes (disclaimer: I have pretty nice handwriting). I can take a picture of my hand-written note, upload it with my HTC Evo (Android), and my handwritten notes are now searchable.
Evernote has its negatives, too. Drawing in a note, like in OneNote, is out. Adding shapes and moving text around to notate an image are out too. Notebooks with lower level divisions, like pages, don't exist. Basically, it treats a note as a page.
There are positives and negatives to each of these tools. Freemind is great for brainstorming, but the forced structure felt awkward for regular notes. OneNote is a fantastic tool, but only Windows Phone 7 devices can use it on the go. As I said before, Evernote is my current tool of choice because it is simple and available. While there are some formatting options in Evernote, the tool focuses on function over form, which I believe helps me in the log run. Try them out for yourself and see what you think. Any one of these tools is a strong addition to your software "toolbelt".
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