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A Simple Note Taking Software - Which One?

Posted by Cliff on from the they-have-to-go-somewhere dept.

pxlpushr asks: "I am a EE major turned CS major who never got over the habit of maintaining a log book. Lately I have been obsessing over the idea of moving all my log books (yes, I have many of them: one for each Computer at home and work, and a couple for my work) to electronic form. I have searched and searched and found nothing interesting. My needs are simple: I would like HTML format so that when I am viewing I can use a browser. It it is available for both Windows and Linux systems, that would be great. I am definitely not looking for something real heavy duty like 'Go Live'. It is too heavy for quick, frequent use of jotting down notes. It should be WYSIWYG software, should allow reasonable formatting options for the text and figures (gif/jpg) I include in the notes, and should provide facility to load up a template for the log and fill in the details into the template. The closest I came across was the freeware Keynote . But two problems: it supports only the RTF, no HTML support and no Linux counterpart. So my question to Slashdot denizens is, which note taking software do you use?"

5 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Personal Wiki by XCorvis · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sounds like you're looking for a personal wiki. WikidPad is Windows only, but I've seen others that are multi-platform.

    1. Re:Personal Wiki by Spoing · · Score: 5, Informative
      Better yet: TiddlyWiki.

      It's just a web page with java script. Nothing more. Variations on TiddlyWiki can be found all over the place.

      --
      A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  2. nvu by reznet · · Score: 5, Informative
    sounds like you're looking for a lightweight html editor. I recommend nvu which is a cross-platform wysiwyg html editor that's based on mozilla's rendering engine. I've used it for writing documentation as I code; I'll return later and clean it up. It supports gif/jpegs, css, and all the html goodies you'd expect from mozilla.

    As for templates, I see the word in one of the menus, but in 10 seconds I couldn't get it to do what you're talking about. Maybe it does, or you can simply create your own blank log file which you then open and save for your various needs.

    HTH

  3. Got a Mac? by delete · · Score: 5, Informative
    Probably not the answer you're looking for, but I've found that OSX has an abundance of high-quality low-cost note-taking software.
    • VoodooPad: An excellent WYSWIG Wiki-like notebook
    • Circus Ponies NoteBook: A visually impressive note-taking app that looks like a real lab notebook.
    • Hog Bay Notebook: Similar to the above, but lightweight and with IMHO superior outlining facilities.
    • PersonalWiki : A desktop interface to the web-based ZWiki.
    • Devonthink: A note/snippet/document management system, which includes semi-supervised classification algorithms.

    Perhaps it's due to the high use of Macs in education, but other platforms really seem to lag behind in this area. WikidPad is a Windows application that's similar in design to VoodooPad, while Tomboy is a very light-weight equivalent app for Linux. Unfortunately I have yet to discover an equivalent cross-platform note-taking tool.
  4. Re:deviate from prompt by Carik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Am I simply misunderstanding what he's asking for?

    Yes.

    I've run into this a few times, and while it doesn't piss me off the way it used to, I still find it frustrating.

    While I agree that HTML isn't hard to learn, especially for what the poster was asking for (maybe 3 tags, total), it's not what he wants. He wants something like a notebook, where he can scribble down his thoughts as they come to mind, or jot down what he just did in case he needs to know later.

    I tend to write my term papers in HTML, usually using vim, because my profs can't seem to agree on a format, and at least they can all read that. But, even now that I'm used to it, it breaks the flow of my thoughts to have to add a paragraph tag, or figure out how to make the thing insert a tab. Those few extra characters force you to switch your frame of reference from "written english" to "HTML code," which can slow you down and make a quick note kind of a hassle.