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Ask Slashdot: Open Tools For Logbooks and Note-taking?

Posted by timothy on from the russians-used-a-pencil dept.

New submitter leonstr writes: I'm a sysadmin and I like to record my daily work in a logbook: technical notes, work progress, actions from meetings, etc. I started with the word processor on the venerable Psion Series 3a but for about 10 years I've been using Amaya. It's FLOSS, cross-platform and uses an open file format (XHTML). Amaya has its quirks but I really like it; unfortunately it's no longer being updated and I feel it's time to change. So I wonder: what do other people use for recording their work? What works well and meets your requirements?

8 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Emacs org mode by Stephan+Schulz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Emacs org mode can do notes perfectly, comes with selective archiving, and you can even schedule tasks and even record what time you spend on what. It's free form, exports to plenty of useful formats, the table mode is plain genius, and, of course, it's Emacs.

    --

    Stephan

  2. Google Keep by Hydrian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    While Google Keep is cross platform, it isn't FLOSS but I still haven't found anything that matches it.

    Pros:
    Major cross Platform support: Windows (Chrome app), Mac (Chrome app), Linux (Chrome app), iOS, Android
    Offline note taking support
    Syncing across platforms
    Quick
    Multi media input types: Text, lists, audio, image/photo,
    Reminders
    Can be shared
    No services to manage

    Cons:
    Not FLOSS
    No public API
    May disappear because it is a good product :-/

    --
    No good deed goes unpunished.
    1. Re:Google Keep by NewWorldDan · · Score: 5, Informative

      I would similarly also suggest Microsoft's OneNote for all the same reasons. It's probably the best Microsoft product that you're not using. Since I operate in pretty much a straight up Microsoft environment, that's what I use. Keep and OneNote are both fantastic products.

  3. Notebook and Pen? by MerlynEmrys67 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Note: This solution has been available for many years and will be available for many more years without any changes. Also - there are some benefits where pen and paper (With date) is considered reliable in court - computer notes may not be because of the lack of dating and change control.

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    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
  4. As a general rule I don't make logs, but... by istartedi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Back when I was in support I used to open up Notepad and put .LOG on the first line. When you do that, every time you open Notepad it puts the time and date on a line for you. It was quick and easy to do that while on the phone. I'd use this to make notes regarding things that didn't really belong in the customer log, or for semi-personal work related research kinds of things. I always figured that if it mattered to me or anybody, I could hack up a quick script to parse it into some other format. It never mattered.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  5. Re:Post Its by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, your notes probably don't mean shit to a VP looking to assign blame

    This is why grownups who have meetings have someone send meeting minutes.

    Specifically because there are far too many assholes in the world to not take steps to a) cover your ass, and b) hold people accountable.

    I've lost track of the times that 2-3 people all pull up the meeting notes and day "nope, you were the one who decided we wouldn't do that".

    Keeping VPs from weaseling out of stuff/assigning blame later is a valuable life skill.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Re:Change just because? by leonstr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Submitter here. It's got a crash bug I can work around to avoid and I think XHTML is a dead end. And yes, I wondered what else was about. I normally have one file per year so I thought if I was going to change for 2016, it was time to see what the options were. Thanks all for suggestions so far!

  7. Re:The reasons don't matter by leonstr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well, if I *do* have to justify it: the latest release from 2013 is for Windows, Mac and Linux. I can't get it to compile on recent Linux distros, it won't run on new Mac OS versions, there are features I have to avoid to workaround crashes on Windows. Features that I'd like will never be added and problems I encounter will never be fixed.