Geek Answers Handbook

A note taking tool that doesn't block you

We all know that having a good note taking tool is important as a developer.

However, OneNote and Evernote force us to be tied to a specific provider.

Does anyone know of good open source tools, or even another way to take notes without "locking"?

EDITOR: I have to hit myself in the head so as not to clarify. Taking text notes is easy. I would really like to write notes with ink (I use a tablet), add images and draw GUI ideas.

+4
source share
17 answers

Evernote does not force you to be blocked. You can export all your notes as plain text or HTML.

+3
source

Pen and paper.

+24
source

Try using a single tiddlywiki file, for which you can even get shared hosting here.

+12
source

Use a text editor and save it as a text file. Guaranteed no lock.

+5
source

Open source xournal is what I use. It also allows you to comment on PDF files, using them as a background instead of the more usual empty, aligned, or mesh. Very similar to gournal

There are also Java applications in the same space: jarnal and notelab

Try the ones that work on your platform and see what you like. I do not believe that any kind of handwriting recognition is a shame, but they all seem pretty useful.

+4
source

(Or another personal Wiki system with vim, just Google).

Plain text completely ...

+2
source

FreeMind Mind Mapping Editor

+2
source

This may help a little if you have clarified a little which functions you want to use for notes.

Emacs with loop mode is one option.

+1
source

Although this is not quite a tool for notes, I create my notes using OpenOffice and save them in the Dropbox folder so that they are accessible on every computer I write to. Then it synchronizes these notes with each computer on which you configured it.

Alternatively, you can use Google Docs.

+1
source

I have always used Notepad for quick things. From Microsoft :

To create a log file in Notepad:
1. Click "Start," select "Programs," "Accessories," and then "Notepad."
2. Type .LOG in the first line and press Enter to go to the next line.
3. From the File menu, select Save As, enter a descriptive name for your file in the File> Name field, and click OK. The next time you open the file, note that the date and time were added to the end of the log, just before the place where you can add new text>. You can use this function to automatically add the current date and time for each log entry.

It is simple, but only works with Windows> 2k.
You should also check what you use to store notes as a developer .

+1
source

Pen and nice Moleskine Notebook

+1
source

Notepad and / or VI

0
source

Well, I have to rethink Evernote. Since it has a public API, this is not a lot of a fenced garden, and I don’t think that the seller blocked the thingie :) Evernote API

0
source

Another vote here for Vim.

It is open source, available for several platforms, and there is no blocking because files are available with other text editors (except when encryption is with a built-in mechanism, but this would be an intentional blocking).

Disadvantages:
This may have a slight drawback in ease of use and is not really able to handle file types other than text.

0
source

" TodoPaper is a simple, lightweight, and easy-to-use to-do list for Windows." plus it based on simple txt files.

0
source

Usually I use a combination of a spreadsheet (export to csv in case of fear of blocking) and a text editor with one file per project or folder for projects with a lot of notes. I usually use a sheet of paper as quick notes, but I always take all the notes on the disc before allowing me to fill out a completely one-sided sheet of paper.

0
source

I am creating one based on python and html editor, it works well for me, you can get it from github: MyNote , it loos like: enter image description here

0
source

More articles:


All Articles