Note Taking Application Faceoff
Whether you’re writing a simple article for a blog, piecing together the next blockbuster hit, or penning a 500 page romance novel, there are quite a few options for helping you get all of that information organized and drafted. There really are enough to chose from with a wide enough range of options that you’re sure to find something to fit your needs.
Journler
Journler is one of the more full-featured applications in it’s genre. It’s got everything from iWeb integration to video/audio note recording.
The aspect it takes on note taking/writing is in the form of a journal (hence the name). So while its main function certainly is geared more towards daily input, it still works very well for information gathering and jotting notes.
My only beef with Journler is that it’s current version feels like there are some loose ends that just aren’t tied up. There is a fairly major update coming soon that could fix these issues.
Journler is free for non-commercial use and $24.95 for commercial use.
Scrivener
Scrivener from Literature and Latte is a solid app that really is perfect for writing books, manuals, a thesis, or anything that has many parts to it.
One of it’s major features is called Corkboard. The Corkboard view lets you arrange notes (like index cards) to create a quick outline of parts/chapters to whatever it is you’re writing. This feature really helps with organization.
Scrivener will cost you $34.99.
Writeroom
Writeroom, which we’ve previous covered, is the minimalist cousin to all of these applications. It’s the modern day equivelent of an old-school typewriter.
It provides distraction-free writing by blacking out the entire screen and giving you a blank “canvas” to just start typing. Ultimately it’s TextEdit with flair.
Writeroom is free to download and $24.95 if you feel inclined to support them.
Mori
Mori is probably the closest thing to an actual notebook in terms of interface and organization. It’s a no-frills way to organize thoughts, lists, photos, and any other basic information or media.
Mori uses Apple’s CoreData technology which gives it the capability to hold literally 10’s of thousands of notes and still stay blazing fast.
Mori is $39.95 for a full license.
xPad
xPad is a light notepad application. If Mori is a full, 8.5×11 notebook, then xPad is it’s 6×9 little brother. It’s perfect for quick jots during a class or office meetings.
Its feature list is short, but that’s one of its strong points. The only real unique features it has are simple text highlighting and strikethrough, which are perfect for note jotting.
xPad is freeware, so you have no excuse for not giving it a whirl.
NoteBook
Circus Ponies’ NoteBook is the mother of all note repositories.
Your entire experience is started by telling NoteBook what project you’re working on. Whether it’s project management, research papers, or script writing, it has a template to help you on your way to organization paradise.
NoteBook has a fairly active community of people and has some great features like system-wide contextual menus and paper-like tabs.
NoteBook is $49.95 for a standard license and $29.95 for an academic license.
Yojimbo
Bare Bones (makers of such popular apps as BBEdit, Mailsmith, and TextWrangler) bring you Yojimbo.
Yojimbo is one of those apps that you just wonder how you lived without. It ties itself in to many area of the OS and with it’s spotlight-esque information capturing area, it gives you no excuse not to store all your random tidbits of info and notes.
It’s Notes feature is great for writing articles (I’m writing this article in it) and provides other great features like encrypted storage, tagging, and bookmarking.
Yojimbo will run you $39 and is a must-have.
Tweet This (4)
Chris Ryan on January 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Two other Journal Applications to look at:
MacJournal
DEVONthink
BTW, another application to consider for Quick Notes is SideNote. I like to use sidenote for information that I may need quickly, such as SQL Queries and Web Code…
Grant (divigation) on January 22nd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
So why is it that MacJournal always gets stiffed when discussing note taking apps and writing apps?
twenty3 on January 22nd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Another interesting approach to note taking is found in VooDooPad (http://www.flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/ ). VooDooPad works like a personal Wiki so you can easily cross-reference and navigate your notes. It also lets you link in or incorporate external files like images and PDF’s and has provisions for making sketches right in the app.
Christian Kraemer on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
This entry just leaves me with more questions and no answers.
So which one is the best?
Just another list is pretty useless in my eyes.
Give me an opportunity!
Twist on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
This wasn’t so much of a face off as it was just a list. I have done the Pepsi Challenge with almost all of these apps plus many others and other than the price being about $10 to $20 higher than what it should be I have to say that Mori is the one that worked best for me. Of course I am not just taking simple notes. I use Mori for note taking, journal writing, fiction writing, to do lists, list of stuff I have or need to buy, and plenty of other things.
Another good one you missed is iOrganizeX which is what I used before finding Mori. I choose Mori over it though because Mori has a more flexible organizational structure. Where I used to have like five or six different iOrganizeX files (one for every project/task) now I have only two Mori files (one for personal stuff and one that I share with a friend working on those projects with me).
Yojimbo would be great if it could sync in some other method than just .Mac. I found that its usefulness was severely limited by that.
For really fast small notes I also use the Yahoo! Notepad Widget. I hacked it so that it will refresh from the online Yahoo! Notepad service every couple of minutes and me and a friend use it to keep each other synced on our projects and to pass notes back and forth across the internet. It is accessible through the Widget or from a web site so we can use it no matter what platform we are on. Now if we could just find something similar that we could host ourselves instead of having to go through Yahoo!.
fyora on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I also highly recommend VooDooPad. It is an excellent piece of software.
Andrew Creek on January 22nd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I have been using Inbox for most of my notes.
Uetzicle on January 22nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
No matter how many different note takings apps I download and try, I always come back to Notational Velocity (http://notational.net/). Its interface is the simplest I’ve ever seen of any app.
It has none of the glitz the other apps have (though it’s not ugly). It only does plain text (but I consider that a strength, not a weakness). It takes just a little bit of time to ‘get it’. These could be reasons why a lot of people take one look and ditch it. But its workflow is very smooth and seamless. As far as quick note taking goes, Notational Velocity can’t be beat.
Hellmark on January 22nd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
One that I was surprised to see not mentioned is sidenote. I’ve been using it for the last six months or so, and love it. Sidenote is great, because it is always there, ready for you to write notes, but, when not active takes up zero screen real estate. Just mouse over to the side of the screen, and out pops sidenote. Best of all, it is free.
http://www.chatelp.org/?page_id=5
tim on January 22nd, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Okay, I tried to be subtle about it, but my comment was yanked. So I’ll just say it: the author needs to learn the difference between “its” and “it’s.”
Josh Pigford on January 22nd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
@tim: Okay, I tried to be subtle about it, but you posted again. So I’ll just sayit:
The commenter needs to learn to use the contact form and keep his comments on-topic.
It’s called a typo bro. Lighten up.
php lemon on January 22nd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I use xPad and i have nothing but praise for it. Its a great piece of software.
- Phil
fcodc :: Mac Recon on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:00 pm
I highly recommend sidenote. It’s a great notepad app that hides on the edge of your screen until your cursor goes over it or call it out. Oh, and it’s free!
You can find it @ http://www.chatelp.org/?page_id=5
Calvin Gilbert on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Great article and comments. Very useful.
david on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
another one is Freemind, written in java.
tim on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
While I was getting all Grammar Cop earlier, I forgot to say thanks for the all-in-one-place list. I’ve been trying to find a good note-taking app, and this article and the attached comments are very helpful.
J. on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
http://www.chronosnet.com/Products/sohonotes.html
Bud Parr on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
There seem to be two omissions here, CopyWrite by bartastechnologies.com and MacJournal by Mariner Software. I currently use CopyWrite for longer work and MacJournal to compose blog posts, notes, journals, emails, etc.
Both have full-screen capability.
Zach on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
It may not be perfect for storing random tidbits of information, but for daily note taking, OmniOutliner Pro is perfect for me.
Tdot on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:50 pm
There is one simple and extremely efficent solution, a personal Wiki: TiddlyWiki – http://www.tiddlywiki.com/. One HTML file, 200kB with the code and the data. Works in almost all browsers. So, you can easily send to someone else.
JDL: Tinderbox and DevonThink on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Tinderbox and DevonThink are extremely powerful and good note taking apps.
Dan on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Really though, writing notes for yourself is so old fashioned! There are so many good collaboration sites out there like Notemesh ( http://notemesh.com ) and Studicious ( http://studicious.com )
You should change the way you think!
mhcbc on January 22nd, 2007 at 5:57 pm
hi all,
interesting thread. Can’t comment on the ones listed, but I will say that DEVONthink is wonderful… do check it out. Very powerful app, which I’ll stick with because it does it all and it’s very well supported.
I kind of miss StickyNotes, which was like Stickies but more so. Then Chronos changed it around completely, and ruined it for me.
Cheers,
mhcbc
Wes Ball on January 22nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I really like NoteMind.
http://www.synium.de/notemind/index.html
And I’ve tried them all. If you want a simple, clean app for random thoughts and pieces of content …. this is the one.
Cliffn on January 22nd, 2007 at 7:42 pm
I use Yeah Write. Good document organiser, easy to use, many featured, and there is a free version.
Travis on January 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I use EverNote and I really like it. It definitely doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but its simple and gets the job done for note taking.
Brian on January 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I know this was mentioned, but OmniOutliner is pretty much perfect for taking notes in my college classes.
flec65 on January 22nd, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Nice list, but what about KIT from Reinvented Software? This is the scrapbook I use for everything I want to keep… http://reinventedsoftware.com/kit/
mad dog on January 22nd, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Chronos’s excellent Soho Notes is much more full featured than many of these and synchs between multiple computers. Surprising how it could be let out.
http://www.chronosnet.com/
haha on January 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 pm
vi
nedit
$39?
LOL WTFPWN
:wq!
Chris on January 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 pm
simple web-based note app where notes default to public ..
http://www.flynote.com
anonymous on January 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 pm
The Guide (http://theguide.sourceforge.net/) is good (and open source) but only for Windows :(
Shall we ask the author to port it to Mac :)
Ben Parzybok on January 22nd, 2007 at 10:11 pm
If you have more than one computer, it’s worth signing on to a web-based solution.
My latest favorite is Remember the Milk.
http://rmilk.com
The reminders are great and the ajaxyness of it make for a pretty smooth – near desktopish feel.
That said, I also use Yojimbo and .Mac to synch longer running docs and conversations with myself.
The biggest hassle of all these apps is sticking with them. When is someone going to write the software for that?
shrigg on January 22nd, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Great work everyone. My thanks to both the author and the commenters for getting me looking at all these great apps. One of these days I gotta get myself organazized!
tim:
shrigg on January 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
tim: http://imdb.com/title/tt0075314/quotes
Steven on January 22nd, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I’ve been using http://stikkit.com since it launched in November, and consider myself a note taking snob, and Stikkit is seriously incredible.
One thing that I hate about most PIMs or note taking software is the notion that you need to put specific data into specific places, or you need to connect everything up in some sort of squid like node tree.
When you need to take a note, you just need to take a note, and Stikkit is great for that. What really makes Stikkit special though is it’s ability to know what your note contains. I can write:
Meeting with Jim Henson on Jan 30 at 4pm
tag as muppets
share with ernie@ctw.com
remind me
And it knows I’m talking about an event (which I can then export to GCal or iCal), a person (which it then makes a vCard for me), and that my stikkit is tagged as muppets, and that I want to share the event with Ernie, and that I want to be reminded (both by email and SMS) before the meeting starts.
Nothing does that, not even close. And Stikkit is free.
Franco on January 23rd, 2007 at 12:09 am
Dudes, check out NoteTaker at Aquaminds.com
It does some pretty amazing stuff, that circus ponies doesn’t.
I live in it.
Alan Schmitt on January 23rd, 2007 at 3:11 am
I have not seen it mentioned, but I’m now a big fan of EagleFiler (http://c-command.com/eaglefiler/). I’ve used Yojimbo, then KIT, then EF, but I’m staying with the later.
markO on January 23rd, 2007 at 3:29 am
Yojimbo a must-have? Not really. Compare this to Devonthink or Mori and look, what you get for the bucks. Yojimbo in fact is a beginners app that collects snippets. My grandma will use it. It’s neither smart nor powerful, it’s overpriced and underfeatured.
Ace_NoOne on January 23rd, 2007 at 4:42 am
I second #20 – I’ve been using TiddlyWiki for a few weeks or months now, and I’ve never been happier with my note taking.
supercrisp on January 23rd, 2007 at 7:17 am
I have tried all the apps above, and I keep coming back to MacJournal because it’s useful for storing information too, like Yojimbo, and because it supports my blogging, also has some useful formatting for organizing ideas, and because it has a fullscreen mode in which I can use green text on a black background for when I’m in a presentation with a darkened room. Why on earth was it not mentioned here?
Scott on January 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 am
My last two books were written using MS Word’s Outline feature. For sheer ability to organize loose ideas and to be able to quickly create classical Heading 1,23 and text, I’ve yet to find anything that beats it. Yeah, I know: Microsoft! But that’s my experience to date.
David334 on January 23rd, 2007 at 9:53 am
What happened to Notetaker from Aquaminds, thats another great app.
Macjournal is the best creative writing and… on January 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 am
I don’t use a mac anymore since my Powerbook died. When I did I took it everywhere: class, meetings, conferences, everywhere. I did almost all of my writing in MacJournal. I found it a liberating experience having a program that I could just type into without having to create files and folder structures. I could just re-organize the database inside MacJournal. If I didn’t have a title for something MacJournal would just add the date or create one from the first few lines of text depending on my preference. It is a great tool for people who just want to write without having to spend to much time organizing their filesystem. You can still get they older version for free and it is very capable. The new version added some features like voice recognition hooks and more profiles for publishing to blogging frameworks. Check it out.
billybob on January 23rd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
This faceoff is a farce. Any list like this without MacJournal on it should be suspect. How do you leave off the main player?
B
Jim Kuebler on January 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I use Jotz and love it. it is a simple easy to use app for simple note taking. http://www.thinkertons.com/
Danaher on January 23rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I use Note Taker as well and like it a lot. Looked at some of the others but I guess I like the Note Taker layout better.
Top Ten Lists on January 23rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
[...]Seven Mac Applications for Writing and Note Taking[...]
Andre Reavis on January 23rd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I’m wondering why [b]bMacJournal[/b] was left off this list too. It’s my favorite app for simply jotting down thoughts, and typing up a blog or two. It easy as pie adding a blog to my site.
When I need graphics in my documents I use [b]Pages[/b]. When I need to open a word doc…I use Word.
I use Macjournal for everything else text based.
Here’s a blog I posted from it.
http://homepage.mac.com/xbroughneck/WhyIIdentifywithBarackObama.html
JW on January 24th, 2007 at 8:39 am
I agree with Zach, there is nothing reviewed above that compares with Omni Outliner in regards of taking notes. Omni’s built in search function allows one to produce a review sheet in 10 % of the time. Take it from me a Grad Student in Ancient History, Omni Outliner is the absolute best program for taking notes and organizing research, nothing up there compares to that. Also as far as sharing notes Omni’s instant export to .rtf allows non mac users or basically anyone with an operating system of any sort to be able to read your document without the need of having the same program.
Peter J. Pedersen on January 24th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
iOrganize – excellent for collecting and organizing notes before diving into manuscripting. And the developer is VERY responsive (and responsible!).
Guthrie on January 24th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Though I’m using Devonthink and Yojimbo primarily right now, I’ll 2nd the recommendation that NoteMind is an app to watch. It’s moving fast with features and fixes, it’s reasonably priced, and is a beautiful Mac type app. It’s the sort of note handling and web tidbit sorter that hangs out on your screen like Yojimbo, but it has some light a.i. functionality like Devonthink and mindmapping abilities that give you a new sort of graphical take on your database. Also, the developer is quite responsive and nice.
Stephen on January 25th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I agree that there are a lot of great notetaking apps out there – I use Omni-Outliner for taking notes in class, too. But the ones that stand out take the different uses of notes in new, innovative directions. VoodooPad for sprawling, interconnected notes. OO for traditional information associations. And another “innovative but not mentioned in the list” player, Trapper Keeper, which is best for rapid note-taking and accessing.
Erik on January 25th, 2007 at 10:55 am
More detailed reviews of Journler Mori, Notebook, OmniOutliner, and WriteRoom are available at Mac Law Students – http://maclawstudents.com/blog/category/product-reviews/
liz on January 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I’ve been using notational velocity for so long now, I don’t think I could ever switch. Its great for little snippets and serial numbers, etc. I just wish it was a universal binary. Other than that, its my dream note-taking app.
codexapps on January 29th, 2007 at 1:49 am
Have you ever try CodeX Apps? It’s suitable for both Mac and Windows and it’s not only for notetaking but can do almost everything for you.
Josh on January 30th, 2007 at 9:50 am
You forgot to mention myNotes. Cheap and chic.
Panamajack on July 19th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Disappointing this review didn’t compare the already many mentioned Omnioutliner …. kinda makes the article a waste.
Josh Pigford on July 19th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
@ Panamajack: OmniOutliner is just that, an “outliner”. It creates lists.
This article was written to cover note taking applications…not outlining applications.
Calling the entire article “a waste” is a bit sensationalist don’t you think?
Panamajack on July 19th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
I suppose I was … but I think OL clearly does more than write lists, and can act as a supreme note-taker — with out pretending to be a full word processor. Many others have used it with kGTD to get-things-done.
I retract my “a waste” and replace it with “a shame”. I’ve been searching for a basic comparison chart for software in this broad amorphous category, and your article does the job fairly well. Omnigroup has been a leader in this category, however, so I guess it’s a shame they weren’t included, oh well.
Ubergeek on December 17th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Try ubernote. It’s Firefox compatible so you can use it on the mac or pc. Good as a one stop solution if you use multiple cross OS computers. http://www.ubernote.com
Fred Flintstone on January 8th, 2008 at 7:57 am
Please, please note that the possessive form of “it” does not take an apostrophe.
The dog licks its nuts, not it’s (it is) nuts.
Grammar is important. It tells the audience you intend to be taken seriously.
Dan on April 9th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Luminotes is another great notetaking application. It’s a personal wiki, so it’s not only great for quickly jotting down notes, but it’s also designed for making connections between your notes so you can keep them organized. Sort of like your own personal Wikipedia.
(Disclaimer: I’m the developer of Luminotes. But of course I also use it for my own notes!)
Anyway, check it out at http://luminotes.com/
Chris on June 20th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Josh, I don’t quite understand why in your mind outliners (and thus OminOutliner) aren’t apt for serious note-taking. I recommend a look at the older but excellent Outliner column over at ATPM.
BTW, Circus Ponies NoteBook and Mori are outliners, too!
If you write an acticle on *that* subject and present a so seemingly random pick of app, you have to be prepared to take some criticism for that. Calling a text editor like WriteRoom a note-taking app, for example, is a bit strange—if so, where are TextMate, BBEdit, TextWrangler etc.? And where *are* the DEVON apps? Where’s EagleFiler? Where’s VoodooPad? Notae? NoteTaker? The list could go on …
Tackling *such* a topic and on the Mac, a plattform that might very well have more note-taking apps (in a broad sense) than any other platform, and not going the full way is kind of bound to evoke critical remarks—don’t you think? ;-)
B. Shaw on September 19th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Another great web-based app is Springnote (http://www.springnote.com). It’s totally free and it’s got a ton of great features that makes note taking a breeze. Highly recommended!
Rick on November 9th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Can any of these applications be synced or backed up on the net?
I still find Google Notebook to be the best, if only they have a widget for OSX, that would be super!
Then again I’m worried about having all my data in Google, I just had my contacts mysteriously disappear and there seems to be no way of getting Google’s attention to the matter.
Thouwlin on October 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
One word
EVERNOTE
I went though an entire month review and demoing note taking software Evernote won out. Like most I have a mac at home and a PC at work. With Evernote I have my notes where ever I am. On my phone, my PC, my MAC even my Ipod touch all have native clients. If you find you self on an unsupported platform just pop up a web browser.
Don on May 19th, 2009 at 6:18 am
When it comes to a note-taking software program,
“Consider the following three critical criteria
Ease of Use;
Functionality;
Flexibility of the Data (your notes) and the Software itself.
On the last one, is the data proprietary? If yes, bad, other than that tool you won’t be able to do much with you valuable notes. Would other developers be able to add Add-ons like Mozzila’s Firefox?
If yes, then the note-taking software’s capability would not be confined by the limited resource of the software company.
“
Mouly on July 8th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
wikipad is a good alternative. Installing on Mac is not easy but it should be possible. It is an open source project. I have used it on windows, it is great.
Vlad on October 7th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Let I suggest one more – AllMyNotes Organizer
it’s an outliner with instant search across all notes
eindietmar on November 9th, 2009 at 5:37 am
Something news seams to be on it´s way, have a look at Thoughts: http://www.thoughtsapp.com