Notes on Note-keeping Software

Khoi

16 years ago

Somehow, I’ve noticed, when someone brings up the subject of note-keeping software, it often turns into a much more extensive discussion than originally intended. Last Thursday I wrote about my search for the right all-purpose repository for recording details that would otherwise escape me, followed it up yesterday with some ruminations on the philosophical questions that search raises about online versus offline software, and now here I am again already, writing a third installment.

People come out of the woodwork with suggestions and opinions when it comes to this particular software niche. It’s been really helpful, so I felt it was my duty to report back on what I heard and what path I’ve decided to take.

Note Once, Review Anywhere

In particular, I heard a lot about Evernote, a very intriguing solution that allows multi-platform access to one’s data. Evernote comes in several flavors: browser, desktop and iPhone; all of your snippets are synchronized via the net so that they are available from any of those clients. It’s a great idea, and I’ve just downloaded it to start playing with it. At first blush, it looks more complicated and less elegant than I’m looking for, but I have to admit its comprehensive synching approach is extremely appealing.

Sync It Over

In fact, the idea of synchronization seems popular with lots of folks: being able to use a desktop application to access your data from multiple computers thanks to a net-based service like .Mac is a compelling compromise that has a lot of currency as we wait for a generation of solutions that truly integrates the best of desktop and online software. Which sort of goes to show you how powerful the synchronization concept is; in my opinion, .Mac’s ability to keep application data on multiple computers in sync — like most synching software today — is buggy, unreliable and inelegant. And yet, people still find it compelling. I know I do; I use .Mac’s for this service constantly, and as much as I hate it, I’d be lost without it.

Above: Sync you got all that? Absolute gibberish helpfully provided by .Mac’s synching services.

Which probably makes it no accident that for now I’ve decided to go with a desktop application that, yes, uses .Mac to synchronize my notes across computers: Bare Bones Software’s excellently named Yojimbo. It’s pretty much everything I want in that it lets me take notes very simply in a TextEdit-like environment, assign tags to those notes (and hints at pre-existing tags) and uses .Mac’s synching seamlessly. Or as seamlessly as that service will allow anyway. It doesn’t allow a Web-based view of that data in the way that Evernote does, unfortunately, but I’m pretty sure I don’t really need that.

And that’s all I have to say about note-keeping software for today.