Written April 8, 2008 in Technology
I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on. — Beryl Pfizer
My perfect OneNote replacement will go above and beyond. It will:
Launch almost immediately - When I have a thought, an epiphany, a note, a grabbed reference from the web, a blog idea or a quote worthy of saving… I don’t want my creativity and my flow interrupted by having to wait for an application to launch.
Require Few System Resources - It would be nice if I could automatically launch my “everything” PIM on boot - and if it would sit quietly in the background (and in my systray) without sucking up all my CPU and await my commands.
Be Easy to Backup and Transport - It should backup quickly and easily on a thumbdrive and be able to be used on any computer anywhere.
Offer Web Access - It should allow me to install it or access it from my web server so I can “carry” it with me on my iPhone. It should be password protected and secure.
Be Open Source - Of course I’d want to be able to use it on my current Windows OS and on my upcoming Linux machine.
If anyone has found this type of program — without it being horribly complex — please let me know. In the meantime, I’ve downloaded and am testing Chandler to see if it will fit the bill.
(Note: Hats off to Matt’s Idea Blog for sharing the poignant quote!)
6 comments on ' My Ideal PIM and Notes App '
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Thanks for the link, Angela. We really should compare notes re: note-taking programs. In addition to your requirements, my ideal one would support:
o simple, portable format
o item-based (note) model
o chronological ordering, with time-stamps for each entry
o rapid capture with completion/auto-complete of tags, words, etc. (tagging is very fast)
o web capture (URL, title, optional content/selection)
o wiki-style inter-item tags/links (aka categories)
o allows multiple tags per entry, or *part* of an entry
o ability to mark up/comment on arbitrary sections of a resource
o powerful search (regex, single key, across all entries)Cheers!
Written by Matthew Cornell
on
April 08, 2008 at
1:43pm
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Nice points! I’ve decided against Chandler since I wrote this post (it was in “draft mode” and forgotten for awhile).
I like the additions you made. Web capture is a big one.- I’m currently using TomBoy for notes, and I like it.
- I also ADORE the Zotero application add-on for Firefox.
- I find that the search feature on both Tomboy and Zotero are outstanding.If I could mix Zotero with Tomboy to develop a perfect note-taking operation and get it all to fit on a quick-to-access thumbdrive that would work on any OS, well, I’d be in heaven.
Hmmm, and while I’m dreaming, how about a simple universal addressbook and IMAP-only email access option — so I could check my email anywhere, and search it with the same note-taking search tool — so when I needed information from my notes or an email I could get it.
Can you tell I’ve been tweaking my new WordPress install for hours and am getting a bit “punchy?” :O)
Written by Angela Parker
on
April 08, 2008 at
2:05pm
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Google Gmail is free, lots of space, you can search your mail, label it, like your own Google database. You can also create an elaborate contact list with distribution groups.
Written by Jan
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May 30, 2008 at
7:28am
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Hi Jan! I’m currently using Gmail and Google Calendar and several other web-based apps. I moved my email over to this about four weeks ago.
My problem with the Gmail (other than the privacy issues — see the small print of their terms of service for details on the fact that they can do whatever they please with your personal information) is that my email arrives with my Gmail account listed (and my main email listed), despite the fact that it’s supposed to offer only the main email account. This doesn’t look extremely professional.
On the pro side, I love the spam filters, the ability to access my email from anywhere (linux OS, windows OS, across the house (on another computer) or across the continent.
I’m still playing with this and haven’t made a final decision yet.
on
May 30, 2008 at
11:07am
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I stumbled upon this open source program some time ago, and I still think it’s pretty effective and simple.
http://www.scrapbook.enware.info/
It’s called ScrapBook and it’s a relational database that saves plain text in a searchable file. It has a search window above the text display window and it searches very fast. You can tag pages, or “cards” as they are called in the program, to export as text files or comma delimited files. And it’s a simple self-contained program so you can launch it on any Windows computer from a thumb drive. Not sure if it works on Linux or Mac; the author may offer versions that do.
Check it out.
Jim
Written by James Marshall
on
June 17, 2008 at
4:02pm
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A Kentucky writer’s musings . . .
while actively pursuing a perfect balance between cutting edge mobile technology and voluntary simplicity
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