For me (Doug), one of the most enduring and best use cases for laptops, phones, and tablets in the modern era just might be the assembling of a grass-catcher-style knowledgebase. Using one of today’s well-developed note-taking apps, it’s possible to create a virtual “mind map” of all the random bits of information we could never remember in the old days. We finally have a place to record our notes about that favorite scripture verse. We can make a new note for each sermon or missions presentation. We can jot down plans for that book we need to write. And each random “bit” is a new note – and it’s all infinitely searchable — instantly. On top of that, we can now share our notes with others – either one person at a time or “at large” on the web. One of the long-time apps for this purpose was Evernote. Honestly, it had kind of gotten “ragged on the edges” for a while. But as I mentioned last month, once developer “Bending Spoons” purchased it last year, they started breathing new life into it. You can use Ever note on your phone, tablet, laptop or the web – and have access to all those notes, anywhere, any time, whether solo or with members of your team, or your entire church. Worth checking out at https://evernote.com/. You can start for free! (If it’s been a while since you used Evernote, it’s worth revisiting the new Bending Spoons version.) Do you prefer a different direction on note-taking? …or a different app? Please share and tell why in the comments below. We admit: It’s an incredibly personal decision. Tell why you’ve decided to approach it your way.
10) Put All Of Your Random Facts in a Note File (Evernote?)
I’ve been using Evernote for years. Obviously, I love it! With folders, tags and native search, it’s extremely handy.
Is craft still on your recommendation list as well?
I finally started using Evernote religiously several years ago, but then when it was sold they tried to charge me $135/yr! When I refused to renew, they cut it to $76 for the year. That’s still exhorbitant. I’ve stopped using it and am using Google KEEP instead. It’s not as convenient as Evernote, but the price is right: FREE!
Used Evernote for years, but always found the exporting of content an unfriendly bind. When Apple renovated their “Notes” app I saw it had made a quantum leap forward and I could no longer countenance paying for Evernote when a notes app came free with all my devices in our Apple eco-system, and, personally I find Apple Notes a far friendlier and more functional service than Evernote ever was for me. For Mac users it would appear to me to be the best option economically and functionally. And Apple Notes even has an option to allow you to import all those Evernote notes in a straightforward and easy way. THAT to me was cream on my Banoffee
I use an application called Drafts (https://getdrafts.com/) which does a lot more than I use it for! It’s supposed to be for drafting text chunks and then easily forwarding them to other applications and uses, but I just keep lots of notes in various categories by tags. It syncs to Drafts on my phone and tablet, so my notes are everywhere I need them. I even use it to take sermon or conference notes, and then when I get home, move them into DEVONthink. Drafts can use Markdown, which is the way I use it.
As an IT guy, I’m using a combination of systems (all of them local – I have seen too many cloud services come and go over the decades):
– for quick note taking: a plain text editor (Markor in my case) on an Android smartphone using only one single file I’m always appending to.
– for synchronizing to other devices (notebook, home desktop, office desktop, tablet): Syncthing (won’t work in iOS’ walled garden, but I don’t care about such expensive systems)
– for short-to-medium term (weeks to a few years) information management: Obsidian ( https://obsidian.md/ free for individuals and non-profit orgs) . Essentially a file based wiki with drag & drop reordering, drag & drop linking, great search. All files are plain Markdown, stored on a local device, so they’ll remain accessible when (not if) Obsidian will become impractical (too expensive, no longer working on Linux, …)
– for long term storage (years to decades): Zim Wiki (real open source, desktop only, also uses plain text files), although Obsidian is starting to take over.
Lots of talk of markdown language, but let’s face it: the average user won’t touch apps that operate on markdown. I’m not an “average user”, and I still don’t want to fuss with markdown. I quit using Obsidian because formatting is a pain. It’s 2024 after all, and WYSIWIG has been around “forever” (defined as > 10 years in the world of tech). I’m encouraged to give Evernote another try now that it is under new ownership, but the pricing model seems a bit off to me. The free plan is too limited to be of much use, but the lowest price plan is probably overkill for most individuals. If they offered a mid-range (between free & Personal) for around $30/year, I’d jump on it. I could never quite get into OneNote, but since I’m an Office365 user, I might need to give that another look.
These are *all* great responses. (By the looks of the word, “all,” I’ve gotten used to markdown some. haha)
Brian – I feel your pain. My only conclusion about Bending Spoons charging a premium for Evernote is that they’ll monetize it enough to keep it long-term.
Martin – Shew. Deep respect. Way too many orbits for my simple mind though.
Chris – Sounds like you’ve found a system that works for you – and that’s the most important factor.
Bryan – I’ve heard good things about Notes for a person in the Apple ecosystem.
Paul – Glad Google Keep will work for you.
Brandon – I think it was probably the fact that I had multiple team members that pulled me from Craft over to Evernote. I still have around 4,000 notes in Craft that I need to export to Evernote though. But I’ve walked away and I’m not looking back. Too many cool Evernote features I’m loving.
Jim – Why didn’t I just ask you in the first place – and then I could have avoided the journey through a half-dozen stopping points!
Thanks to all of you for great responses.
Anyone else… feel free to jump on board.
privacyguides.org has a great collection of recommended tools that respect privacy. They have a list of note-taking software that support end-to-end encryption: https://www.privacyguides.org/en/notebooks/
Just as an aside, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, for me Apple Notes easily out-competes Evernote (I recently did a comparison)–it provides virtually the same functionality and it’s free. I have over 4,700 notes in it, and love the way I can easily link between notes. My number is probably small potatoes compared to many, but essentially my entire life and pretty much everything I’ve ever written is stored in Notes. I’ve also tried Obsidian, but in the end the simplicity and iCloud link of Apple Notes won me back.