Ask HN: What features are you looking for in a note-taking app? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What features are you looking for in a note-taking app?

8 pointsklavinski25 comments

There are many solutions (Org-mode, Notion, Bear, Roam, etc.). But organising knowledge remains one of HN's preoccupations.

1. What is your minimal set of features?

2. Which ones would you pay for?

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You will get wildly varying views here, note taking is hugely subjective.

As for myself, I like note taking apps that provide a frontend to a file system, that gets then exposed either directly (editing the contents of an actual folder on a device) or indirectly (syncing with a cloud storage service, preferably third party). While this has some inherent limitations (like on file names and possible hardship to add per-note features) it has also great possibilities for integrations with other workflows and tools of the user.

1. A simple text editor and a file system. Then I can create notes and folders at will, and mix in other file types like PDFs, emails, images, MS Office docs, whatever. I can search them, and if they’re in my iCloud I can view them from the phone or iPad, and edit them from iOS in a pinch (this is last resort).

2. I do pay for MacOS hardware since it has a good stable shell (compared to Windows, or Linux) and by “stable” I mean feature set and interface, rather than crashiness. But there’s not a single note taking app or feature I would pay for, and I’ve tried many. None are worth paying for in my view. They suffer from problems such as lock-in and portability, and while I will occasionally accept lock-in and non-portability, I need to get something really good in exchange. None of the paid note-taking apps even come close to offering anything that good.

The most important, non-negotiable thing to me is a quick launch. It has to go from 0-100 (or at least to usable), as fast as possible. Among text editors Sublime is still the gold-standard for this, launching even faster than Notepad++ sometimes. I am not in the habit of keeping my device on all the time, so just tolerating a slow launch and then keeping the app open is not an option. Quick capture of items is very important to me and a slow load breaks my flow of thought.

Next priority is it being free software and being a completely offline tool.

Beyond that, I just need Markdown support, operating on local files in a sane structure, and a hierarchical file browser in a pane on the left.

I'm not averse to paying for any of this, but USD pricing usually translates very poorly to purchasing power in my country. I'd be willing to pay no more than $3 a month.

- Open source

- It should be easy to use (not org mode, not vim) like typora

- Support for markdown

- Just plain text

- Easy sync between my laptop and phone

I have nothing against emacs or vim. I just do not want to learn a tool for just taking notes. I found typora a good choice for my daily work. However, I'd love to sync my notes without relying on a second app (eg dropbox).

> - Support for markdown

Have you looked into ASCIIDoc?

I'm a huge fan of markdown. So for that reason, all my notes are kept in that form unless I'm writing them in a book. I also use markdown just about everywhere else (Markdown New Tab plugin, etc).

A couple of features that I've seen in some but definitely not all editors is auto-TOC, and the ability to collapse paragraphs.

What I would pay for: A set of apps, like Todo and Sticky Notes and a Notepad that maintain a shared directory or database so I can use Search and find data that could be anywhere among those different note-taking scenarios. And Todo should be able to link to markdown documents within the app set, etc.

Sounds like Notion: https://www.notion.so/

I'm giving it a second look and would definitely look again. But it's too much for me as note app. (Many features) and you're dependent on them. I use markdown and a Github repository.

> : A set of apps, like Todo and Sticky Notes and a Notepad that maintain a shared directory or database so I can use Search and find data that could be anywhere among those different note-taking scenarios. And Todo should be able to link to markdown documents within the app set, etc

Vscode does this with and without plugins.

I'm going to be looking in to Vscode for different reasons. So it'll be interesting to see it work its magic with markdown.

> Vscode does this with and without plugins.

Depends on what you're going to expect.

This Twitter thread has a lot of suggestions:

https://twitter.com/DailyDevTips1/status/1492838765739622404...

- https://obsidian.md/

- https://link.dendron.so/smartpage

> I'm a huge fan of markdown

Have you looked into ASCIIDoc?

I hadn't seen it in a long time. It's really come along.

Really appreciate your response - how are you finding it now?

Enough to change over from MD?

Just wanted to leave a reminder that pencil is better than pen for note-taking. And paper is better than screen.

My flow is so much better with a pencil and paper, and then I just transfer the organized meat onto a screen, only after I'm satisfied. Working first by typing into a note-taking app is counter productive, your brain doesn't want to work like that. It wants to scribble, doodle, draw arrows pointing to stuff.

Why is pencil better? The paper/screen difference I've heard about before, but not pencil/pen.

Also yes, I write notes in a lot of books, especially for course taking. And indeed there are scribbles, little drawings, weird math symbols that I'd never attempt in an application, and arrows everywhere.

Probably just personal preference actually, I don't even end up using the eraser on a pencil. But it seems lighter, less pressure needs to be applied to write with it. Similar to why people that type a lot prefer a mechanical keyboard? The words just come out a lot easier, in my experience.

Ah, I see. For me, I like using gel pens for a similar reason. They just sort of glide. I don't care about erasing. I'd rather strike something out than lose my train of thought rubbing something out or using liquid paper.

I'm a lefty, so pencils tend to be extra smudgy. I don't use erasable ink for the same reason. Sometimes that gets too much like self-censorship.

The only feature I would pay for is a cloud sync service, at maybe a few bucks a month, I don't use proprietary stuff much.

My minimal feature set would be:

* Android and Linux support * Sync * Open Source * 100% reliability. No lost notes because you switched to a different app without saving. * Heirachal organization, bookmarks * Markdown or equivalent power

I'm currently using Drayer Journal, a custom app I built in Kivy when I got the bad idea to build a notes app in Kivy with a P2P sync engine, before remembering how much I hate small time "One author one user" software.

I think the P2P sync engine protocol part has a lot of potential, and it's very hard to find anything equivalent, but Kivy is not the best choice, it's a bit hard to work with, slow to open, and still pretty new.

A note app is a no-go if I can't simply paste an image in my clipboard into the note.

I often use external HTTP links in my notes. I want my app to archive all of these pages, because those links might vanish tomorrow.

I also want to be able to search in those HTTP links, upto depth of 3 would be sweet

Any notes app supports these features?

I like the features in Microsoft OneNote (web/desktop apps, cross-platform, nested sections/pages, cross-linking between pages, free-form doodles and formatted text). And all of that is free.

The only feature I think is missing is exporting to some open format so I can use them with another application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_OneNote

Something like the Canon Cat. One big file with quasimodal search. Embedded images and probably arbitrary files. Maybe spreadsheet-ish features (ability to dynamically fill out data generated from code).

If I'm on Windows and it would become my main Operating System, One Note would be the choice.

I would pay for One Note, I don't have any idea about the other ones.

Right now I'm using markdown with a GitHub repository.

I use Bear and like it. It has all the features I need in an uncluttered easy to navigate interface. If I needed PC/Linux support I would probably be using Joplin.

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