Ask HN: What note taking websites/applcations do you use? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What note taking websites/applcations do you use?

26 pointsworbgge43 comments

I've been needing a note taking app for some time which allows for images to be embedded and thought of make a website (or at least, html) but thought it might be too much effort so are there any good websites or applications that allow you to take notes with embedding images? (I prefer applications to websites but either is fine)

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Unpopular take - but after trying all the others I went back to Evernote. I tried Apple Notes, Joplin, OneNote, Simplenote, Obsidian, and the others, and nothing has the features, workflow, and maintains sync as well as Evernote. You can list all of your criticisms and I'll probably agree with most, but I value time and convenience and Evernote just works. Always.

I'm on the same boat. Evernote works just fine. :-) 20 k notes and couting.

I made one called MicroPad a few years ago (https://getmicropad.com) and just launched v4 a few weeks ago.

It's pretty full of features and each note is an infinite whiteboard/canvas where you can embed elements anywhere (for example I go horizontally for tangents)

I can see that display math is working with $$LaTexCode$$. But in lie math: $LaTeXCode$ doesn't.

LaTeX inline maths is done inside ;;LaTeXCode;; or ''AsciiMathsCode''

More info on MicroPad Markdown is in the formatting guide in the help notebook.

Paper on a clipboard with colored pens and a sheet fed scanner, archiving as a date-prefixed PDF in git next to associated code. I love my graphics tablet but experience and science suggests that this method is (1) faster; (2) helps creative flow; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33191420 (3) provides higher information density.

Don't use the computer to do things that can be done efficiently by hand. - Richard Hill, Hewlett-Packard

Currently I recommend Pilot pens. https://www.pilotpen.com/ https://www.amazon.com/pilot-pens-colored/s?k=pilot+pens+col...

I use QOwnNotes on my desktop, synced to my personal Nextcloud server. I write almost everything in .md files, and link in other files where needed.

On my phone I just use the Nextcloud notes app, since I mainly need to reference existing notes or use checklists.

I use Standard Notes[0] although it doesn't support images. Evernote supports images, but Evernote isn't as private as Standard Notes. There is also Joplin[1] if you really need images, and you can either self-host it or use their cloud[2] offering.

[0] https://standardnotes.com/

[1] https://joplinapp.org/

[2] https://joplinapp.org/plans/

I really like standard notes, if you switch editors to their built in Bold Editor (https://standardnotes.com/features/bold-editor) you can embed images.

Caveat: 'Available to paid subscribers'. I'm on their free tier.

Org mode in Emacs, Beorg app on my iPhone/iPad. Files are text files, and are synced using Dropbox to all my windows/linux/macOS machines.

Love me some org mode. I use nvim-orgmode. It's not as feature complete as emacs, but is enough for my use cases; time tracking, tables, and code blocks.

Dendron for its blazing speed and its ease of use.

https://www.dendron.so/

What does "blazing speed" mean in the context of a note-taking app? Using notepad and a basic markdown file is also blazing fast, but that doesn't tell me anything about it?

What are the specific features that made you choose Dendron over other knowledge management tools? I'm not trying to be adversarial, I'm genuinely curious.

The main impediment for knowledge retrieval in apps like obsidian/roam etc. are that the notes cannot be retrieved easily, especially as the number of notes scale. (Maybe, Obsidian users might disagree with this point, but that was my assessment.)

Dendron is built for ease of retrieval of notes. It is built mostly for devs. Now, I can retrieve forgotten syntax easily in Dendron when compared to other apps. The fact that is is built on top of VS code helps.

I think mdsilo meets your need. https://mdsilo.com/, it is a lightweight cross-platform desktop app, support attach local image or PDF files with relative path

I have used Joplin for the past few years. I like that I have access to all my notes while offline, conveniently synced to all my devices. Basically just a markdown text editor + sync service bundled in an application.

Dynalist.

Plus, as additional data entry pipeline iPhone app “Drafts” that sends items to a CloudMailin address and, using the Dynalist API, adds them to the appropriate list (e.g. shipping, todo inbox, quotes, current project. etc.).

I love Joplin. I’ve also heard good things about Obsidian

Obsidian lets you paste images. The notes are markdown stored in regular text files, and if you want to use HTML or whatever you can go to town.

Apple notes. Its somewhat limited, but it is fast, which means I can have a thought about updating the grocery list, open it, find the grocery list and add the item before I forget.

I have used OneNote (which I think is free?) and EverNote before, and they are both much more powerful in terms of organization, but they are also much slower, Evernote particularily so.

I use Github, private repository and create issues w/ markdown. The Github mobile app works pretty well to edit on the go.

At work, I've been pleasantly surprised by Slite for team notes. The note-taking and search experience is fine, no complaints. The "catch up" view gives a global view of all new/recently-updated docs, which is really useful for seeing what happened in meetings I couldn't attend, e.g. sales calls.

I use notion pro. I think the free tier is good enough as well.

I use it for personal knowledge management and organizing my life.

All my notes are in it, as well as interesting tidbits from podcasts, YouTube.

I’ve implemented Cal Newports productivity/time blocking method in it as well.

there’s lot of cool templates and community around it as well if you want to get the most out of it.

+1 for notion

Personal: Google Keep - Easy syncing Work: Microsoft OneNote - it gives you 2 dimensions to categorize stuff

I can't get away from oneone. I win-s to take a screenshot of something relevant and paste it into notes (website, textbook, zoom presentation), using other keyboard shortcuts to change the font size and color.

Apple Notes. Not only does it support images, but it can OCR images too.

I’ve been using Bear but it’s only on Apple products so I can’t use it on my work laptop which is Linux. It uses this like visual markdown which I just think looks nice and it’s easy to use.

I really like Logseq[0]. You should give a try, it is really powerful, free and open source.

[0] https://logseq.com/

For your use case, you could just do a simple Hugo site and work entirely in markdown.

It has a baked in web server so you can render and run it locally without any infrastructure.

For simple notes, dispositions and braindumping, I use the mindmapping tool Freeplane. For longer or more structured notes, I use Obsidian or a self hosted Hedgedoc.

I like Notion because its a) not a Google/Microsoft-based app, b) many more features for customizability and c) it looks really good.

For simple notes, I just use vim.

For text-only scratch notes I use an ancient freeware Windows app called Flashnote which is a super-lightweight tree-note utility.

For everything else I mostly use Trello.

I've tried SO many it's not funny.

I've settled on Markdown notes in Dropbox, edited with vim.

On Android I do this with FolderSync and vim in Termux.

but org mode though

Have you considered learning emacs just to try it? You might like it. That's what I did. The only difference between your experience and mine is that I've settled on an org mode doc in Dropbox.

Google Keep

It's easy and practical to share notes between my phone and my computer. I can share notes and make them collaborative.

I use StackEdit which synchronises to GitHub and works in the browser, it uses markdown, which is perfect for notes.

https://md.altilunium.my.id

1. Doom emacs and take notes in org mode. `SPC + X` for all project related notes.

2. Joplin is also good.

I only use four things to take notes:

- Apple Notes

- Signal's note to self feature

- Obsidian

- NextCloud Notes (most often accessed via iOS app CloudNotes)

Google Keep & Dropbox.

But I want to transition to Markdown on GitHub (private & public via Jekyll)

Joplin

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