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I have tried many note-taking apps. From Evernote to Google Keep to OneNote to Standard notes yo plain old notepad to Zotero to Word and really honestly many mo

I have tried many note-taking apps. From Evernote to Google Keep to OneNote to Standard notes yo plain old notepad to Zotero to Word and really honestly many more. If you say this list is all over the place, then that is because requirements vary depending on purpose, not the other way around. After almost a decade of experimenting, I have come to realise that the best note-taking tool by far is org-mode. It is free, it is extensible, it is not going anywhere in next decade+, it let's me encrypt on my own terms, it let's me store and share on my own terms, it is as lightweight or as heavyweight as I want, it can be as pretty or as ugly as I want, I can edit it anywhere, search and organization is ridiculously advanced compared to anything else out there (or everything else is ridiculously behind). Its biggest strength and arguably biggest weakness is its tied to Emacs. It is a horrible learning curve for beginners, which is why it took me a decade to get to org-mode in the first place, but once you have climbed that hill, you are basically on top of the world. Everybody serious about note-taking should give org-mode a try.

scpedicini 6y ago
I read the Wikipedia entry for it but it didn't really shed a lot of light on these types of questions: 1. Can I embed images and more specifically can I embed animated GIF files? 2. Can I embed MP3s and play them within the note? 3. Does it support rich text editor functionality including the ability to insert tables easily from programs like Microsoft excel? 4. Can I use multiple fonts in the same individual note including monospaced ones and broad support for Unicode? 5. Can I easily sync and edit the data on my iPad, then on my android phone without having to worry about where the data is stored? 6. Will it automatically OCR embedded images and allow me to do text searches across my entire set of notes based on that text? If the answer to most of these questions is no, then it doesn't sound like org-note is the best note taking editor as you claim, it just sounds like it's the best editor for your specific set of criteria which does not apply to all notetakers. And that's the problem with trying to narrow down the best note editing tool, it's such a broad area that every notetaker will have their own idiosyncratic needs and priorities. As for me, I have also experimented with a great deal of note editing utilities and the only one that has reasonably met most of my requirements is Evernote. EDIT: of course if the answer is yes, then I may just have a new favorite note editor.
- e3bc54b2 6y ago
  1. Embedding of images is pretty much file linking. It can display and let you intract with images inline, but that may not be up to your requirement. 2. Same as above, except playback will require a plugin. 3. Absolutely! Tables are fully supported, with automatic formatting and formulae and lots more. This is one of the strong areas of org-mode. 4. You can get bold, italic, monospaced varieties inline, with minimal markdown-like syntax. If you are asking for rich text mixing two different fonts, then no. 5. Yes! Since everything is stored in text files, you can syc them via any means you deem fit. I personally have multiple Syncthing nodes (desktop, laptop and phones) and it works flawlessly. >it's the best editor for your specific set of criteria You are right. Perhaps better description would be org-mode is the worst note-taking tool, except all others. Why I would deem it best is because after decade of experimenting, I've cone to realise that plaintext is the king. Rich editors with inline images, media and fancy fonts are nice and necessary when you're preparing presentations or impressing someone, but when time comes to actual utility when talking about years upon years of notes and other documents, everything else falls short very quickly. Images and videos cannot be grepped, searching through formatted documents like Word where search program has rk ignore all the formatting is inherently slow and ultimately inaccurate. Compressing and encrypting and sharing plaintext is a breeze. Plaintext can be read thoroughly or skimmed through as needed. While writing plaintext, I don't have to worry about messing up formatting of whole document by entering right character at wrong place and then fiddling about it for hours. Rich text is nice for when your notes are small. They are nice to feel. But when you are rummaging about a mountain (which everyone eventually builds up if they document anything seriously), nothing matches sheer speed and utility of plaintext. Which leaves either dumb text or markdown. Markdown is nice, but org-mode is markdown in steroids. Even the simple act of being able to collapse sections with single key is a huge huge QoL improvement. Then there or org-babel for inline programming like Jupyter, org-roam for back links, org-ref for bibliography, pdf-tools with org roam for inline PDF annotation, and you can still grep everything mentioned here. Ultimately the purpose of notes (for me, goes without saying) is to preserve and eventually refer to, information. And plaintext, in my personal anecdotal opinion and experience, beats every other medium for storing, transferring, modifying and analyzing information.
  - 6y ago
bngybmgrglflps 6y ago
"Encrypt, store, share [files] on your own terms" is elegantly handled by (Rob Pike's) Upspin. Practically: upspinfs fusermounts a cloud storage bucket. (TCO: $0.01/GB/mo.) Transparent public-key crypto. Sharing is built into the protocol. Sane defaults. https://upspin.io/doc/faq.md https://upspin.io/doc/faq.md https://youtu.be/ENLWEfi0Tkg https://youtu.be/ENLWEfi0Tkg Building notes on top feels almost too straightforward to monetize. (For that matter: 1password, any number of small-scale B2C things, ...)
bebna 6y ago
like u said notes are really personal. I personally prefer paper the most, but if its about electronic notes, I settled with a folder that gets synced with syncthing to all devices and also got git for easy offsite backups with push. (yeah, syncthing does that too, but I like to have a history in my backups, to allow for single file and state restores) In this folder I categorise with subfolders and use simple markdown files to write down stuff and todo.txt for when I need tasklists. A dedicated file in root is used for collecting random stuff before there get sorted and another to collect all links that I wanna bookmark. This works very well on different types of devices at the same time. On android Markor is a good editor for it, on desktop/macs I recommend typora for the nice interface and obsidian.md for the nice navigation between files, if you don't have already have setup a favourite editor. Also works well with vim/emacs/vscode or anything else that handles plain text files.
- e3bc54b2 6y ago
  I use Syncthing too! I will have to look into got backups sometime soon, so thanks for reminder. I once waivered between markdown and org-mode. But the ecosystem of Emacs packages that build on top of org-mode is mindblowing. Tables with formulae, inline programming (in your language of choice), back links, PDF annotations, bibliography, automatic conversion to HTML/PDF/LaTeX, still unmatched repetitive tasks in TODOs, even simple text collapsing, and so much more. And none of this weighs down your particular setup because you just ignore what you don't use and it never loads! I personally realised that I'm never going todo any serious editing on my phones so Orgro/Orgzly work very well on Android. And since everything is plaintext, any org file can be opened in any editor and edited normally. I have a simple editor app from f-droid which works very well.
thecodrr 6y ago
> its tied to Emacs "What's emacs?" that's what a your every day Joe is going to ask you. The very reason note apps/platforms exist is to simplify the on boarding process. Of course that's a two edged sword. You give normal users an easy way out but now pro users get frustrated because they can't use their favorite tool. I am sure org-mode is as good as you say though.
- e3bc54b2 6y ago
  Yes, Emacs for average Joe is a non starter. Which is why I mentioned anyone serious about note taking. Most average joes are not really serious about maintaining, organizing and retrieving information. Anybody who is, OTOH, eventually builds up a monstrosity. Its like putting floors on a tent and one day waking up to Empire State. Now the very foundation that allowed quick start starts limiting your construction and daily use. Emacs is exact opposite of that. It is only useful if you are already aware of complex requirements of your note taking flow, and allows to mould itself to suit them. One more factor hindering Emacs adaptability is its very unique nature. There nothing else like it out there, nobody encounters it before they explicitly start off on it with clear intent.
pkulak 6y ago
> I can edit it anywhere Can you pull it up on your phone when you're out and need to jot something down? (Honestly wondering, I've always toyed with org mode, but half my notes are taken on the run.)
- Dangeranger 6y ago
  Yes, you can use BeOrg or MobileOrg for mobile use.

scpedicini 6y ago

I read the Wikipedia entry for it but it didn't really shed a lot of light on these types of questions: 1. Can I embed images and more specifically can I embed animated GIF files? 2. Can I embed MP3s and play them within the note? 3. Does it support rich text editor functionality including the ability to insert tables easily from programs like Microsoft excel? 4. Can I use multiple fonts in the same individual note including monospaced ones and broad support for Unicode? 5. Can I easily sync and edit the data on my iPad, then on my android phone without having to worry about where the data is stored? 6. Will it automatically OCR embedded images and allow me to do text searches across my entire set of notes based on that text? If the answer to most of these questions is no, then it doesn't sound like org-note is the best note taking editor as you claim, it just sounds like it's the best editor for your specific set of criteria which does not apply to all notetakers. And that's the problem with trying to narrow down the best note editing tool, it's such a broad area that every notetaker will have their own idiosyncratic needs and priorities. As for me, I have also experimented with a great deal of note editing utilities and the only one that has reasonably met most of my requirements is Evernote. EDIT: of course if the answer is yes, then I may just have a new favorite note editor.

e3bc54b2 6y ago
1. Embedding of images is pretty much file linking. It can display and let you intract with images inline, but that may not be up to your requirement. 2. Same as above, except playback will require a plugin. 3. Absolutely! Tables are fully supported, with automatic formatting and formulae and lots more. This is one of the strong areas of org-mode. 4. You can get bold, italic, monospaced varieties inline, with minimal markdown-like syntax. If you are asking for rich text mixing two different fonts, then no. 5. Yes! Since everything is stored in text files, you can syc them via any means you deem fit. I personally have multiple Syncthing nodes (desktop, laptop and phones) and it works flawlessly. >it's the best editor for your specific set of criteria You are right. Perhaps better description would be org-mode is the worst note-taking tool, except all others. Why I would deem it best is because after decade of experimenting, I've cone to realise that plaintext is the king. Rich editors with inline images, media and fancy fonts are nice and necessary when you're preparing presentations or impressing someone, but when time comes to actual utility when talking about years upon years of notes and other documents, everything else falls short very quickly. Images and videos cannot be grepped, searching through formatted documents like Word where search program has rk ignore all the formatting is inherently slow and ultimately inaccurate. Compressing and encrypting and sharing plaintext is a breeze. Plaintext can be read thoroughly or skimmed through as needed. While writing plaintext, I don't have to worry about messing up formatting of whole document by entering right character at wrong place and then fiddling about it for hours. Rich text is nice for when your notes are small. They are nice to feel. But when you are rummaging about a mountain (which everyone eventually builds up if they document anything seriously), nothing matches sheer speed and utility of plaintext. Which leaves either dumb text or markdown. Markdown is nice, but org-mode is markdown in steroids. Even the simple act of being able to collapse sections with single key is a huge huge QoL improvement. Then there or org-babel for inline programming like Jupyter, org-roam for back links, org-ref for bibliography, pdf-tools with org roam for inline PDF annotation, and you can still grep everything mentioned here. Ultimately the purpose of notes (for me, goes without saying) is to preserve and eventually refer to, information. And plaintext, in my personal anecdotal opinion and experience, beats every other medium for storing, transferring, modifying and analyzing information.
- 6y ago

bngybmgrglflps 6y ago

"Encrypt, store, share [files] on your own terms" is elegantly handled by (Rob Pike's) Upspin. Practically: upspinfs fusermounts a cloud storage bucket. (TCO: $0.01/GB/mo.) Transparent public-key crypto. Sharing is built into the protocol. Sane defaults. https://upspin.io/doc/faq.md https://upspin.io/doc/faq.md https://youtu.be/ENLWEfi0Tkg https://youtu.be/ENLWEfi0Tkg Building notes on top feels almost too straightforward to monetize. (For that matter: 1password, any number of small-scale B2C things, ...)

bebna 6y ago

like u said notes are really personal. I personally prefer paper the most, but if its about electronic notes, I settled with a folder that gets synced with syncthing to all devices and also got git for easy offsite backups with push. (yeah, syncthing does that too, but I like to have a history in my backups, to allow for single file and state restores) In this folder I categorise with subfolders and use simple markdown files to write down stuff and todo.txt for when I need tasklists. A dedicated file in root is used for collecting random stuff before there get sorted and another to collect all links that I wanna bookmark. This works very well on different types of devices at the same time. On android Markor is a good editor for it, on desktop/macs I recommend typora for the nice interface and obsidian.md for the nice navigation between files, if you don't have already have setup a favourite editor. Also works well with vim/emacs/vscode or anything else that handles plain text files.

e3bc54b2 6y ago
I use Syncthing too! I will have to look into got backups sometime soon, so thanks for reminder. I once waivered between markdown and org-mode. But the ecosystem of Emacs packages that build on top of org-mode is mindblowing. Tables with formulae, inline programming (in your language of choice), back links, PDF annotations, bibliography, automatic conversion to HTML/PDF/LaTeX, still unmatched repetitive tasks in TODOs, even simple text collapsing, and so much more. And none of this weighs down your particular setup because you just ignore what you don't use and it never loads! I personally realised that I'm never going todo any serious editing on my phones so Orgro/Orgzly work very well on Android. And since everything is plaintext, any org file can be opened in any editor and edited normally. I have a simple editor app from f-droid which works very well.

thecodrr 6y ago

> its tied to Emacs "What's emacs?" that's what a your every day Joe is going to ask you. The very reason note apps/platforms exist is to simplify the on boarding process. Of course that's a two edged sword. You give normal users an easy way out but now pro users get frustrated because they can't use their favorite tool. I am sure org-mode is as good as you say though.

e3bc54b2 6y ago
Yes, Emacs for average Joe is a non starter. Which is why I mentioned anyone serious about note taking. Most average joes are not really serious about maintaining, organizing and retrieving information. Anybody who is, OTOH, eventually builds up a monstrosity. Its like putting floors on a tent and one day waking up to Empire State. Now the very foundation that allowed quick start starts limiting your construction and daily use. Emacs is exact opposite of that. It is only useful if you are already aware of complex requirements of your note taking flow, and allows to mould itself to suit them. One more factor hindering Emacs adaptability is its very unique nature. There nothing else like it out there, nobody encounters it before they explicitly start off on it with clear intent.

pkulak 6y ago

> I can edit it anywhere Can you pull it up on your phone when you're out and need to jot something down? (Honestly wondering, I've always toyed with org mode, but half my notes are taken on the run.)

Dangeranger 6y ago
Yes, you can use BeOrg or MobileOrg for mobile use.