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4.7 star rating
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What is the best alternative to Simplenote official app?
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Boostnote
All
15
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
Cross platform support
Supports Windows, macOS and Linux.
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Top
Con
Some of the features are not consistent
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Top
Pro
Markdown support
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Top
Con
Must use third-party service for sync-ing (Dropbox, etc.)
Boostnote does not have sync-ing capabilities and relies on third-party services to fulfil notes storage. There are additional steps involved to set this up.
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Top
Pro
Free
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Top
Con
Can't work in "real" offline mode
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Top
Pro
Open source
See here.
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Top
Con
Very poor syncing
Data loss may occur on syncing.
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Top
Pro
Great for developers
Boostnote is great for developers looking to take programming notes with code snippets and such.
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Top
Pro
Supports code snippets and syntax highlighting
Boostnote has the ability to store code snippets and comes with syntax highlighting out of the box, supporting many languages.
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Top
Pro
Works offline
Boostnote doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can write notes offline and sync later.
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Top
Pro
Global search, tag feature
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Top
Pro
Comes with many themes
Boostnote comes with many themes out of the box, most of which are popular themes and color schemes for code editors: e.g. 3024, base16, solarized, tomorrow.
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Top
Pro
vim/emacs key bindings available
Boostnote supports vim/emacs key bindings. If you're a developer familiar with either of them, navigation should be easy to pick up.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows/MacOS/Linux/Android/IOS
License:
GPL v3
API:
No
Dark Theme:
Yes
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Experiences
Get it
here
605
54
Standard Notes
All
8
Experiences
Pros
6
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Encrypted
Notes are encrypted and secured so only you can decrypt them.
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Top
Con
Formatting enabled only as extension for money
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Top
Pro
Extensible
Editors, components, actions, and themes.
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Top
Pro
Open-source
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Top
Pro
Simple
Faster and lighter than most notes apps.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Available on Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux.
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Top
Pro
Themes
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Web
Technology:
TypeScript, Docker
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Experiences
Free / paid
180
35
Joplin
All
24
Experiences
Pros
14
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Pro
Offline access
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Top
Con
Sync issues with Android
If update on Linux then sync on Android, sometimes the Android sync will duplicate or remove some journal notes. Seems to be a bug in the Android app. The Linux app alone without sync with Android seems to work well using Dropbox. But don't expect changes you make on Android to sync properly back to Linux.
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Top
Pro
Open source
Peace of mind that there is no malicious piece of software in the app.
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Top
Con
Sync issue under Linux
The Linux client has a bug that requires the user to click the mouse frequently in order for sync to proceed. This bug has been open for a while.
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Top
Pro
Encryption
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Top
Con
Gargantuan memory footprint
1GB+ of memory for taking notes.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.
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Top
Con
Old school interface
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Top
Pro
Supports file attachments
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Top
Con
Bloated
This project is suffering from feature creep and uses a lot of memory for a note-taking app.
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Top
Pro
Supports markdown
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Top
Con
App Image launches very slowly
On Linux, you can only install via App Image, which take 5+ seconds to launch. I can launch LibreOffice in under two seconds.
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Top
Pro
Supports tags for notes
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Top
Con
Sync issues on Windows
No way to change account settings and sync easily corrupted.
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Top
Pro
Web Clipper
Browser extension saves full pages, clean content, or screen selections to new notes.
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Top
Con
Weak tag searching
Joplin can currently only search for a single tag at a time. None of the boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are available for use in searches. This greatly diminishes the usefulness of tags in Joplin.
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Top
Pro
Optional CLI interface
Provides a CLI interface for terminal lovers.
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Top
Con
Can't create tags from the mobile app
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Top
Pro
Supports multiple languages
English, French, and Spanish, Italian, German, Czech and many others.
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Top
Pro
Active user forum with support from app creators
Support, troubleshooting, and new feature requests are easy to make at the user forum and you can contact the app creator directly.
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Top
Pro
Dropbox support
Can sync using Dropbox.
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Top
Pro
Nextcloud support
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Top
Pro
Timed alarm reminder for to-do lists
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS
License:
MIT
Export:
Yes
Sync:
File System, OneDrive, Next Cloud, WebDav, DropBox, JoplinCloud, s3 (Beta)
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Experiences
FOSS
679
130
Google Keep
All
46
Experiences
Pros
17
Cons
28
Specs
Top
Pro
Easy to use
1-step to take a note on Android: tap 'take a note'. Web version: cursor is on the note itself.
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Top
Con
Google can access and mine your data
You have to be okay with Google analyzing and using your data in order to use Keep.
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Top
Pro
Super fast to use
The focus on a minimal interface makes everything fast to use on both web and mobile. This comes in handy for when a note needs to be jotted down quickly, as there is little to no load times or faffing about trying to get to a space where the note can finally be recorded.
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Top
Con
Messy if you have lots of notes
It can be difficult to organize notes because you can only create labels and not, for example, separate projects.
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Top
Pro
Unlimited and seamless sync across all Google connected devices, from mobile to desktop
When a mobile device isn't in use, Google Keep can be accessed as a Chrome app or as a website. Basically, no matter the device being used or the OS on it, there is always a way to access the app. There is also no limitation to how many devices this can be done with, freeing up the user to always have access.
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Top
Con
Organization is limited to just multiple tags for notes
There are no folders in Keep that you can move notes into. It makes the user interface more cluttered, and navigation gets more difficult.
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Top
Pro
Automatic saving
Automatically saves new changes so that nothing is lost.
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Top
Con
Can be taken down some day
As Google is notorious for taking down services, you may end up with just a backup of your notes in XML format and a need to look for a substitute.
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Top
Pro
Useful Android home screen widget
The Keep widget lets users quickly see existing notes and add new ones.
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Top
Con
No ability to undo changes
There is no way to revert changes or restore text you may have accidentally deleted (however, you can restore entire notes for up to 7 days after deletion).
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Top
Pro
Notes can be grouped via labels
In addition to the ability to color-code notes, they can be labeled and navigated and grouped that way. This allows for easy organization, to then be found easily at a later date.
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Top
Con
Synchronization bugs
There are some issues with synchronizing data including laggyness and returning old/deleted items.
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Top
Pro
Notes can be color-coded
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Top
Con
No text formatting
No basic formatting like bold, italics. Makes it harder to do things like meeting notes. Keep is intended as a minimal and quick note taking app, but sadly for those that are looking for something more robust, the features are just not there.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
This app can be used seamlessly across all platforms including Android, iOS, and desktop computer platforms.
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Top
Con
Scrolling through notes is horrible
There are no options to decrease the surface area of the notes to make it easier to get an overview. Compare this to something like the Apple Notes or Evernote UI, for example. You can't organize nor have a glance of what you have.
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Top
Pro
Works as a great bookmarking tool as links added can optionally include a preview image
Keep has a great feature that allows you to save sites you visit as a special note type with a link and a preview image.
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Top
Con
Not free/libre
This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified or freely distributed.
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Top
Pro
Can share and collaboratively edit any item including lists
Keep allows sharing any item with other contacts and editing them together at the same time. This way a team can work together in real time, no matter their location.
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Top
Con
Can be difficult to discover the features
Google Keep has slowly been introducing new features, but doesn't do a good job of helping you discover them.
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Top
Pro
Really well implemented speech-to-text
Google has a lot of experience with speech-to-text functionality and they did a fantastic job with Keep. This means you can easily record spoken notes that can then be changed to a text based note.
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Top
Con
Google account required
You're required to have a Google account in order to use the app.
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Top
Pro
Notes can include photo and audio attachments
Notes can include multimedia attachments in addition to text.
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Top
Con
Does not offer themes
There is no option for changing the color theme (such as a dark theme) unless you use a 3rd party extension.
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Top
Pro
Supports drawing or writing notes by hand
Newer version of Google Keep now supports drawing on either a blank page, existing notes or in an image attached to the note.
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Top
Con
Does not integrate with Google Calendar or Tasks
It does not integrate with Google Calendar or other Google Apps with the exception of "Google Now." Keep reminders can appear on Google Calendar, but you can not get reminders and use Tasks at the same time.
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Top
Pro
Both location- and time-based reminders
You can set reminders that bring certain notes to your attention when you arrive at a specified location or when it’s a specified time or date. Unfortunately you can only do one or the other for each note.
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Top
Con
Too simplistic of an approach
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Top
Pro
Includes character recognition for text in images
Google Keep lets users take pictures of physical notes and makes the contents searchable within the app. This can be a convenient time saver for those that do not want to type out the necessary info, but rather take a quick snapshot of it.
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Top
Con
No integrated social media sharing
There is no integrated social media sharing if you directly want to post your note to Twitter, Facebook, etc.
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Top
Pro
Drag and drop sorting
You can move cards manually, which is great for prioritizing to-dos. Within a card, you can also drag and drop items.
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Top
Con
Not good at all for longer notes
With almost no formatting options whatsoever it's hard to actually use Keep for long-form notes.
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Top
Pro
Archives finished tasks
Any finished task is archived and can be searched at a later date.
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Top
Con
Sharing within team doesn't work that well
You can share separate notes but not Projects, Wordspace, or Teams.
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Top
Con
Not distributed
Cannot run on own servers as Keep will only run on Google's own servers. This increases the risks which are normally associated with handing over critical applications to a large (US) corporation.
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Top
Con
No notifications when tasks are added to shared lists
Although the ability to collaborate on lists is advanced, Keep will not let you know when another person adds an item to a list you share.
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Top
Con
No API
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Top
Con
There is a label limit up to 50
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Top
Con
No dedicated app for windows, linux, mac (except unofficial)
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Top
Con
Cannot share groups of notes (e.g., labels)
Google's equivalent of groups are labels, which can't be shared. By comparison, Trello allows you to share boards with others. Trello also supports grouping through teams. Google Keep has no such concept.
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Top
Con
Slow to save the updates
Saving is delayed by a moment and the saving status UI is unclear. You can lose updates if you close the tab too quickly.
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Top
Con
Delay between to-do entries
The keyboard closes and reloads between to-do list entries, so the first letters or words may be missed if you’re trying to quickly create a list.
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Top
Con
Notes get lost/deleted and can NOT be recovered
Since nothing is stored locally on the phone, everything can go missing. Google can't recover any of it.
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Top
Con
No BlackBerry 10 app
No BlackBerry support apart from web.
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Top
Con
No Windows Mobile app
No Windows Mobile app, and it is unlikely to ever be produced.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / Chrome / Web / Desktop
API:
No
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Experiences
FREE
861
247
Evernote
All
46
Experiences
Pros
21
Cons
24
Specs
Top
Pro
Consolidates all your information
Evernote is designed to store a lot of different types of information from a lot of different sources in one place. Using the Web Clipper, native integrations, or a service such as IFTTT (If This Then That) you can use Evernote to store all your ideas, notes (both handwritten and typed), tasks, reading lists, receipts, and more.
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Top
Con
Free version limited to 2 devices
The free version has become very limited as a cloud based note taking app as there is now only sharing between two devices allowed.
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Top
Pro
Powerful features for organising your notes
Evernote is designed to make it easy to keep your notes well organized, which aids in quickly finding/browsing old information. You can put notes into a single notebook and use search to access old notes, or if you're so inclined, organize notes extensively with hierarchical notebooks and tags.
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Top
Con
Pay for offline use, search, and other functions
The free version of Evernote is highly limited. You have to pay if you want to access your notes without internet connection, search your notes or documents, or upload large amounts of data. The free version allows you to upload 60 MB of data per month, which is about 20 to 30 iPhone camera pictures. At a certain point, they started charging you for "advanced" capability, which includes searching your own attachments.
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Top
Pro
Can include images, and snippets from the web or a whole webpage via web clipper
With one click you can clip part or all of any webpage, including text, images, and links. Especially for those who use Google Chrome, this web clipper is a very rich add-on. The “simplified article” mode strips all graphical overhead from the page before adding the information to Evernote. It's also possible to add highlighting, tags, etc. before storing the note.
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Top
Con
Different features and functions per device
Desktop app has table creation. Android app lacks font color changes. Some functions can only be accessed on the desktop app. These include changing your default notebook.
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Top
Pro
Has OCR functionality to convert images to searchable text
A really cool and handy Evernote feature is the ability to automatically scan images for text.
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Top
Con
Security issues
Evernote had their entire database hacked and compromised including customer user passwords. They responded by locking valid users out of accounts and forcing password changes but are still vague about their own security policies. They do not have a good track record for data security. They also do not offer local personal encryption of entire Notebooks as Microsoft OneNote does.
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Top
Pro
"Reminders" are a great way to combine your to-dos and notes
One of the note types is a "reminder," which can act as a to-do list. You can add all the usual formatting to reminders, including audio. Evernote will provide alerts when they are due and house them in a special location within the app.
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Top
Con
Buggy
A program with more features is always prone to more bugs. Evernote is definitely not the most stable note-taking program available.
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Top
Pro
Easy to use
Evernote is easy to dive into because it doesn’t overwhelm you with advanced functionality from the start. As you get more accustomed to the app, you might want to delve deeper to see what benefits the more advanced features will offer.
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Top
Con
No official Linux app
Evernote does not offer an official Linux app, although there are some third party alternatives available.
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Top
Pro
Native and offline-capable apps on pretty much every platform
Evernote has apps for Windows 7 and 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, Mac, Android, iOS (both iPhone and iPad), Blackberry, and Windows Phone. It also has a fully functional web app and chrome plug-in. No matter what device or platform you're on, you will pretty much always be able to access Evernote.
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Top
Con
Constantly directs you to upgrading your account
The frequent reminders to upgrade your account can quickly become disruptive. You get notifications when using the app, and many of the features that show as available in the app are actually for paid accounts only (which, when you try to use them, will remind you to upgrade).
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Top
Pro
Multipurpose
In addition to general note taking and to-do list management, Evernote lets you search through scanned documents, handwritten text, and images; collaborate with others through shared notebooks; record audio notes; and more.
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Top
Con
Syncing is slow
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Pro
Trustworthy to store data in the long term
With many utility tools being constantly shut down by their creators, it's really important to consider the long-term risks of picking a home for all your notes. Evernote is a $1 billion company with a track record of exceptional security and goals of becoming a "100 year old" company.
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Top
Con
Prices have doubled since Bending Spoon purchase
I used to pay 7 €/month, now it's 13.
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Top
Pro
Powerful note formatting
Evernote has an extensive range of formatting options and note types. You can create checklists, reminder alerts, audio notes, or add images and attachments. It also has an awesome speech-to-text feature if you prefer to dictate aloud.
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Top
Con
Very heavyweight for a to-do list
Evernote is a powerhouse program with many features. It uses a correspondingly large amount of memory to run.
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Pro
Great selection for integrating with other apps
The Evernote app center page is nicely organized and has good quality integration of apps that can improve your productivity.
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Top
Con
Missing some basic functions
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Pro
Focused, uncluttered user interface
Evernote has a very clean and intuitive interface that's simple to understand at a glance.
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Con
Not distributed
One cannot run Evernote on own servers. This brings with it the risks normally associated with handing over critical applications to a large corporation.
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Top
Pro
Evernote is synchronized
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Con
Bending Spoon have relocated to Europe and fired 129 people
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Top
Pro
Premium allows search in attached files and documents
With a premium account you are able to search through PDFs and Office Docs.
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Top
Con
Poor text formatting abilities
Text formatting in Evernote is buggy and unreliable. Bullets (outlining) are getting stuck or disappearing, tables are very static and prone to breaking and everything beyond the most basic formatting might cause an issue.
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Top
Pro
Innovative hacks
To save emails, just forward them to your Evernote email address generated on account creation. It is of course one of many such hacks.
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Top
Con
Basic and lacking handwriting function
Handwriting has basic functions, is attached as a picture
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Pro
Flexible image manipulation
Permits photos that are taken, to be processed when in automatic mode and saved as a photo, black and white document, colour document, post it note or business card. The automated mode is also good at cropping the document effectively.
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Top
Con
Bloated and complex
Evernote is too big, has too many features. Note taking apps need absolutely clean interface to allow unobtrusive note taking and not a struggle to search for which buttons to click. It focuses on the search feature so much that it doesn't encourage or make it immediately easy to organize your notes and thoughts. It's essentially a sophisticated notes dump with good search.
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Top
Pro
Best web clipper
Can clip to the web from desktop or mobile, using simplified format or original formatting. Very quick and flexible, and enables you to highlight, take notes, tag, etc.
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Top
Con
New web editor does not support Firefox
As of now, Firefox users must download a separate extension to change their user agent to trick the Evernote site into giving them the beta, or install Chrome.
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Top
Pro
Can choose from a few themes
You can pick from a green theme, light, or dark theme. All are very clear and visually appealing.
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Top
Con
No recurring and snooze reminders
Perhaps because it is not truly a to-do list app, there is currently no support for recurring events or snooze reminders. The company claims to be working on this functionality.
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Top
Pro
Effective with pictures or snapshot of boards
Take a picture of your white board/paper board and you have it instantly in evernote everywhere, ready for additional notes and classification Scannable friend app is rather efficient to keep hand written note as well.
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Top
Con
Lacks search and replace capability
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Top
Pro
Skitch integration
If you're on iOS and have Skitch installed, you can quickly annotate your notes using Skitch.
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Con
Rather poor user interface
Slow, not user friendly experience, complex, and somehow limited.
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Top
Pro
Has conflict management and undo
Allows undo/redo when editing (i.e. all changes are finalized upon saving). If conflicts between synchronized versions arise, both copies are saved in Evernote.
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Top
Con
Lacks right-to-left writing support
When you write in a right-to-left language (Arabic, for example), everything looks fine in the editor but the direction changes to the left again after saving the note.
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Con
Steep learning curve
Since Evernote has so many features built in, it's hard to know where to find everything until reasonable amount of time has been spent with it.
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Con
Easy to accidentally hit the wrong button on the mobile apps
The mobile apps have fairly small touch targets, making it easy to miss the button or accidentally press the wrong one.
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Con
No ability to re-order notes other than sorting
Evernote has no way to re-order notes, nor even to change their display order. Sorting is the only option, and the "official" workaround (for years now) is to prefix note titles with line numbers manually so notes will sort and display as desired.
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Specs
Platforms:
Android / iOS / WP / OSX / Windows / WebOS
API:
yes
Collaborative:
yes
Export:
ENEX, HTML, MHT
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Experiences
$0-$89.99/Y
514
189
CintaNotes
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
3
Top
Pro
Automatic link capture
CintaNotes automatically captures links from webpages and local documents, so you can quickly go back to the note's source.
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Top
Con
No Markdown support
Can't store, edit or export notes in Markdown, the program uses "RTF (in editor) + Internal format (for its database) + HTML (export)" instead. More info on the issue tracker.
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Top
Pro
Clips text from any application that works with the clipboard
Create notes by clipping text from any application that works with the system clipboard. Just select the text and press CTRL+F12.
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Top
Con
No Apple support
You can't use the app on MAC computers and Apple mobile devices,
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Top
Pro
Quick and performant
The program rarely crashes and is extremely quick.
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Top
Con
No mobile version
You can't use the app on you mobile platforms such as Android. But you can use the third-party solution "Simplenote" for syncing your CintaNotes data to mobile platforms.
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Top
Pro
Advanced search
You can search your notes by titles, fields, text, links etc.
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Top
Pro
Hierarchical tags
Notes in CintaNotes are organized into a crystal clear hierarchy tags. A hierarchy consists of 2 or more tags where the top tags is a parent tag and the one at the bottom is a child tag. This makes it easy to find your notes.
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Pro
Attach files to notes
CintaNotes stores all attachments in the notebook file so you can remove the original file after it's been attached.
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Top
Pro
Password protection of separate notebooks
If you want to keep your notes private you can encrypt notebooks with sensitive data using AES-256 algorithm.
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Top
Pro
User friendly interface
The app is really easy to use and the interface is extremely simple.
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Top
Pro
Separate notes through sections
Notes are organized into sections or tabs. This is done to keep notes on the same topic separate while still having them in one notebook file.
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Pro
Advanced synchronization options
CintaNotes can be synchronized with Simplenote or Dropbox. The first option makes you notes available on mobile devices via the Simplenote app and the second one allows you to share you notebooks with other people.
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Experiences
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here
13
0
ResophNotes
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Portable
It's possible to put the app on an external device and run on another Windows device without having to install it.
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Top
Con
Can't configure hotkeys
There's no way to change keyboard shortcuts.
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Top
Pro
Notes can be organized via tags
Notes can have tags associated with them allowing you to group notes together based on whatever criteria you choose. Now you can, for example, look at all notes related to a specific event, a specific project or a specific group of people.
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Pro
Free
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Get it
here
43
4
SynapBook
All
9
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Memo can be structured in tree form
Using the tree structure, you can structure the content.
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Top
Con
Does not support iOS
This app only supports Android and desktop OS, but not iOS.
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Top
Pro
Nice sticky memo UI
It can support pop-up notes which can be used like simple Windows Sticky memo app.
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Top
Pro
Both search-based Memo and organizing tree Note
Search-based notes and tree-oriented tree notes are supported separately, so can be used conveniently depending on the purpose.
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Top
Pro
Offline mode support
Basically, it is based on server synchronization, but it can be used offline.
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Top
Pro
Folding
Groups can be folded.
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Top
Pro
Various text styles and decorations
General styles (bold, font size), highlighter and separator line, and more.
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Top
Pro
Frequent updates
Bug fixes and additional new features rolled out frequently.
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Top
Pro
Free
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Experiences
Free
85
10
Microsoft OneNote
All
44
Experiences
Pros
26
Cons
17
Specs
Top
Pro
Text can be added anywhere like a whiteboard
OneNote allows you to arrange text freely on the digital paper mimicking the way it would be done with a real pen on real paper.
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Top
Con
Not available for Linux
There is no native Linux client for OneNote available, and most likely will never be created. Users can use the web based client, but a native app would be a better choice for those that use the app frequently.
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Top
Pro
Comprehensive organization methods
Can have multiple 'sections/tabs' at the top like in a web browser with many notes within each 'section/tab'. Also, there can be sections within section groups infinitely. The complete hierarchy looks like this: Notebooks > Section Groups ... Section Groups > Sections > Pages > Sub-pages > Sub-pages.
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Top
Con
Requires a Microsoft account
You need to have a Microsoft email to sign up for OneNote (Outlook, Hotmail, or Windows Live).
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Top
Pro
Supports hierarchical organization of information / notes
OneNote is designed to allow hierarchical organization of information. This is achieved with grouping into the following categories and UI elements (Notebooks, Sections, and Pages). Both Sections and Pages allow additional groupings that can be expanded / collapsed in list view. This can be incredibly helpful for quickly taking notes and organizing them for work or personal projects. For example, you could have a Notebook for "Cooking Recipes", with sections for "breakfast, dinner, desserts", where individual recipes would be page entries (i.e. the "Desserts" section would have pages for brownies, chocolate cheesecake etc).
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Top
Con
Not open-source
This application is proprietary, and thus cannot be modified or freely distributed.
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Top
Pro
Powerful table editor
Adding and resizing rows and columns is easy and flexible. This makes for an easy way to adjust a note as it grows in content size.
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Con
The added flexibility means your notes may feel cluttered
Since you can place elements anywhere you'd like on your note, you have to pay attention to how you structure it. For some this added flexibility is a huge selling point, but for others it could become distracting and makes notes feel difficult to digest.
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Pro
Insert files into your notes
You can add a variety of different files into your notes including images, video, audio, and more.
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Con
Menu/ribbon can feel crammed
OneNote offers a lot of formatting options, which results in a lot of options being crammed into the ribbon. It can feel somewhat cluttered and takes a bit of time to get used to.
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Pro
Strong search features let you quickly find what you're looking for
If you don't want to search through all of your notes, you can narrow it down by specifying the page, section, group, or notebook. You're not limited to just searching through your text either. You can search for text in images, video recordings, and audio (this is off by default).
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Con
Sync isn't stable
Many users have reported synchronization issues. While not everyone will experience this, it can be difficult to troubleshoot, with some fixes resorting to editing registry keys in Windows when using the Windows client.
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Pro
All indented lines under the first can be expanded and hidden
Which makes it easy to quickly look at the high level of notes, and then drill deep into each point.
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Con
Text editing is weird (poor UX)
When clicking in the middle of a note, it adds something like a text-box positioned in the middle. If you move that field to the bottom right, it gets weirder. You can end-up with an empty note, having an empty text-box 1km to the bottom-right of it.
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Pro
Add notes through email
You can choose what notebook the notes will save to. E-mail notes to your special Onenote e-mail and it will be accessible across all devices.
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Con
Syncing issues
It tells you there are conflicts between a note on the PC and on the Android because of the timing of the synchronization but doesn't try to resolve itself.
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Pro
Stylus and digitizer pen support
OneNote can be used on all touch capable devices via stylus or digitizer pen making for an intuitive and easy way to take notes by hand, which can often be faster or just preferred over typing. It has the best pen input out of any note taking app.
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Con
Platform dependent
The newer versions for Windows and Mac are converging, using the Windows style layout (with a more more consistent and usable UI). The original OneNote for Mac for example is very different from OneNote for Windows. Because Microsoft has a vested interest in making sure the Windows version is superior, the Mac version tends to lag behind in terms of functionality. Tutorials and other forms of documentation available online generally apply only to the Windows version, which implies non-Windows versions are undocumented. Even worse, because the documentation rarely, if ever, indicates it only applies to Windows, it's easy to waste hours trying to make non-existent features work. As such, the documentation is "negative documentation" (i.e. worse than no documentation at all).
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Pro
Very similar design for those used to Microsoft programs
If you have experience with other Microsoft programs such as Microsoft Office, you'll feel right at home with the design of OneNote thanks to the similarity of the menus.
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Con
Doesn't automatically sort (by name, size, date)
You can't choose to sort automatically. Just do it manually.
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Pro
Lots of options for customizing fonts
You can fully customize your default font (the color, type of font, and font size). You can override this styles with the same options (and more) in individual notes.
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Con
No backup on Windows 10 free version
If you accidentally delete a section on the windows 10 free version of Onenote, there is no backup to fall back on.
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Pro
Converts handwriting to text on Windows version
You can take handwritten notes on your mobile device with a stylus or digital pen and then convert the handwriting to text later on your Windows PC.
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Con
Search function is lacking advanced features
e.g. Searching for "friend" will find "friendship" and "friendly" (because "friend" is at the beginning of the word); using this query will not find words such as "girlfriend" or "boyfriend."
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Pro
Article Web Clipper available on desktop and mobile
Has a web clipper extension on Chrome and Edge that can be used for clipping whole articles and images. Web clipping of articles is also available on Chrome mobile through the "Share" option.
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Con
Uninspired, bland user interface
Many of OneNote's competitors use Material Design and bold colors to create a minimal, clean looking interface. OneNote has a bit more of an outdated look and can feel over crowded at times.
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Pro
Cross-platform
Its available Windows Mobile, Windows Store, Android, a Desktop Version, and a Web app. Apple macOS and iOS are also supported.
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Con
Annotations can’t be anchored to a photo
If you annotate a photo or some text, then insert some text above it, the annotations don’t necessarily move with the photo and get misplaced.
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Pro
Table is sortable
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Con
iPad version is behind the Windows version in features
Biggest issue for me is that you’re stuck with the default, example tags - you can’t import custom tags from your Windows copy, or create and delete tags.
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Pro
Integrates with other Microsoft services
Integrates well with Outlook, Office, and OneDrive.
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Con
Some features require external apps
Sort pages, find and replace, etc need external apps called onestatics.
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Pro
Sharing and collaboration
You can share your notes by inviting people with an e-mail, or by giving them a direct URL. You have control over what kind of access the user has on your note (read only, edit) and can revoke it at any time. OneNote will alert you when a chance is made on your shared note.
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Con
You cannot use local OneNote files with the version of OneNote that is included with Windows
There is a difference between the OneNote that is included with Windows 10 and the OneNote that comes with Microsoft Office. The version included with Windows cannot use local OneNote files and requires you to be online to access your notes. See here for this and other differences.
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Pro
Offers flexible encryption
Unlike most other apps, you can selectively password protect, and fully encrypt, individual documents or entire folders. This is especially important to many people with data stored in the cloud. As of early this year, even the free version supports encryption. Microsoft has also enhanced their internal security methods for storing data on OneDrive (where OneNote performs sync), which makes it more secure than most of their competitors (including Evernote).
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Pro
Mathematical calculations
You can perform mathematical calculations in OneNote like a calculator. e.g. 1+2=3, 85/4=21.25, 8!=40,320, 7^2=49
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Pro
Ink to Math
Handwritten mathematical equations can be converted to typed mathematical equations. Moreover, you can ask OneNote to solve the equation too.
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Pro
Optical character recognition
You can copy / search text in images added to OneNote.
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Pro
Page versioning
You can view the history of any page and revert to a previous version.
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Pro
On Android, you can tap a badge to start a note
The badge on Android hovers over on your screen similar to Facebook Messenger's Chat Heads. You can tap it and instantly start jotting down your thoughts without having to flip to the app first.
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Pro
Import and link calendar events and tasks in Outlook
This is great for taking meeting minutes. You can import all the meeting details, including a checklist of attendees and a link back to the original event in your Outlook calendar. You can tag all the actions coming out of a meeting and you can create linked tasks from them in Outlook. Much quicker and more effective than writing meeting minutes the traditional way.
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Pro
Browser plugins allow easy saving of web pages
The ability to quickly file away web clippings is a key part of note taking.
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Pro
Large variety of themes available
You have quite a few options for themes available with illustrated backgrounds. If you want something a bit more simple while still having personality, there are also several color themes.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows / OSX / iOS / Android / Web
Collaborative:
Yes
Export:
*.one, *.docx, *.doc, *.pdf, *.xps, *.mht
Offline access:
Yes
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