Note Taking App

[Madchatthew]

I was wondering what everyone uses for a note taking app? For work and home I have been using OneNote. For home use I would like to move away from OneNote to something open sourceish. I have tried Joplin in the past, along with evernote.

I did a search on the interwebs and found this app that someone made https://github.com/TriliumNext. This is a fork of the original that is in maintenance mode.

I also found this one https://github.com/FoxUSA/OpenNote.

These are ones that you install and run on your own server. I like that, cause it would give you full control of your notes and such.

Then I thought, well I could just run a nodebb for my own personal use and use that as a note application too.

I am curious on hearing all your thoughts on this.

[Madchatthew]

@Madchatthew said in Note Taking App:

I also found this one https://github.com/FoxUSA/OpenNote.

This one is a no. They have a demo of it. And it did not appeal to me at all.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew for me, I use OneNote for work in order to keep historical meeting notes. I also use notepad (Windows 11 tabbed version as its retains session state and can survive a reboot) as a scratch pad for temp (which always somehow turns out permanent) stuff.

On the Android, I use txtPad

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab I do that the same way with notepad when i need to take notes really fast. I like that notepad tabs and keeps the info like that.

[Madchatthew]

So I installed TriliumNext on my development setup and to be honest, I am pretty impressed. A notes app that is packed full of features that you have full control over. They have a desktop version and they have a server installation version. You can sync the two together. They also have a docker install for it among other ways.

I also believe you could use the API to pull in a note to another site or a forum like nodebb. Or a webpage or what have you.

I am going to play around with it more, but if I continue to like it like I do now, I just may install it on my new virtual server I build on Hetzner and use that from now on rather than onenote or some of the others I have tried.

If any of you get a chance, I will definitely say it is worth a look at to see if it would fit your needs.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew does it have a mobile app?

[phenomlab]

This might prove useful for those looking for a simple overview

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab said in Note Taking App:

@Madchatthew does it have a mobile app?

At this time it doesn’t have a mobile app. You can access it on the web browser and I believe there was a switch to mobile button you can flip. I haven’t tried that yet though.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew hmm. Bit of a show stopper I think.

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab yeah i was going to test it out in a browser on the phone and see what it looks like and how it functions and see. I don’t know how difficult it would be to port it over to an app.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew the lack of an app is frankly quite the oversight given most development these days is mobile first.

[Madchatthew]

@phenomlab I agree. I did test this on my phone and it actually wasn’t to bad. The menu is still on the side but minimized. I think if the menu were on the bottom of the screen instead it would be better and then have the full width of the screen for the editing and such.

It would be nice if they made an actual app though. I believe they are working on it, but who knows when it would be available.

[phenomlab]

@Madchatthew A simple PWA would probably suffice in the meantime