Note taking / memo app suggestions for Mac?

[teppo]

Hey folks! Just wondering what everyone is using these days for taking notes on Mac ?

I'm setting up a new laptop, and this need came up – once again. On my previous (work) laptop I used TextWrangler and stored notes as markdown files to a directory called "notes" as "YYYY-MM-DD_note-name-here.md", and on the one before that I used Evernote (not sure why but somehow that didn't feel particularly comfy). I've also tried OneNote, but overall it felt quite confusing, and perhaps a bit too "power user oriented".

As long as I can take notes easily, store them in some sensible way (preferably ordered by date and perhaps tagged or something), and perform searches on them I'd be perfectly happy. For a while I thought I'd found the perfect solution in an app called "Bear", but turns out it's commercial, and I'd really prefer something free... though it's still on my list, in case I don't find anything better ?

Any suggestions – what do you use, and why?

[cstevensjr]

I used EverNote for a few years, however as the company grew they seemed more interested in additional users than fixing existing features (in my opinion).  I left that app and used OneNote for awhile.  I never had issues with OneNote, however I soon just stopped using it.

In the last 6 months, I have been using Drafts https://getdrafts.com/mac/ on iOS and on MacOs.  I've use this app along with Ulysses https://ulysses.app basically for writing, jotting down ideas and note taking.

I like the Drafts app for how easy it is to create different categories of text that i can update on any device at a later time.  Honestly, you most likely can sync things with the other apps also.  

Good luck on your search.

 

[dragan]

I'm quite happy with https://keep.google.com/u/0/ - use it across devices etc.

[flydev]

I use FSNotes on MacOS - and it's open-source ? :  https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes

Quote

Key features

• keyboard centric
• global shortcuts (clipboard save / search)
• markdown and RTF markup (files stored on disk as plain/text and rich text)
• markdown preview mode
• elastic two pane view (vertical and horizontal layout)
• blazing fast and lightweight (working fine with 10k+ files)
• open files in finder / works with external editors (changes seamless live sync with UI)
• pin/unpin important notes in top
• synchronization over iCloud Drive
• multi folder storage
• fast copy markdown code to clipboard
• live markdown highlighting with code blocks (over 170 languages)
• themes for code highlighting
• markdown images preview in editor
• images drag and drop

 

[wbmnfktr]

I stumbled across Zettlr a few days ago.

• https://itsfoss.com/zettlr-markdown-editor/
• https://www.zettlr.com/

Update:

At the end I started playing around with Emacs orgmode. But I guess you will need a solution right away.

[louisstephens]

I have enjoyed Notion over the last few weeks. However, I do use ClickUp for project management etc, and it has a built in note feature which I use more often (simply because you can convert a note to a task).

[wbmnfktr]

@louisstephens Notion is the new and better Evernote, right? 

Just realized how awesome my Surface with a pencil works as a "note taking app".

[louisstephens]

@wbmnfktr, that is what people are "claiming". If I had a surface/pencil combo, I would definitely use it. I have found though that just being able to use "cmd + tab" to quickly go to my not app without lifting off the keyboard is really useful for me. A lot of times I do just keep an empty txt doc open in text edit and "word vomit" into just for quick ideas/thoughts, and then just add them into notion later at the end of the day.

[wbmnfktr]

Never tried it actually... @louisstephens but still consider using it.

The Surface/pencil combo is - especially after some updates in the past - pretty perfect.

The "open txt-file for notes"-workflow is awesome since ever. I do this every day and move my notes once in a while to whatever tool I use in that moment. In VS code it's perfect as you don't have to save to keep changes. In VIM - which I try right now - I enabled autosave for .md files and that works pretty good as well.

[gmclelland]

For simple markdown/plain text notes with tagging, I use https://simplenote.com/ made by http://automattic.com/. It also has a mobile app.

For more complex notes with images and tagging, I use Evernote.

[Jonathan Lahijani]

I don't use a Mac but I've heard great things about Quiver:

https://happenapps.com/

[LostKobrakai]

If it‘s more for quick dumps of things on your mind and less the super structured kind give nvALT a try. It‘s super fast, keyboard driven and iirc has a great search.

[diogo]

I use mostly google keep for taking notes because it's really convenient, but I use Typora for writing on my mac. If all you want is to have your notes on a directory and have them searchable, Typora is actually perfect.

I can also attest that nvALT is a great option, especially if you use it with simplenote to keep the notes synchronized through devices.

[Christophe]

3 other options among many others:

https://leoeditor.com
https://leoeditor.com/installing.html
https://kaleguy.github.io/leovue/#/t/2

https://jupyter.org (and the new JupyterLab)

https://rednotebook.sourceforge.io

I'll perhaps add other ones when I find them again in my bookmarks or elsewhere.

Edited August 13, 2019 by Christophe