Evernote vs Together and MindNode vs Other Note Taking?

[robertpolson]

I am currently experiencing a dilema. I have been a Premium Evernote user for a few years and have about 1000 various notes.

Problems with Evernote:

1. Slow - Evernote tries to be everything on too many platforms at once
2. User interface on mac is relatively ugly and not mac like
3. Easy to get everything in and time consuming to get data out of Evernote.
4. Evernote philosophy is - store everything, which I came to dislike.
5. There is always some kind of problem with actual text editing.

What I want:

I am a very visual person. I prefer to process things and see them rather than just mindlessly copy and store them in Evernote. Lately I have been using MindNode for mind maps a lot and I love it! Simple and very visual. It allows me to actually think about my information and then process it. It is very uncomfortable to store files in Evernote for future search and usage.

Right now I am playing around with Together, MindNode and DropBox. So far they are working out well. There is not dedicated iphone app like for Evernote, but realistically I do not need all my notes with me.

Questions:

What note taking sysmet and software do you use?
How do you use it?
Why do you use it?

 

[exegete77]

I had used Notebook from Circus Ponies. It worked well for many projects, but was quite what I needed. About two months ago I purchase Tinderbox which is perhaps overkill, but it combines the good features of Notebook plus incredible power (linking, aliases, coding, etc.) and a good visual approach to note taking that nothing else seems to have. Thus, I have begun taking almost all notes for various projects in Tinderbox. May be too much money, learning curve, etc. But it seems to have incredible power and can grow as you learn more about it.

Some have recommended Curio, which is about half the price of Tinderbox.

 

[floatingweed]

Html?

Have you considered maybe teaching yourself a bit of html (and some basic css)? you can format your notes very quickly using markdown and have the flexibility to create as simple or as complicated a document structure as you like using hyperlinking.

Apart from the flexibility and extendability you also set yourself free from proprietary document or database files (edit on any computer with a simple text editor) and develop a useful skill.

I recently went down this route after trying just about every other note taking app on the block. It's slow to get started but this forces you to be deliberate with your content.

Definitely not a solution for most people, but might be worth considering. You don't need to put it live on the web - just run it from a folder on your computer or from Dropbox. I think that with HTML5 you can even set up your page for in-browser content editing (although I haven't explored this yet).

 

[scottanderson]

I've been using Evernote for sometime as well. And have also been looking for a comparible solution. Although I do like the iPhone app there are plenty of simple text apps that work well with dropbox integration.

But personally, I've just started using Sugar Sync and find it at least as good as DropBox if not better in some cases. More storage and more customizable options. (And it has just as great of an iPhone App...)

Give it a shot: Sugar Sync