Seeking Sweet Notetaking Software

[stevietheb]

While sitting in class this week I noticed a PC buddy of mine using Microsoft's OneNote to take and organize notes for all of his classes. "Neato!" I thought...perhaps it's available for Mac. Apparently it's not. SO, I began a search for a similar program for Mac. I found Aqua Minds NoteTaker.

I've been using NoteTaker for a day now. It's nice and feature rich. However, either there's an issue with the trial version, or perhaps I'm dense. I can't seem to get certain aspects of the software to work properly.

I was wondering if anyone else used this (and perhaps what you use it for). Product reviews, etc, are welcome. Also, suggestions for programs other than NoteTaker are welcome.

Thanks a bundle!

 

[dotnina]

Good news.

Microsoft Office 2004 ($150 for students) comes with a feature called "Word Notebook," which is very similar to One Note. I've used both, actually, and I prefer Word Notebook.

Some of the features are hard to explain (you just have to see it to get it), and I'm a little (a lot) tired here, but I'll do my best to explain why I <3 Word Notebook ...

* Audio notes that align with your typed notes! There's a built-in audio recorder ... just press a button and it records. Kinda plain, I know, but what makes it RAD is that it remembers what you were typing as the person was talking. When you go back to look over your notes, say you want to know what was being said as you typed line 6 of your notes. Position the mouse cursor in the margin of line 6, and a little audio icon appears! Press the icon, and it starts to play what was being said as you typed line 6!

* Lined paper look! I just like this.

* Tabs that you name! You can choose to view the names or just numbers for each tab. They allow you to switch really quickly between different notes.

* Compatible with regular Word! If you don't like the lined paper thing, you can just view it as a regular Word doc, or send the notes along to your friends.

* Search function! It highlights all the tabs where your search term appears. Then, when you go and look in that tab, the search term itself is highlighted as well.

Here's how I organize my lecture notes: each class is a separate .doc file. Each doc file has many tabs; each of those tabs are different lectures.

Sorry if I sound completely disjointed here. It's actually surprisingly good.

I've seen others say they've used SubThaEdit (free or shareware, can't recall). I tried this and found it to be a little too plain.

 

[iMeowbot]

Circus Ponies have one imaginatively named NoteBook, an up-to-date version of the old NeXTSTEP program.

A second derivative of the same program is AquaMinds NoteTaker. [edit: which I just realized is what you're trying. In that case, NoteBook might be what you want, same stuff but with the original author behind it.]

Both forks have 30-day trials.

 

[Zaty]

I use Circus Ponies's Notebook. It's a great app with a broad range of functionality. It's more than worth the $49 price tag (Eductional discount is available).

 

[virividox]

word notebook sounds interesting any bugs encountered yet?

 

[stevietheb]

I've got Office 2004 (only $10 from my previous institution). However, I've been hesitant to install it because I use EndNote for longer papers and the 'Cite While You Write' feature (to my knowledge) has not yet been updated for Word 2004.

I may install it when I get home today, however....just to see. The recorder features sounds pretty cool, though I'm not sure whether or not my iBook mic will do a decent job of recording.

I'll also look into the Circus Ponies software.

Thanks...

 

[mkaake]

I use my newton

 

[blodwyn]

I bought Notetaker, but have stopped using it as I also found that it was awkward to use, particularly when trying to move entries about and editing entries. I had previously been using WinOrganizer on my PC (which is a great app, but sadly doesn't have a Mac version or work in VPC) but have not yet found an outstanding notetaking program for the Mac. I've tried Jotz, the sticky notes app, Omni-outliner and the notes section in Entourage, and looked at several others, but none of them seem to have the notes organizational functionality that I'm looking for. Having said that I haven't yet tried the Word Notebook that dotnina suggests, so I'm definitely going to try that.

If you find something that works well for you, please post back as I'd be interested too.

 

[DJY]

Upon getting the new Office;mac 2004 - I was very keen to be using the Notebook recording option... but found on my 17" PB that the mic recording levels aren't great.

So depending on the size of the room, and obviously the loudness of the speaker, depends alot on whether the reocrded voice is loud enough to hear.

One annoying thing for me is that the few times I have tried it - I end up hearing me type at almost the same recording level as the voice recording.

Maybe an external mic might be necessary?!

Anyone else using Office:mac 2004 and a PB?