I used Bear pretty much exclusively for a couple years. Currently using iA Writer as my mine tool. I really enjoy the complete lack of magic. It’s just and editor for files locally or in iCloud.
I’m done with Noteplan. It’s a good app, but I don’t have a place for it.
It’s a digital version of a “bullet journal,” for writing quick to-dos and journal entries in a rapid format or short bursts. It combines a to-do list, notes app, journal and calendar – and that’s the problem. It’s redundant to those things, which I already have apps for.
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I find those individual app categories to be challenging to work with in an integrated system, whereas NotePlan’s note files are just text files than can be easily integrated with just about anything.
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Great episode, and so many great apps for note taking. While I’ve used many of them, I guess I’m a bit of a dinosaur in sticking with Evernote. In addition to note taking, it just has some of the best and most widespread integrations with other apps, so it’s easy to integrate note taking into these other realms… I just got on the beta for the new iOS apps, and I’m finding the UI significantly improved there.
If I ever needed to leave EN, DEVONThink would definitely be where I head to, but also use Apple Notes for specific purposes. And Tot… I agree with the notion that these are not mutually exclusive!
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Agree. Really want to like it but gave up after several weeks. Ideas and design are good but not ready for prime time. Cumbersome to use.
We are spoilt for choice. A lot of good note taking apps out.
How do you use Noteplan?
I recommend it highly for anyone who wants a bullet journal app.
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Great episode!!! @ismh86 great idea putting instruction PDFs in Apple Notes, I’m going to do that.
In apple notes does everything have to be in a folder? Is it possible to keep a note that’s not in a folder?
I would use reminders to make to do list , but now I’m liking the look of Apple notes for a to do list, does anyone use notes for a to do list???
This restricts you to Mac.
There is a perception issue using a laptop during meetings. As they say, perception is everything. If you use a laptop during meetings for notetaking some of the below is perceived by attendees:
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You are doing something else besides being engaged within the meeting.
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You are not giving the meeting full attention
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You will be designated the task of compiling all the notes and distributing them to all attendees.
To circumvent these issues. You can use an Ipad and Apple Pencil with several good note-taking apps that have handwriting recognition some with parallel audio recording as if you need to relisten to boring meeting dialog but can serve as a great sleep aid.
or
The best is the two apps that I listed above that use notebooks (Rocketbooks are reusable) with great companion apps that capture and have image recognition to search photo image captures for words that work well for whiteboards.
Miro is becoming the king of collaborative whiteboards apps and one of the few apps that allow great mind mapping tools using the Apple Pencil and the Ipad.
My daughter is now attending Uni whereas the purchase of the Ipads is mandated as a prerequisite to attending class. I am using the Op to provide setting her up with some good apps and study tactics learned over the years to show the Old Man is still got it going on.
I see the note take app space as one of the few which have a flurry on innovation still ahead of us whereas other areas such as Word Processing, Spreadsheets etc have relatively mature apps.
@MacSparky looking forward to round two the rematch
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I’ve observed that in attentive meeting cultures, the grace extended to tablets during meetings does not apply if the tablet is attached to a keyboard. Same for Surfaces, etc.
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haha. When it comes to note apps, I’m like Alexander Hamilton. I can never be satisfied.
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One point that was not mentioned is that Apple Notes is capable of syncing with other Note services such as MS Outlook. I’ve used this capability extensively since I work in an environment that is mixed with Apple (home) and PC (office).
I’m in the same line of work as MacSparky, and thus have to keep track of time I spend on client projects. After all, I do like getting paid! I use Apple Notes to help me with this.
First, I have a Shortcut that I run each morning that sets up a new Note that has the date and several entries for client name, time spent, and a narrative. The Shortcut creates a daily diary Note and puts it into a special folder that is sync’ed with MS Outlook so it shows up on my PC at the office. This way, all my diary notes are on all my devices, and I can enter billable time anywhere.
During the day (at home these days), while I am at my iMac, the daily diary note is shown via Sidecar on my iPad that is next to me as I work. As I work, I enter my time for each project. At the end of the day, I move the completed Note into another folder in Notes (via Outlook) that is shared with my secretary. The next day, she enters the information into our timekeeping system, which I review and edit. It all works very well, except it is currently not possible to move notes in Outlook from one folder to another on an iOS device. It can be done on a Mac by dragging and dropping, but the same cannot be done on an iOS device such as an iPad or iPhone. In those cases (such as when I am out of the office or on vacation), I have to email each note to my secretary. However, once this is fixed, my timekeeping system will be ideal!
Could you say more about how the automation is set up? The “special folder” and “synced with Outlook” pieces in particular. I’m also bi-modal – macOS and Windows – so this sounds interesting.
Sure.
In terms of setup, I have my office Exchange account my iPad, iPhone, and iMac. This means that my office email, calendar, contacts, reminders and notes are all integrated into the corresponding Apple apps. In my Office notes, I previously had set up a couple of folders, one of which was for the daily timekeeping notes that I was working on (“Notes in Progress”), and another folder of completed notes (“Notes for Entry” or what I called the “Special Folder”). All those folders show up in the Apple Notes app on all my devices. And, via my office PC, I have granted my secretary access to the completed notes folder (special folder), so whenever I move a complete diary note in there, she can access it and input the info into our billing system.
The key to making this all work for me is the setup of Notes folders and the Sync between all my Apple devices and my Office account.
In terms of the automation, it is simply a Shortcut I wrote (iPhone and iPad of course) that generates a new diary note with text that includes the date at the top and a template of information for each task, the client, and the time taken. See attached screenshot.
The automation includes generating the note text, inserting the above text, inserting the date into the date field at the top, and finally moving the note into the Notes in Progress folder. I’ve installed a button on my home screen so with one press, I have my diary note for the day. I attached a screenshot of the automation.
Hope this helps!
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This is really helpful - thank you for taking time to spell it all out!
This was a great episode - should be a yearly discussion. I need something that will sync all my notes between two iMacs, my iPhone, and my iPad mini.
I was surprised that there was no mention of Simplenote! I used it originally to sync between iOS and Notational Velocity on the Mac then switched to nvAlt when that came along. I finally gave up on that train when nvAlt was abandoned and Simplenote became available on Mac OS. I’m still waiting to see what Brett Terpstra and Fletcher Penney come up with the new nvUltra.
I’ve used Drafts for a long time through several versions but always for quick entering and processing of text before sending it on to live elsewhere. It sounds as if it’s becoming a consideration for more permanent storage now.
I started evaluating Apple Notes once it became usable but between that and Simplenote, half the time I can’t remember which one has a particular note I want - thank goodness for search.
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Maybe because it’s too simple, and doesn’t compare well these days to Apple Notes, especially when it comes to attachments, reordering, locking/encrypting notes, no shared note change notifications, etc etc
For something that promises to be “a bold new take on modal notes” it sure looks like a lot that came out years ago. 
Looks like MacDown/Mou/Caret/LightPaper and the like.
And from what I’ve read, many Markdown apps these days are working towards single-pane WYSIWYG, like Typora has. Looks natural, takes up almost half the space. I’m not dismissing nvUltra out of hand, but they’re past their debut date, the iOS version is ‘alpha’ and it doesn’t at first glance seem to offer anything compelling, at least to me.
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A big +1 for Obsidian
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But for markdown notes, DevonThink is good enough. Sure it doesn’t have the fancy language features like what IA Writer has, but as a text bank and capture tool for markdown, it’s quite adequate.
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