Note Taking App Discussion - A Real Life Example and Some Thoughts

Software
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I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I thought it warranted a discussion on MPU Talk :smiley:

I’ve been looking around for Evernote alternatives this week. I’m not unhappy, in fact, it’s working quite well, but as a member of this forum it’s kind of an unwritten rule to undertake this journey once in a while, isn’t it?

Something in my mind just prompted me to download Bear 2 (I had previously dabbled in Bear 1), and Craft (again). The glacial pace of Bear’s development is a huge turnoff, and the app always just felt like it didn’t quite click with me. Craft was really great but if I recall correctly, I ended up abandoning ship because while you can export from it to markdown, the notes it keeps in the background are not straight-up markdown. I know some people like Obsidian for everything, but to me it’s not a great fit and this weekend I hit just such a scenario.

I bought one of those Thule roof boxes for our family SUV. I figured putting our skis on the roof and out of the vehicle would be good in the event of a crash, and it also gives us more room for our other gear. We picked this thing up from Canadian Tire (department store in Canada) and I brought it home and unpacked it. The following bits of information were collected from inside the box and the box the box came in – say that three times fast. I ended up creating a note in Evernote called “Thule Box” and it now contains the following:

  • Model number (photo of UPC on the box)
  • Sticker listing quick uses/features of the box (photo of sticker taken from box)
  • Instruction Manual (scanned using Scannable app)
  • Serial number sticker from inside the Thule box (photo)
  • The number written on the keys in the event I need to order a replacement (typed)

Getting all that into EN was really seamless and it raised two points with me.

  1. Getting all that into EN (or Craft or Bear) would be way easier than into Obsidian (via mobile app)
  2. The way my mind works, I want to see all of that in a single “note”. If I used an app like Dropbox to store this information it would be a folder full of files. Yeah, it accomplishes the same thing but I prefer the more visual layout of the note. And while I could put all that in Obsidian via mobile, it wouldn’t be as seamless.

So I am steadfast in my belief that Obsidian has a place (for thinking), but it can’t compete in situations like I noted above with Evernote (or Craft, Bear, even Apple Notes - blah).

I figured I had a good, real world example of where these kind of note takers work really well for me.

As an aside – I’m still tempted to take another deep dive on Craft. I’m kind of shocked at how they were the darlings of the web not that long ago and now you don’t hear anything about them.

All those “productivity” YouTubers who were using it and making videos on it – they all seem to have moved on as well. Not surprising though, they bounce around like crazy. It kind of waters down their message when they change apps every six months. What are they all planning in these systems anyway? They never show what’s actually IN these systems. I think they’re all for show – but I digress.

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I moved from Evernote to Bear, and aside from the lack of folders, I quite like it.

I see this comment about the lack of development quite frequently. Seems there are a lot of users who feel the same as you.

To me, it’s nearly perfect as is (again… no folders). I don’t need new features. In fact, that’s one of the things that turns me off about Evernote. They’re continually adding new features that I don’t want, like the home page and calendar connection and tasks, and they’re charging me for those features.

Bear might not be in a continuous development cycle, but to me, that’s a feature, not a bug.

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I recently returned to Craft as well, and I’m a subscriber to Bear. Craft’s feature to nest notes is unique. It lost its popularity possibly due to its marketing focus on team users. The team seems to recognize this because individual users are mentioned on their website again.

I keep the Bear subscription in hopes that their web app would be online eventually.

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I don’t disagree. I don’t need daily features added. At the same time though, when they do fall a bit behind (e.g. no web app), they mention that “it’s coming” for years and years. Still no web app.

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I was in a very similar situation, and use Evernote the same way - a filing cabinet I know I can easily resurface and store information, rather than any smart notes, atomic notes, or day to day minutia etc.

There really isn’t a direct Evernote alternative like that, there’s hacks, and apple notes is honestly the only thing that is as seamless (I see you say blah).

I’ve gone to Devonthink and am happy, but for what you’re talking about it’s not as seamless. It’d a note with words, then separate photos and scans in the same folder. It’s not hard to find again and use, but not as quick to get in.

I’m still paying for Evernote currently, but for the price, the lack of any upfront and tangible work on the app that didn’t slow it down (Home Screen, tasks etc.), and the growing sense of unease around the developers, I made my exit strategy.

Honestly, I’ve looked at Bear, Craft, Obsidian, Notion etc. and Evernote is its own beast of email receival, PDF scanning, storing quick notes, web clipping and storing important notes. Most apps don’t do that well, and in all honesty, it may be worth staying with Evernote. Devonthink is a one off fee which is good (iOS app minor subscription to sync), but is clunky to setup, has a big onboarding process, and is close but not quite as seamless on getting things in. It’s far better at recalling and managing that information, but might not tick your boxes.

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Just an advice: whatever solution you choose make sure the data you put into it is easily exportable in a way at least as convenient as Evernote’s .enex files.

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Totally agree. I save vehicle data similarly to you in DT and it drives me a little nuts what wastes of space these two views are. Show me big thumbnails, or a scrollable combined document view that can put text snippets inline with images and PDFs.

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Definitely. If not for that fact, I’d have moved on by now :rofl:

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Oh yeah, that’s no good. No good at all. Where’s the preview!??

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I use DevonTHINK for the situation you describe. It’s more of a pain in the behind to have everything in one file, (in fact, it would probably be better to have 2 files: The manual, and an “Everything Else” document), but with DevonTHINK’s search it’s not really important that it’s all in one file, I would either have a markdown file with everything I needed to write, (if anything), and appropriately tagged or named photos and the PDF, or I would create a folder and dump it all in there.

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The first thought that popped my mind was that it is a case for Apple Notes. Otherwise I personally also like the Notebooks app. It also supports Formatted Documents which are HTML files. Images are stored in a folder. It is local first and not as complex as Obsidian.

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Agreed. That’s a legit cause for concern.

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I do the same into Apple Notes. I am curious if you have given a shot to Apple Notes what didn’t you like about it?

A similar example I will give is I got Dyson V15 2 years ago and I stored the receipt, serial number and what all the tools do.

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Bear 2 was just around the corner year after year after year, and by the time it finally arrived, I’d moved on. But tbf, they say the complete rewrite they did has set them up to deliver new versions much faster.

I still feel fond of Bear even though I’ll probably never use it for again except for some recipes I haven’t gotten around to moving out of it.

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I know that feeling you are having. Your situation echoes what I went and probably many of us have gone through here at MPU and any former Evernote users.

What helped me changed my mindset and helped me, was thinking of “location”. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Craft - anything collaborative or pretty. (event planning, vacation, etc)
I rarely put personal notes in here. However, I did start putting ‘movie lists, or book lists’. People in my church frequently ask me for book suggestions.

Obsidian - all my personal/work writing

DevonThink - I have a folder dedicated to my house, receipts, invoices, manuals, etc.

Experimental - I am doing the same structure in DevonThink with just a folder in Finder called “Records” (sub-folders containing Auto, Banking, Business, Family, Insurance, Manuals, etc) - I have been doing this experiment for 2-3 years. This folder is backed up in multiple places. But I frequent it more than DevonThink specifically for these ‘house items’

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I’ve tried this. I felt fragmented and didn’t know where to find anything. That said, I also don’t think one app can do it all.

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Apple Notes is pretty great actually, but….

  • I don’t trust the syncing
  • no note versioning
  • backups are not really a thing and the “workarounds” didnt work great for me
  • I sometimes use windows and don’t have access to a Mac. The web version of notes is not up to par
  • limited formatting options
  • no clipper, it just saves links in a simple format.

To name a few….

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I also don’t trust being able to easily get all of my notes back out in a useable, organized form if I ever need to switch apps or operating systems. Pretty much the only things I use it for regularly are short-term notes and lists shared with family members, which it’s ideal for since they all have iPhones.

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Fair points. Also the reason why I like alternatives. A quick question: is Windows for viewing notes only or do you also need to edit them?

Another question that crossed my mind: what are acceptable syncing mechanisms for you? If you don’t trust AN, is sync via iCloud ok?

I am curious what you will be settling for eventually.

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I’ve been really happy with UpNote. Might be an option for you.

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