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Communications Software

Note-taking Software for Unix? 107

Posted by Cliff from the ditch-the-pencil-and-pad dept.
donniejones18 asks: "I've been trying to find note-taking software for my university classes, work, etc. but all I can seem to discover is Windows-based software, such as OneNote or GoBinder. I would like to know what software Slashdot readers use for note-taking in Linux? If not, would anyone be interested in working together on this project? Ideally the software would support the insertion of PDFs, images, and other documents for handwritten annotation from a tablet PC, PDA or by mouse from a PC."
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Note-taking Software for Unix? More

Note-taking Software for Unix?

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  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:34PM (#13351498)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • It's been discussed before (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:37PM (#13351511)
    Previous note software topic
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/21/211825 8 [slashdot.org]

  • kids these days ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by p2sam ( 139950 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:37PM (#13351517)
    Being a recent undergrad myself ... What the hell is wrong with the good old fashioned 3 ring binder? Using a note book or PDA is way over kill for the over priced joke of an education that you're getting.

    • Re:kids these days ... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Search your notebooks often?
      • Search your notebooks often?

        So what's wrong with those useful little coloured tags so thoughtfully provided by 3M?

        OK, in my area (molecular biology) it is damn hard to find software of any kind that makes note-taking easy, since much of it involves diagrams which are much quicker when done with a pencil. Concentration spent on generating a diagram on a computer is far better spent on listening in the first place.

        Some form of dictaphone might be useful, though; you could record lectures to your hard drive,

      • No. Since I create all the content in my notes (these are still high school notebooks), I'm able to mentally keep track of when and where the note I need to be. It says a lot about how little you pay attention if you're flipping through pages and pages of notes, unable to relate those at the beginning and end to what you're looking for..

        Just think: Okay we studied X around mid september. It's now late november... Did that before it... that before it. Oh! Did that after, *go back a few pages* ah, there we go
      • All the time. And it's easy, because they're organised into neat sections. I can find things very easily. Software is no substitute for organisation.

    • Re:kids these days ... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by HalWasRight ( 857007 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:48PM (#13351947) Journal
      I'm dyslexic. I can barely write with a pen and paper, but I can type well. Taking notes on a laptop was the only way I got through many of my classes.
    • WTF is with the attitude anyway? What's wrong with a 3-ring binder is that you can't search and you can't replicate.
      • Um, not the OP but with a 3-ring binder it should already be organized. Searching shouldn't be an issue. These are notes - reminders. The main stuff is in your head including where you put the information. The human brain is really one heck of an awesome search engine.

        As far as replication goes, photocopies and scanners work just fine. What's the problem?

        • Um, not the OP but with a 3-ring binder it should already be organized. Searching shouldn't be an issue.

          I dunno about you, but I took a hell of a lot more than a 3-ring binder full of notes in college, and I still go back and search them from time to time.

          I found vi + TeX + a custom tag generator to be sufficient, but something a little less rudimentary could be interesting.
      • You can't easly edit, ammend and reformat a 3-ring binder..

        a 3-ring binder also has a tree cost.
    • Argh... In Europe we use four ring binders and I have this nice Novell binder with three rings which I can't use... Damn you Americans! Arrrrgh! :)

  • Use Openoffice, note software is limited (Score:3, Informative)

    by linzeal ( 197905 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:39PM (#13351528) Journal
    Use openoffice so you can add pictures, spreadsheets and crap as well as being able to save them in a PDF format for printing on campus. I have used OO for 3 years of uni note taking, happily.

  • LaTeX (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mahonri5 ( 708013 )
    I take my class notes in LaTeX using vim. I stick to paper and pencil for math (can't remember LaTeX math bindings fast enough), and other drawing type classes.

    Makes for readable notes when I have to go back to them.

  • It's called a text file (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ratatask ( 905257 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:43PM (#13351563)
    See e.g. here [vim.org]
    Use tools such as mv(1), mkdir(1) , ln(1) and grep to organize,

    • I'd mod +1 Insightful (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Noksagt ( 69097 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @08:14PM (#13352086) Homepage
      But I just blew my last mod point.

      43 folders just ran an article about making one big text file [43folders.com], which followed up on an O'Reilly post [oreillynet.com] on the same topic. Bottom line is that one thing all productive geeks share is that they stay organized by just adding stuff to a plain text file. It is a good life hack [craphound.com], which is intrinsically cross-platform & easy to use & small.
      • TiddlyWiki is an improvement on the Big Text File. It's still one file, self-contained, but it gives you some structure and the ability to see your notes from multiple views. Right after I discovered it I converted about a dozen Big Text Files (many of which overlapped to some degree) into a tiddlywiki.
        • I do use a wiki & I also think whatever works for you is whatever is best. So I'd be the last one to say you're wrong. However, I will be more than willing to point out why text has usually worked better for me.

          (As I mentioned on that 43 folders page) vim's folding support and markers do let you keep things organized well enough. I still find the search tools for plaintext files are still faster and more useful than wiki searches (not only do you have the highlighting and ability to jump to the next
    • I'd certainly vote for keeping as much stuff in text files as possible.

      Whilst I can understand the wish to store images and handwritten annotations, it'll be difficult to search for the idea that you were trying to get down with the annotation. Long-term, it'd be easier to store images as files, and annotate them in separate text files. Convert PDF files to text (having access to the source of pdftotext helps here!). Email is mostly text anyway...

      It's easy to cross-reference from one file to another (and
      • Feh, you emacs people :-)

        I used vi for note-taking. When studying for the Bar, I could easily grep all of the files in my class directory structure to find quick specific information wherever it resided.

        I also used a few specific key character combinations in my notes all the way through school so that I could search for certain kinds of information (indicating items I expected to see on exams, good quotes from professors, references to books I'd like to read, that kind of thing). As long as you have a met
    • I would agree with the text file... I spent my whole parallel algorithms class taking notes in GNU emacs (which is a much better editor than vi).

      But those note taking apps are useful only if you dont have graphics or maths.. otherwise it becomes hell.. I still haven't seen a single good one for that.. during my first year in engineering school I wanted to try writing one.. but I never found the good idea/motivation...

  • But Why?!? (Score:3, Informative)

    by BigFlirt ( 632867 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @06:43PM (#13351565) Homepage Journal
    It seems to me like you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Just suck it up and write in a notebook. You'll spend more time on the solution to your contrived problem than paying attention in class, which is what you shoulda been doing in the first place.
    • That's not true for most people. I don't know about you, but most people will spend several hours a day for at least 4 years writing and reviewing notes. If you want to spend a few hours looking for the best / easiest method, it seems like time well spent. Even if you do conclude that pen and paper are still your best option. I found that over the last year or so, a growing number of people were taking notes with an iPaq and folding keyboard. I know I found my PDA was lighter then the 4 or 5 notebooks I w
      • I can see, however, how that might not work in some classes.

        Pretty much in most of classes which are not PowerPoint slides based. Update text notes, update graphs and sketches almost in parallel and try to pay attention in the mean time. This is why I think paper notebooks have long lasting future.
  • After all you can do anything in emacs. If you want a UI, just make it xemacs

    --- Remember boys and girls --- emacs is a pretty good OS, if only it had a decent text editor

    • No kidding.

      I used to take biology notes in high school using emacs on my old laptop. Don't go thinking I was one of those posh students who flaunted technology, but rather the laptop was old even at the time, which I bought used and refurbished at a discount from a computer repair facility. I used it because note-taking was a problem for me and, even at that age, I could type several times faster than I could write.

      The machine was only barely powerful enough to run linux, but I practically lived in emac

    • Real men use 'vi', besides it's the only editor I can still use when I am drunk. Which is very useful and frequent for a college student. I have even seen vi for windows.

      THINK ONCE, THINK TWICE, THINK DON'T PUKE IN THE DATACENTER.

    • The 'X' in Xemacs has nothing to do with the 'X' in XFree86/X11.
      • That would be "The X Window System" or simply X.

        I used Xemacs because for a while, Xemacs would run in both console and X in the same instance, unlike emacs. Thus my laptop could run in console only, and open gui sesions in X on my desktop. Handy, and kept my laptop usable much longer that otherwise posible.
        • There is such a feature underway for GNU Emacs, too. But currently it only exist as a seperate patch set. I guess it will take a while until it makes it to the main CVS repository. But yep! This is a damn useful feature. It's especially nice to attach to an already running Emacs session (in X) if you connect via SSH.

          Just in case you are interested:
          http://lorentey.hu/project/emacs.html.en [lorentey.hu]
    • Heh.

      You mean TECO [cbbrowne.com]?:-D

  • Er... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Knara ( 9377 )
    I hate to be a jackass, but isn't using a PDA or laptop to take notes a little bit of overkill? I mean, the whole point of notetaking is to jot things down in order to flesh out a concept, or add information that isn't in a book, lecture, etc. Seems like a bit of overkill anyway.

    When I was an undergrad, the profs were just starting to make their lecture slides available before or after the lecture. Then again, I always read the book ahead of time (not all at once, mind you), so the lectures were "additi

    • Maybe you can split the difference between Computer and Paper... I haven't used this product, but I had come across it a while back.

      http://www.acecad.com.tw/digimemo/dm-a501.htm [acecad.com.tw]

      It allows you to write on regular paper. The problem with this: I think the software is Windows based. I did however find a freshmeat project

      http://freshmeat.net/projects/digimemoa501converte r/ [freshmeat.net]

      to convert the files to UNIX, so maybe that will work.

      This would allow you to have both a paper copy, ease of 'data' entry, a

    • Re:Er... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nasarius ( 593729 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:29PM (#13351834)
      I always read the book ahead of time

      Precisely. If you want to do well, reading the relevant chapters before lecture is key. Take notes while reading the textbook (I only use this as an aid to concentration, but it can be very useful if your professor follows the textbook closely) and do the problems. Go to lecture with a decent understanding of the material. The notes you take should only be a rough outline to refresh your memory, plus details about difficult concepts.

      Taking copious, multimedia notes seems like a waste of time to me. Anyway, that's just my strategy; I'm sure it won't work for everyone.

    • Re:Er... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bastian ( 66383 )
      On one hand, I agree completely. I used my PDA to take notes for about a year while I was in college. My stated reason was because my handwriting had gotten so bad that I couldn't necessarily read my notes after class, while on Graffiti I can write almost as quickly as I can with a pen and paper, and my accuracy is damn near 100%.

      However, I gave up after that year because it was impossible to draw little diagrams and such. I just improved my penmanship. Tablet PC's never excited me for a few reasons - m
      • On one hand, I agree completely. I used my PDA to take notes for about a year while I was in college. My stated reason was because my handwriting had gotten so bad that I couldn't necessarily read my notes after class, while on Graffiti I can write almost as quickly as I can with a pen and paper, and my accuracy is damn near 100%.

        Write Graffiti with pen and paper. I've found it's faster to write than handwriting and much easier to read afterwards.

        • Re:Er... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Bastian ( 66383 )
          Much of the reason why I did better with Graffiti in class is that Graffiti is very easy to write without looking, because it's all in one place. With paper and pen, I couldn't watch the professor and chalkboard as much, because without looking at what I was writing I'd end up with a jumble of letters overlapping or the text wandering up and over other text and stuff like that. So the advantage isn't Graffiti itself, it's just the idea of one letter at a time, all in the same spot.
    • A lot of professors I've had discouraged notetaking. The best example of this was a physics class I took in which the professor provided excellent viewable [rutgers.edu] and printable [rutgers.edu] LaTeX created notes for each lecture. It worked out well. I usually didn't go to class and when I did I didn't have to take notes. (Yes, I still got an A).
  • It's a pretty decent notes program that lets you graphicly associate ideas...But it Might not be exactly what your lookign for. http://www.insilmaril.de/vym [insilmaril.de]

  • notecase is nice (Score:4, Informative)

    by nri ( 149893 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:03PM (#13351704)
    http://notecase.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] is really nice.
    especially the tree view on the left.
    Also if you dual boot, then you can use the same dat file.

  • Freemind... (Score:4, Informative)

    by sarguin ( 702714 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:15PM (#13351767)
    Freemind is a mind map tool written in Java. I use it on Linux and Windows. I can live without it for my day to day work... http://freemind.sf.net [sf.net]
    • I like Freemind conceptually. It works well for organisation of small amounts of information. The trouble is that it does not scale well. It becomes very slow when using it to organise copious notes. I also find it rather insular. It is awkward to link data in Freemind with outside information.

      I have periodically tried various methods, but (both Windows and Linux) I now just have a QuickNotes folder with a link from the Panel/Taskbar (little known is the fact that you can drag a folder to the taskbar

  • I don't have an answer, but I want to know why is a computer overkill for taking notes in class?? I personally think it's perfect. Some people type faster then they can write with a pen and a computer can be used for taking notes much faster. Plus you can take those notes and print them out so you can study under the tree. I personally would take MORE notes when using a computer. Plus with the built in mic you may be able to even record some of the lecture as well. Also, many campuses also have WiFi n
    • Most of us here are probably taking mostly science/engineering and math classes. It's a real PITA to write equations and draw diagrams with a word processor.
    • "I don't have an answer, but I want to know why is a computer overkill for taking notes in class?"

      Because it's overkill in real life. Most "note type" information in the real world is quick random bits of info that may or may not have any connection and no easy way of writing it down without small diagrams or lines connecting things. In every situation in my job where I have had to take notes (meetings, interviewing clients, etc.), anything more than a pen and a pad would have been a waste of resources an
      • If it's so important you must write it down, yet you state it's random stuff, then it must not be that important, so why write it down?

        I personally am not much of a note taker (unless I need to write/type specific things down). The reason is you are right....much notes are not too important. Sometimes it is. If it's important, I write it down. If not, I don't. I know many people who madly write everything on the chalkboard/whiteboard and 90 percent of what is said. The thing is some things in clas
        • "If it's so important you must write it down, yet you state it's random stuff, then it must not be that important, so why write it down?"

          Random in the sense that the information comes in no particular order. For example, I usually have an outline and a general script for how I want interviews with client to go. In reality, the client is going to talk about all sorts of things in a different order, but I still need that information. What I find myself doing now is taking down notes in random order straigh
  • I'm not in school anymore, but I'm always in need of such a program, as I do not posses a photographic memory.

    I build and maintain networks, and whatever else happens to need doing network or computer wise. I don't do the same thing day in, day out. A good part of my working hours are spent just-in-time learning, so I can finish the job at hand. And tomorrow, it'll be something else. Notes for me are a necessity.

    As such, my laptop goes where ever I go. It's also been my experience that paper does

  • LyX (Score:4, Informative)

    by Azraael ( 813863 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:58PM (#13352008)
    I've been using LyX (http://www.lyx.org/ [lyx.org]) to take research notes for quite some time. It has all the advantages of Latex (it runs latex in the background to generate the PS, PDF, etc..) combined with a sexy GUI with floating menus for the math stuff (so you don't have to remember all of those "crazy" names) as well as letting you directly type the ones you do know by heart... All in all, the best thing since sliced bread... at least for note taking (notes in sliced bread tend to get mouldy after a couple of weeks!)

  • Wiki? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Professor Cool Linux ( 759581 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @07:58PM (#13352012) Homepage
    Just use a lightweight wiki on a local-only apache server.

    I personally use roWiki [rowlff.de], mainly because it's easy for me to hack new features onto.
  • I work for a company called EverNote [evernote.com] - that makes note-taking software for Windows. It exports and imports XML - and we have experimented with XSLT for it - and HTML and text notes become visible in web-browsers.

    I have been trying to convince our management to pursue a *nix version, but we haven't so far - siting low demand.

    I suppose that someone inclined enough to use it on Linux can work with the XML exports and a little XSL.

    Any takers?

  • This is the software that I'm currently using after trying difference note taking software for Linux:
    http://shared.snapgrid.com/gtd_tiddlywiki.html#Rev isionHistory [snapgrid.com]

    It actually a small webapp that u can use your browser to open with but that's the point because I always has my browser open anyways.

    You can add and remove tasks as editing and change information very quickly in one pape.

    Check it out.
  • How about tomboy [beatniksoftware.com]?

  • Look for a "Computerized screen to write on" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by failedlogic ( 627314 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @09:40PM (#13352455)
    One of the problems with normal pen-and-paper you can't do keyword searches on your notes. I have messing writing sometimes and cannot read what I wrote. And notes get easily disorganized and even when well organized it can be hard to find the right information come study time. As well, I always end up making a study sheet and it would be nice to just copy and paste what I need while speed reading though it.

    Some of you guys (and gals!) in computer science (prob most of the audience here) might find it practical to type away on a laptop. Or you don't have to worry much about "keywords", thus the pen and paper.

    I'm in 4th year in a Liberal Arts program - and I know of several business, communications and other majors as well that are dying for a better digital notetaking alternative. Since I have a nice desktop system (iMac G5) a laptop is not practical and affordable used ones are either missing things (ethernet), are in need of replacement parts (old HDD), or I don't feel like lugging it around on the bus back from university. And there's no warranty. Overall, though, I don't mind useing a note-pad like program to type in notes.

    I'd like to know if there is a small monochrome display that you can simply write-on that will save all your notes. I've thought of scanning in all my notes but its too tedious. (Please don't suggest an etch-a-sketch, I've already thought of it ;) ... not practical anyways only one page at a time and then I'd have to shake everything off!!!).

    Someone's mentionned the Ace Cad (http://www.acecad.com.tw/eng/application.htm [acecad.com.tw]) notepad. To me, the usefullness of this thing is self-defeating. 1) You need special ink and finding it is hard; 2) You still end up wasting paper; 3) it only works on Windows; 4) You can't easily clean up the file digitally afterwards; 5) its $150 CAN. I do like the fact it uses Flash memory as storage. But it loses some of its appeal.

    IMO, Microsoft missed the boat on the Tablet PCs. If they had lowered the system requirements (I'm sure they could have .. I think they purposefully inflated the system requirements so the OEMs could sell more expensive systems), I would have bought one for university.

    A PDA isn't a half-bad idea with a keyboard attached I supposed.Any other suggestions?

  • One Note eh? (Score:1, Redundant)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) *
    So your parents bought you a hyper-expensive tablet pc, so you could "write" your school notes on it?

    Brilliant.

    There have actually been several great inventions since Unix - one of them is called Paper. Sometimes, it's just the "Best tool for the Job"tm

    I'm just messing with ya...

  • Check out Tomboy [1] if you use GNOME, or don't mind pulling in a million dependencies for a simple note-taking app.

    [1] http://www.beatniksoftware.com/tomboy/ [beatniksoftware.com]

  • Freemind (Score:4, Interesting)

    by darnok ( 650458 ) on Thursday August 18, 2005 @10:41PM (#13352748)
    I've been using FreeMind for a couple of years to take notes, and it's brilliant. You need to subscribe to the Mind Maps approach to note taking first, but having done that ~10 years ago, I haven't found a commercial product to touch FreeMind.

    More and more, I use it in preference to Powerpoint for presentations. Being able to drill down on points while retaining the context of other points onscreen, is a really powerful way to keep audiences interested, and also lets you change tack mid-presentation if you've misjudged the prior knowledge of your audience.

    Free, rock solid, export to XML, link to other documents and Web sites, simple interface that stays out of the way. What more could you want?
    • A bit more - it's 100% Java, so runs in Windows, Linux, Mac etc.

      I believe you can also embed it in Web pages, which is probably useful to somebody but not yet to me.
  • I use Ecco every day and it rocks. Although written for win95 and not having an update for the last 10 years, it is still a very well written PIM with very competent outlining capability.

    I know of some people who have already gotten it working via wine.

    Have not tried myself as I do not hack in linux and am tied to my windoze box:

    http://www.thenakedpc.com/dan/pims/ecco.html [thenakedpc.com]

    Regarding NoteTaker types, single panel outliners are the only way to play. I have always found the common multi-pane outliners to be too
  • FreeNoteQT [urban.ne.jp] runs on the newer Zauruses (Zaurusi?). I've installed it but not yet played with it to any significant extent.
  • unless you adamantly refuse to take notes with pencil and paper. Get a cheap sheet fed scanner, like the HP Offijet 4215 all-in-one ($100). The paper feed is vertical like a printer (well, it is a printer) and monochrome scans go really fast, like 5 seconds a page. You can take notes on 8.5x11 paper and scan them in every day/week/month in just a few minutes with xscanimage. Convert the pages to a single PDF with your favorite free software such as Imagemagick, PDFTK, or whatever... I was able to scan

  • use a Wiki ? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Gori ( 526248 )
    If you have a unixy laptop, installing a local wiki might be a solution.
    There are many different wiki sistems, from very simple, to very very extensive. Im sure yu can find soemthing you like. Take your pick here http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines [c2.com]

    Many will have plugins to draw simple diagrams, can attach files etc.
    The one I use extensively is TWiki : http://twiki.org/ [twiki.org]
    Both for note taking and group collaboration in my university department.
  • Once synched, I could do pretty much whatever I wanted with the text. For input, I splurged to buy one of those folding keyboards. It worked fairly well. The best bit was that I could work on papers pretty much anywhere.

    But once I got into upper level classes, I found that the my notes needed a level of organization that was much easier to enforce with pencil and paper. When taking notes, I would put the date in the left margin along with key words to use as something of an index. I used the equivalent of a

  • You dorks don't get it. Again! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wow, look at all these flames and "recommendations"! I'll ignore the pencil and paper recommendations and concentrate on the software recommendations.

    All of the above recommendations clearly illustrate a common problem with a lot of Linux users. It seems that although they are quick to deride Microsoft and their software, they don't actually have the slightest clue what the software is or what it can do. Certainly they have never actually used the software so they are completely unqualified to make ANY stat
    • Thank you! OneNote is a very nice piece of software and one of the few products from Microsoft that I genuinely find helpful. I am a senior in computer science of engineering, and definitely willing to try to develop note-taking software, but a project of this size would be tough for me to take on alone at this time. Anyone interested?
  • http://basket.kde.org/ [kde.org]

    it really is great and exactly what your looking for.

  • Use Emacs or XEmacs in outline mode. If you want fancier output, use consistent markup (either homebrew or something like markdown [daringfireball.net]) and write a script to convert it to your preferred fancy format (e.g. LaTeX or HTML).

    If you're writing down math lectures, learn LaTeX and use it to jot down equations.

    Easy!

    (Well, to say, anyway--I've never tried it. But you can't go wrong with a text file and a scripting language.)

  • Kjots, the easiest to use. Much improved now you can nest folders. Gjots, more features. TreePad (windows version) still more, but harder to use and not free. Treeline is supposed to be good but I have never got it to work.
  • So graphical tools are good for this problem-space, depending upon your needs.

    Here're two projects inspired by Microsoft Journal:

    http://freshmeat.net/projects/jarnal/ [freshmeat.net]

    http://www.adebenham.com/gournal/ [adebenham.com]

    Depending on your needs, you might find a drawing program of use --- I use Futurewave SmartSketch (old PenPoint program ported to Mac OS and Windows which morphed into Flash) on my Stylistic 2300

    So look at

    http://www.cenon.info/ [cenon.info]

    or use GIMP for bitmaps

    If you do a lot of math, you may find the Freehand Formula Entr

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