Zim is awesome on a local machine. For remote work, I stick to vim. All the notes are stored in a gitlab repository which makes it easy when switching across machines.
For laptop, I usually use Evernote or Sublime, depending on how I want to store them. Sublime has some nice plugins that make it really sweet for notes.
For phone, I use Evernote or Jotterpad.
Evernote is only when I really want to store the notes for the future. If they're disposable, I just care about how fast I can write.
BTW, you should also look into being able to type quickly. I find a critical weakness in taking notes on my phone was that I couldn't write as fast as I think, and I would drop a lot of thoughts. I recommend getting enough practice to hit 50 WPM at 100% accuracy.
I use Sublime for notes but store them as plain text files. My other favorite Sublime feature is it persists unsaved tabs through app restarts and system restarts thereby giving me the effect of holding on to my notes until I'm ready to actually save. A lot of stuff I just need temporarily.
Not the parent comment's author, but personally I'm quite content with PlainNotes (https://github.com/aziz/PlainNotes). I also rely a lot on ST temporary buffers, and only use said plugin for mid-to-long-term stuff.
Then I will! I've always preferred taking notes on a computer due to how much easier it is to
- edit
- organize (heck, you can even search!)
But I'm a maths student and I never came across anything where I can efficiently write equations and formulas, before Emacs + Org-mode.
I have now been using Emacs + Org-mode + Yasnippet for a year, and it's bloody amazing. When it comes to efficiently including latex-expressions in my org-notes, Yasnippet is an absolute must.
And because this is Org-mode, I can export all my notes to HTML, PDF, etc. Adding a bit of customization, you get something like this http://www.retiredparkingguard.com/notes/. If you go to one of the note-pages with a bit of maths on it, e.g. mathematics/geometry.html, you should see a bar on the right displaying the notation used in each section. This requires javascript.
I also make heavy use of customized named blocks in my note-taking, e.g.
#+name: def:schrodinger-equation
#+begin_definition
...
#+end_definition
And then, using org-ref, I can do a `M-x org-ref-insert-ref-link` anywhere in the document and I can search through all these definitions, theorems, etc.
These blocks, when exported to HTML, are also given CSS classes, hence you can easily give these styling, making the reading experience into whatever you want.
Finally, I would also suggest org-ref by John Kitchin (https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref); it makes organizing papers and the corresponding notes so incredibly easy.
All together this makes note-taking such a breeze and lowers the barrier for me to re-read and edit my notes significantly, compared to handwritten notes.
My main reason for preferring paper over keyboard is that I like to draw example graphs of everything. These don't need to be exact just give a visual idea of how a function acts.
I also heavily annotate equations (color code, add description, etc)
The flexibility you get with pen and paper, e.g. draw arrows between arbitrary words / equations, you can't really beat.
But for the specific use-cases you mentioned:
- Org-mode allows you to integrate code into the document, hence to draw a function you could easily write a small snippet of code outputting a plot, which will be embedded in the document.
- I actually do this sometimes too! For the color-coding, Org-mode allows you to embedd arbitrary LaTeX such as "\textcolor{red}{\alpha}". I've set up a Yasnippet which lets me type "color + [TAB]" and expands to "\textcolor{}{}" with my cursor inside the curly brackets. I type "red" and hit TAB again, and then type whatever I want to be coded in red. For descriptions, I'm unsure why you couldn't as easily do this in a document. In my documents I usually have a larger body of text deriving/explaining the equation, and then I simply put the equation into a definition-block for further reference. Then I know that I can jump to its definition, and I'll find a more thorough explanation of it.
Sublime or VS code, as markdown in Dropbox for constant backup and easy roll-back for up to a week or something. I had used Ulysses on the Mac but an iCloud sync bug caused me to lose 8 hours of notes from customer meetings so that was the end of that. VS code has a lot of nice markdown plugins and I also use the “highlight” plugin for arbitrary colour based on regex for custom things like tags I include.
Oh boy have I tried just about everything. I've settled on a pretty nice solution: markdown files in my Dropbox directory. To edit them I use iA Writer (paid but worth it) for a very nice markdown exciting experience without any special serialization format like all the others (just plain markdown files). I also use their Android app but for both platforms I could switch to any other app that edits markdown files. Total portability. Syncing is Dropbox's job.
[Typora](https://www.typora.io/) is cross platform for mac, windows and linux. It's a markdown editor which has live preview except on the line you are currently typing on. It's by far the most seamless markdown experience I've had to date, and I'd love to see a non-electron solution with a similar UI. For storing notes you can just use a DropBox folder or a GoogleDrive folder.
I find I retain information better if I hand-write it on paper. I carry a little Leuchtterm1917 notebook around, and I use the bullet journal method which, if you remove all the washi-taping, watercoloring pinterest/livejournal hype, is actually a good system for productivity.
That said, orgzly is org-mode for android and works pretty well. It's FLOSS.
Apple Notes, Sublime Text, Pen & Paper (and all in that order depending on context).
Taking notes digitally without syncing, I'd say stick to your current favored plain text editor. For syncing, there isn't a lot of good stuff out there. You'll be stuck with closed source (like Apple Notes) or using a generic syncing or versioning system like Git, Dropbox, GDrive, S3 etc.
I use standardnotes. I just use the webapp pinned in a safari tab on the Mac, and the iOS app on my phone. Syncs between the two well. It's encrypted, too.
It has minimal features, namely tagging/folders for organization. Makes navigating between my notes fast and easy, and the minimal amount of text formatting allows me to jot thoughts down without being overwhelmed by the desire to format things the right way, which is counterproductive to me.
I found it to be worthwhile enough that I actually pay for it to take advantage of its additional plugins (markdown, dark theme)
For many years I have been taking notes in https://workflowy.com/ . The extreme simplicity of the tool coupled with the way that nesting brings structure to my thoughts is ideal for me.
61 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 120 ms ] thread[0] http://zim-wiki.org/
For phone, I use Evernote or Jotterpad.
Evernote is only when I really want to store the notes for the future. If they're disposable, I just care about how fast I can write.
BTW, you should also look into being able to type quickly. I find a critical weakness in taking notes on my phone was that I couldn't write as fast as I think, and I would drop a lot of thoughts. I recommend getting enough practice to hit 50 WPM at 100% accuracy.
I use Sublime for notes but store them as plain text files. My other favorite Sublime feature is it persists unsaved tabs through app restarts and system restarts thereby giving me the effect of holding on to my notes until I'm ready to actually save. A lot of stuff I just need temporarily.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17239554
Besides that I use Apple Notes. They sync and work flawlessly between iOS and Mac devices.
And lastly, pen and paper. I like writing things down.
- edit
- organize (heck, you can even search!)
But I'm a maths student and I never came across anything where I can efficiently write equations and formulas, before Emacs + Org-mode.
I have now been using Emacs + Org-mode + Yasnippet for a year, and it's bloody amazing. When it comes to efficiently including latex-expressions in my org-notes, Yasnippet is an absolute must.
And because this is Org-mode, I can export all my notes to HTML, PDF, etc. Adding a bit of customization, you get something like this http://www.retiredparkingguard.com/notes/. If you go to one of the note-pages with a bit of maths on it, e.g. mathematics/geometry.html, you should see a bar on the right displaying the notation used in each section. This requires javascript.
I also make heavy use of customized named blocks in my note-taking, e.g.
#+name: def:schrodinger-equation
#+begin_definition
...
#+end_definition
And then, using org-ref, I can do a `M-x org-ref-insert-ref-link` anywhere in the document and I can search through all these definitions, theorems, etc.
These blocks, when exported to HTML, are also given CSS classes, hence you can easily give these styling, making the reading experience into whatever you want.
Finally, I would also suggest org-ref by John Kitchin (https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref); it makes organizing papers and the corresponding notes so incredibly easy.
All together this makes note-taking such a breeze and lowers the barrier for me to re-read and edit my notes significantly, compared to handwritten notes.
I also heavily annotate equations (color code, add description, etc)
How do you get around this?
But for the specific use-cases you mentioned:
- Org-mode allows you to integrate code into the document, hence to draw a function you could easily write a small snippet of code outputting a plot, which will be embedded in the document.
- I actually do this sometimes too! For the color-coding, Org-mode allows you to embedd arbitrary LaTeX such as "\textcolor{red}{\alpha}". I've set up a Yasnippet which lets me type "color + [TAB]" and expands to "\textcolor{}{}" with my cursor inside the curly brackets. I type "red" and hit TAB again, and then type whatever I want to be coded in red. For descriptions, I'm unsure why you couldn't as easily do this in a document. In my documents I usually have a larger body of text deriving/explaining the equation, and then I simply put the equation into a definition-block for further reference. Then I know that I can jump to its definition, and I'll find a more thorough explanation of it.
But it’s not open source
Will look out for your Show HN when you launch a 1.0 :)
You might check out TiddlyWiki. Open source, and will run almost anywhere.
That said, orgzly is org-mode for android and works pretty well. It's FLOSS.
I need something that syncs with my phone.
Taking notes digitally without syncing, I'd say stick to your current favored plain text editor. For syncing, there isn't a lot of good stuff out there. You'll be stuck with closed source (like Apple Notes) or using a generic syncing or versioning system like Git, Dropbox, GDrive, S3 etc.
It has minimal features, namely tagging/folders for organization. Makes navigating between my notes fast and easy, and the minimal amount of text formatting allows me to jot thoughts down without being overwhelmed by the desire to format things the right way, which is counterproductive to me.
I found it to be worthwhile enough that I actually pay for it to take advantage of its additional plugins (markdown, dark theme)
It's more actively developed and deviates a bit from the extreme simplicity of Workflowy. I haven't looked back though. :)