OneNote vs. TexNotes

[Amos Soma]

I've come to the conclusion that I need a better way to manage my notes,
thoughts etc. I've been evaluating OneNote and also TexNotes. After spending
a couple hours with each, OneNote seems rather complicated, immature and
expensive. TexNotes on the other hand doesn't. Could anyone who has
experience with both share their thoughts on this?

Thanks, Amos.

 

[Derek Martin]

Hi Amos, well, price is always a consideration for software, but in my
experience, I have found that since I use almost all MS products, OneNote's
integration with the other Office System tools makes it hands down the best
choice for note taking.

More than that, however, I really like OneNote for its simplicity! I know
you describe it as complicated, but for me, the organization model very well
mimics how I do my not taking on a daily basis!

Cheers,
Derek

 

[Chris H.]

You should also take a look at GoBinder from Agilix (the creators of the
computer versions of FranklinCovey's Planner): http://www.gobinder.com/
There's even a free download of the 2005 beta (very stable). GoBinder,
though headed primarily for the college/university users, is highly
customizable and versatile.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[Tony Short]

Amos
My favorite is Evolution from http://www.tabletevolution.com

I can keep all my notes in ink, link to other notes or files and it has some
very free form mind mapping features.

Its worth a look and there is a free trial release.
Harry

 

[none]

I agree that Texnotes is a little too cutesy. It's not just the bear,
it's the liberal use of pastel colors.

After finding that OneNote didn't quite meet my needs for organizing my
dissertation, I made a pretty exhaustive search of hierarchical
information managers. I finally settled on CrystalOffice's Maple, which
is far from perfect, but meets my needs. It has a number of drawbacks
and a few bugs, but I chose it over Hyperclip because the interface is
less cluttered, it seems more responsive (snappier when changing notes)
and it has a few features I prefer (though Hyperclip has some that Maple
doesn't -- they're both worth trying out). Both are missing some
features I desperately want:

1. the ability to define styles, ala Word, and have the style
definitions remain stored with the document. Changing a style updates
all its occurrences within the tree.
2. nested lists within a document.This is especially annoying because it
should be trivial. Any RTF document editor should support this.
3. custom node templates, such as for 'todo lists' with check boxes and
contact lists where each contact is a sub-node and information is filled
in as forms which can be customized or defined from scratch
4. a built-in web browser (acting as an IE wrapper) such that nodes can
be hyperlinks to web pages, thus remote, dynamically changing content
can be accessed from within the software. Essentially, this would make a
node simply an http bookmark, but I'd find this incredibly useful.

I list these so you know what you're getting into. Many people will find
OneNote a better solution (though it doesn't do some of these, either)

 

[arasu]

I know that this is a forum to talk about OneNote - all the same you
should look at ndxCards (www.ndxcards.com). It allows for a lot of
flexibility in organizing the notes, and at the same time is well
integrated with MS Office products - for instance, you can create an
outline of the notes and directly get a Word document from that, or
you can drop the note cards as pictures on to PowerPoint or even
OneNote & visually organize the notes, as you would 3x5 index cards.