"The Little Voice of Vista": How to choose digital note-taking software
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In the program a few days ago, I talked to you about how to achieve goals, and some friends shared their goals with me, which feels great! . When it comes to setting goals or New Year’s resolutions, many friends like to use notebooks or journals to record them. So, in today’s program, let’s talk about notes!
I really like writing notes, and because I founded the community “I Love Writing Notes” four years ago, I have the opportunity to meet a group of friends who like writing notes, and I can often observe their works. Our club members come from all over the world and have a wide age range, ranging from primary school students, junior high school students, high school students, college students to office workers, corporate executives, university professors and even retired seniors, etc. It is obvious that note-taking is a national movement regardless of age, gender and region.
If you don’t have the habit of taking notes, I would also like to recommend you to give it a try when you have time!
I also believe that as long as you are willing to take action, whether you use a traditional notebook or digital note-taking software to record, you will definitely find the joy of writing notes, and the notes you record with care will bring you many beautiful memories in the future.
In today’s program, I want to talk to you about how to choose digital note-taking software? Also, what software do I use myself?
At present, digital note-taking software is in full bloom around the world. Whether on a personal computer, tablet or smartphone, there are a variety of digital note-taking software.
For example, the familiar Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, Notion, Google Keep, GoodNotes, Notability, Si mpleNote,Bear,Ulysses,WorkFlowy,Roam Research, Obsidian, Logseq, etc.
Each of the above-mentioned software has its features and strengths. Some require payment, of course, some are free, and even support open source.
When it comes to choosing digital note-taking software, some friends are accustomed to looking at the price first. For example, the old Evernote has launched free version, paid version and enterprise version, etc. for different objects, uses and needs. If you just want to try to learn how to use digital notes, it is recommended to register a free account first. After trying it for a while, if you find it really useful and you like it very much, you can then consider paying to upgrade.
Not just Evernote, many software have free trial versions. But as you can imagine, most of these free versions of software are just for everyone to try out first, so there are usually some limitations in terms of functions and specifications. If you are satisfied with the free version of a certain software, or feel that it is not enough, you can naturally consider paying.
For example, Notion, which has been highly praised by everyone in recent years, offers a total of four plans, including a free Personal plan, a Personal Pro plan that costs $5 per month, a team plan that costs $10 per person per month, and a more advanced enterprise plan. Of course, if users are willing to adopt an annual payment plan, they can purchase it at a more favorable price.
In the case of Notion, unless you want to upload more files, or want to share notes with more than 5 friends, relatives or colleagues. Otherwise, the free Personal plan is more than enough for most people! By the way, if you have student status, you can directly apply for the Personal Pro plan for free!
Last winter, Notability, which many people like, launched a new version and also modified its business model, turning the original one-time buyout into a subscription-based service. It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, more and more software will switch from a one-time purchase to a subscription service. For the development team, this helps to obtain sustained revenue, but from a consumer perspective, it also means spending more money to obtain the right to use the software, so everyone should consider and choose more.
However, having said that, I think “user pays” is actually a very reasonable thing, so I am also happy to pay for the software I like to use, which can be regarded as supporting the development team to continue to develop better software or services.
Speaking for myself, although there are many free digital note-taking software on the market, I have also spent a lot of money on digital note-taking software along the way, such as Evernote, Ulysses, GoodNotes, Notability, and Roam Research.
Especially Roam Research, which has emerged in the past two or three years. Although it is expensive, I must say that its two-way link function is indeed very useful and makes my note-taking system even more powerful. So even though it requires payment, I was still happy to pay for support before.
When choosing digital note-taking software, besides considering price, what should we pay attention to?
Of course, the most important thing is the function, user experience or scalability of the software itself. For example, when I use an iPad, I will break away from the thinking of using a computer or mobile phone and try to find digital note-taking software suitable for use in the tablet environment.
In fact, there are various digital note-taking software for tablet computers, but the main reason why GoodNotes and Notability were chosen is that these two software pay special attention to the needs of users, so they have taken great pains in the design of the operating interface and functions. It is no wonder that they have won the favor of the consumer public.
If I need to take notes and record at the same time, I use Notability. If I just need to take some simple graphic notes, or even use a tablet to read digital files, I prefer to use GoodNotes.
Take GoodNotes and Notability as examples. Not only are these two note-taking software powerful in their own right, they also support importing templates. Using templates can not only improve work efficiency, but also sometimes look pleasing to the eye. Therefore, we can design templates by ourselves or download templates developed by others, which is also very convenient.
I just mentioned that on a tablet, I prefer to use GoodNotes and Notability to write notes. If it is on a personal computer, I will also choose digital note-taking software based on different uses and needs.
I started using Evernote very early, and I should be one of the first users in Taiwan. I also hosted Evernote’s Taiwan Party before. Well, I still remember that I was on the same stage as Evernote CEO Phil Libin!
Unfortunately, the development of Evernote seems to have encountered some bottlenecks in recent years, and many new note-taking software have emerged later… As a user, when our choices become more and more, we naturally have to face trade-offs. So, although I still liked Evernote, I stopped paying for it.
Occasionally, I will still open Evernote and look at the interview notes and reading notes I have written before. Looking back on the past time, I still have a lot of feelings in my heart! Thank you to this green elephant for accompanying me for more than ten years. I am still very affectionate towards it now.
As the founder of the largest note-taking community in Taiwan, it seems normal to install a lot of note-taking software on my MacBook Pro. In order to make today’s program, I took a look at my usage status: the most used one is Ulysses, followed by Roam research and Notion, followed by Quip and Apple’s memo.
Oh, right! Recently I have also started using Logseq, which I will introduce to you later.
Speaking of Ulysses, this is an old note-taking software that is loved by many Apple users or professional word workers. If you open this software, you may find that the interface above is quite simple. In other words, it focuses on efficient writing, and irrelevant elements on the interface are weakened and hidden. As soon as you open the software, you can immediately enter the writing state, as easy as writing on a white paper.
Moreover, its backup and synchronization can be completed automatically, and it supports almost all export formats, making it a powerful assistant in your writing process.
Therefore, whether I am writing media columns, product copywriting, or planning outlines and scripts for online courses, I always use Ulysses. For me, the advantages of being able to write quickly without having to worry about archiving and backup are the main reasons why I am willing to pay for it.
Another digital note-taking software that is often used is Notion. Of course, if you only position Notion as a digital note-taking software, you seem to be underestimating it! Notion is now gaining momentum, and it feels like it has surpassed Evernote back then!
Notion is a software with powerful functions and beautiful visual design. In addition to writing notes, it can also build a database. You can view the database through different views. If you add Filter and Sort, you can complete many convenient searches and applications through the database. Some people say it’s like a souped-up version of Evernote, and I agree. If you are very interested in Notion, please continue to pay attention to “Vista’s Little Voice”. Later, I will share with you more related digital note-taking techniques and some interesting applications, such as how I use Notion to build my own inspiration database. In addition, I have also [introduced a Chinese book on Notion] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpaQvD2tJk) in the program before. Friends who are interested can also check it out!
When it comes to digital note-taking software, the point is not actually the software itself, but the words and phrases we record, which may become a creative source of inspiration at a certain moment in our lives. Therefore, when many friends choose digital note-taking software, they will pay special attention to its storage and backup methods.
Nowadays, more and more note-taking software support cloud backup. For example, Roam Research, which I use, stores notes in the cloud. However, some people find this uneasy and prefer to store files on their own computers or locally. Therefore, digital note-taking software such as Obsidian and Logseq allow us to store files on our own computer hard drives, and they are quite popular.
I just mentioned Roam Research. The subscription fee for this software is not cheap, but its functions are indeed quite powerful.
Roam Research refers to WorkFlowy’s list note-taking method and draws on Wiki syntax to implement two-way links, that is, two square brackets are used to link notes, two parentheses are used to quote text paragraphs (Block), and reference blocks (Linked References) with reverse links are automatically created.
If you like to write notes, you may find that just writing notes is not enough. When we want to go back and review or index, it may take a lot of time. Although most of the digital note-taking software available in the market provide search functions, in many cases it is not easy to find the notes you want just by searching with keywords.
At this time, if we can use the two-way link method used by Roam Research, we can quickly link and index different notes, which can be said to be very convenient.
However, because of the high cost, although many people like Roam Research, they still dare not adopt it rashly. However, now Notion, Obsidian and Logseq have also imitated this syntax mechanism, so we can experience bidirectional connections in a relatively low-cost or free way.
Finally, let me talk about the Logseq software. Recently, many friends around me, such as Fan Bing, XDite, Fu Ge and others, have started to use this digital note-taking software.
Logseq, like WorkFlowy, is an outline software that supports Markdown format and can be extended to unlimited levels. It is also very similar to Roam Research, with daily records as its core. After opening the software, we can write down our daily life or work experience, coupled with the two-way link and local backup functions, it is no wonder that it has won everyone’s favor.
I also found that Logseq supports [Plugin](https://www.leonlin21.com/2021/10/20/Note-taking Software/Logseq Tips/) (Plugin). You can see many plug-ins designed by third-party developers on the Plug-in Market, which are also very practical.
Yesterday, I also tried to import hundreds of notes that I had written on Roam Research into Logseq. It was successfully completed with just one click, and it was completely painless. The only thing that needs a small modification is the way the date is written, but this is not a big problem.
In today’s program, I talked a lot about choosing digital note-taking software. We can think about it from different aspects such as price, functionality, user experience, scalability, writing format and backup. I hope you can choose your favorite digital note-taking software based on your interests and needs.
In addition to introducing how to choose digital note-taking software, today I also share with you the digital note-taking software that I usually like to use. Which one do you like best? Or would you like to hear more about some note-taking software that I can introduce? Welcome to leave a message and tell me!
I hope that today’s sharing can help you choose a useful digital note-taking software. You are also welcome to join the big family of “I Love Note Taking” and [let’s write notes together] with 80,000 colleagues from all over the world (https://www.note-taking-club.com)!
Okay, our program today comes to an end! If you like “Vista’s Little Voice”, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, or go to Apple Podcast Give me a five-star review and share this show with friends who are interested.
Thank you. See you next time. Goodbye.
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Further reading
- “Vista’s Little Voice”: 50 Things Moms Can Do with Notion feat. “Enjoy Being a Mom” founder of the e-newsletter Pingfan Mom
- “The Little Voice of Vista”: Introduction to the digital note-taking software Logseq
- “Vista’s Little Voice”: How to take notes quickly
