Commonplace Book Mega Thread

[Huginn]

@Torkys I prefer the simplicity of Vimwiki, and keeping the wiki easily accessible as plain text files. Even if the plugin somehow breaks, I got my files without needing to fish them out of the browser storage. Also, just require being able to use my favorite text editor locally. Vimwiki doesn't have drawing options, but I just did a bit of Vim scripting so that I can make a link that opens a new/existing drawing in MyPaint, a dedicated drawing software. Text coloring is just done with some Vim plugin for Markdown files. It has infinite notebook depth too (as many text files as you can fit into your file system).

So, I'm a bit of a special case when it comes to requirements.

If Laverna works for you, that's that.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Huginn

[AleksM]

I use evernote for the last 3 years and it changed my life drastically since using it.  I have almost 6000 notes in it, separated into around 70 categories. I love it. Keeping a commonplace book is extremely important.

[Arman]

On 11/14/2017 at 8:05 PM, Noego2020 said:

Hi all,

In reference to an earlier post in which I gave a review from my initial impression of OneNote I realised that they are two current versions of the software:

1. OneNote - If you have windows 10, then you will find this already installed as an app, there is also a web browser version of this which is available online.

2. OneNote 2016 - This version is bundled with office 2016 and will need to be purchased. In this version you have the ability to save and backup, locally, in the cloud or both.

The User Interfaces are quite different, but OneNote 2016 as more configurable settings and options

I think I will give this a try.

What is the difference between OneNote and OneNote 2016

What is new in OneNote 2016

regards

 

This is a good post. I was using the Windows 10 version of Onenote (OneNote version 17) which is designed for touch interfaced, but OneNote 2016 is definitely superior in layout, options and ability to save on cloud and local.

Only thing is I'm pretty sure OneNote 2016 is free. It's a part of the Office suite but you don't need to buy it. I just downloaded it and installed it from the site. 

Edited November 29, 2017 by Arman

[Noego2020]

@Arman That's quite interesting what you said about OneNote 2016 being free. To be honest I did see a youtube video where someone did download it freely, but when I tried I could not find it. Office 2016 only cost me £6 ($8) and with that you get all the other useful software like word,excel, outlook etc. All authentic and legal.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2017 by Noego2020

[Arman]

21 minutes ago, Noego2020 said:

@Arman That's quite interesting what you said about OneNote 2016 being free. To be honest I did see a youtube video where someone did download it freely, but when I tried I could not find it. Office 2016 only cost me £6 ($8) and with that you get a all the other useful software like word,excel, outlook etc. All authentic and legal.

 

 

Hmm.. weird. Might be a regional thing~

[Naviy]

1) You can download OneNote 2016 for free here:

https://www.onenote.com/download

Click "Other download options". But it cannot store files locally.

2) You can buy MS Office with OneNote 2016 or older. It can store files locally.

3) You can use my trick to use free version of OneNote and still backup files locally:

 

Quote

There are:

1) OneNote Windows 10 App (newest)

2) Older OneNote versions like OneNote 2016, etc.

OneNote App is free, but it cannot save files locally. All your files are stored in Microsoft cloud.

OneNote 2016 and older can save your files locally.

Mostly I like using OneNote App more, but I do not like that all my files can only be stored in cloud. What if I lose access to my Microsoft account - will I lose all my data  then?

 

To save files locally in OneNote 2016 you have to buy MS Office.

 

However, here is a trick I personally use to backup my OneNote files locally for free.

There is a free version of OneNote 2016. It will ask you to buy MS Office if you will try to save files locally. However, it can backup files locally for free.

1) Go to here and download free version of OneNote 2016 (little link "Other download options" in the bottom of the page)

https://www.onenote.com/download

2) In downloaded free OneNote 2016 go to File - Options - Save&Backup

3) Backup your files. They will be stored locally in OneNote program format

4) If you need to recover files, go to File - Open Backups

This is how you can save your OneNote files locally for free.

 

Cons:

1) All your files will still be first saved in Microsoft cloud, so you cannot store your files ONLY locally (have to buy MS Office for this)

2) If you recover backups, you will have to manually move restored sections to your notebooks. Because program backs up not notebooks, but sections with notes in them (structure is saved). This is not a big deal, takes a couple of minutes.

 

Because I am paranoid, I also import OneNote files to Evernote and then from Evernote export them in .html format.

 

 

[Dan Arnautu]

@Leo Gura Were you running Onenote in a virtualbox on a macbook in the video? Or how did you run that version of onenote on your macbook?

I have a mabook laptop too, but the tablet like interface of the mac version of onenote is pretty bad to work with, so I want to change it to the one you have.

[Leo Gura]

@Dan Arnautu Like I said, I install Windows on my MacBook. No virtual box. I don't use MacOS at all.

[Dan Arnautu]

@Leo Gura Ok. Thanks a lot, Leo. Will ponder if I wanna change to windows again. 

[Greatnestwithin]

@Leo Gura what macbook do you use? 

[Joyboy]

You can use Outline on MacOS as an alternative of OneNote, it can import OneNote' s files too.

[Shin]

After watching the video:

EDIT: Bought it, needed it for college anyway 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Shin

[Shin]

On 12/11/2017 at 10:04 PM, Leo Gura said:

Samsung makes a pretty good Windows laptop: https://www.samsung.com/us/explore/notebook-9-laptop/

But MacBook is still better, assuming you load Windows on it.

I have to buy it directly from Samsung ? 

Can't find it on Amazon.uk or .fr.

BTW I'm quoting Leo, but I'm asking everyone.

 

Edit: Nevermind, buying this one, it has a better battery.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Notebook-NP900X5N-X01US-Traditional-Laptop/dp/B01N5HXZAB

Edited December 3, 2017 by Shin

[Shroomdoctor]

8 hours ago, Shin said:

I have to buy it directly from Samsung ? 

Can't find it on Amazon.uk or .fr.

BTW I'm quoting Leo, but I'm asking everyone.

 

Edit: Nevermind, buying this one, it has a better battery.

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Notebook-NP900X5N-X01US-Traditional-Laptop/dp/B01N5HXZAB

I like the Microsoft Surface the most. Portable, and you can do sketches and stuff. And it looks really nice. 

[Leo Gura]

@Marco_the_Ape The Surface Laptop is quite good. Pricey though and spces aren't the best.

Asus has some well-priced laptops.

This newest one is quite awesome:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-in-1-13-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-512gb-solid-state-drive-smoke-gray/6077502.p?skuId=6077502

It's ridiculously thin and light, and uses Intel 8th Gen CPUs.

[Adam M]

Just bought ASUS Zenbook 8th gen from best buy the other day.  No touchscreen.  Super fast, great specs only $1000.  Im typing this on it right now...would highly recommend

[Raphael]

@NJM50

 Xiaomi has a very good quality laptop: Xiaomi Air. It's available in 12.5 and 13.3"

It's very similar to a MacBook, but less expensive and it runs Windows. It also has very good characteristics and performances even though we can find more powerful laptops on the market.

http://www.mi.com/en/mibookair/

You can buy it on Gearbest: https://www.gearbest.com/Xiaomi-Air-_gear/c_11963/

However, notice that you will have to re-install Windows because it will be in Chinese.

[ppfeiff]

Has anybody found a OneNote alternative for Mac? The inability to save notebooks locally is simply a deal breaker for me, not to mention extremely frustrating because otherwise OneNote seems like a fantastic application.

The bottom line: If all your precious notes are on a company "cloud" server, who is truly in control of the privacy and preservation of that information?

I think I'll stick to local storage with my own backups and applications that aren't subscription based indefinitely...

I tried looking into Bear and Evernote, although I run into either local storage or subscription issues...

Any pointers to software that isn't abandoned by the developers? Cheers!

Edited December 10, 2017 by ppfeiff

[ppfeiff]

On 11/30/2017 at 9:59 AM, Joyboy said:

You can use Outline on MacOS as an alternative of OneNote, it can import OneNote' s files too.

@Joyboy Have you used Outline? I'm looking at it on the app store... It looks promising. Would you recommend it?

[ppfeiff]

Update: Outline has a 14-day Free Trial on their website: http://outline.ws/mac

I was sold in 5 minutes.

It's a gorgeous Mac alternative to OneNote, with many of the bells and whistles that OneNote has, AND saving notebooks locally AND no subscription fees AND has an educational discount for a one time payment of $23.99. That's it.

Done. I am satisfied. Looking forward to incorporating this infrastructure change and watching it pay dividends for all the time to come

Cheers!