Mind mappers here may be interested in a quick idea capture tool recently developed by Gyronix (the makers of the heavy duty Results Manager dashboard). It's called GyroQ and looks very simple and useful.

Details (including a demo) are at www.gyronix.com/gyroq.

A Zdnet review is at http://blogs.zdnet.com/Orchant/?p=203

Jack

GyroQ looks like a nifty piece of software, but at $29.95 it looks rather overpriced ($14.95 might have been more reasonable).

I've tried a number of system tray note-takers as a way of temporarily stacking up notes, ideas, random thoughts, to-do items, etc., before transferring them to more powerful software programs. Most of them have been based on the post-it notes formulation, and none of them has been really satisfactory.

GyroQ is intended to be used as a conduit to MindManager (hence the high cost), but the general idea of an immediately-available receptacle for quick notes is a very attractive one. Although I have Zoot permanently open and could use one of its databases (the "Atoms" one, for example) for random jottings, I don't tend to do that - mainly because it is too much effort and interferes with my train of thought.

Currently I use HandyNotes (http://handynotes.net/ which is free, and sits in the system tray. I can't say that I use it more than erratically, however. ZapNotes (http://www.typingpal.com/zapnotes/ is similar, but requires a somewhat intrusive form to be completed before one can download the free program.

What, if anything, do other people use?

Derek

Zoot's "Quick Note" (Alt+Z, u) feature is probably the quickest capture method I've seen for jotting down random thoughts. And since you already have Zoot running...

You can also set the destination database and folder for these notes, so they can all end up in one place for quick review and processing to other databases if needed. I always send Quick Notes and Quick Clips to an Inbox database where they show up along with incoming mail, etc. In fact, I find Zoot one of the easiest ways to set up a central digital inbox.

Chris

Another handy, free notes program is Notebox Disorganizer

http://www.geocities.com/goosnargh37/NDC.html

With Notebox, you save notes to a table. It resides neatly in the system tray and you can pop up a scratch pad by right clicking on the icon. Text entered into the scratch pad can be saved to the note table.

Steve Z.

Derek Cornish wrote:

What, if anything, do other people use?

Derek

I use two:

Stickies: http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/
and the Stickies Store are quote useful. Stickies is free.

OneNote 2007 has a cool feature called Side Note; all I need to do is hit Win+N, and I get a fresh page which is automatically filed in the Unfiled Notes section for processing later.

I tend to use stickies for short, limited-life stuff, and OneNote for items I'll likely need later.

- Wes

Chris -

Yes, Zoot's Quick Note is an excellent feature, but I like to reserve Zoot for more permanent storage. It's also a lot quicker to use HandyNotes from the system tray. But it is very much a matter of personal preference and habit. I tend to use Zoot mainly when I am making a series of notes on a particular topic that I know I am going to keep for some time as a resource for other work.

I think that if it was easier to put Zoot in the system tray, and if opening a note didn't involve something like 5 keystrokes from start to finish plus a note title, I'd probably use it more often for ephemeral notes.

Derek

Steve -

Thanks for reminding me of Notebox Disorganizer. I hadn't thought of using it for random notes. I'll take another look at it.

Derek

Wes -

I used to use another free stickies program, which I rather liked. But I always ended up with a mass of notes on my display. The "advantage" of HandyNotes is that you can only open one "window" at a time. Come to think of it, EverNote might be a better substitute for HanyNotes - less clunky and more options, but equally quick to use.

OneNote 2007 is on my CRIMP list, but I haven't had time to d/l and play with it yet.

Derek

I like the OneNote sidenote scheme too (a version is in the current OneNote 2003).

The only problem is that you have to be running OneNote to get the functionality. (I think that is right).

GyroQ does its thing without MindManager running. It parks the information and only sends it to MM in a mindmap format when you are ready. I guess it's the main feature that they are promoting. You don't need to run the "host" application, with its significant overhead, to get the benefit.

I'm not sure whether you get any special value from to-dos when they are in a mind map format rather than notes or lists.

Jack

I like OneNote's sidenote feature.

However, for me on a daily basis it's Outlook 2003 Cntrl-Shift N. Later you can send your notes to most of the places you might want to - Zoot, Ultra Recall, Palm PDA etc.
For all its weaknesses, Outlook is still the most interconnectable PIM by far. If one uses it for mail and appointments, it's also very likely to be open on the desktop.

For tasks/to do's, MyLife Organized also has a good "sidenote" feature, which parses entries. And its new free little brother, OneAlert, is worth looking at.

Hugh -

For all its weaknesses, Outlook is still the most interconnectable PIM by far. If one uses it for mail and appointments, it’s also very likely to be open on the desktop.

I, too, often have it open for long periods, but I've taken to hiding it when minimized in the system tray (aka notification area) to avoid using up taskbar real estate. When minimized in this way, however, the program has to be re-activated before Cntrl-Shift N works (it works fine when Outlook is simply minimized to the taskbar). I haven't found a way round this, and it makes using Outlook's notes feature for random notes more awkward to use - i.e. one has to click the system tray icon, select "open" to re-open Outlook; then Cntrl-Shift N.

Derek

Derek

Derek Cornish wrote:

Wes -

I used to use another free stickies program, which I rather liked. But I always
ended up with a mass of notes on my display. The "advantage" of HandyNotes is that you
can only open one "window" at a time. Come to think of it, EverNote might be a better
substitute for HanyNotes - less clunky and more options, but equally quick to use.


OneNote 2007 is on my CRIMP list, but I haven't had time to d/l and play with it
yet.

Derek

Derek,

I can sympathize with a screen full sticky notes. I mentioned the Stickies Store for that reason; it's an easy way to file notes away, and yet be able to find them later. I've disciplined myself to only allow a maximum of four notes open on my screen at any one time.

I highly recommend evaluating OneNote 2007 if the beta is still available. I believe it goes retail in January; I'll definitely be buying a copy.

Regards,
Wes

Jack Crawford wrote:

I like the OneNote sidenote scheme too (a version is in the current OneNote
2003).

The only problem is that you have to be running OneNote to get the
functionality. (I think that is right).

Jack,

I don't need to start OneNote to create a sidenote. I just checked the startup folder, and the OneNote installer put a OneNote Quick Launch shortcut there; I'm sure that enables the sidenote functionality.

Regards,
Wes

Here's my chance to plug one of my favorite free utilties: SlickRun, http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/

It's essentially a little command line you can place anywhere on your screen. In my job I'm in and out of a dozen or more programs in a day, and with SlickRun you can start any one by typing a letter or two. Same for visiting Web pages, etc.

I'm plugging it here because it also includes SlickJot, a little notetaking app that you activate with the Windows key-J. Up pops a small window for notes. You can also drag text to it and search it. Very, very handy.

I love this little tool and highly recommend it.

For my GTD notes, the kind of information I want to have around with me all of the time, I use Quick Notes Plus:
http://www.conceptworld.com/qnp/default.asp - $20.

With all the functionality you'd expect from a good post-it app, QNP lets you leave notes on the desktop or sent to any number of "memoboards", (slightly garish) folders.

So far, so - What lifts QNP above the standard post-it app, makes it one of my top apps, is that it also lets you sync notes with palm pdas.

This, finally, makes GTD work for me.

Once the QNP conduit, via the palm desktop, has done its work, sent my GTD notes over to my Tungsten E2, I slice and dice with the excellent and elegant Memoleaf - http://www.redwood-creative.com/global/memoleaf.htm Another bargain at $13.

Ike W

Wes -

Thanks for the Stickies Store tip. I'll take a look.

On the OneNote beta: it looks as though they have taken it off now. Only the on-line test drive is available, so I'll wait until they issue evaluation copies in the New Year. Incidentally, the test drive did not seem to include outlining within notes, unless I missed something. Maybe it only uses simple do-it-yourself indentations.

Derek

Mark -

Thanks for the information about Slickrun. It looks as though it might be very useful as part of my desktop-clearing exercise. I'm about to try out PowerPro for the same purpose - reducing icons and speeding up opening programs. The note feature is a bonus.

Derek

Ike -

the memoboards do look as though they solve one of the problems of post-it notes programs (Wes mentioned Stickies Store as another solution).

When I looked at post-it notes programs, the one I most liked was ATNotes (http://atnotes.free.fr/ - especially as it was free. Unfortunately, it was discontinued last year. Individual notes can be hidden (and have alarms attached to them) and I seem to recall that they could be stored in different folders. I'm not quite sure why stopped using it. I think it was largely lack of self-discipline :-). Or maybe my need at the time was only for a single note window for quick jottings.

I must say this thread has got me thinking again about the issue of random spur-of-the-moment note-taking. When one is writing something, lots of other ideas tend to spill out and the need is really for a means of breaking off to record them and of resuming as quickly as possible. (Well, it is for me, anyway. Entertaining more than one tentative train of thought at a time without losing focus is a high-risk enterprise. It's rather like trying to recall the details of a dream immediately after waking up.) This is why speed and simplcity are so important. Pencil and paper are often the least distracting if one has them to hand. Sometimes I even write the note in whatever program I am working in (if working in an editor, that is) and cut-and-paste it elsewhere later.

Derek

oIt is quite likely that one's

Derek Cornish wrote:

Wes -

Thanks for the Stickies Store tip. I'll take a look.

On the OneNote beta: it
looks as though they have taken it off now. Only the on-line test drive is available, so
I'll wait until they issue evaluation copies in the New Year. Incidentally, the test
drive did not seem to include outlining within notes, unless I missed something.
Maybe it only uses simple do-it-yourself indentations.

Derek

Yes, I searched the OneNote 2007's help, and it seems tab indentations are the way to define an outline. The word "outline" doesn't occur in the demo notebook, which is a getting-started guide.

If you place a tab-indented line below another less-indented line, when you hover above the parent line a plus appears to the left. Double-click the plus, and the child node(s) collapse.

There's an outline toolbar in the View -> Toolbars pull-down menu. This includes the following buttons:

Decrease indent
Increase indent
Make body text
Show body text
Hide body text
Expand drop-down, with the options: levels 2, 3, 4, 5, and all
Collapse drop-down, with the options: levels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and all

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Wes

Ike

For my GTD notes, the kind of information I want to have around with me all of the time, I
use Quick Notes Plus:
http://www.conceptworld.com/qnp/default.asp -
$20.

A very valuable feature of QNP, is that it will also sync with Outlook Memos, thus giving a route into Zoot and into non-palm PDAs, for example Phat Notes, which runs on the Palm and Windows Mobile, will sync with Outlook Memos.

Or so I have just read - I've not actually tried it.

Graham

Derek

I agree with everything you've said about capturing ideas on the hoof. I've spent far too long trying to figure out how to do this without breaking my stride, stopping the sense of flow I get when work's going well.

Now, alt+x on my computer immediately opens a QNP note. I've set it to open small and on top of all else. Very useful: side notes which float above all else, persist as I switch from window to window. And I have templates for projects, next actions etc which speeds things up, ensure I stay in the flow etc.

Another feature which seems unique to QNP is the ability of its notes to stick to particular windows, only appear when I open certain windows. Very useful: I'll open, say, a mind manager map and the relevant GTD notes will appear.

My top alternative to QNP: While ShirusuPad - http://hem.bredband.net/danielc/index.html - is another highly configurable, well designed post-its app with the added bonus of being free, judging by the sad state of its forum, it's early 2005 abandonware. A great pity because it works well - I store notes in a side panel which I activate by moving the mouse to the top of the screen; I drag tabs from the panel on to the desktop as post-its; I can control transparency etc for individual notes; it saves data to text files which means I can find them with DT Search.

Ike

For quick note-taking I have always found that nothing works better than a good text-editor. Even the best, most feature-rich text editors have small memory footprints. I keep UltraEdit open all day long. I keep most of my random jottings in a single file, though you can have any number of tabbed files open. UltraEdit (and other editors) excels at lightning-fast searches across open files, displaying in a separate pane each line in which a search term appears (which is how I wish *all* PIMs and outliners displayed their search results, with, to my knowledge, only the discontinued KeyNote and Nota Bene's Orbis module displaying their results that way). One text editor, NoteTab Pro, offers a rundimentary (but useful) two-pane "outlining" mode that some might find useful for note-taking. And of course the resulting plain text can be imported by or cut and pasted to just about any other program.

Wes -

Thanks for explaining the outlining feature in OneNote. It's a pity I missed the beta, and good to know it's there. From the on-line demo I was beginning to wonder...

Derek

OneNote is one great way to make small notes. It looks like we in Europe will have to way until Jan 2007 for release on our side of the pond, but a 60-day trial version should be available to download later this month to keep us going.

Of all the 'quick note/post-it' style software I've tried ShirusuPad is by far the best. Small footprint, stores data in plain text files, has todo lists and alarms, can monitor the clipboard and be invoked via a hotkey combination, tabbed UI, floating notes.

As for the original item on this post, GyroQ, I have have it and have found it great for getting ideas out of my head whilst not disrupting my train of thought on whatever I'm working on at the time. And yes like all things MindManager related the price is 'towards to upper limit of acceptable'.

A free alternative is the Lifehacker 'Quicklogger' VB script which does something roughly similar, but writes the data to a plain text file.

Nigel

Another option for quick note taking, which I recently discovered, is Quicknote. It has a few features, which, if not unique, are unusual in a pop-up notes application. First is that it allows you store your notes in a familiar hierarchy. Second is that it sleeps in a small patch along the edge of your screen (top, right or left), and can be accessed by sliding your mouse over top of the patch -- you can also access it with a hot-key combination. Third, is a spell-checking function. Fourth, you can also create and store hand-drawn notes. I'm not sure this last feature brings much to the table in terms of usefulness, but it is unusual.

The application is free, although the developer does as for a donation if you like and use the program. Check it out at

www.quicknote.de

Steve Z.