Fun encapsulates neatly a lot of what is mysteriously enjoyable in software.

What notes software have you really enjoyed and looked forward to using?

Obsidian. Yes, it has its frustrating aspects (notably on mobile devices). But it's a very attractive app, pleasant to use even in its base form.

The real fun comes when you start adding plugins. I've experimented with dozens, and have retained a respectable number, of which 33 are currently active (although I have 42 installed, so I can activate them if required). It's a long time since I promised myself I wouldn't install more than 10!

Between them, they turn it into something exceptionally powerful. From link and tag tracking to handling spreadsheet-like tables, you can do more or less anything in Obsidian. And there are often various "levels" involved – I tend to prefer simple, but if you want to go complex, you can (for example, I use DataLoom for spreadsheet-like tables, but you can go full-on Spreadsheets if you want to!) There are any number of tag-handling and task-handling options, many of which are vastly more complex than I need. But they're there, and often of exceedingly high quality.

It's a CRIMPer's delight, not least because you can add/remove plugins as you like. Or you can keep different plugins in different "Vaults" (repositories), essentially changing Obsidian's character every time you change to a new repository. I've been playing with designing simple websites in Obsidian, for example – to do that, I set up a separate repository, installed a whole bunch of web-friendly plugins (like the excellent Webpage HTML and HTML Server), designed some CSS snippets that completely change the "look" of my pages, and can now generate really quite complex websites. No, it doesn't replace a serious web designer like Nicepage, but it is immensely satisfying. There are currently 1,230 plugins in Obsidian's Community repository – that's enough to keep the most avid CRIMPer going!

Another recent discovery (for Apple users) is FSnotes, which is a kind of nvALT equivalent that's evolved out of all recognition since its early days. It's a very fast markdown-based app (nothing special there), but you can also embed Soulver-like calculations in notes, which is extremely convenient.

Both these apps I look forward to using, just as I also look forward to using my reMarkable tablet and the rather nice, if currently somewhat limited, reMarkable mobile and desktop apps.

And finally, I've discovered what must be the tiniest but also nicest ebook reader on macOS: Murasaki (less than one megabyte in size!) Thoroughly professional – I wish there was a mobile version, but it's beautiful in and of itself.

Thank you! What's a CRIMPer?

Ah. You'll find a relevant thread in the sidebar ("CRIMP defined"), but here's the link for you: https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/17/0/crimp-defined

I'm afraid my toys would be saddened if I picked just one as the fun one. So there's three that I play with even when I have nothing important to do: Curio, Obsidian and TheBrain.

Curio, because it's just a blank canvas to start with and is so pleasant to work with that I build pages and models just to see them come to life. Curio is what canvas apps like Notion, and Craft, and whatever that thing is that Apple made, can never be because they put so many barriers in the way of layout flexibility and graphical adornment.

Obsidian because it sparks the same pleasure i had when I was small and kept cigar box treasure chests. I never thought building scaffolding around notes and links could be so enjoyable.

TheBrain because it's a bit of both Curio and Obsidian with the addition of a long and broad timeline: my main brain documents go back decades -- predating almost all other software I use. TheBrain is also a treasure chest. (I hoard notes, now.)

There are more than three fun things of course. Exploring software and getting to know developers and how they think about their creations is so much more fun than playing games.

Curio is an unrecognized wonder. I tend to use it for brainstorming and outlining, not note taking, except in one important area - math.

I'm math stupid, always have been, and I'm trying to heal myself. Nothing does math notes like Curio. I can insert equations with Mathjax and add sidebar text boxes (figures, in Curio-speak). Screen shots from Geogebra fill in the geometry. When I retire at age 135 or so, I intend to enroll in college math courses. I'll be that annoying old Elmer Fudd on the front row who aces every assignment. Curio will be my secret weapon.

As an outliner or mind mapper, Curio appears at first glance to lack notes attachments. However, everything in Curio can have an attached note, outline entries and mindmap nodes included. Activate the notes inspector and away you go. The notes are in a floating pane, not inline. I find that is a small concession.

There seem to be a few apps going by the name Curio these days...is Curio by Zengobi the one of which you speak?

I use different programs for notetaking, brainstorming, diagramming and task management because each one of these activities needs me to think in a different way.

I have fun when a program makes it easy for me to add, review and find back information.

I enjoy using Freemind because it is still the fastest, smoothest mindmapper with an elegant look. Others are more powerful but clunkier.

I have geeky fun making complex multi-level sorting and grouping rules in InfoQube for my task list, and using auto-assignment rules to cascade a set of metdadata changes when I complete a task.

I enjoy laying out cards on Obsidian canvas and seeing where my outline is getting snagged up, something that isn't possible in a linear outline.

Yes, for me, and I think also for others.

Barrage wrote:

There seem to be a few apps going by the name Curio these days...is
Curio by Zengobi the one of which you speak?

Even though it is a very old program, I have a great deal of affection for Brainstorm. As well as its simplicity in creating child nodes that have more than one parent, Brainstorm's bins feature makes moving nodes around very easy, and it's the only software I know of that lets you have more than one part of a complex outline open at the same time. I keep hoping there will be more development of Brainstorm.

I also found Noteliner to be both ingenious and useful. Unfortunately the program appears to be orphanware.

James Salla wrote:

Brainstorm's bins feature makes moving nodes
around very easy, and it's the only software I know of that lets you
have more than one part of a complex outline open at the same time.

Perhaps this would be a separate thread, but I'd be interested to understand better what this unique feature is, if someone would like to explain. (I've used Brainstorm in the past but don't have it currently installed.)

Ah yes, I used to love Noteliner (when I was a Windows user)

But with respect to multiple views on the same outline: you can in various outliners, most recently in Bike (you can open an outline in multiple windows and drill down to whatever level you like in each window). With the web-based ones (Dynalist, Workflowy), you can generally open an outline in more than one window too. And actually, Obsidian will let you open the same note (including ones with outlines in) in multiple windows...

So no, on that score, Brainstorm is by no means unique.

James Salla wrote:

Even though it is a very old program, I have a great deal of affection
for Brainstorm. As well as its simplicity in creating child nodes that
have more than one parent, Brainstorm's bins feature makes moving nodes
around very easy, and it's the only software I know of that lets you
have more than one part of a complex outline open at the same time. I
keep hoping there will be more development of Brainstorm.

I also found Noteliner to be both ingenious and useful. Unfortunately
the program appears to be orphanware.

Actually, I'd have to add Bike to the apps I actively enjoy using. I haven't found a use case that would justify my replacing e.g. Obsidian with Bike, but I'm very happy to support Bike in any case, simply because it's a very nice piece of software, and because it's steadily evolving.

Noteliner was a fine app. The funny thing was the developer -- if I recall right, his name is Sam Hawksworth -- used Macs, but he developed Noteliner for Windows. I tried to talk him into making a Mac version, but to no avail.

An app that is made to show multiple views of outlines is Legend. You create boards, which are setups of multiple pain views of your outlines. You can view the same outline, or different ones. It's quite clever, though it takes some orientation to get your bearings using it.

Steve

You're right, I've been taking a closer look recently, and it's a clever piece of software.

But you can do exactly the same thing in Obsidian – what's more, you can put panes (showing different parts of the same document) side by side, one above the other, using horizontal or vertical tabs, each updating in real time... just sayin'! ;-)

To be honest, it blows Legend out of the water (much though I like Legend).

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

An app that is made to show multiple views of outlines is Legend. You
create boards, which are setups of multiple pain views of your outlines.
You can view the same outline, or different ones. It's quite clever,
though it takes some orientation to get your bearings using it.

Steve