Forum Posts Feed
Are there good selfhosting note-taking software?
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 27, 2016 at 01:31 PM
tsahar wrote:
>I have always found note-taking to be a “disruptive” activity—even
>when I do it with a pencil (or highlighter) on a physical book or
>printed paper—as it surely interrupts the flow of reading.
Indeed.
>On software: Piggydb was discussed on this forum four years ago
>[http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/2490/ ]. It looks quite
>useful. A major downside is that it is a single-user application which
>*may* not let one access it simultaneously from two devices (say, a
>laptop and a mobile phone). Is there anyone here who has used it
>recently?
I might have tried to set it up once but I’ve never used it. However, my understanding is that you can install it on a server. But it also says it needs Java to run it, so that might limit the type of device that can access it?
https://piggydb.net/getting-started/
Anyway, Piggydb is possibly the only notes database I know of that makes it easy to display all the notes belonging to a category within the same page, so they can be viewed simultaneously. I guess you can achieve the same effect with the Scrivenings view of Scrivener, however Scrivener is not a notes database primarily.
Posted by Dr Andus
Dec 27, 2016 at 01:34 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
tsahar wrote:
>>I have always found note-taking to be a “disruptive” activity—even
>>when I do it with a pencil (or highlighter) on a physical book or
>>printed paper—as it surely interrupts the flow of reading.
>
>Indeed.
Though I should also say that there is good disruption and bad disruption. Good disruption is when the reading is giving you a new idea that needs to be recorded, and bad disruption is when the note-taking process is so convoluted that you forget both the idea you wanted to record and what the reading was about…
Posted by shatteredmindofbob
Dec 29, 2016 at 05:31 AM
Basically what Dr. Andus said.
There’s some really good stuff like PiggyDB or even MediaWiki (if it’s good enough for Wikipedia, it’s good enough for you).
But by their nature of being web apps (especially if you’re running them locally), they introduce friction.
On the other hand, OneNote is probably the most friction-less notetaking app I’ve used (Push Win+N, type your note and you’re done) but it doesn’t feel like it provides much power as far as organizing everything you’ve put into it.
Which is kind of annoying, as PiggyDB is fantastic for sorting a whole lot of notes that have been dumped into it, but the process of putting notes in is so cumbersome, it doesn’t feel worth it.
This is why I still haven’t found anything I’m completely happy with to act as a digital filing cabinet of sorts.