Looking for software to catalog work notes
February 12, 2013 9:06 PM Subscribe
I write a lot of notes for my work, which I type up to keep for my records. My current way to organize these notes is as separate files per day, labeled with the date and a descriptive title. This is decent, but doesn't allow me to easily reference old notes by topic, especially when there are numerous individual references under a single broader topic. Are there programs to help catalog notes and journals by themes, or cross-reference topics, in a vague database format? I'm working in Windows.
Evernote is probably your friend here, and would do what you need for the organizational part.
You could eliminate the "type up" part by getting a Livescribe pen. They're kinda amazing. It'll record everything you write and hear, let you mark spots to come back to later (like, if someone says a good pull-quote just draw a star and it'll know it's important), do neat things like graph and math for you as you write it out, and several other things. The one I linked to is the wifi version (the non wifi is slightly cheaper), which does automatic syncing to Evernote, effectively making your workflow minimized to just writing notes.
posted by homesickness at 9:25 PM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
You could eliminate the "type up" part by getting a Livescribe pen. They're kinda amazing. It'll record everything you write and hear, let you mark spots to come back to later (like, if someone says a good pull-quote just draw a star and it'll know it's important), do neat things like graph and math for you as you write it out, and several other things. The one I linked to is the wifi version (the non wifi is slightly cheaper), which does automatic syncing to Evernote, effectively making your workflow minimized to just writing notes.
posted by homesickness at 9:25 PM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]
This is basically what Evernote is for. It will let you tag notes and search by tags or full text, put them in folders, arrange folders into stacks of folders, etc.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:26 PM on February 12, 2013
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:26 PM on February 12, 2013
Sort of an atraditional, but extremely easy solution: set up a private blog and put all your notes there. That way you have an automatic timestamp, you can title the note based on content, and you can add tags to reference different things. If you use wordpress, then you can even set up categories to put the notes under. If you want to reference older notes - you can just use a link. And its searchable! As for privacy - I'm fairly certain that you can set it so that its completely private - not visible to the world at all. Just make sure to download backups regularly.
Cautionary note: if you do go this route - make sure not to go crazy on plugins, etc - keep it bare bones as possible and it will keep you happy.
PS: Also - accessible on mobile phones AND you can post via email.
posted by nondescript at 9:41 PM on February 12, 2013
Cautionary note: if you do go this route - make sure not to go crazy on plugins, etc - keep it bare bones as possible and it will keep you happy.
PS: Also - accessible on mobile phones AND you can post via email.
posted by nondescript at 9:41 PM on February 12, 2013
Look into Notational Velocity - Windows versions exist.
posted by jragon at 10:29 PM on February 12, 2013
posted by jragon at 10:29 PM on February 12, 2013
I used the journal feature in MS Outlook for this for a while. It has availability going for it at least, if you've already got Office installed.
posted by Harald74 at 1:59 AM on February 13, 2013
posted by Harald74 at 1:59 AM on February 13, 2013
I use Evernote with a Samsung Note phone. Lets me handwrite my notes straight into Evernote and then turns them into text without me having to type up lots of bits of paper.
posted by Speculatist at 2:51 AM on February 13, 2013
posted by Speculatist at 2:51 AM on February 13, 2013
Since this is for Windows, this is what OneNote is for.
posted by mmascolino at 6:49 AM on February 13, 2013
posted by mmascolino at 6:49 AM on February 13, 2013
Evernote and OneNote are the usual solutions for this, and many people really like them, so you should check them out.
I personally prefer Google Docs for notes - Evernote and OneNote are too free-form for me, I need a little structure or else I'll never find anything again. You'd either need a Google Apps for Business account, or permission from your company to store notes in the cloud. I imagine they would want to have a say in whether company notes get stored in a third party (Google) server.
You can put a Google Doc in any number of folders, so you can create folders for topics and if a document applies to many topics you just put the document in all those folders (it's all the same document, so you don't get out-of-sync versions). And instead of creating a new document for every day, I create a new heading in the same document for every day, and I add a Table of Contents so I can quickly jump to the right day. And it's Google, so the search features are excellent.
posted by Tehhund at 7:40 AM on February 13, 2013
I personally prefer Google Docs for notes - Evernote and OneNote are too free-form for me, I need a little structure or else I'll never find anything again. You'd either need a Google Apps for Business account, or permission from your company to store notes in the cloud. I imagine they would want to have a say in whether company notes get stored in a third party (Google) server.
You can put a Google Doc in any number of folders, so you can create folders for topics and if a document applies to many topics you just put the document in all those folders (it's all the same document, so you don't get out-of-sync versions). And instead of creating a new document for every day, I create a new heading in the same document for every day, and I add a Table of Contents so I can quickly jump to the right day. And it's Google, so the search features are excellent.
posted by Tehhund at 7:40 AM on February 13, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks for all the suggestions. A couple personal limitations: my work has a pretty strict internet filter, so I couldn't get to the Evernote website or any blogging websites, and they don't want to have us users install software that we had to pay for on work computers, so OneNote looks like it's out, too. I forgot to check on Trello today, but I'll check tomorrow morning.
LiveScribe is interesting, but my handwriting is atrocious, and I find re-writing my notes helps me refresh and collect my thoughts.
That boils it down to starting a wiki and Google docs. A wiki might be interesting, and humph's link has some interesting suggestions on making a personal wiki. I haven't tried Google docs in a while, since Google Drive was rolled out, and I was wary of the transition. Folders sound interesting, so I'll give them a go tomorrow.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 PM on February 13, 2013
LiveScribe is interesting, but my handwriting is atrocious, and I find re-writing my notes helps me refresh and collect my thoughts.
That boils it down to starting a wiki and Google docs. A wiki might be interesting, and humph's link has some interesting suggestions on making a personal wiki. I haven't tried Google docs in a while, since Google Drive was rolled out, and I was wary of the transition. Folders sound interesting, so I'll give them a go tomorrow.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 PM on February 13, 2013
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posted by Dansaman at 9:11 PM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]