Comments on: Keynote for the Web

Question: Keynote for the Web

Jimbob — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:04:29 -0800

In the last 24 hours I've discovered Keynote (no, not that Keynote) and it's pretty much revolutionized the way I organise my information and do my work. Is there a web-based equivalent?

The basic form of Keynote is:

(a) A tabbed interface - each tab is a "note".
(b) Within each tab you can set up a "tree".
(c) Each node on the tree is an RTF text document.
(d) It's all movable, searchable, exportable.

Somehow this format is incredibly intuitive - it makes much more sense to me than all the other "mind mapping" or Wiki style of information management software. I can put a different project in each tab, and under each tab set up nodes and sub-nodes for a things to do list, copies of correspondence, things to remember, research data, analysis, lists, you name it.

But it would be killer if I could keep all my information online in a form that is accessible from anywhere. Now days the web seems full of "Online AJAX to-do lists" - any ideas about something more like Keynote?

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:07:45 -0800

Keynote is excellent (used it for years, tried other things that I didn't like much and ended up with the free evernote) but I haven't seen anything quite like it on the internet. You do know you can run it off a USB thumb drive, right?

By: blag

blag — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:41:55 -0800

Unless I've misinterpreted you, isn't what you're after actually along the lines of a wiki?

Or maybe Google Notebook? You could have one notebook for each project and keep all of your lists and data as separate notes. No built-in list functionality, though.

By: fletchmuy

fletchmuy — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:42:03 -0800

How about Remember the Milk?

By: EiderDuck

EiderDuck — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:24:02 -0800

I've been a huge fan of Keynote for the past few years and have tried out every single Ajax info manager in the hopes of finding something similar. There isn't one.

By: imposster

imposster — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:44:42 -0800

Zotero? They're currently working on making it web-based. (Browser-based for the time being, but still pretty useful.)

By: verevi

verevi — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:46:01 -0800

Just came across this today: www.ijot.net

I like the folding sections and the hierarchy on the right. Looks like it might be as close as you're going to get at the moment.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 10:38:34 -0800

Try sproutliner.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:43:40 -0800

Well, ijot is about as close as we get - it still ain't quite right - I thought the tabs at the top were something you could edit, not part of the site itself. Anyway, thanks for the effort!

By: Kwirq

Kwirq — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:25:24 -0800

Holy crap! This question destroyed my productivity today. Thanks for introducing me to KeyNote.

By: yclipse

yclipse — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:26:45 -0800

Keynote is free but is no longer being developed. A $30 product called MyNotesKeeper is very similar. Those who can peek under the hood can perhaps determine whether MNK has borrowed the KeyNote code.

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:25:24 -0800

If different software is where you end up going, I'd suggest evernote. The free version isn't crippled unless you need something like handwriting recognition. Not only does it do trees (not tabs, though), it also supports tags and auto creates some branches according to tags and lets you create custom rules on which notes go where. This is quite useful in both obvious and not-so-obvious ways. (Make sure you edit the preferences to auto-tag the note with the branch you're creating it in or you may end up wondering where some things went after a bit! Don't know why this isn't the default). It has just about all the features of keynote I use and then plenty that keynote doesn't. Too much to list, really.