Notes are nested inside customized class tabs; suppose color-coded tags in a three-ring binder. You may connect particular notes to conferences through Outlook and prioritize them utilizing urgency tags of assorted ranges. In the event you’re searching for a “skilled” notes app, OneNote is a superb possibility.
Plus, when you’ve got a subscription to Microsoft 365 on the desktop, you’ll be able to then benefit from Microsoft’s Copilot AI integration in OneNote. The AI helper can create summaries and to-do lists, collate info from numerous sources, or simply rewrite your notes to make them extra clear and coherent.
Apple Notes
{Photograph}: Apple
In the event you use an iPhone, then Apple Notes is an apparent alternative. It comes put in in your cellphone, and, like Google Preserve, it excels in its simplicity. Whereas there are extra superior options, like the power so as to add attachments and to clip textual content and pictures from the net, they don’t muddle issues up.
Group can also be excellent if you happen to take the time to arrange class folders and nest subfolders inside them. In the event you’ve already gotten used to Apple Notes, there’s nothing improper with sticking with it. Oh sure, and if you happen to’re feeling adventurous, you’ll be able to dictate notes to Siri—it isn’t as educated as the opposite AI-powered assistants on the market, nevertheless it transcribes speech fairly nicely.
Bear
{Photograph}: Bear
Meet Apple Notes’ extra refined cousin. Bear notes supply a bevy of styling choices that help you change themes, regulate formatting, and play with the typography of your notes. (It’s out there on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computer systems solely.) Functionally, Bear works the identical as any of the opposite apps on this record, albeit with much more aptitude. It packages all its options in a heat, cozy type that gained Apple’s design award in 2017.
One in every of Bear’s most useful options is the power to hyperlink notes collectively through tags. Simply tag your ideas with the suitable class (work, wedding ceremony, books to learn) as you jot them down, and Bear will kind them into their correct folders. If it appears like your ideas come from all over, or if you happen to’re dangerous at retaining issues organized in folders, this may be an effective way to maintain your digital life so as.
Bear received an enormous model 2 replace final 12 months, which was a labor of love that gave it a bunch of new features. The up to date app is best at organizing tables, has the power so as to add footnotes, and gives higher in-note search. It is all wrapped in a extra nice design too.
Bear is a free app, however a Professional model prices $30 per 12 months and gives extra options like customized themes, the power to sync with iCloud, and the choice to export notes in additional codecs like PDF and HTML.
Evernote
Sorry to say, however we won’t advocate Evernote anymore. As soon as probably the most progressive of the cloud-based notes apps, Evernote has since advanced into a tragic shadow of itself. The app now’s a cluttered mess that has jammed collectively nearly each function conceivable: group chat, picture transcription, internet clipping, and integration with different on-line companies. Consequently, it’s way more cumbersome to make use of than the others on this record whenever you simply wish to jot down a easy concept. We had been additionally turned off by the sheer quantity of pop-up advertisements that seem time and again to immediate you to subscribe to Evernote’s $130 per 12 months premium tier. (Evernote’s present new guardian firm, Bending Spoons, laid off its entire US workforce final 12 months.)
Sadly, numerous folks nonetheless use Evernote, and possibly really feel locked into its now-degraded ecosystem. It might be arduous to make that change to a brand new app, however if you happen to’d wish to, it’s attainable to take away your notes from Evernote. Sadly, exporting your stuff off the app has turn into nearly as cumbersome as utilizing the app itself. Nonetheless, if you happen to plan to make the change, right here’s methods to do it:
