History, selection strategy and in-depth evaluation of note taking software

In daily work 、 Study 、 In life , Note taking software has become an important productivity tool . However , Today's note taking software blossoms ： Cloud documents ？ Cloud notes ？ Offline notes ？ Markdown Editor ？ Block Editor ？ Double chain notes ？ In each category , There are dozens of well-known note taking software . that , How should we choose these note taking software that suits us ？

Choose the right tool , You need to consider your own needs , You also need to consider the characteristics of the tool . below , Let's first review the history of text editors ： Only different types of note taking software , In the development spectrum of the editor , We can see their advantages and disadvantages more clearly , And future development trend . therefore , The following are 《 History of text editors ： features 、 Classification and comparison 》

Text editor , English is Text editor, It is mainly divided into Pure text Plain text  and   Rich text Rich text  Two types of . Specific reference Text editor - Wikipedia.

Features of the text editor

1. Typical features ： Basic text format ; shear 、 Copy 、 Paste ; Find and replace ; Undo and redo .
2. Advanced features ： Macro command 、 Multiple files / Multi view editing 、 Data conversion 、 Filter 、 Extensibility .

Classification of text editors

Normal editor

Normal editor ： among , General editors can be divided into... According to the typesetting intensity or interface display effect   Pure text Plain text、Markdown Text 、 Rich text Rich text.

• Pure text , Representative for TXT. At present, this editing style has declined , But plain text Open and write The shortcut editing method of is positioned as the document processing center Drafts And so on . If you want to find one that is enough Lightweight note taking applications , The easiest way is to choose the ones that come with most systems TXT Applications such as notes or memos . Besides , You can also choose Drafts、Flomo、Notezilla 、SideNotes And so on . You can read the article ：

free 、 To use 、 Powerful lightweight note taking software evaluation

• Rich text ： With Word As a representative of the WYSIWYG ｜ What you see is what you get · Interface In a more friendly way to attract a large number of consumers . However , Rich text sometimes requires a large number of shortcut keys to operate , Typesetting is still troublesome . So , Now some rich text editors are compatible Markdown grammar , such as Agenda、Notion、FlowUs.
• Markdown Text ： It's essentially a Lightweight markup language .

3.1  advantage ：Markdown have Easy to read and write characteristic , Right picture 、 Chart 、 There's support for mathematical expressions . also ,Markdown It can be easily transformed into HTML、PDF And other text formats .

3.2  shortcoming ：Markdown Although the markup language simplifies the typesetting operation , At the same time, it also brings a new problem ： Divide documents into Edit mode and Preview Mode , To some extent, it interferes with content creation .

3.3 in the light of Markdown Marking problem for , Live preview and instant rendering What you see is what you get ｜WYSIWYG Become Markdown The development direction of the editor , It achieves the same rendering effect as rich text . In order to achieve a truly undisturbed editing experience . complete The WYSIWYG model represents Typora And the application of Siyuan notes . And part of the outline editor , such as Roam Research Realized part What you see is what you get , At present Block Other than edit area Block Preview mode is adopted . If you are looking for Markdown Editor , First of all, I suggest you choose to support What you see is what you get Of Markdown Editor . For details, please read my evaluation article ：

free 、 To use 、 Powerful Markdown Editor comprehensive evaluation and recommendation   

Special types of editors

Special types of editors ：Source code editors Source editor /IDE Integrated development editor 、LaTex Editor 、 Outline editor 、 Collaboration editor 、 Undisturbed editor .

• Source editor , It is mainly applicable to programmers or software engineers . You can read

Powerful 、 To use 、 For programmers / Professional editors for software developers / Comprehensive evaluation and comprehensive recommendation of note taking software

• as for LaTex Editor , It is mainly to meet the requirements of science and engineering for advanced forms 、 Advanced typesetting requirements such as formulas . at present , There are many online or offline LaTex Editor , such as Overleaf. Besides , Many well-known note taking software in the market have begun to support LaTex The formula . therefore , You can directly select the relevant note taking software .
• Collaboration editor . At present, the mainstream note taking software gradually supports the collaboration function . You can read the following articles for details , It basically covers the common mainstream note taking applications .

• Comprehensive evaluation of online collaboration documents ：Notion、FlowUs、Wolai、 anonymous letter 、 Language sparrow 、 Microsoft Office、 Google Documents 、 Jinshan document 、 Tencent documents 、 Graphite document 、Dropbox Paper、 Nut cloud document 、 Baidu network disk online documents
• Cloud notes horizontal evaluation ： Impression notes 、 Youdao cloud notes 、 Knowing notes 、Notion、FlowUs、Wolai
• Comprehensive evaluation of collaborative office note taking software ： anonymous letter 、 Language sparrow 、Notion、FlowUs、Wolai
• free 、 good-looking 、 Powerful note taking software evaluation and recommendation ： OneNote、Heptabase、FlowUs
• Those powerful 、 Easy to use offline notes / Comprehensive evaluation of cloud note taking software

• Undisturbed editor . This mainly includes two types . One is Immersion mode , Means to highlight the current paragraph 、 That's ok / The sentence , and Play down other non editorial content . This is the main function of many writing software . such as ,iA Writer、Ulysses. The other is Flow mode , That is, unedited text is completely hidden , Show only the current edits . at present , Only a few writing software support . such as ,Writeathon Write a marathon . The specific content , You can read about the comprehensive assessment of writing software ：

• Take stock of those writing software with characteristics
• Comprehensive evaluation of writing software ：iA Writer、Ulysses、Effie、Typora、Scrivener、Gingko Writer、Writeathon、Bear

• Outline editor . This is a special type of editor . In the outline editor , Everything is stored in node The central area . The advantage of the outline editor is Information structure , The disadvantage is that the typesetting is slightly poor , Unable to express complex semantics . If you like the outline editor , Recommended WorkFlowy、Dynalist、 Curtain 、Cloud Outliner Pro、Roam Research、Logseq. For details, please read the relevant assessment

• To use 、 Powerful outline editor comprehensive evaluation

Summary ： How to choose ？

No editor is perfect . No matter what type of editor , They all have their own unique scenes . Take me for example , I like the structured nature of the outline editor . I think the outline editor is suitable for Information management , It is mainly used to collect some fragmented information . I am mainly using Roam Research. because ,Roam The price is too high , The starting cost is also relatively high , So there are few users . therefore , about Roam But introduce more .

Interested in , It is recommended to read relevant evaluation articles ：

Comprehensive evaluation of double chain note taking software ：Roam Research、 Obsidian、Logseq 、 Siyuan notes 、Roam Edit 、RemNote、 Gourd notes 、TiddlyWiki、Athens、Trilium

meanwhile , I also like the new generation of productivity tools  Notion As a representative of the Database. However ,Notion There is no Chinese version , And occasional network instability . To facilitate online collaboration , I now choose the domestic software FlowUs.

As a Notion Like Productivity tools ,FlowUs It's not just following suit , But have their own characteristics .

FlowUs

Introduce

A unique 、 Notion Class All in One Productivity tools .

• FlowUs Support Folder page , Allow users to upload with one click like a network disk 、 preview 、 Share documents .
• FlowUs The mobile end of is based on Native development , Smooth operation .
• rich Software linkage ecosystem .
• Very friendly to individual users , High cost performance .

Reference and embedding of multidimensional tables

The above template part uses the domestic widget Library NotionPet Make ：

• NotionPet Official website - Rich widget Library 、 Dynamic icon library —— Provide a lot of good-looking 、 Useful widgets , It can assist in time management 、 task management 、 Take notes 、 Information management 、 Creative writing and other usage scenarios . among , The number of small parts is increasing , Stable service . also ,NotionPet It provides powerful customized services , It can meet your personalized configuration needs .
• Domestic component library NotionPet： Embed visualization modules for notes —— About NotionPet Special article evaluation of
• Productivity tools —— Note taking software FlowUs In depth evaluation
• FlowUs Interest flow - A new generation of productivity tools