Alright bruv. What's the best note taking app around? What I wanna do is have like 6 headings and as I read the bible for the rest of my life put in things that fall under the heading. For example "gods promises" and then be able to go into it and see all the ones I've put in. And be able to search too. Any thoughts?
Assuming we are talking about taking notes on an iPhone and iPad, here are my recommendations based on that critera.
Writing Apps
Notes
Free, iOS, Mac
Old faithful. For some reason we get sick of it and think the grass is greener on the other side. For syncing notes between an iPhone, iPad and a Mac its basically perfect. In a couple of months Apple is adding image and doodle support.
Pros
- Already installed on all your devices
- Very quick, reliable note taking
- Simple
- No fuss syncing
Cons
- Just text. That's it
Vesper
$4.99, iOS
This app gives you a great way to take notes with some simple formatting and image integration. Not much more to say, non-nerd types really like it if they can stomach the cost.
Pros
- Simple, solid
- Easy formatting options
Cons
- High price point for the functionality you get
- Apple will be matching everything this app does in a couple of months
Evernote
Freemium, iOS, Mac, Web, Android
Evernote is a cross-platform, freemium note taking suite that will run on pretty much any device you own. It has support for text, images, audio and drawing. You can also easily share your notes and have collaborative notebooks. It's pretty solid, the only reason I don't use it is because I prefer my notes to be accessible in any app and evernote notes can only really be accessed within Evernote. Still, this is the preferred choice for many, many people and the app is definitely a bit of fun. It's free to try and free to use so there is no harm in giving it a go.
Pros
- Powerful
- Cross Platform
- Strong search engine
- Other apps in the suite if you need more functionality
Cons
- Powerful (more than what most need)
- Needs an evernote account (free)
- Pro features cost money
- Often needs an internet connection
Editorial
$9.99, iOS
This is my note-taking app of choice. In fact I am writing this post in here now. It syncs plain text files over dropbox and is great for longer writing, as you can fold your headings which helps you concentrate on whatever you are writing next. The search is perfect. It also lets you save snippets of text that you find yourself typing out often. An example of this would be the six headings you were talking about, you can type in a shortcut and it will automagically paste those headings in for you. You can also create page templates with those headings and today's date and time if you really wanted to.
Image support is limited to having the picture hosted elsewhere and then linking it.
Pros
- Uses Dropbox for syncing
- Simple but powerful
- No need for TexExpander
- Can fold headings
Cons
- Need a basic understanding of Markdown writing
- Need a Dropbox account for syncing
- Unable to add photos in-app (needs to be hosted elsewhere)
Notability
$4.99, iOS, Mac
The king of note taking apps. If you ask someone for the best note taking app, this is it. It started off as a Stylus and keyboard style app you could do drawings in but has become a more rounded program for taking text notes, audio files. I used this all through my one semester of uni lol.
Pros
- Take any sort of note you can think of
- Decent sync
Cons
- Not as simple as other apps?
Extra Tools
TextExpander Touch
$4.99, iOS
If you choose to use a note taking app that doesn't have templates or snippets built in, this gives you that functionality.
FIN
I Don't want to pay anything! These are digital notes bruhh Then just use the notes app and use it well.
I want to be able to do a little bit more with my notes, I can sacrifice a cheeseburger for the day to get it Download Vesper.
I need to be able to keep my notes thoroughly organised, maybe even publish them to a blog or something, I dunno you tell me Try evernote, Bible college students actually love it.
I need everything above but want to keep my notes in my Dropbox and access it using any other app Use any plain text editor with Dropbox Support, my choice is editorial. Matt Bond uses iA Writer, my mum uses 1Writer.
I wanna doodle dammit! and record John Gray telling me not to vote greens while doodling at the same time Notability the only choice.