Mac: Notebook vs Notetaker

Posted by rogbar
Aug 19, 2010 at 02:16 PM

I spent quite a bit of time trying out the various Mac information managers, and much as I appreciated the interfaces of Notebook and Notetaker, I decided the “notebook metaphor” didn’t work for me. Being in one section or on one page felt limiting compared to an outline, where it’s all out there to see (if you want to expand everything for that purpose).

I really liked MacJournal - it’s clean, elegant, has nested folders (unlike Yojimbo), and works quite well - but settled on DevonThink for its cloning abilities. It’s also one of the most rock-solid pieces of software I’ve ever seen. I can load it up with enormous amounts of data, images, files, whatever, and it never slows down, crashes or even burps. I gather that Daly has given up his Mac experiment, but if he hasn’t, I’d encourage him to take another look at DT. It might feel like overkill at times, given its many capabilities, but its Replicate function could possibly provide the linking that he’s looking for.

I do use OmniOutliner for a lot of things, Notational Velocity for quick and easy note-taking, and Evernote for certain things, mostly because of its over the air synching. But the heavy lifting belongs to DT in the three-pane view.