Recommendations for Note taking app with simple needs
from quaff@lemmy.ca to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 20:41
https://lemmy.ca/post/52460014

Hey y’all. I’ve been testing a bunch of Note taking solutions and nothing seems to check off what I want and need.

I want a simple interface (both for list view and note editor/view), preferably similar to Google Keep, but a regular list is fine as well.

Key features:

A. being able to drag and drop re-order checkbox lists.

e.g.

I’d like to be able to just drag and drop the above to sort things correctly.

B. E2EE at rest.

C. CTRL+F inside the note view/edit!!

Honestly, the only functionality I truly want is A. But most of the solutions I found are either proprietary or can’t do it.

Self hosted options I’ve tried:

Notesnook looks almost as insane as Standard Notes to self host (mimicing AWS stack locally is nuts). Has anyone tried Notesnook yet? I don’t want to spend another afternoon setting something heavy up only to find that the feature I want is gated by a heavy $.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Woops! I am looking to use the notes app on both Android and Web/Desktop Linux. Preferably an open source solution.

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

fossilesque@mander.xyz on 28 Sep 21:05 next collapse

You can do all this with Obsidian and plugins. I just saw a nice keep like interface one. You’ll have to play around a bit but it’s definitely doable.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 21:08 collapse

I suppose I should have mentioned more directly, I’d prefer if it’s an open source solution.

fossilesque@mander.xyz on 28 Sep 21:56 collapse

If you change your mind: github.com/linuxserver/docker-obsidian

quaff@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 22:56 collapse

Thanks.

I just set up Notesnook lol I can drag and drop reorder list items (checkbox list) on the official server, but not when connected to my own… Same exact mobile app (just different server)… The fact that Notesnook and Standard Notes both claim to be open source, but don’t share all of their code with the open source world. Maybe it’s gated by env vars. Who knows. I have half a mind to give Obsidian a chance if it can do what I want.

fossilesque@mander.xyz on 28 Sep 23:01 collapse

The plugins are open source at least, and the notes it makes aren’t proprietary. It’s just an app to interact with them. Been using it as a trapper keeper for years and it’s been able to keep up with my changing needs. :) !obsidianmd@lemmy.world There’s thousands of plugins and the discord is a huge resource.

tal@olio.cafe on 28 Sep 21:17 next collapse

You might want to list the platform you want to use it on. I’m assuming that you’re wanting to access this on a smartphone of some sort?

quaff@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 21:19 collapse

Ah good point. I edited my post! Android and Web (nice to have is desktop Linux support). Thank you!

eager_eagle@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 21:23 next collapse

it might be worth watching this PR for memos, which adds encryption at rest. I can’t vouch for it, as I didn’t read the code but I do use memos and might consider this if it’s merged.

github.com/usememos/memos/pull/5130

This is not E2EE, but I don’t think E2EE is that important if you’re hosting your own data. And clients can use TLS for encryption in transit.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 22:54 collapse

Can’t drag and drop to reorder lists. But it looks cool!

CaptDust@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 21:30 next collapse

I use notesnook but I don’t self host, just the app locally. It has an option to insert a task list into the note, and that has drag and drop reordering. It also encrypts at rest, and has text search. Hope that helps your decision.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 28 Sep 22:59 collapse

Thanks! I had tested Notesnook with the official server. It worked the way I want. but it seems their self host server doesn’t have that feature. Not obviously tho. Which is really weird, since I’m using the same client app (where I assumed this functionality would live).

CaptDust@sh.itjust.works on 28 Sep 23:29 collapse

That’s a very specific and interesting exclusion, weird. Well sorry dude, best of luck finding something that works.

EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world on 28 Sep 22:51 next collapse

I spent several years looking for the perfect selfhosted solution to this, but ultimately I realized an offline solution was just going to be better. So I started using Obsidian which is as simple or complex as you want with no paywall.

Some of the self hosted solutions I’ve tried were:

Joelk111@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 00:25 next collapse

You can also get obsidian to sync using the guide here: www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/s/GegPIcBjFg. It’s really good.

hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 02:20 collapse

I settled on obsidian really quickly as well. And now sync thing + tailscale + obsidian means I am done experimenting and things just work.

Burghler@sh.itjust.works on 29 Sep 05:09 collapse

Unless you’re using syncthing on Android which is a nightmare

HelloRoot@lemy.lol on 29 Sep 08:42 collapse

Works fine for me.

What issues are you having?

hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 09:17 collapse

Some hiccups for me but nothing egregious.

SpookyMulder@twun.io on 29 Sep 02:39 next collapse

Every now and then this question comes up. It’s a timeless software engineering conundrum. Kind of like how med students might start to think they have all kinds of diseases and conditions because they’re learning all these symptoms.

Software engineers, especially new ones, tend to be heavily biased toward applying technical solutions to non-technical problems. Most never actually grow out of this.

I’ll advise what I advise every time someone approaches me or one of my peer groups with this very question:

Get yourself a notebook and a pen.

I’m dead serious, not trolling, and not some kind of technophobe zealot.

When it comes down to it, if you let go of what you think you need in a to-do list app, you’ll find that what you actually need much simpler.

Notebooks are e2e encrypted. Self hosted. Offline. As ephemeral as you like. Indexable for search. Versatile. Take a picture of a page if you really want to. OCR it if you need to.

Pen and paper.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 03:07 next collapse

I hear ya. I don’t carry a notebook with me, and don’t like to fill my pockets. So I appreciate the low tech suggestion, but will have to pass on this!

Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe on 29 Sep 14:03 collapse

I carry a phone, I’m not carrying a notebook and pen.

I did that 40 years ago.

Plus that list doesn’t show up on my laptop or my desktop, other places I’m working.

It’s not sortable by date/time, priority or project.

That’s terrible advice, and doesn’t even meet the basic requirements of the question.

k4j8@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 05:28 next collapse

Have you considered Kanban apps? All of them should support A+C. I’ve used Wekan and Kanboard. Hope this helps your searching!

Meron35@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 05:55 next collapse

Not sure of your specific needs, but I feel that self hosting (i.e. setting up a proper server) is unnecessary. Just pick a local first program and use it with syncthing.

The usual trio (which may be overkill) are Obsidian (admittedly not open source), Trillium, and logseq.

conrad82@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 05:56 next collapse

I use Tasks.org with caldav (Radicale) on android and thunderbird on pc, would that work?

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.tasks

I see tasks.org supports etesync, which encrypts data. I have never used it though

tom@jlai.lu on 29 Sep 13:51 next collapse

I also recommand Task.org app to sync tasks with CalDAV and I use raw Markdown files with WebDAV, both using the DAVx5 app for synchronization. For editing Markdown, I prefer minimalist apps that suit my needs. Right now, I find SimpleMarkdown (with disabled telemetry) to be the best choice.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 19:10 collapse

SimpleMarkdown doesn’t allow for re-ordering checkbox list items.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 19:10 collapse

I already use Tasks.org :) But that’s for specific things.

I like writing list of things. Like groceries, and as I write them, I tend to re-organize them. Having the ability to re-order the items easily helps me tremendously.

Tasks.org can’t fill that note aspect. Let alone re-ordering a task.

conrad82@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 23:54 collapse

I see 🙂

I used emacs org-mode before. Can do a lot of stuff on PC, but mobile experience was lacking. And learning curve is crazy

I am currently testing out logseq + syncthing. I don’t reorder things much anymore though

Good luck!

littleomid@feddit.org on 29 Sep 05:56 next collapse

Emacs and org-mode.

bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 14:41 collapse

Lots of features, but not simple and a big learning curve is you don’t already is emacs.

I don’t think that there’s a way for it to do drag and drop, either, although it’s emacs, so who knows?

orosus@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 06:45 next collapse

I use Logseq with ToDoList plugin to handle task list. Logseq is similar to obsidian but open-source. And to syncronize notes among devices, I use syncthing. No need to selfhost.

Cyber@feddit.uk on 30 Sep 07:18 collapse

+1 on all of this.

Logseq basically saved my mind when I took on a new job where I needed to take a lot of notes quickly, easily and keep track of all the ToDos.

Syncthing keeps my laptop and phone in sync (with my NAS) so I can start notes on my laptop and then finish on my phone.

You can definitely reorder checkboxes, but on Android it’s still not quite a smooth experience, but it’s ok.

iopq@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 07:04 next collapse

What I want is being able to hand draw something quickly in my notes, what’s the app that has text and drawings?

jinx@lemmy.zip on 29 Sep 20:18 collapse
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe on 29 Sep 14:10 next collapse

Others have mentioned Syncthing as a sync solution. I’d like to add a couple points:

Syncthing can work fine even for solutions that are intended to use their own sync, provided it’s a single-user setup. You’re not likely to make simultaneous changes on 2 devices, so collisions are unlikely.

Also for using Syncthing, I recommend Syncthing-Fork for Android - it moves sync conditions into the folder/job rather than global. Very useful when you have jobs you want always syncing, and jobs you want to only sync on wifi and power.

If using iOS there’s an ST client called Möbius Sync ($5), developed by a company the financially supports Syncthing.

For Windows, get SyncTrayzor - it makes running and managing ST easier.

blackfire@lemmy.world on 29 Sep 14:12 next collapse

Triliumnext can do everything you want. Its pretty damn powerful

quaff@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 17:45 collapse

Whoa. This actually works pretty close. Although, I am not seeing the ability to drag and drop re-order list items. Which is the big feature I want and need.

I am seeing in their github issues that CKEditor doesn’t support it. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Lfrith@lemmy.ca on 30 Sep 21:37 collapse

If there is a kanban extension or something of the sort you might get the drag and drop list you want.

There is another Google Keep like app called NotallyX. Can even import in your Google keep backups. You can set up password protected auto backups with the app.

As for syncing syncthing as others have mentioned would be the best solution that would let you be able to use whatever you choose to go with.

iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works on 29 Sep 15:40 next collapse

Docmost?

WeAreAllOne@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 29 Sep 16:41 next collapse

Notesnook. And if you like it, buy the pro ASAP since they’re raising the prices this week.

communism@lemmy.ml on 29 Sep 21:31 next collapse

I self-host Notesnook and found it easy to set up. Been using it as my main note-taking app for years now and I’m really happy with it.

quaff@lemmy.ca on 29 Sep 22:21 collapse

Are you able to drag & drop to reorder checkbox list items in notes? 🙏

communism@lemmy.ml on 29 Sep 22:56 collapse

Yes, if you use the “task list” block. You can also have checkbox bullet points but I don’t use them, not really sure what the use-case for those are when you can just use the task list.

sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 29 Sep 23:42 next collapse

Hi quaff!

The app I use for this purpose is called Notally, on android. It supports reordering the checkboxes, but it doesn’t do find in page or sync to web (although it can do backup /restore – I sync the folder with nextcloud and I can access the text files)

That said if you try it, you might love how simple it is and use it for something!

f-droid.org/packages/com.omgodse.notally

Pandantic@midwest.social on 30 Sep 01:10 next collapse

I use Workflowy. Partner and I replaced G Keep with it. It can do A and maybe C.

OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml on 30 Sep 03:40 next collapse

Joplin and Obsidian.

nycki@lemmy.world on 30 Sep 05:33 next collapse

code editors might have the features you want, and its easy to repurpose a code editor into a notes app.

sync a folder between your devices (syncthing is great for this) and put markdown text files in it. I like to call this folder “Memo” since its like writing letters to myself.

edit the markdown using VS Code (desktop) or Carbon (android). I haven’t tested whether Carbon can do this, but I know in VS Code, you can reorder a list with keyboard shortcuts.

click anywhere on a line of text, then hold Alt and press Up arrow, and the text will swap places with the line above it.

edit: Syncthing and Carbon are open source. VS Code has some proprietary code added by Microsoft, but none of it is relevant to your use case, so you may prefer the fork called Codium.

daytonah@lemmy.ml on 30 Sep 07:08 next collapse

Obsidian and good ol’ paper and pen. (or epaper). The paper I use is on bullet jpurnal style.

poesty@piefed.social on 30 Sep 10:29 next collapse

How about AnyType? It matches your requirements.

BackYardIncendiary@lemmy.sdf.org on 30 Sep 14:47 next collapse

Not for everyone, but I use a self-hosted single user email server for this. All the formatting your client permits, clients for every platform, attachments, organization into folders, synced automatically everywhere, etc. No spam filtering, MARC, DKIM, and the like because you only ever email yourself and you don’t permit external senders. I love it.

krankykrio@lemmy.world on 02 Oct 01:04 collapse

Any recommendations or resources you could share? I really like this idea.

tuxec@infosec.pub on 30 Sep 21:39 collapse

Anytype is awesome!