[Solved]What's a free note taking application that has a Windows Desktop Client?

Hi All!

As it says in the title, can someone recommend a good note taking application that has a desktop application?

I've read a bit about the topic and Evernote comes to mind. However, it's not free. Thanks in advance.

Bumping this to the first page. :angel:

VictorLapin said:

AFAIK, Evernote is free with additional features added in a premium subscription. If you are looking to something completely free and lightweight, try Google Keep, it provides web access and also Chrome extension.

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Yes, Evernote is indeed free up to a certain point but 60MB, even for full text notes, isn't sufficient.

I tried migrating my notes to Keep right now and I think this might actually work. I've read about it in the past but it didn't appeal to me because of the lack of an actual desktop client (I never used Chrome Apps before). Thanks for suggesting it!

Pros:

1. Very clean interface
2. Offline note taking and viewing in both the Chrome Application (More on this later) and the mobile client.
3. All features are free!
4. Sync seems to work flawlessly

Cons:

1.Chrome Application means I have to sign in to Chrome and disable all syncing except for Apps as I don't like syncing my data onto Google.
2. Chrome Application is preventing me from maximizing notes as I edit them. I have wall-of-text type of notes and this really hurts my eyes. I suppose this can be remedied by changing my note taking habits.
3. I can't re-order my notes. They are shown in ascending order by date created?

All in all I think I can make this work. I just need to re-arrange my notes for this specific application. If anyone else has any input or can show me how to relieve myself of the OCD inducing annoyances I've found so far, please chime in

cadarn07 said:

I haven't really used Google keep yet (already a long time user of evernote) but have you looked into one note by Microsoft? It has a free version. Lifehacker.com just did an in depth comparison of evernote and one note. Might be worth looking in to.

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WarCow said:

Seconding the Microsoft OneNote suggestion. There's a free version for Windows now and AFAIK it also works with their Android app

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Yes, I recently saw that article. But this completely shut down the idea for me. Apparently, I'm only able to use this in the paid version:

Create notebooks on your PC. Create notebooks saved to your hard drive (offline) in addition to being saved to your OneDrive. Being able to work with notebooks offline as well as online is great for anyone with a spotty network connection or those who are always on the go.

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Source

But, I'm not so sure I understand what it means. Basically, I need to be able to access my notes offline (I don't have a mobile data plan) and once online, be able to sync them again. Since you folks seem to have experience using it, can you tell me how it works?

Honestly, I was able to see the UI of OneNote and it seemed a lot more appealing to me.

cadarn07 said:

I tried out one note briefly awhile ago and it should do what you want. The paragraph you quoted seems to say the same. The notes are saved offline and they sync with your one drive account.

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The paragraph I quoted is specifically under the "What do I get in the premium version of this application" section. However, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. I'll download it now and see how it functions. Will let you guys know. Thanks for the advice!:good:

VictorLapin said:

Might be a little late here, but still - Google Keep has web access from any browser, try keep.google.com. Cheers.

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Accessing it from there has the same exact interface as the Keep Chrome Application. Thanks for the suggestion though

I still wasn't able to find the time to test out the free version of OneNote. Been a bit busy today. I suppose I could take a note that I should test OneNote in Google Keep which I'm currently using

I'll make a short review once I'm done doing just that.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Edit - It seems I haven't found the time to review OneNote. In addition, Keep serves me very well. The only real caveat I have with it is the inability to reorder my notes.

Edit 2- It seems my brain is tired and after a week with no suggestions from other users, I've finally figured out how to move notes around.

One simply needs to click and drag the notes around. < How I didn't figure this one out seems baffling to me. I need to exercise my brain more :'(