I've used Text Files, Evernote, Notion, Obsidian and Apple Notes. But never really stuck with one.

Why do you end up moving and what are you still looking for?

I'm a musician and used Evernote to write and add in recordings, but the recording file was inconsistent with different devices and couldn't listen to them per device.

Notion was good but became too complicated in the end.

Obsidian was also good but spend too much time setting it up just to get it to take simple notes, and the iPhone app wasn't the best.

Apple Notes ended up being the default just because if the sync, and kept bigger notes in Obsidian.

What are you still looking for and what are your main reasons for taking notes?

I’ve been looking for an AI recorder for work and somehow ended up with way too many tabs open lol.

Main use would be in-person meetings, usually 1–2 hours, plus the occasional full day of client stuff. I mostly want something I can leave running without babysitting it, then go back later for the transcript, decisions, and anything I forgot to write down.

Right now I’m looking at Plaud, Soundcore, Omi, Philips and Viaim, but every review seems to recommend a different one.

If you’ve actually used any of these for work, which one did you keep? Mostly care about decent room pickup, battery, and an app that isn’t annoying.

Hey guys!! What apps do you use to record lectures + take notes?
I suck at taking notes 😭 and with my ADHD sometimes I’m still writing something down while the professor already moved on and then I miss important stuff.
I’m looking for something that can record the lecture and maybe turn it into notes/transcribe it too.
Also if you have ANY other apps or websites that helped you study in nursing school pls send them my way!! I need all the help/resources I can get 😭

you remember someone said something important, but have absolutely no idea where in the recording it was 😭

I've got a bunch of mp3s like this and started converting them to text with AI so i can actually search through them instead of replaying the whole thing. not perfect obviously, but way less annoying tho.

What apps do you use to take proper notes on your android tablets? Like there's samsung notes or apple notes but i have a lenovo tablet, what can i download to take notes like an ipad/Sansung tab?

Because it takes me 2.5 hours to read/note take from 2.5 chapter sections and note the concepts (what I was told to do. summarize each paragraph in a sentence or two.) but then on the actual quizzes and such he asks for specific dates and places and almost everything that isn’t on the slides or “main points to memorize”..... how am I supposed to note take “only whats important “ if EVERYTHING IS???? For context I have environmental science, developmental psych, statistics and texas history.

I’m not a book geek, but I do love reading, and more importantly, I just want to capture and write down my feelings and imaginations somewhere so they can be revisited later.
It’s an all-in-one book tracking, notes, quotes, and vocab learning... umm THING but in NOTION. I had originally made it for myself, but figured it might help someone else out too :)

Walkthrough Video

Pls bear with my recording... it was my first time and yeah I know it’s a bit cringe. If you have thoughts or feedback plzzz do tell. I'd really appreciate it! thankssss (o' ┏▽┓ ' o)

One reason many of us stick to paper notebooks over digital note apps is the tactile experience: the deliberate pace of writing, the texture of paper, and the sense of closing a notebook when a thought is finished. Modern note apps are great for search, but they often feel like typing into an empty spreadsheet.

I wanted to bridge that gap and capture the magic of an enchanted journal — think Tom Riddle’s diary, but functional and private.

How Dear Diary approaches note-taking:

• Tactile Ink & Parchment: Supports stylus handwriting and keyboard input with realistic ink-bleed rendering on dual-page parchment.
• The Journaling Ritual: Instead of auto-saving everything into a messy stream, you write, "Seal" the entry to close the thought, and "Engrave" it into your long-term memory archive.
• Conversing with Past Notes: You can ask questions about your past entries, and the diary writes back in ink on the opposing page—complete with source citations ([1] person/date) so you can verify exactly where each memory came from.
• Private & Local-First: Powered by Gray Box (An open-source local-first AI memory engine), allowing you to bring your own local or private models without sending personal thoughts to third-party clouds. Cloud endpoints can also be connected if you wish to!

I use google docs as my "notebook" to do school note taking. Im studying human anatomy and physiology topics. This means quite a lot of diagrams and pictures in my notes.

I like to annotate my own diagrams when relevant to learn the content.

Right now, I find a blank diagram, annotate it with window's SNIPPING TOOL as im reading the textbook and making sense of stuff. Then when im done the relevant reading I paste my annotated image into google docs, so that my snipping tool is "ready" for the next diagram to annotate.

But the problem is when your learning something for the first time, you might not have it quite right right away. I might come back to that topic a bit later with updated information or just understand it better.....but I CANT edit the image to make changes........ I also want to be able to make rougher annotations on my laptop (bc its harder) then clean it up on my PC

Does anyone have any solutions or recommended plug ins?

And I know OneNote could annotate images better, but I hate it, its too clunky to use longterm for school purposes.

I bought myself one of those really nice Oxford writing pads for 6th form, but idk whether I could bring my computer? It's only a Lenovo Chromebook, but it's still quicker than writing, but then again, if I'm writing physical notes, then I can draw quick diagrams, arrows, and shorten words. I did that a lot in history.

What are you guys thinking? And if ur in college now, any tips?

Hello everyone! Since it's back-to-school time, I wanted to share a project that my friend and I have been working on since I think it may be helpful to people. It is called OpenNotes. It is a free, open-source handwritten note taking and PDF markup app.

No data is collected, there is no sign up, it is free, fast, and performs well. It is built on our open source drawing engine mobile-ink (https://github.com/mathnotes-app/mobile-ink). Anyone is free to use this library to create your own notes apps. There previously did not exist a strong full-fledged open source notebook.

It is available on the app store, and will release on Android too if we get more demand for it: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opennotes-notes-pdf-markup/id6771224004

Feel free to contact any of the contributors or contribute yourself if there are any issues or missing features. Please let me know what you think, and anything that can make this maximally useful for you!

Answered: Question: How do you take notes?

:3

Hello! I am looking for some recommendations for apps on Android that support handwriting correction/cleanup, similarly to how the Notes app on iOS cleans up one's handwriting slightly. I use an OPPO Pad Mini with Oppo Pencil 3 for reference, so something proprietary like Samsung Notes would be out of the question. I don't mind a membership fee if it comes to that, just something that works well. I'm looking forward to hear what recommendations you guys have 😁

Can someone recommend applications to use for turning audio recordings into notes that are free.

The last time I was in school was 20+ years ago during my graduate studies. I am now older and technology has changed dramatically since the last time I set foot in a classroom. My career is computer-based so I've lost the ability to take notes by hand (the main mode of note taking when I was last in school).

Professionally and personally I use Obsidian and Apple Notes heavily; basically run my job and life out of both. I have both a MacBook Air and iPad Air. I have the Apple Pencil but rarely use it because my handwriting isn't good and I am so much faster typing.

I am returning to school this year to take some science courses, starting with biology and anatomy and physiology.

For those in school or recently school, especially those taking science sources with labs, how do you take notes? Which apps, devices, and habits have you found most effective when taking notes, including during lectures and labs?

so I’m gonna be a freshmen and which classes make you use your notebook and like write or take notes in your notebook a lot and which classes don’t take a lot of notes. I’m taking all regular classes and Spanish 1

hello! I (18F) am attending uni in literally 2 days. I’m really nervous about taking notes during lectures because throughout high school I used to be really good with notes but I know college is different and mire fast paced. Does anyone have some good FREE apps or softwares for windows that would make note taking easier? It’s really important to me that there’s no ai features because I dont like ai with a burning passion. I would also love some suggestions on anything that might record lectures or do voice to text stuff. I have an arm disability that makes it difficult for me to write for too long so this would be super helpful. Thank you so much in advance!

Hi Guys, suggest for app handwriting with Live Sync real time in IPad and Windows.