Evernote alternative

[ixxx69]

Does it protect it from Apple employees snooping? because my iCloud account has a password and I know for a fact Apple holds the keys to unlock my icloud account.

You might want to check out this...

iCloud data security overview - Apple Support

iCloud uses strong security methods, employs strict policies to protect your information, and leads the industry in using privacy-preserving security technologies like end-to-end encryption for your data.

support.apple.com

Enable End-to-End Encryption for Your iCloud Backups

Apple's Advanced Data Protection for iCloud feature uses end-to-end encryption to provide the highest level of cloud data security that Apple...

www.macrumors.com

It appears end-to-end encryption is now supported on the latest versions of macOS/iOS/iPadOS.

 

[sgtaylor5]

Does it protect it from Apple employees snooping? because my iCloud account has a password and I know for a fact Apple holds the keys to unlock my icloud account.

Plus it would be much easier if the whole thing is encrypted either ways just like how Joplin works.

Look down near the bottom of the Apple Support document I referenced: Apple can’t help you if you set a Notes password and forget it.

 

[Token]

this is like a mini family Wiki use case which is perfectly fine but I find it a rare scenario for most people. Either way, wouldn't it be more helpful if the text would be auto-linked to a note with a similar name? So every time you mention "uncle leo" it will point to his biographical info?

speaking of this "wiki" link, not sure why the name changed but I believe this used to be called hyper linking. In fact i think there was a popular early 90s software called hypercard that worked on the same basis and from it (or the opposite) the idea of websites and linking them came into fruition as we know it today.

They used to make games out of it IIRC by navigating the "cards" to different slides.

I fact, the concept of two-way hyperlinks was conceived of even earlier, as a part of project Xanadu, or even the Memex. It is perhaps often called wiki links because the [[implementation]] with double brackets was popularized with Wikipedia which many people has more direct experience with than HyperCard.

 

[MacBH928]

Feel compelled to weigh in on this. Final Draft could be used to write a novel, but it's mainly used for TV and film script writing within the industry. It costs something like $300, and I think Pages would do as good or better of a job.

Ulysses pretends it has a screenwriting component, but really they just have a hacked together output stylesheet that no professional or semiprofessional would touch because it's bound to output a non-standard script (which is a super amateurish thing to do in this world). It's frustrating, because Markdown-based script software does exist, but Ulysses has never seen fit to properly add the feature.

I haven't used Evernote in a long time, but I recall it being all about rich clippings (graphics, formatting), whereas Ulysses is strictly Markdown text and has only rudimentary support for images.

So, Ulysses isn't a replacement for Final Draft or Evernote (IMO) but it's a really great tool for long form writing like for a book, short stories, etc.

Honestly, I think good old Apple Notes has come a long way and could do a lot of what Evernote does.

So , what is Ulysses good at? All writing apps can do long form writing since like the DOS days.

Highland2 looks great, both functional and simple to use as it seems. Looks like its subscription though.

I think maybe developers should at least make high price license or low price subscription ex. $100-300 buy , $3/m subscription

I know this is a notes thread, but how do you get Alfred to search your notes!?!?!? Off to Google!

I have been slowly moving all of my notes from Evernote to Apple Notes. It works, and it does what I need it to do for now. I didn't need to be cross compatible with other systems, so that wasn't an issue for me. The only issue I have, is keep a lot of drawings and pictures in my notes. My notes folder is getting pretty darn big and I feel it lagging at times.

Is there any notes app that can handle huge notes with media and is fast? OneNote is impossibly slow last time I checked it. One guy here mentioned that Evernote is actually super fast but I never tested it with heavy notes.

 

[MacBH928]

You might want to check out this...

iCloud data security overview - Apple Support

iCloud uses strong security methods, employs strict policies to protect your information, and leads the industry in using privacy-preserving security technologies like end-to-end encryption for your data.

support.apple.com

Enable End-to-End Encryption for Your iCloud Backups

Apple's Advanced Data Protection for iCloud feature uses end-to-end encryption to provide the highest level of cloud data security that Apple...

www.macrumors.com

It appears end-to-end encryption is now supported on the latest versions of macOS/iOS/iPadOS.

Neat except its a bit too late for me but a good move forward. I do not like when one corporate controls too much. I like to decentralize the internet. I was horrified when I realized how much Google controls the internet and I do not like to create my own monster.

I use Firefox, Brave Search, ProtonMail, VLC, Filen.io and other to distribute the usage and decentralize the internet. That being said, those who choose to go solely Apple they have a good option in their arsenal now.

Look down near the bottom of the Apple Support document I referenced: Apple can’t help you if you set a Notes password and forget it.

I believe you but I no longer trust corporates mambo jumbo legal talk and I am not reading the fine prints on 300 page ToS. Things need to be simple and clear for the consumer. Corporates make all kinds of promises and when they get caught they only get a slap on the wrist. Its a matter of trust.

I am not saying Apple is not doing what they say they are doing, I just do not trust their word for it.

 

[Tagbert]

Is there any notes app that can handle huge notes with media and is fast? OneNote is impossibly slow last time I checked it. One guy here mentioned that Evernote is actually super fast but I never tested it with heavy notes.

I’m not sure what your experience with OneNote was like but I use it on a daily basis for work notes with lots of tables, images, and documents attached. Speed is not an issue. Not trying to recommend it to you, if you have very specific requirements, I just would not characterize OneNote as particularly slow.

 

[MacBH928]

I fact, the concept of two-way hyperlinks was conceived of even earlier, as a part of project Xanadu, or even the Memex. It is perhaps often called wiki links because the [[implementation]] with double brackets was popularized with Wikipedia which many people has more direct experience with than HyperCard.

Xanadu, isn't that like the god of scientology? They make a bold statement saying Xanadu is superior to WWW. I would like to know how that is

 

[MacBH928]

I’m not sure what your experience with OneNote was like but I use it on a daily basis for work notes with lots of tables, images, and documents attached. Speed is not an issue. Not trying to recommend it to you, if you have very specific requirements, I just would not characterize OneNote as particularly slow.

Maybe you store locally? I am sorry for the confusion, my problem with it specifically is with syncing. Its takes seriously long time to sync

 

[Tagbert]

Maybe you store locally? I am sorry for the confusion, my problem with it specifically is with syncing. Its takes seriously long time to sync

Ah, that is different and I only rarely open the notes on another device and the sync speed doesn’t really matter. For normal note taking and reference tasks, OneNote performance is good.

 

[Token]

Xanadu, isn't that like the god of scientology? They make a bold statement saying Xanadu is superior to WWW. I would like to know how that is

I don't know anything about any of Hubbards crazy "religion". I think it is just a mythical place, where one can project any idealised conception of the world.

I am not the one to argue whether Ted Nelson's Xanadu would have been superior in comparison to the WWW that the world got from Cern or not. HyperCard or modern knowledge management systems did inherit the ideas of two-way links and non-hierarchically connected (networked) documents (wikilinks, backlinks, graph views, etc).

 

[ignatius345]

So , what is Ulysses good at? All writing apps can do long form writing since like the DOS days.

It's great at organizing files and providing clean, orderly writing environment. It has robust export options and the sync is dead simple and reliable. Try as I might, I haven't found anything of the type with as much UI polish as Ulysses has.

Highland2 looks great, both functional and simple to use as it seems. Looks like its subscription though.

It's not. Pay $50 once, keep using it. I believe the free version has some limitations, but buying it removes those forever.

 

[rhett7660]

So , what is Ulysses good at? All writing apps can do long form writing since like the DOS days.

Highland2 looks great, both functional and simple to use as it seems. Looks like its subscription though.

I think maybe developers should at least make high price license or low price subscription ex. $100-300 buy , $3/m subscription



Is there any notes app that can handle huge notes with media and is fast? OneNote is impossibly slow last time I checked it. One guy here mentioned that Evernote is actually super fast but I never tested it with heavy notes.

Evernote is pretty fast, but... and this is a big one for me. Getting your notes out of evernote is pain and I am dealing with that now as I am moving over 1200 notes over to Apple notes. 80% plus or minus of my notes have graphics and in some cases lots of graphics and pictures.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Xanadu, isn't that like the god of scientology? They make a bold statement saying Xanadu is superior to WWW. I would like to know how that is

Off topic but --

Xanadu is the mythical place built by Kubla Khan (ref. Coleridge & 'Kubla Khan')

Xenu is the mythical being of the scientologists.

 

[MacBH928]

It's great at organizing files and providing clean, orderly writing environment. It has robust export options and the sync is dead simple and reliable. Try as I might, I haven't found anything of the type with as much UI polish as Ulysses has.


It's not. Pay $50 once, keep using it. I believe the free version has some limitations, but buying it removes those forever.

Nice. Their website is misleading. There is no prices and its called Highland2 Pro so it feels a subscription tier.

Evernote is pretty fast, but... and this is a big one for me. Getting your notes out of evernote is pain and I am dealing with that now as I am moving over 1200 notes over to Apple notes. 80% plus or minus of my notes have graphics and in some cases lots of graphics and pictures.

Isn't this an issue with many apps to export your data from and reimport them to another app? They could at least export in .doc or .odt (opendocument) but many services want to lock you in.

In your case, I wonder if you can create an automator script that can copy then paste each note from evernote to Apple notes.

Apple notes does not have export options either , does it?

Off topic but --

Xanadu is the mythical place built by Kubla Khan (ref. Coleridge & 'Kubla Khan')

Xenu is the mythical being of the scientologists.

enlightening...thanks!

 

[BigMcGuire]

I also use OneNote for work just because work heavily uses O365. Personal notes? Apple Notes, Diarly for personal journal, and Notability for iPad handwritten notes.

Now that Apple Notes are end to end, I'm probably going to be shifting more towards Apple Notes. The convenience factor makes it worth a lot to me.

 

[BigMcGuire]

As in encryption? I might have to use mine more.
You know, I've tried the Apple Pencil with Apple Notes, and simply can't get used to it. I find I use my finger/gestures more and more to maneuver between apps and such. Thus, I end up not using the Pencil...

I can't stand the Apple Pencil in Apple Notes. I write with a fast slanted style and Apple Notes prefers blocked writing.

So I have to use Notability for handwriting with my iPad - which I use heavily. It feels the best like pen/paper for me and handles my slanted writing very well.

But Apple Notes - I spend the vast majority of my time during the day on my Mac so I have many Apple Notes (typed).

 

[BigMcGuire]

To confirm, when 'handwriting', does Apple Notes convert it to typed text?

You can if you have an iPad with the Scribble function. Scribble converts written word to text and it's actually pretty good. You can use this in any app - not just Apple Notes.

It appears as a pencil with an A on it. You write anywhere and it types.

 

[Tagbert]

I also use OneNote for work just because work heavily uses O365. Personal notes? Apple Notes, Diarly for personal journal, and Notability for iPad handwritten notes.

Now that Apple Notes are end to end, I'm probably going to be shifting more towards Apple Notes. The convenience factor makes it worth a lot to me.

I use Apple notes for personal notes and OneNote for work notes. I like to keep them segregated and the OneNote integration with O365 is useful in that context. that and the text formatting options are much better in OneNote.

 

[rhett7660]

Isn't this an issue with many apps to export your data from and reimport them to another app? They could at least export in .doc or .odt (opendocument) but many services want to lock you in.

In your case, I wonder if you can create an automator script that can copy then paste each note from evernote to Apple notes.

Apple notes does not have export options either , does it?

Absolutely it is an issue... they all want to lock you, but, I don't mind being locked into Apple, where I did with Evernote. I was a paid user for many years until the great price hike a few years back. That is when I started looking for an alternative and Apple Notes... at this time... it is working for me.

I never thought about using Automator... might have to look into that.

 

[Token]

Absolutely it is an issue... they all want to lock you, but, I don't mind being locked into Apple, where I did with Evernote. I was a paid user for many years until the great price hike a few years back. That is when I started looking for an alternative and Apple Notes... at this time... it is working for me.

I never thought about using Automator... might have to look into that.

Evernote can export all notes into an enex file (or one stack at a time can be exported as a separate enex file). These can be imported into Apple Notes.

If you have many stacks and folders in Evernote, there are Applescripts which can export folders in Evernote as separate enex files.

 

[Alvinc]

I do mind to be locked in Evernote more than Apple Notes now.

Evernote for these years has tried to become a more useful all-in-one app so that you are seriously integrating every part of your life into this app, especially after Task was introduced. In the meantime, Apple Notes is still a note taking app, or even the place you can simply and briefly write down or sketch (visualize) your thoughts. The contents inside Apple Notes are all drafts. If you want to manage tasks you can do it and link it to Reminders. If you want to sketch more in details you can go to Procreate. If you want to write more you can use iA Writer (plain text editors), Word, Pages and so on.

Under this perspective your information on Evernote is much more important than in Apple Notes. Even though EN has export function dealing with at least 100 notes every time (all in Legacy desktop app), some of the functions will eventually be lost depending on the alternative you choose (e.g. images in a table, highlight colours... in this case their export is meaningless to me). When I use Apple Notes, I won't put everything into it. If I want to further develop something, the app can remind me of using other apps (e.g. long form writing on iA Writer) and even leave the devices to take actions.

And in Apple Notes it's easy to copy and paste the texts and images at the same time. However since the version 10 of Evernote I am not able to do it, but have to copy images one by one in case I need to publish something, say in Word. Evernote cannot allow export as .docx like Craft and iA Writer.

Apple Notes will continue improving but will maintain as a note-taking app, because it's one of the stock apps created by Apple, and it's just a small part of its business, unlike Evernote in which the only app is its whole. So Apple Notes will not be like Notion and Craft as well to become another kind of app someday. Besides, these stock apps are to let users especially who don't engage much IT to try different things and develop some habits when they get the devices, so that one day they may consider more professional and complicated applications one day (and therefore buy/subscribe on App Store in which Apple's revenue can be increased). If I were Tim Cook, I won't spend too much time on Apple Notes to make it too good (no one will use third party apps so Apple's revenue can be affected) or have perfect export options (time should be in other businesses even though they have abundant resources). They won't block all existing third party export as well because if no one can export from Apple Notes, how can the user be willing to use and pay for other apps? (That's why Exporter app is on App Store).

From my observation, at least at this moment I do prefer my content in Apple rather than Evernote, although the current solution may not be perfect, and I will manually save some of the information as plain text. Especially when Evernote increased their price in 2016 and 2022 (this time by 50% in all plans) and when I feel I spend much more unnecessary time on the app. Paying for Evernote won't make my life easier. Expensive. Hurt my phone (too hot). Need to read and watch the tips. Need to keep a pair of my eye on their sync. On Apple Notes I just need to take notes in the ways as I like (draw or write) and I don't need to worry other things like performance and formatting. My thoughts are freely flowing.

 

[MacBH928]

I can't stand the Apple Pencil in Apple Notes. I write with a fast slanted style and Apple Notes prefers blocked writing.

So I have to use Notability for handwriting with my iPad - which I use heavily. It feels the best like pen/paper for me and handles my slanted writing very well.

But Apple Notes - I spend the vast majority of my time during the day on my Mac so I have many Apple Notes (typed).

Everyone is praising GoodNotes. Have you compared it to Notability?

Evernote can export all notes into an enex file (or one stack at a time can be exported as a separate enex file). These can be imported into Apple Notes.

If you have many stacks and folders in Evernote, there are Applescripts which can export folders in Evernote as separate enex files.

Where would one find such scripts?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Everyone is praising GoodNotes. Have you compared it to Notability?

GoodNotes is not bad - better than Apple Notes. However, I prefer Notability because I started with it and used it for many years. The pencil feel of Notability is superior than GoodNotes for me as well.

 

[Token]

Where would one find such scripts?

I used the Apple-script below, which exports folders as separate enes files (but unfortunately not the stacks, so there will still be som manual sorting after import). Note: This only works with the Legacy version of Evernote, as the new Evernote does not support Applescript, one of the many setbacks of the "updated" Evernote.

tell application "Evernote"


set myFolder to "/Users/[username]/Desktop/Notebackup/"


repeat with eachNotebook in every notebook of application "Evernote"


set notebookName to name of eachNotebook


set theNotes to every note in eachNotebook


set myFile to (myFolder & notebookName & ".enex")


export theNotes to myFile


end repeat


end tell


display dialog "Success! All notebooks exported to myFolder"

Change the output path (myFolder) according to your wishes.

 

[rhett7660]

I used the Apple-script below, which exports folders as separate enes files (but unfortunately not the stacks, so there will still be som manual sorting after import). Note: This only works with the Legacy version of Evernote, as the new Evernote does not support Applescript, one of the many setbacks of the "updated" Evernote.



Change the output path (myFolder) according to your wishes.

Thank you!