What are ur thoughts on using Apple Notes as an advanced note taking or a PKM app (Personal Knowledge Management)? Aren't there better apps for that?

[Oneechan69]

This year I've been seeing extensions for Apple Notes like ProNotes and Alto Computer, and I can't help but think this is the wrong approach. There are countless purpose built markdown and advanced text editors, some of which have all of that functionality built-in and have plugins. Obsidian for instance has a vast plugin ecosystem.

 

[AlumaMac]

This year I've been seeing extensions for Apple Notes like ProNotes and Alto Computer, and I can't help but think this is the wrong approach. There are countless purpose built markdown and advanced text editors, some of which have all of that functionality built-in and have plugins. Obsidian for instance has a vast plugin ecosystem.

There's no way I'd rely on Notes (or any free Apple app) for anything that complex/important. You're just asking for trouble.

 

[Pakaku]

It's convenient to pull up and syncs between everything, and I haven't had issues with it so far. Obviously you could transfer important notes later if you're that convinced it's unreliable.

 

[Isamilis]

There's no way I'd rely on Notes (or any free Apple app) for anything that complex/important. You're just asking for trouble.

I doubt that. I have 5000+ notes - accumulating for 10+ years without any major issues. But Apple notes didn’t adopt markdown which is the reason I also use other notes app (like UpNotes).

For OP, UpNotes can be good choice. Also Obsidian (which is a bit more complex).

 

[gilby101]

This year I've been seeing extensions for Apple Notes like ProNotes and Alto Computer, and I can't help but think this is the wrong approach.

I would be very nervous of any extensions to Notes. Next version of macOS and they could be not working whilst you wait on the developer (if still active) to fix. Or if it is like Apple Mail extensions, not possible to get working. So yes, absolutely the wrong approach.

Obsidian for instance has a vast plugin ecosystem.

A vast complex ecosystem. Not sure about that either.

For my PKM, I have gone for markdown, but wanting simplicity. My documents, notes, etc. are in the file system - using Finder and Spotlight for searching, etc. Right now my preferred editor is Typora, but I know I can change to something else at any moment without losing anything.

 

[sracer]

This year I've been seeing extensions for Apple Notes like ProNotes and Alto Computer, and I can't help but think this is the wrong approach. There are countless purpose built markdown and advanced text editors, some of which have all of that functionality built-in and have plugins. Obsidian for instance has a vast plugin ecosystem.

What are ur thoughts on using Apple Notes as an advanced note taking or a PKM app (Personal Knowledge Management)? Aren't there better apps for that?

The first word in PKMS is... personal. So when you say, "better" that is highly subjective and relative to an individual's needs. Apple Notes can be a perfectly adequate base for a PKMS for some folk.

My PKMS will turn 48 years old this year. It has changed formats over the years. It started as "analog" cards and composition notebooks, but is now fully digital. Since converting to digital (around 1978, Radio Shack TRS-80) I've used approximately 10 apps. The latest one is UpNote.

Given my requirements for a PKMS, Apple Notes (and even Obsidian) are non-starters for me.

UpNote ticks off nearly all the boxes (more than the other 2 dozen apps I've trialed). If it had an option to restrict editing to markdown then it would be perfect for my needs. (I regularly export my database to markdown)

ASCII text was first invented in 1961 and is still in use today. It'll be in use for as long as humans still view text on a screen. Back in the stone-age of personal computing, my notes were in simple text with special characters to denote different elements in the text. The method I created way back then was similar to what markdown does today.

If the app I use goes belly-up, then I can still access my data. Worst case... with a simple text editor. But I've done testing and I was able to easily take my UpNote backup in markdown and import it into Obsidian.

Now that I've got the system (and escape route) dialed it, I'll probably end up not needing any of it. 😅

 

[rhett7660]

The first word in PKMS is... personal. So when you say, "better" that is highly subjective and relative to an individual's needs. Apple Notes can be a perfectly adequate base for a PKMS for some folk.

My PKMS will turn 48 years old this year. It has changed formats over the years. It started as "analog" cards and composition notebooks, but is now fully digital. Since converting to digital (around 1978, Radio Shack TRS-80) I've used approximately 10 apps. The latest one is UpNote.

Given my requirements for a PKMS, Apple Notes (and even Obsidian) are non-starters for me.

UpNote ticks off nearly all the boxes (more than the other 2 dozen apps I've trialed). If it had an option to restrict editing to markdown then it would be perfect for my needs. (I regularly export my database to markdown)

ASCII text was first invented in 1961 and is still in use today. It'll be in use for as long as humans still view text on a screen. Back in the stone-age of personal computing, my notes were in simple text with special characters to denote different elements in the text. The method I created way back then was similar to what markdown does today.

If the app I use goes belly-up, then I can still access my data. Worst case... with a simple text editor. But I've done testing and I was able to easily take my UpNote backup in markdown and import it into Obsidian.

Now that I've got the system (and escape route) dialed it, I'll probably end up not needing any of it. 😅

I know this will be a long response, but what boxes, if you don't mind sharing, do you have when it comes to your notes that UpNote ticked off? ------ Looks like I found your other post in the notes thread!!!

I am currently using Apple Notes, as I don't need cross platform compatibility, and so far it is working, but I am always looking to see if I can improve upon my workflow and retrieval of notes when needed.

 

[Alvinc]

It's just because Apple Notes doesn't require additional charge except iCloud, and it is less likely to be acquired by other companies or abandoned by Apple. Deeply integrated into OS is also an advantage. Not to mention the user experience.

I don't use any extensions but I all in Apple Notes. But I am concerned about the export/lock-in, although you can request a copy online to download from Mac only (will lose formats), or use Exporters app (sometimes it may not be successful totally). Btw, at least you can just copy and paste texts and images to other apps, while other apps like Evernote and Notion can't copy both together so you have to copy texts first and copy images one by one.

I tried other apps like plain text in iA Writer or Bear. For me I just want to write a little and capture on the go. Drafts are drafts. Apple Notes is easier for me and maybe I just need other apps like iA Writer when I really want to write and archive while keeping Apple Notes.

 

[sracer]

I know this will be a long response, but what boxes, if you don't mind sharing, do you have when it comes to your notes that UpNote ticked off? ------ Looks like I found your other post in the notes thread!!!

I am currently using Apple Notes, as I don't need cross platform compatibility, and so far it is working, but I am always looking to see if I can improve up my workflow and retrieval of notes when needed.

Glad to hear that Apple Notes works for you. One word of caution however... when looking over the fence at what others are doing for their PKMS there's a danger of system-hopping to try out the "cool" thing that the other app does that the current one doesn't.

The struggle is real... don't ask me how I know. 😂

 

[ipaqrat]

@sracer, I know how you know... How much struggle? All of it 🤯

Lots of TLAs expend much budget to discover they mistook content management for knowledge management. Tracking items of structured data (text in a schema that conforms to an explicit taxonomy) or unstructured data (long form prose, multi-media) is easy in the right notes apps with meta tagging. And some content management tools can index materials to tag automatically.

Knowledge management typically refers to integration of People, Projects and Content, at scale, with an inference engine to answers "Why?" questions and to surface unexpected relationships. In a way, KMS were "AI", before the term got popularized.

With next generation chipsets, local devices could very well become defacto "personal knowledge management appliances". And Enterprise KMS will seem telepathic. Keeping in mind that they all seem smart mostly because of MEMORY, which almost all humans suck at.

Can you imagine data leakage off your device to an AI data aggregator, or to malicious state AI actors (including our own "State")? What aspect of life wouldn't a government control if implementation were possible and cost effective? What wouldn't a "Unitary Executive" be afraid of - if they were a sociopathic, narcissistic, bigoted, illiterate, loser dirtbag? Hypothetically.

Humans are totally predictable animals, once our habits and predispositions are quantified. We all basically live in a zoo of our own making, and fight to stay. That's why advertising works, which is in turn why so much seemingly trivial personal data is vacuumed up to target it.

So nowadays, one's collection of notes - decidedly non-trivial personal data - could get puked up to an AI of unknown disposition... Well, if an AI got ahold of MY notes it would probably kill itself in despair, but y'all smart peoples might want to rediscover typewriters and carbon paper.

 

[MacBH928]

This year I've been seeing extensions for Apple Notes like ProNotes and Alto Computer, and I can't help but think this is the wrong approach. There are countless purpose built markdown and advanced text editors, some of which have all of that functionality built-in and have plugins. Obsidian for instance has a vast plugin ecosystem.

check this thread out:

Evernote alternative

Evernote is cool and all but for something that I use to just jot down information its seems an overkill. The app literally takes time to load on MacOS and iOS, its too heavy. Plus they keep nagging to upgrade to a subscription and I am not subscribing for a text storage app. Anyone found...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Mike Boreham]

Restoring Notes from a backup is not straightforward, they are not like other types of iCloud data, and iCloud.com does not offer a method of restoring Notes like it does for Files, Calendar, Contacts, Bookmarks and Photos.

I did quite a lot of work on this and reported it in this thread.

Third party alternatives to Notes may have their own much more friendly-to-restore backups.

 

[gilby101]

Third party alternatives to Notes may have their own much more friendly-to-restore backups.

With the emphasis on the word "may". Backup and restore needs to be explored carefully for any app which stores notes in a database - e.g. Notes, Bear, etc. Have their users tested restores in the event of various disasters?

Backup and restore is the number one reason I want my notes stored as files for which backup and restore procedures are well established.

 

[svenmany]

A vast complex ecosystem. Not sure about that either.

For my PKM, I have gone for markdown, but wanting simplicity. My documents, notes, etc. are in the file system - using Finder and Spotlight for searching, etc. Right now my preferred editor is Typora, but I know I can change to something else at any moment without losing anything.

If you decide to use Obsidian in a simple fashion, then you wouldn't use any plugins except for the ones bundled with the app. The nice thing about Obsidian is that you can just open a folder with a full directory structure containing markdown documents. Then you can edit them all, right in place on the filesystem, within Obsidian. There's really nothing else to do. Perhaps this is just like Typora.

When you open a folder this way, Obsidian creates an hidden folder there so that you can configure some things when working with that folder in Obsidian. But, you can generally ignore that hidden folder if you aren't working in Obsidian. If you ever want to forget about Obsidian, then you can just delete the hidden folder.

 

[Tagbert]

Glad to hear that Apple Notes works for you. One word of caution however... when looking over the fence at what others are doing for their PKMS there's a danger of system-hopping to try out the "cool" thing that the other app does that the current one doesn't.

The struggle is real... don't ask me how I know. 😂

i handle that by using 3 different notes systems. That way all my notes aren’t stuck in one system….😀

Really the reason is that I like to keep my work notes and personal notes separate and I have another special project that I wanted to keep separate. It’s easier for me to use separate apps for that. Please the different features of notes apps makes one better for work.