
Joplin – a note taking and to-do application with synchronization capabilities - adulau
https://github.com/laurent22/joplin
======
ddsea
I felt that Evernote was becoming increasingly constraining and slow/flaky, so
after trying a few alternatives (text files/dirs, SimpleNote, Apple Notes,
BoostNotes, Zim, etc), I've made a leap of faith to Joplin.

My requirements: multi-platform, multi-device, auto-sync (more than 2 devices
in free ver.), tags, webclip-ability, preferably markdown format with code
rendering. Text diagramming such as PlantUML is a big plus. The idea of owning
my notes is very appealing.

My early attempts at synchronizing encrypted notes over OneDrive experienced
repeated hiccups (stopped syncing for no apparent reason), so currently trying
without encryption. Win10 and Android clients seem to chug along just fine,
but the Linux client shows weird errors in the log - trying to hunt down the
root cause.

The fact that Joplin is WIP and open source is encouraging. I'd like to be
able to have separate DBs, e.g. for personal and business use.

ADDED: forgot to mention that the lack of dark mode on Windows EN client was a
constant source of irritation.

~~~
henrysarabia
It sounds like what you're looking for is Notion. It checks most of your
boxes, I believe.

~~~
ibic
I just switched from Notion (and Evernote, Google Keep) to Joplin, and
currently I'm quite satisfied with its offering.

Some cons I felt while using Notion: \- Mandatory to log in using a Google
account is a _very_ big pushback for me - I need it to work all the time
offline. \- E2EE encryption? I don't think it's there. It's something I
strongly desire for privacy reason. \- It's a freemium subscription modal, I
have nothing against it, but imho, completely free one is of course better \-
It's not open sourced, but Joplin is.

~~~
seized
Take a look at Standard Notes. It can be self hosted and has E2EE. It's not
quite a replacement for some features but there is a web clipping add-on in
development.

Note that it is paid, the company has a longevity statement around that.

------
schuke
After years of searching I’ve pretty much settled on one note-taking app:
Apple Notes. Quite unexpected to me as well because I started off just to sort
of “cache” random notes in it before sorting them out in OneNote. Then I found
myself almost stopped using OneNote. It’s just ubiquitous enough when you have
a few extra PC devices, (unlike say, Bear) and versatile enough so it’s not
limited to texts like Notational Velocity or SimpeNote, and quick and easy
enough so I never have to wait for launching or syncing like with OneNote.
It’s not enjoy-sparking to use and the text is a bit cramped. But it gets
stuff done and I forget about it most of the time. So it’s just almost perfect
for me.

~~~
gumby
The only thing that makes me keep looking for an alternative to Apple Notes is
_search_.

1\. You can't restrict search to just one folder.

2\. You can't use tags (would be better than folders) and search by them. I
have a partial work around (I just type #tag and search for that) but it
does't work that well -- the search correctly filters for "#foo" but shows
"foo" highlighted in the sidebar...and doesn't scroll to the match.

A small amount of additional functionality would pretty much nuke any need for
Evernote or any of these other apps (though exporting is...tedious).

~~~
revscat
Quiver.

~~~
JoachimS
I really tried to use Quiver for almost a year. I converted to it from Org-
mode in Emacs. The reason for converting was to get better typography and
layout. I really want to get header rendered in different sizes, bold really
looking bold etc. Quiver looked really nice ans pleasing. But the rendering
engine in Quiver is flaky. Headings of the same type end up having different
sizes for example. I also never felt a benefit of the cell concept. Instead
often accidentally creating new cells that had to be fixed.

I've now moved to Bear, and the experience is much better. Yes, it stores
notes in a DB, not as files. But it is a standard, open SQL DB you can talk to
if needed. Bear renders markdown nicely, has nice themes. And syncs between
devices quick. I now read and write journal notes etc on desktop, iPad and
mobile. And Bear supports inline images. This, together with nice rendering of
quotes, code etc makes making complex notes possible. If I only could change
the caret to a non-blinking, block everything would be great. Notes in Bear
really are beutiful and pleasant to write and read.

[https://bear.app/](https://bear.app/)

------
oefrha
Off topic, but anyone else annoyed by these walls of contributor avatars in
READMEs popular in the JS ecosystem? Occasionally they only include a handful
of project members, with roles, so it could be mildly useful, but more often
than not it’s a pointless list of just avatar and handle of everyone who ever
fixed a typo, and if I want to see the list I’d better click on “contributors”
which is built into every GitHub project. To me, this seems to be a
manifestation of today’s front end devs’ utmost disrespect for people’s
bandwidth.

Ironically, this README loads more than a hundred images but I can’t even find
a desktop screenshot.

~~~
laurent123456
The avatar list I guess is a way to thank the contributors, and it's at the
bottom of the readme so shouldn't be a big annoyance for most readers. There's
a screenshot of the desktop app at the top of the readme.

------
samdamsamm
I moved to Joplin from Evernote a little over a year ago. It has had ongoing
development and new features being added the entire time. The development is
very iterative, and functionality comes before fashion, but the UI has been
getting improved too.

The backup/sync system is great. Fully encrypted and numerous cloud
configuration options. I use it with Fastmail’s $5/mo. service and it’s very
easy to setup.

The iOS app could use some more improvements but far better than not having
one at all.

Overall Joplin is highly recommended because of it’s compatibility,
flexibility, privacy, and no-frills functionality.

------
384028345
One great aspect is that joplin supports iOS 8+. My Ex needed to write a big
dissertation that she just couldn't make progress on (unsurprisingly). Her
work laptop is too bulky to carry around every day unfortunately.

So at some point I figured she could use my old ipad mini 1 with a size-fitted
logitech "ultrathin keyboard" (that magnetically holds onto the ipad, making
it one piece for storage) that I impulse bought and never used. So hardware
was there, but looking for a markdown editor that supported sync and that old
device + her windows laptop was not fruitful. Except well, short story: joplin
is awesome for that.

She could use the ipad to write a few minutes here and there during transit
and was able to complete it. The markdown file is then converted to latex/pdf
using pandoc + pandoc-citeproc (for citations using a bibtex-file).

Support for antiquated iOS versions is rare (making the ipad mini 1 useless in
many cases although it still appears to be a capable device) even though many
apps don't seem to have a need for higher versions. I suspect that most apps
use frameworks that have a version cutoff to reduce complexity if that even
makes sense.

------
russellbeattie
I replaced Evernote with Joplin a year or so ago and am pretty happy. It's a
little rough around the edges, but it works great and is actively updated. And
all my data is stored where I want it to be, with no monthly bill, and no one
trying shove "chat" or "enterprise" features down my throat.

Also, as the desktop client is a JavaScript app, it was relatively easy to go
in and change a few things that I wanted tweaked. I hate MarkDown with a
passion, so I just turned off all that stuff in the toolbar and use it as a
plain text notepad that syncs. Works great. (At some point I need to make the
effort to figure out the options dialogs they have and submit a pull request
where this can be turned off/on permanently.)

I do wish it would clean up the weird note/todo item duality (at least in the
options). You can treat a note as a todo item, so the list of notes acts as
your list of todos. Or you can just use a note and put the todo items in it
(which is what I do). I just don't think the folder interface works well for
the todo item paradigm.

Anyways, highly recommended if you're still spending money on Evernote and
don't use any advanced features. If you're using web clips or other stuff,
someone else will have to chime in.

~~~
freetonik
Genuinely curious why do you hate Markdown with a passion?

------
sorenjan
When it comes to todo lists I really prefer nested checkboxes, like
Dynalist[0] has. That enables me to make a list of projects, where each
project has their own todo items, and maybe they have sub items, and so on. I
like being able to divide stuff into smaller and smaller chunks, and then
checking them off as I go.

[0] [https://dynalist.io/](https://dynalist.io/)

~~~
ddsea
Looks like a strong candidate to replace Google Keep when they suddenly decide
to shut it down.

~~~
reacharavindh
And what happens when dynalist shuts down? That’s why I prefer self-hosted or
plain old Apple Notes :-)

~~~
BiosElement
Daily export to Google Docs/Dropbox for paid users and free manual export to
html, text and I believe cvs for anyone.

One huge selling point for Dynalist, and why I don't mind paying for it, is
the data portability is perfect.

------
fandaa
I would recommend [https://standardnotes.org/](https://standardnotes.org/)
after trying all other (OneNote, Boostnote, QOwnNotes, etc.) note taking SWs.
Encrypted linked storage (S3, Dropbox, ...) for files, encrypted notes,
multiplatform, multiple editors (code, 2FA, markdown, spreadsheets, your own!,
...) & can be self hosted. Easy (also encrypted) backups. I only miss the
diagrams tool (like draw.io) or handwriting (touch/pen) support.

~~~
evil-olive
I was a Standard Notes user, including a premium plan, but recently switched
to Joplin and I've been very happy with it.

I like Standard Notes' no-nonsense business model, with the downside that the
free version is _heavily_ feature-crippled (not even a Markdown editor, just
plain text).

The Standard Notes server is self-hostable, but it requires a dedicated
backend server [0] which was more hassle than I wanted to deal with. Joplin
integrates much more nicely with Syncthing for self-hosted but still peer-to-
peer replication.

0: [https://standardnotes.org/help/47/can-i-self-host-
standard-n...](https://standardnotes.org/help/47/can-i-self-host-standard-
notes)

~~~
mikece
The reason to use Standard Notes, IMO, is the zero-knowledge encryption. I’ll
check out Joplin and the others I’m learning about in this thread but I’m
happy with Standard Notes at the moment though.

------
brakus127
I've been using Joplin for a few months now. So far it seems to fit my
requirements better than any other note taking app I've tried - and I've tried
plenty - including my own Jupyter based solution. \- future proof (it's open
source) \- standard/open format for notes (uses mark down which is easy to
write and easy enough to parse if needed in the future) \- sync support and
conflict detection - Kudos to their implementation here, it's very versatile.
I use Syncthing and it's worked very well for me. \- support for multiple
clients (I use Linux, Android, OS X and Windows) \- stable (no issues so far)

The major issue I have is it doesn't support stylus based notes like Onenote.
A partial solution would be to extend Joplin to support additional file types
so I can keep all my notes together when they are different types. For now, I
keep my written notes separate.

If stylus support isn't a requirement for you, I strongly recommend Joplin.
I've tried a number of closed and open source note taking tools - Joplin hits
the sweet spot for me. For a long time I used Jupyter for taking notes with
custom scripts for Search. It's been pretty good however it had two major
shortcomings: no android client and the Jupyter client had poor conflict
detection when using a a file based sync tool like Syncthing.

------
ab_io
Since none of the top comments seem to directly discuss Joplin itself, let me
just say that I’ve been using it for years, and it’s great.

~~~
arbie
If it (or Notion.so) supported Inking, I would switch completely from my
combination of GDocs, GKeep and GoodNotes5.

Will see if I can contribute to this project.

------
bakoo
I've replaced both Evernote and my markdown file hierarchy with Joplin (on
linux and windows, trying android next), and love it!

Only thing I really miss is the ability to have completely separate instances.
While it's theoretically possible to script different configs, they can't be
used simultaneously.

Syncing works well both through Syncthing and Google Drivw. Haven't tried
syncing through OneDrive, and IIRC the docs had some warning about it.

------
dmix
This subpackage called Webclipper would be cool for parsing articles like
Instapaper but instead of a better web version it saves to a markdown file
than opens in Vim (or similar).

For some reason I like those old long readme.txt files from the 1990s. The
ones formatted with max 80-120 characters wide per line, black background,
etc.

[https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/master/readme/clipp...](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/blob/master/readme/clipper.md)

I haven't tried this one yet. But the biggest problem with that approach is
the links typically don't work, nor will citations render properly for
Wikipedia. So maybe it's preferable using Lynx or w/e just for long-term
reading or articles on news sites with disaster web design.

------
lordgrenville
Switched from Evernote and I'm very happy. As often happens, Evernote took on
VC money and then were obligated to keep growing and adding features, while
increasing the pressure to monetize (see also: Any.do).

Joplin does the simple things I want, well. They are also adding features
pretty quickly, but I'm happy with it the way it is.

------
TheCabin
I tried a few note taking apps but in the end came to the realization that
regular editors are actually better at the job.

My reasoning:

* _Sync_ should not be solved by the note app (applications that implement sync themselves are usually buggy, I prefer to outsource sync to nextcloud / dropbox / ...)

* I want the same _editing capabilities_ as usual (block edit etc., note apps are usually less power full editors)

* A _tree organization_ is important to me, which is trivially solved using editors and the file system

* There are _Markdown_ packages for pretty much every editor.

Note taking apps tend to ship these features but are not as mature as editors
are.

------
kerng
Nothing compares to Microsoft OneNote - I wish it would work with just regular
file storage, rather then requiring OneDrive.

It has all the best features, including client side encryption, while still
enabling collaboration.

~~~
sturakov
There's some good news on this front, they are bringing back the desktop
version support:
[https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/office-365/221340/microsoft-b...](https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/office-365/221340/microsoft-
brings-onenote-2016-back-from-the-dead)

------
noisy_boy
I use WriterPlus [0] on Android and ReText [1] on Linux for taking notes
(markdown supported). Syncing notes is via Syncthing [2]. All plain text files
so not much dependency on the apps themselves. Works perfectly.

Update: This thread prompted me to re-check the options on Android and I found
Markor [3]. Much more polished and I was able to point it to the notes folder.
Now I have the option of using it or WriterPlus (though seems to me that
Markor's option of opening notes in preview mode by default + more
customization options makes it better than WriterPlus).

[0]: [https://writerp.fileplanet.com/apk](https://writerp.fileplanet.com/apk)

[1]: [https://github.com/retext-project/retext](https://github.com/retext-
project/retext)

[2]: [https://syncthing.net/](https://syncthing.net/)

[3]:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.m...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.gsantner.markor&hl=en_US)

------
The_Colonel
Another alternative is Trilium Notes which ticks the boxes from the title
(sync, note, todo) but goes in a bit different direction (unlimited hierarchy,
WYSIWYG, scriptability) -
[https://github.com/zadam/trilium](https://github.com/zadam/trilium)

------
nico_h
I’m looking for a multi-platform (linux-mac-ios) markdown editor that saves at
regular interval and keeps history and sync via git.

Is there anything like that?

How hard would it be to extend joplin to write a service driver to sync via
Git(-hub / -lab / your own server)?

~~~
top_coder
Have you considered Emacs + Org-mode? Works wherever Emacs works (Linux, Mac)
and there are apps for Android and iOS. Org files are basically text files
that you can commit to git or sync via Google drive, Dropbox, OneDrive etc.
Not exactly markdown but GitHub renders org file pretty well.

After trying out multiple note taking apps this is what I settled on. You can
use it as simple as a note taking app or configure it to do lots of
complicated things like managing your to-dos, appointments, agendas. And my
favorite feature is inline code-block that I can execute.

~~~
obnl
Big +1 on Emacs.

I spent years in the same position we've all been in, searching and hoping for
the perfect note taking app to boost my productivity, have a "second brain",
write down my fleeting inspirations, etc. etc.

After finding Emacs last year, I feel like I've been under a spell my whole
professional life that's been broken. I'm a little embarrassed of the time
I've spent griping and pining for the perfect note app. It took me far less
time to learn Emacs than it did to try out the 20+ todo and notebook apps on
the market.

To all who are still on the hunt: there is no perfect app, and we're all
kidding ourselves. You're looking for someone to give you a fish. This is just
text we're talking about, it's easy enough to learn to wield it, manipulate
it, and organize it, and soon you become the man who has been taught to fish
on his own. Plus, when you have the epiphany of how much more quickly you can
manipulate text with the control of Emacs and/or Vim, you'll wonder how you
spent so much of your life in typing in software without these capabilities.

Learning Emacs has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my computing
journey, I highly recommend checking out a well-configured distribution like
Spacemacs.

------
hirundo
> Recognition data - Evernote images, in particular scanned (or photographed)
> documents have recognition data associated with them. It is the text that
> Evernote has been able to recognise in the document. This data is not
> preserved when the note are imported into Joplin. However, should it become
> supported in the search tool or other parts of Joplin, it should be possible
> to regenerate this recognition data since the actual image would still be
> available.

This is the feature that has me locked in to Evernote and no one else seems to
have. I'll be watching this repo and jump over as soon as it becomes
supported.

------
merricksb
Also discussed 2 years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15815040](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15815040)

(Not a dupe, link posted for info purposes.)

------
godelmachine
Relevant but not directly related -

I use iOS.

I have been looking for a note taking app that will directly save my notes to
my Google Drive as soon as I take it.

For past 4 years I have been using the default Apple Notes. Back then, I
noticed I can configure Notes to be synced with my Google account, and a new
label called Notes is created in Gmail. But what I missed is that a separate
Google account folder is created Notes and I need to save all my notes there
in order for it to be uploaded to my Gmail in real time, and this I noticed
only last week. So, for the past 4 years, I have been saving all my notes on
my iPhone, in the default folder. And now there’s no other way except to
manually upload all notes , one by one, which I have collected over the past 4
years, which goes in thousands, to Gmail.

Last week I downloaded Google Keep. There’s one big difference I noted between
Apple Notes and Google Keep. In Apple Notes, the Notes which you have recently
created / edited / modified / updated, automatically comes to the top, whereas
that’s not the case with Google Keep. I love this feature of Apple Notes so
much that I decided to stick to Apple Notes despite the disappointment I faced
earlier of missing out on the separate Google folder in Apple Notes

Does anyone know of a way to upload all of my Apple Notes, which I have
accumulated over the past 4 years, to Gmail directly in one go? Any workflows
available to make this happen?

Any suggestion from anyone would be reciprocated with disproportionate
gratitude _/\\_

Memento Mori

PS - I am looking for a free software.

~~~
identity0
A really weird way to end a comment.

------
hagoseyu
I have been using Joplin in my Linux laptop for the last two month. A good
note taking for meeting, journal and even technical documents. It sync well
with dropbox.

------
Meph504
This application makes use of ip-api.com by default, this site is free for
non-commercial use only.

this should probably be reconsidered, or least made clear to everyone.

~~~
leppr
I don't see any commercial offering here, seems to be based entirely on
donations.

~~~
Meph504
This doesnt just apply to if the application was sold, but if it is used in a
commercial environment, I.E. If you plan on using it at work, this would
likely be considered commercial use.

------
hollander
I'm looking for an Evernote alternative since long. Evernote is one of my
favourite applications, but I fear the moment when Amazon or Google or
Microsoft buys it like Fitbit or Nest. It is going to happen, and I put more
and more info into that app.

I'm definitely going to try this and I truly hope it is good enough for me.

~~~
bobbylarrybobby
Notion.so is a good one

~~~
detaro
I'm not sure the best response to "I'm worried the cloud service I use might
get bought and changed" is recommending another VC funded cloud service. But
I've heard good things about Notion as a product too.

~~~
aspaceman
They have export features so in theory you’re not tied down.

------
bhl
If you search 'Markdown' on HackerNews, it'd seem like the 'market' for
markdown editors is fragmented: there isn't a single dominant editor yet. I
think every week there's a new editor posted (Joplin is an exception given
that it's been here for a while). Why is that the case?

~~~
angleofrepose
I think it is because each comes with its own opinionated workflow, and
missing features. Each has a way of writing markdown/connecting notes that is
novel, which means each other option is missing that feature.

A take away from this scenario might be that this design space is wanting for
a meta-editor. Some tool which allows feature creation in the same context as
these markdown/note tools. An analogy might be that this meta-editor is to
digital note keeping as racket is to programming languages.

Of course all the obvious requirements apply. Has to be usable out of the box,
has to just work, has successfully convey it's ability to be changed to the
end user.

I think emacs is such a solution, there are no features in the list of hn
posts under the search "markdown" that it doesn't have. But emacs is missing
all the requirements. It is not usable out of the box.

I think this meta editor could best be built on top of emacs, but this will
require a lot of work. I have been playing around with this idea for a couple
of years now and it's slow going but fun to think about.

~~~
bhl
I've been looking at the ProseMirror as a way of building this meta-editor
that could have plug-and-play components. The issue is, although the library
is open-source, there hasn't been many open-sourced components that people
have built. Ideally, we could go one step forward and abstract away the npm
library; then everybody could build their custom editor by mixing components.
One editor that sort of does this is StandardNotes but I haven't tried
building something for it yet.

[1] [https://prosemirror.net/](https://prosemirror.net/) [2]
[https://standardnotes.org/extensions](https://standardnotes.org/extensions)

------
roktiw
I recommend Ulysses app due it ability to sort notes by drag and drop an
export multiple notes as one document. Didn’t find this functionality so far
in any other app. Only minus is Ulysses it is fact that runs only Apple
devices

------
surfsvammel
I haven’t found something that does it all for me. I still use Evernote. Every
time I get a real paper mail, an invoice or a receipt, I scan it with my phone
and save to Evernote. For the PDF OCR search. Thats my only Evernote usecase.

For notes I use Bear. Which is, IMO, the best UX for note taking on iOS. But.
It doesn’t have a web GUI or a Linux app. So. I can’t really keep using it.

I’ve tried them all. Joplin, SimpleNote, Evernote, Turtl, Laverna, you name
it. But none of them have both Linux Apps and a great iOS app/experience. (80%
of my notes is done from iOS).

One day I’ll have to go out to write something myself.

~~~
gab007
> One day I’ll have to go out to write something myself.

I resonate with that. I need to be able to add attachments to my notes -
ideally with OCR capabilities. Evernote does that, but I've had a hard time
finding something else for the Linux desktop.

It's 2019 (almost 2020) and a cross-platform note taking application that does
notes + attachments + OCR it's still not available (I am not referring to
"workarounds" or "tweaks", attachments as links, etc). If anyone knows one I
would love to hear about it.

I am currently using a web app that I have built myself, it does notes and
attachments but I am still working on implementing OCR via Tesseract (form
images and PDF attachments).

@surfsvammel, if you decide to go that way and start building something, give
me a shout - email in my profile.

------
steveharman
Big company evil, let's take ownership of our own data etc. But if Dropbox is
supported as a sync conduit - why is Google Drive missing?

Especially noticable on Android where Google is obviously omnipresent

------
dariosalvi78
I use it every day, it's great and very portable. All the data is backed on
Dropbox. Only a bit too heavy considered that runs on Electron.

------
mstijak
Tdo is built for handling many little tasks by using only a keyboard. Feature-
wise, markdown is used for formatting, RegEx and custom CSS task highlighting,
search supports logical operators (AND, OR), Firebase enables realtime sync,
etc...

[1] [https://github.com/codaxy/tdo](https://github.com/codaxy/tdo)

------
gsich
Issues when I tried Joplin last time (this year):

Android: no auto-save. type something, close it, lose everything.

Scrolling is a pain. Need to reach the end very fast? Forget it.

[https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/899](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin/issues/899)

------
agravier
To add to the list for those willing to try alternatives, here is a
multiplatform markdown note taking application I've been using for a while:
[https://tamlok.github.io/vnote/en_us/](https://tamlok.github.io/vnote/en_us/)

------
snissn
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nirvana-for-
gtd/id1022913190](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nirvana-for-gtd/id1022913190)

Nirvana hq and David Allen GTD are great for being organized and feeling in
charge of all your tasks

------
crazypython
I use DevonThink. It's great-- excellent capture-from-web features. It has See
Also, and folders.

~~~
mastercheif
I’m 20 days into my trial of DevonThink and I’m getting close to pulling the
trigger. I’m using it as a hybrid read-later pocket replacement + personal
knowledge database. The combination of “See Also” auto suggestions for inbox
sorting and deep search capabilities is everything I had been wanting in a PKM
suite. I wish they had extended the auto-sorting/suggestions to the tags
feature, it’s my favorite feature of Pocket.

~~~
arbie
Is there a Windows or Web client for DevonThink?

~~~
mastercheif
DevonThink Server has a feature limited Web interface

~~~
arbie
Can the Server be launched on a Windows machine?

------
mattlockyer
Would you consider data privacy and features that enhance protections for end
users becoming popular? Bear Notes just added a "vault" style feature. With
all the leaks, hacks, and mis-use of personal data, surely there's something
brewing in the market?

------
wiradikusuma
I read few comments against OneNote, may I know what's the problem with that?
(Other than no Markdown—but even Evernote doesn't support it)

~~~
rosybox
I use OneNote, and it works beautifully. I've used it for years. I use it for
planning events, I use it for meal prepping, I use it for just about anything.
It's like a second memory bank for me.

------
rwha
Why are new applications still adding dot folders/files to the home directory
and not following freedesktop standards?

------
arthurofbabylon
Sometimes all you want is a notebook. If it needs to be digital... ->
www.minimal.app

------
threatofrain
What do people who also want Latex use? So far I haven’t found anything better
than VSC.

~~~
mindv0rtex
I use LaTeX in Joplin with no issues. It uses the KaTeX lib to render the
equations.

------
fabiospampinato
Disclosure: I work at a competitor note-taking app called Notable [0], so I'm
somewhat biased.

I've made a comparison table [1] comparing Joplin and other popular note-
taking apps, you may find it useful.

Joplin could have been my go-to note-taking app, but IMO they made a few bad
design decisions and there are few things I really don't like about it, maybe
listing some of them from my point of view could be useful either to Joplin's
maintainers or potential users:

\- Notebooks are indefinitely nestable but tags are not, why?

\- Joplin's icon is SO out of proportions, it looks way out of place in my
dock, it may sound silly but I might not have used it just because of this
alone.

\- There's a button for opening the current note via a third-party editor,
this is quite powerful because it means you can use all the fancy plugins and
capabilities your general purpose text editor has, but why are all metadata
about a particular note stored who-knows-where rather than putting them in the
note itself as YAML front matter so I could have edited them directly too?

\- Attachments are stored on disk as plain files, that's great because now you
can find them and edit them without going through Joplin if necessary, but
those files are named with unique ids so actually finding the files you're
looking for will be a problem.

\- And why not storing all notes on disk directly too, so that you could have
done fancy things like running a global search and replace on them, run git on
them...? Storing them in a database is generally better for performance, but
you can do both.

\- Notes have a separate title field, why wouldn't I want to write my titles
in an H1 heading in the Markdown content directly instead? The default notes
look a bit silly because of this, coming effectively with 2 identical titles.

\- The UI looks pretty ugly, there are too many buttons, the interface isn't
properly responsive (at some widths the toolbar gets cropped, labels spawn
multiple lines etc.), useless things like the "Watching..." label are
displayed etc.

\- The database location is not customizable, if it were you would have the
ability to store multiple notes collections separately, and you could achieve
synchronization for free just by putting your database inside Dropbox for
instance.

\- Some shortcuts are weird and/or missing, for example there's a shortcut for
cycling between previewing, editing, and the split editor. That might be
useful sometimes, but don't people just want to toggle between editing and
previewing or between previewing and the split-editor most of the times? There
should be shortcuts for doing that instead.

[0] [https://notable.md](https://notable.md)

[1]
[https://github.com/notable/notable#comparison](https://github.com/notable/notable#comparison)

~~~
laurent123456
If your opinion is biased, as you said, why do you even share it? Just be
honest that you want to advertise your (commercial) product.

Your "comparison" is just a long list of what you think if bad about Joplin,
as if there could not be a single good thing about it - there's nothing
neutral or fair about any of it. You're just denigrating competition and
advertising your own stuff.

I guess it's to be expected from someone whose tagline is "the app that
doesn't suck", yet heavily copying features from all these other apps, which
presumably, suck.

~~~
fabiospampinato
> If your opinion is biased, as you said, why do you even share it?

I think I may have something interesting to say given that I'm writing one of
these apps myself, and mentioning for example that in Joplin tags aren't
indefinitely nestable but notebooks are is not like I'm making stuff up, if I
weren't writing one of those note-taking apps that wouldn't really change that
fact.

> Just be honest that you want to advertise your (commercial) product.

Partially my comment was prompted by the opportunity to target new potential
users, i.e. people reading this thread are people interested in Joplin, which
is an app very similar to mine.

Partially I want to share what I think about Joplin from my perspective.

> Your "comparison" is just a long list of what you think if bad about Joplin

Well, I started my sentence with: "Joplin could have been my go-to note-taking
app", meaning there's a lot about it I like, mentioning that I like that it
supports Markdown is not an interesting point to make I think, plus I'm
actually praising some things, like the ability to edit a note in a third-
party editor, is mentioning an ever more powerful way to implement this (i.e.
notes stores as plain files on disk with metadata in the front matter) not
interesting?

And not all the things I don't like about Joplin are even solved in Notable,
some are though, obviously, or Joplin would have been my note-taking app too.

> as if there could not be a single good thing about it

As I said that sentence started with "Joplin could have been my go-to note-
taking app", which I think implicitly says a lot of good things.

> there's nothing neutral or fair about any of it.

Ok, what's not fair or neutral about stating the fact that tags aren't
indefinitely nestable?

Or maybe your point is that since I'm working for a competitor app I can't
talk about this?

> You're just denigrating competition and advertising your own stuff.

I don't think that's fair to say, obviously I wouldn't have made my own note-
taking app if I thought Joplin didn't have any important shortcomings.

Would my comment have been fairer if I didn't mention I'm developing Notable?
I mean I'm a person who tried Joplin and there were some things I didn't like,
how am I supposed to be talking about these things then? How would you have
phrased my comment?

> I guess it's to be expected from someone whose tagline is "the app that
> doesn't suck", yet heavily copying features from all these other apps, which
> presumably, suck.

If the very first calculator did only additions it would have sucked, if any
later calculators _also_ did additions that doesn't imply that they must suck
as well.

Plus that's kind of a cheeky tagline that's meant to say the following: I
tried other note-taking apps, I couldn't find one that I really liked, so in
this sense they sucked for me.

Like if you absolutely need a web-clipper I guess Notable would suck and
Joplin would not suck _for you_.

------
braindongle
Is there anything like this that is Vim-centric? Pretty please?

~~~
Stratoscope
What does Vim-centric mean? Not asking to disagree, just wondering what this
refers to. Thanks for any clarification.

I don't use vim, so it's just a matter of curiosity for me - but it's always
interesting to hear what kinds of tools other developers like to use.

~~~
braindongle
I checked out the CLI for Joplin and it's a multi-pane environment with a
command line at the bottom. This is also true of Vim, especially if you like
panes, or "splits". For those of us hooked on Vim (I am silent on its merits),
there is a state of flow that is quite pleasant, and you find that you want
that flow wherever you can get it. The arrow keys just _are_ j,k,l,; for
example, and just lifting a hand from the home row position feels awkward if
you're in deep enough. :)

------
godelmachine
Can this be synchronized with Google Drive using any driver?

Thanks

------
amaccuish
OneNote on Linux, if only such a thing existed.

------
standup75
Had the same problem, decided to make my own. With pouchdb / couchdb for sync.
Https://tagidea.net All free

------
tobiasbischoff
wow thats the worst mac desktop app i've seen for a while.

