The Problem with Recommendation Without Specific User Needs
it really worries me when i see the question on social media what is the best note-taking app and people give single worded replies to this notion obsidian known ability evernote craft bear one or you name it there are two problems here first. the question is asked without context is the note-taking app used for personal or business notes. do you need to show the collected information in another system. do you need to share the information with your client or team. do you want to take notes to receive some personal insights and revelation from a conversation or do you want to create a knowledge base with a broader purpose for example research for a book scientific research or creating a business or personal knowledge base. if you provide any of this information it is much easier to recommend the right app.
Moving Beyond Popularity Toward Effective Digital Productivity Setups
Founding the A-Painless Movement for Effective Knowledge Management
however due to the lack of this context i come to the second problem the replies on social media to the question what is the best note-taking app. the tools recommended are usually hyped or commonly used tools personal preferences of the answering person or the worst replies from the tool companies claiming they have the best tool to solve the problem. there was no problem explained in the first place. it worries me because this way people don’t get the best note-taking app or any other productivity tool for their specific needs but the most popular app that solves another person’s problem. this is why i founded a payless movement with the mission to help people and businesses to understand what they need in their digital productivity setup to make it highly effective.
Comparing Market Leaders Evernote and Notion for Specific Use Cases
usually there is much more to this than a single worded answer. the most discussed tools regarding note-taking and show you the differences to make it easier for you to pick the right one. i’m absolutely aware there are so much more solutions to this than evernote and notion and i will address this. i also want to mention that i won’t cover any handwriting note-taking apps.
Exploring Evernote’s Powerful Search and OCR Capabilities
Evaluating the History and Core Superpowers of Evernote
i assume this is the tool everybody interested in digital note-taking apps knows about. it makes sense because founded in 2004 it was the first tool that allowed people to collect their notes easily on a digital platform instead of folders full of word documents with notes. evernote provided a solution back then to make you remember everything by simply searching for it and this is actually its superpower still to date. if in doubt a quick search in evernote might reveal exactly what i’m looking for.
Leveraging OCR to Search Within Complex Document PDF Scans
to me this is awesome for one specific use case my document scans. all my paper documents like contracts invoices go into evernote. evernote will recognize the text on my documents via ocr and makes it searchable. so whenever i need to look something up i simply search for a keyword or company name and i’ll find it. this is something that isn’t available in notion or other tools like obsidian. even pdfs that have searchable text embedded cannot be found in notion or obsidian via search. you need to manually add information to your database or node in order to find it and then still you can only find it by the text snippet you added and not by the whole content within the document. just imagine having the power to search for text within a 40 page contract pdf in order to find it.
Synchronizing Handwritten Notes with Evernote Using Noteshelf and Rocketbook
if you like to use handwriting note taking apps then there is something else you might didn’t know about evernote. noteshelf a note-taking app for ipad and apple pencil allows you to synchronize your handwritten notes to evernote. this means you can take handwritten notes in note shelf and they appear in evernote and are also searchable. yes your handwriting is searchable in evernote too. this fact makes evernote even more powerful because this means you can scan your handwritten paper notes directly to evernote and make them searchable or you use something like rocketbook to use your smartphone cam to scan and even automate the organization inside evernote.
Comparing Structural Organization Between Evernote and Notion
Why Evernote Falls Short in Interconnecting Notes and Building Databases
by listing those features i could easily claim that evernote is the best note-taking app right. if the searchability of scanned document and handwritten notes is what you are looking for then yes evernote is the best you can use. but if you are looking to interconnect your nodes or build node databases for better node organization. evernote will fall short very quickly once i compare it to notion because notion provides the function to backlink and cross-link your notes. in order to explain notions note-taking super powers i’ll use a simple example. let’s say we want to do some research about the person albert einstein in evernote as well as a notion we can create a new note and title it albert einstein.
Developing an Albert Einstein Research Case Study for Tool Comparison
then let’s add some basic information like his birth date his profession and also a picture of him. so far it is fairly easy to find information in both of our tools. we simply search for the name and we’ll find the related note. now let’s assume we want to write a book about the speed of light so let’s create a new node with a book working title. let’s name it faster than light is it possible and then we start researching and adding relevant information to this book note. whenever we write about albert einstein in evernote we would add the name albert einstein manually and if we want to link to albert’s page we can do this by copying the link to his note page and pasting it into the note. this way we made a cross reference as you know.
Utilizing Advanced Linking and Backlinking Systems in Notion
Comparing Automated Cross-References with Manual Wikipedia-Style Linking
from wikipedia however look at how this works in notion. we simply type the add sign and then start writing the name without even typing his full name. search results will start listing related note pages. we select albert einstein and now we have a direct link to his page and i have saved time because i didn’t need to write a full note title and even his picture is showing up. let’s see what happened on albert einstein’s note page. there is a backlink. this means that any note we mentioned albert einstein in will appear here and with a simple click on it we’ll jump to the page and even to the sentence he was mentioned in. now let’s say in our book we mentioned stephen hawking for the first time.
Creating Dynamic New Pages and Managing Research Within Notion
in evernote we would need to create a new note then pick the link and paste it into our book node. In notion however we just use the add sign write stephen hawkins. And then simply go down to say create a new page. We click on it and fill out the details as we did for albert. Now let’s say we made some research about stephen hawking and wrote a paragraph about something. He discovered something that we would like to use the exact same way in our book. In evernote we would select a paragraph and copy it into our book note. This is something i really hate doing it is duplicating data. this means that when i learn something new that i want to add to this paragraph i need to update both paragraphs.
Eliminating Data Duplication with Notion’s Synced Block Feature
Ensuring Content Consistency Across Interconnected Knowledge Databases
in order to stay consistent with my notes. I select a paragraph go to my book note and paste it. And it asks me if i want to create a synced block. This is awesome because now i always know the origin of this paragraph. This means that when i update it in one place it will update it everywhere else too. And this means this paragraph exists only once but can appear in different places. I think you already see the great potential you have in taking notes with those functionalities. We can build a vast knowledge database and even cross-connect databases that will provide. Pou more insights into your notes than evernote ever could give you. Read More