What memopad do you use?

[nausicaa]

I was trialing Daynotez, but I am hoping there are other alternatives to the puny 3kb size memos of the stock memopad (you know, memopads that allow for longer memos). Sigh, if only the Clie Organizer Memopad could be used on the UX...

This made me wonder : What do you currently use (as Memopad replacement) and why?


(gosh, do you all use Daynotez? It's nice, but... i wish it melded more smoothly with my 3rd party extensions: ie, i wish it used the standard palm stuff instead of propriety database. Geez, I guess since the VZ comes with Clie Organizer in portrait... there's no hope to be had from the looking at VZ apps in terms of memopad...)

Any advice or insights would be much appreciated.

p.s. I'm talking about Memopad NOT Clie Memo (not the squiggly line one)

[nausicaa]

whoa! don't rush in all at once to overwhelm me with a flood of responses ;) just kidding. okay, so here's my round-up via search/web search, though I can't be sure they're accurate (+/- reflects palmgear comments which may not be 100% reliable).
If anyone has comments after having actually USED any of these apps on how valuable they really are in terms of real, live usage on a widescreen... please feel free to jump in and add your assessment (for example, I got annoyed with having to pull out my stylus in order to open up a Daynotez memo for editing & using templates but maybe others have a keyboard solution for this?)! Really, I mean it, please feel free to jump in... :o

(memo pad replacement apps in alphabetical order)

CrsMemo
+: freeware, 3 types of memos (checklist, squiggly, graffiti); lets you save memos to memory stick! :)
-: lo-res,

Daynotez:
+: list views with dates are really useful; automatic time stamp; seamless syncing with Daynotez desktop; allows FLAGGING of important memos (and easy use of filters, of course, with the STYLUS, on the pda); automatic time stamp; easy template-making (but to USE the templates, you gotta pull out your stylus); can import ToDos and create ToDos :)
-: can't open existing memo for editing from keyboard; uses it's own editing tools in command bar thereby booting out my 3rd party enhancements; bullets get corrupted when syncing to desktop (maybe because my Microsoft Windows XP is in Korean); have to tap ok after editing to close; cannot move 1 memo to another place (except by cut & paste) in the list; cannot IMPORT from doc; voice notes don't seem to work :confused: for what is a commercially-sold program; find only highlights a word in a memo instead of taking you to the page (endless scrolling to find the highlighted word); can't easily filter to isolate flagged items; can't export my clip PRO clipping to Daynotez :mad: ??!?

EasyNotes
+: 3 formats in one app (memo, cliememo and voice recorded memos)
-: does voice recorded memos work in ux?

Hi-Note
-->? have only seen a reference to this but have not found any other info on the actual app???

MemoPlus
+: recognizes e-mail and web links to launch those programs with a tap? (but one user comment suggested this didn't work consistently); alarms; (allows longer memos than the built-in 4K?)
-: lo-res pictures

Meteor
+: tree organization with drag & drop for moving files; 32K memos instead of 4k!
-: syncing with pc issues?,

PhatNotes
+: allows notes up to 16K; sort notes by creation date or last modified date; send e-mail directly from app; can HYPERLINK to cross reference memos!;
-: doesn't say if it uses tiny fonts/whether it uses the built-in database so as to use with other programs that can link to memopad; costs a bundle; does not appear to have memory stick support (so all the memos would sit on RAM space)

PsMemo
+: freeware; good with a keyboard (can open & close memos without taking out the stylus; has lots of menu shortcuts by using command-t and a letter ;) ), has both "beam" AND "send"; can launch urls from memopad using memourl; can launch e-mail program from PsMemo (set-up in link prefs) :cool: ; can sort to organize memo by last edited date (to the top) :) ; can get rid of annoying dotted lines in edit view; uses built-in database (so Korean shows up perfectly & is editable, and so I can use my 3rd party extensions, like TextPlus and ClipPro and pop-up dictionary, to my heart's content); can use tiny fonts; can "clone" existing memos (to use as a kind of templates); can delete memo without going into details (from listview)
-: time & date stamp is not automated (must tap); undo command doesn't undo input (more like a restore for when you cut out something you didn't mean to etc); only 4k memos :( b/c it uses the built-in database; Palm Desktop (memo pad on the PC end) is not great



Section 2: Not really a listview memopad but more like a light-weight text editor~

QEd:

SiEd: search & replace, word count, undo, encrypted file support, can split display to view 2 memos at once, 100k memos, not really memopad but text editor, (maybe this won't have support for Hi-res+ screens?)

[TechnoCat]

Interesting question. Okay, here's the thing...

1. MemoPad works real well for me for most purposes. It syncs well, with IntelliSync (which came with the UX50), it syncs to Outlook (though I don't use that feature currently), and is well-integrated. Many programs interface to it, such as Plucker.

2. ClieMemo, which is graphical, annoys me because of the narrow screen. Sony didn't think this one through; why provide a wide screen and a narrow notepad for it.

3. Wide Notes supports widescreen with notes and with pure images. I like it, but MemoPad is better for quick use. (I looked at a lot of other graphical note pads; WideNotes was the best of the lot.)

But... The real reason memo pad works well for me is...

4. Bonsai (the outliner) works fantastically. I use it for lots of types of notes. I have eight sets right now in there, each with a dozen or more sub-entries. Excellent for organization and for taking notes that you sometimes want to collapse to effectively a table of contents so you can quickly find the bit you care about. I preferred the interface of Bonsai over the other well-known outliner, whose programmer is more committed but a bit of a jerk, but both would do the job admirably. Bonsai also syncs to a pretty decent Windows app.

5. SmartList2Go (the database) gets a lot of use from me also. Lots of things you might track in a memopad entry can be better tracked in a small database. And this too has a decent Windows app, and syncs also to Access (but not relationally, unfortunately.)

6. HandyShopper gets a lot of use from me, and used to get a lot of tracking use prior to Bonsai.

7. ToDo and Calendar also support notes, and the address book has some text fields. The number of things I want to jot down that aren't either to-do, date or person/company related is a tiny fraction of the total.

So my bottom line is, if you feel limited by MemoPad, it may not be that MemoPad is limiting you so much as you're not using the strength of the other applications. That's just a choice, of course.

[nausicaa]

wow, thanks TechnoCat! actually, your comment really got me thinking differently... instead of trying to get a bigger memo pad, I should move some stuff over to an outliner like Bonsai?

I had trialed Bonsai as well as the other one. I totally agree that Bonsai's interface is really nice :) and desktop syncing was smooth as could be, but I couldn't get the contacts to jump back to Bonsai (after going to addressbook for the person's phone number for example I couldn't jump back to the outline somehow). And I couldn't open up notes without leaving the main outliner screen. Is there a way to do the phone jump back thing (which is more important than being able to read a note in the context of the outline)?

I guess my fixation on memopad was because soooo many programs are built-in memo pad-friendly, it seemed like a potentially good "hub" for hyperlinking as well as just regular linking / pulling stuff together with maybe PsLink or AcroWiki or something like that. Unfortunately, memos can't be that long... sigh... so i guess i have to just come to terms with that interlinked palm scenario not happening! and just go for an outliner...

[hherbzilla]

I've gone down a similar but different path from TechnoCat.
I use DayNotez extensively for phone calls, generic reference notes, rebate info., etc.
I have Meteor but use it to a much lesser extent. The hierarchical structure is nice, though.
Instead of Bonsai, I use Shadow (predominantly for my to dos).
I also use SmartList To Go for d/b stuff (e.g., medical history)
I'm a big SplashShopper user, mostly for grocery lists... and SplashID for all of my reference data (passwords, IDs, etc.)

[Whateverinny]

I couldn't get the contacts to jump back to Bonsai (after going to addressbook for the person's phone number for example I couldn't jump back to the outline somehow). And I couldn't open up notes without leaving the main outliner screen. Is there a way to do the phone jump back thing (which is more important than being able to read a note in the context of the outline)?

You know Datebk5 is great for the split screen thing, you can open the To Do List, Address, Memo Pad etc. while having your datebook open. Now, maybe someone can answer this, but I think that you can launch other apps from Datebk5 itself, if you can launch them you might be able to split screen that too, because Datebk5 is very complex. Finally, Datebk5 has excellent linking capabilities, and customizable databases, which include a dbmemo, tolist and more.

I know you started a thread on linking and Bonsai. I think Bonsai is excellent, and I think you should give it a chance. You can specify from Bonsai which app to use when you link it, Bonsai has a drop down list in the global options section that will list all of the apps on there. It defaults to the standard system apps, like the standard Datebook, so you have to override it if you have Datebk5 or Agendus, DayNotez etc. on there.

[crazy_smeggie]

I use Easynotes. It isn't completely compatible with the UX (re: voice Recorder) but I like it anyway. I used to use Meteor but switched because it became antiquated. (I believe they have a new version that I will be looking at). However, that said, because I have a lot of ideas for inventions, I like my notepad to have a graphical aspect to it which is why Easynotes works well for me.

However, I have always wanted to try Bonsai and based on the aforementioned reviews, I'm gonna go tinker with it right now. Thanks!


SMEGGIE :D

[LrdShaper]

I use SmartlistToGo for my memos. Also for project tracking, phonecalls, expenses, and inventories

[nausicaa]

wow guys, THANKS for all the feedback!!!

I just downloaded the trial of Smartlist ToGo and put Bonsai on my pda to tinker around with it.
I probably would have never even tried the trial of Smartlist ToGo (owing to surprisingly high list price) but seeing that so many people find it their solution . . i can't pass up NOT trying it (ugh double negative there...)
:) :)

you guys are awesome!

[nausicaa]

Oops! Quite touched and overwhelmed with gratitude for all the posts the friendly-neighborhood & experienced 1src folks put up, I momentarily forgot about my Daynotez issues.
I had been trying to take all my notes (workshops, meetings etc) in Daynotez, then copy/paste chunks over to ShadowPlan (to be organized into a note-view tree)... although now I will be testing this system out with Bonsai too.
I was wondering (or more like HOPING) that maybe someone had a workaround for the following Daynotez issues>>>

1. Copying big chunks of Daynotez notes (text) from Daynotez to ShadowPlan. ( my registered version of clipPRO doesn't work in Daynotez trial and the copy function in the Daynotez command bar only lets you copy Small blocks of text at a time so I end up going back and forth 3 or 4 times to copy, bit by bit, a workshop log over to the outliner )

2. Liberating myself from my stylus: How do you open an existing Daynotez note for editing and close it without taking out your stylus? How do you open a template without the stylus (menus/options/templates doesn't seem to handle opening a new note with an existing template) ?

[lelit]

Another interesting program - just for variety. "Note Studio" - wiki-type program. That means, you can kinda build hypertext on your UX, but much more easily than normal one. It works so: if you write anywhere on the page something in "[]" - it becomes hyperlink to the new page with corresponding name! (also there are other easy formatting features, like *something like that* becomes bold, +smth becomes <h1>smth</h1> etc). It has good enough desktop program, that also can export to real HTML or XML. Its price is shamelessly high, BUT demo version has no serious flaws and is not timed (!).
All in all, very interesting program, worth looking :)