Taking Notes on the Mac

This last semester I decided to start searching for a note taking application for the Mac.  Because essentially all of my important data lives on my Mac, it makes sense to keep my notes there as well.  There are some situations that require a pen and paper solution, like some science classes that involve extensive sketching, but most classes and meetings in todays world involve a powerpoint presentation and or handwritten notes on a screen somewhere that can be most effectively captured via the keyboard of a laptop.

Given how easy it usually is to find great solutions for educational applications on the Mac, I was a bit surprised at how hard it actually was to find something that fit my few meager requirements:  the ability to annotate PDF files, to embed many filetypes, an intuitive outline structure, and easy organizational features.

After playing with about 5 different applications, I decided on Notebook, which is developed by Circus Ponies.  I was looking for a free solution, but the free solutions I tried were either too feature lean to meet my standards, or to buggy to rely on day to day.  Most of the other applications I tried can be found here, and you may find that one of these alternatives suites your personal style of note taking better.

What I like about Notebook is that you can create new notebooks for different situations.  For example you can have a different notebook for each class.  Each notebook can then have multiple dividers to keep chapters or topics separate.  It really just depends on how the user likes to have things structured.  You can drag and drop most any file type into the page and it will embed it.  The way it embeds can be as simple as a link, to a slideshow of a set of powerpoint slides, or it may ask you if you would like to embed it for annotation.  I do wish the annotation features were a little more fleshed out.  As of now if you embed a PDF version of a powerpoint presentation it will make a page for each slide, whereas I would like to have all the slides on one page so I can have one page for each meeting.

Still, overall, Notebook is the front runner in my opinion for keeping track of you class notes.  There is a very detailed tutorial/review available here, which may help you to get started using all of the great features available.

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