I’ve used KeepNote in many ways and I’ve heard a few other ways other people have used it as well from the Google Group for KeepNote, the primary way for communicating with Matt and suggesting features and keeping up to date on everything, so I know quite a bit about how to use KeepNote. I’m no expert, however I’ve learned how I think it’s best to use KeepNote.
KeepNote is a simple, easy to use, opensource, free (as in beer), OneNote alternative that created an avenue for me to move in to Linux. True it doesn’t have all the features that OneNote has but OneNote’s really cool extra features only work with their products and particularly Internet Explorer for clipping web page notes, which I think anyone who knows anything about computers will agree is a BAD thing to use in the first place and not to mention it’s for Windows only! And how much fun is that? I USE LINUX! Let me quell any comments right now that say you could use wine to run OneNote with a big “NO you can’t,” at least not for Office 2010 just yet. Why would you need 2010? Because OneNote is best in 2010 because it comes a huge array of new features and improvements over the old OneNote 2003 or 2007 which both have wine compatibility but just weren’t “right” until OneNote 2010 came along. Sure you could also run an entire Windows VM in VirtualBox or VM ware player/workstation but that is a ridiculous overhead for a simple note taking program which it’s key feature is easy, fast, awesome note-taking. This makes it not very smart to use since KeepNote runs on multiple platforms and provides what you need for this key advantage. OneNote (2010) is still in my opinion a much better program than KeepNote but KeepNote no-doubt has many features (or lack thereof) that make it attractive to use instead of OneNote or the various other methods to run OneNote 2010(or it’s previous versions) in Linux(Ubuntu 10.10 at the moment).
KeepNote’s strength has been in a couple key areas: Project management, documentation, and as a general notebook. I also have used it well as a very dynamic journal which allows me to add photos, audio, video, as well as normal notes(entries as I call them for the journal). KeepNote’s many different features allow it to do all of these things quite comfortably. It’s great organization abilities, file handling, ease of use, ability to be easily customized, and more make this one of the most crucial open source additions to my life that I don’t go day without.
Organizing
KeepNote can handle any file. Saying that though is kind of cheating because what KeepNote does is use your Operating System to display any files you might have. Note that KeepNote is cross-platform and runs on Macs, Linux, and Windows all with the same code so making it capable to do everything perfectly for all different systems isn’t always possible. The developer leaves this up to you since only you know what programs you really want to use and how you want them used (command line arguments, etc.). That said, it can handle any file once this is set up from images, to videos, to even audio files. The way it is all handled is through the use of what could be best called “attaching” a file to a note. The file in question is copied to the notebook folders and is then added as a note to the notebook. Afterwards it is handled pretty much the same as any other note except it probably can not be edited. The exception is with things such as text files which KeepNote can natively handle. This flexibility is great for projects and the like because now you can organize any of your files together in logical places that make it easy to find and use. I’ve used this with several projects but the place I’ve used this most is in my Journal notebook. In it I keep pictures and video or even just archive files that are related to a certain day or event. It helps make my Journal that much more dynamic in it’s content although most of it is just notes
Ease of use
The concepts of KeepNote are very easy and its like using your normal file system but everything is organized. All you need to know to make KeepNote great for you is how to create folders and notes, maybe the keyboard shortcuts to do those things too, and you’ve got all you need to make KeepNote great. Everything else is easily found in the menu at the top. The menu is also not very crowded or complicated because there isn’t many features crowding it up. The toolbar also features many of the more used functions. Also a great feature, which is not always available if you’re working across platforms, is it’s advanced search feature. This search function is very fast and has been improved recently. It’s perfect for setting up your notes in to major sections, instead of having to constantly make sub folders and then decide which folder is where you latest file goes in to, and allows easy and quick retrieval.
Customization
KeepNote offers many ways to customize your experience. There are a few big ones that everyone should know. For one, it allows changing of any item in the menu bar’s key binding by hovering over it and making a keyboard selection and it sets that as the shortcut for that item. Next there is the ability to add plugins. Currently it’s not so perfect to create plugins so there is not much available at the moment (at least that I know of), but Matt is working on this issue and is focusing on making the API’s for making plugins more documented to allow for developers and the like to make awesome additions to KeepNote. Additionally there are the many different settings in KeepNote which are a great source of customization.
A simpler form of customizing in KeepNote however is the fact that you can organize your notes however you want. Its just files and folders and it can be changed and modified to be whatever you want. Plus you can change colors and icons for the folders which make them easier to spot and identify if you have a million files and folders mixed together. That special icon goes for anything too. Folder or note/file it can be changed to whatever you want. KeepNote comes with about 20-30 icons of it’s own but you can just make new .png files with whatever you want.
More…
To find out more about KeepNote or to learn more about KeepNote and her features go to the Google Group and also check out the KeepNote website which offers a nice primer on how to use KeepNote’s major features.
