One of the most essential tools for anyone who works on the net is a web clipping or notes package. Back in the dark ages web based research material was kept as bookmarks which meant that every time you wanted to refer back to an article or information contained within a web page you had to launch the browser and revisit the site. This was both time consuming and could be frustrating if you had deleted the bookmark in error.
As ever with the web things have moved on apace and Xmarks (was Foxmarks) solves the bookmarks problem by syncing your bookmarks with a web server and there are now a range of web clipping and on-line notes programs available.
One of the biggest shocks was that Google closed down support for its Notebook application. I loved this package. It was small, tight, lean and fast. Whole pages or highlighted sections of pages could be saved by right clicking and saving or by using a small Firefox extension. You can still use it and clip stuff quickly by a small Java app on the navigation bar but, to be honest, would you trust Google not to pull the plug on a service it had stopped supporting?
So, let’s examine a few of the alternatives.
First, the Big Daddy of them all is Evernote which has a desktop based client that links with a server side facility. The desktop download is a hefty 21mb but there is very little that Evernote cannot capture. I must confess that I have always considered Evernote to be a little clunky and even sluggish but the new beta, rewritten from the ground up, opens up a whole new game plan. The new interface is crisper and makes for easy viewing of notes and is considerably faster. The list of new functions include:
- Significantly improved performance when switching between notebooks
- New global hot-key for searching Evernote (defaults to SHIFT+Windows+F)
- Improved search support for Asian characters
- Addressed PDF search issues
- Improved auto-import dialogues
- Improved copy/paste support
- Incorporated more standard keyboard short-cuts
- More configuration preferences preserved
- Improved task tray with easier access to clipping and short-cuts
Sadly the beta doesn’t support the Firefox add on but there is a clip to Evernote button you can drag to your navigation bar. You can also use the keyboard short cut or even create your own. There is also a facility whereby you can email information to your Evernote account and it will log it in as a separate note.
A major plus factor is that you can drag n drop files in virtually any format into Evernote’s desktop client which extends its capabilities. Syncing the desktop and web based service is simplicity itself.
For the basic, free account you get 40mb of storage space but for $45 a year for a premium account you get 500mb of storage and there’s a three month free offer on at the moment. Details are here.
CintaNotes is everything Evernote isn’t. It has a tiny footprint, is lighting quick but only handles text. With CintaNotes running in the background you just need to highlight the text you want copied and hit Ctrl and F12 and everything is copied into a fresh note in Cintanotes.
To take it beyond the “basic” mode you can customise fonts and colour schemes and add tags. As CintaNotes is a totally self-contained application, you can put it on a flash drive and run it directly from there. In this way, your notes will always be with you.
I confess to being in two minds about Springpad. It comes with some built in applications such as a recipe template, grocery lists, a wine notebook created by Gary Vaynerchuck and you can either keep Springs to yourself or make them public. So, if you want to store a stack of recipes on your Springpad you can make it public for other Springpadders. When you create your Springs you can incorporate music and video,drop in a file and link to URLs.
So why do I have doubts about Springpad? I think it is too fiddly and too involved just to get material from a web page organised even by using the Springit button. It doesn’t sit well with the way my mind works which, to be honest, probably says more about my mind than Springpad!
For a longer explanation Web Worker Daily’s Scott Blitstein loves the program and you can read his review here.
Which brings me to Ubernote, an Ajax-based web service that has a slick but minimalist interface that is intuitive enough to use from the word go. To create notes you can start a new one via the Uberclip clipmark on the navigation bar or by using the new note option on the top left of the menu bar. There is also a toolbar but that does not work with my beta Firefox version.
If you can find your way around Windows Explorer file manager you can find your way around the Ubernote interface. Notes are viewed as a index or expanded option and all notes are date and time tagged and you can add your own category based tags for easy searching and e-filing.
Some of the UberNote functionality isn’t as slick as Evernote’s. To insert and image into a page you have to upload it via the usual browse, upload sequence but if you webclip an entire page via the Uberclip button on the navigation bar all the graphics on the page are captured. Like Evernote you are allocated an UberNote email address which allows you to electronically send information to your account.
Discarding CintaNotes because of the limited functionality beyond basic text capture and Springpad because it just doesn’t sit well with me, the two leading notes and clipping services have to be Evernote and UberNote. Before I discovered the new Evernote beta which gives better speed and functionality I would have said that UberNote nudged it, so the contest is definitely hotting up.
Some other clipping and notes applications you may wish to look at are:
Microsoft Onfolio
ClipMarks
Plucker
DeepMemo
Do you have a favourite webclipping and notes program, let me know.
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