What’s the finest app to take notes? The one that matches your duties, your work, and your life-style. We now have choices, together with AI-enhanced decisions, for workplace staff, college students, writers, and those that simply have to jot one thing down on the fly. Select the one you want.
Please be aware: The article lists the app costs within the Mac App Retailer or on the developer’s web site. In Setapp, you get all of the described apps and 240+ others for $9.99 monthly.
1. NotePlan: Duties, notes, calendar, and AI
What makes it particular? It is a minimalist app to handle day-to-day notes tied to the calendar.
Who’s it for? Anybody who plans their day by the hour.
NotePlan helps you shortly create a plan for a day or week by yourself or utilizing a template. All actions are simplified: textual content is formatted utilizing keyboard shortcuts, and including a activity to the calendar is so simple as dragging and dropping.
Aside from day by day planning, there are folders for long-term initiatives. For instance, within the “Health club” folder, you may monitor your train progress, menu, and so forth.
NotePad’s standout function, Immediate AI, affords versatile functionalities like textual content translation, growth, assembly summaries, turning textual content into bullet factors, crafting e mail responses, and extra. Moreover, it may well auto-generate content material for you. As an illustration, you may ask to put in writing 10 motivational quotes, and NotePad’s AI will instantly embed the ends in your be aware.
Extra execs:
- Availability of templates with targets for the day, OKRs, affirmations, and many others.
- Numerous lists.
Cons:
Value: from $9.99/month
2. Craft: Stunning and practical notes primarily based on templates
What makes it particular? Engaging notes and paperwork which might be simple to create and set up.
Who’s it for? Anybody who desires to make lovely follow-ups, directions, and many others., and share them with others.
Craft is about lovely and practical notes primarily based on templates or created by your self. The templates are various: for self-improvement (e.g., gratitude journal), HR and folks crew (e.g., onboarding course of), conferences (assembly notes), and extra.
In notes, you may simply create drop-down textual content, varied varieties of lists, calendar occasions, and hyperlinks to different paperwork.
Craft may help you’re taking notes with options like including pictures, movies, and information to your notes, styling your content material, and utilizing the AI assistant to extend your productiveness. The AI assistant may help you write sooner, brainstorm concepts, summarize lengthy paperwork, proofread textual content, and translate into any language.
To open the AI Assistant: choose a Block and press Command + Return, choose Assistant within the choices on the backside.
Extra execs:
- Means to share notes with different individuals for collaborative modifying or commenting.
- Means to export to PDF, Phrase, and many others.
Cons:
Value: from $6/month
3. SideNotes: Fast notes on display facet
What makes it particular? It is all the time at your fingertips, but discreet.
Who’s it for? Anybody who must take notes often and on the go and would not want a elaborate design.
SideNotes is one of the best ways to take notes on Mac if you happen to simply want a fast scribble. As soon as put in, you will see a neat strip on the correct facet of your desktop. Clicking it opens the app. There, you may create notes and set up them into folders, and… that is just about it. Certain, you may create to-do lists, format textual content, and add pictures to your notes, however that is about it.
Extra execs:
- No built-in calendar, however you may add a be aware to Reminders.
- Means to view the contents of a be aware as code.
Cons:
- No compact view for notes. They’re displayed full size, even when they take up your complete display.
Value: $22.99
4. Ulysses: Good device for longer notes
What makes it particular? It is greater than only a good app for notes; it is a writing device.
Who’s it for? Content material creators, bloggers, and writers.
Ulysses is a writing house. You possibly can create separate fragments (e.g., chapters) on particular person sheets and set up them as you want. Textual content formatting is straightforward however ample: add headings, quotes, tables, and pictures. Whenever you export a file as a PDF, the app codecs the textual content correctly.
The app tracks how a lot time you spend writing and calculates how lengthy it takes to learn the textual content to your self or out loud.
Extra execs:
- Constructed-in proofreader and modifying assistant.
- Markup-based textual content editor – no should be distracted by formatting.
Cons:
Value: $5.99/month
5. Apple Notes: Jot down fast ideas on Mac
What makes it particular? It is in all probability the best note-taking program with a good function set.
Who’s it for? Anybody who makes use of a Mac.
This app sits within the Dock by default, so you may simply click on it, open a brand new be aware, and begin writing. It has primary textual content formatting and the power so as to add tables and pictures. Since there are not any folders, sorting your notes by hashtags is finest.
Extra execs:
- The flexibility to password defend a be aware.
- Handy search system (for instance, “notes with guidelines” or “notes with attachments”).
Cons:
- Incapability to password-protect a be aware with a hashtag.
Value: Free
6. Bike: Structured and centered writing app for Mac
What makes it particular? It handles actually massive initiatives, would not decelerate your Mac, and is not aggressive with the CPU and battery.
Who’s it for? Anybody who likes to put in writing in outliners (textual content information with a tree construction).
Bike is an area for pondering and writing that may deal with your multi-level plans, notes, and concepts. Even when they take up many pages, it will not freeze.
Should you want circumstances to pay attention, the app affords three writing modes: full display, typewriter (the textual content you are typing stays within the middle of the display), and focus (all textual content besides the road you are engaged on is dimmed). Plus, it is a pleasure to put in writing right here: the letters move easily, which seems very nice.
Extra execs:
Cons:
Value: $29.99
7. Research: One of the best note-taking app for college students
What makes it particular? It is among the finest apps for conserving notes and flashcards for finding out.
Who’s it for? For college kids and anybody who must memorize data.
Research are like conventional flashcards however extra highly effective. A card can include textual content, pictures, or audio. As you examine, you may mark the reply as appropriate or incorrect or flag the be aware. The flashcards will likely be sorted into the suitable folders the place you may overview the fabric or work on the marked be aware. Additionally, the app will create a examine plan primarily based in your want (e.g., “examination”) and the deadline.
Extra execs:
- The app tracks progress and the variety of appropriate and unsuitable solutions.
- Sync with iCloud.
Cons:
- There are not any ready-made playing cards with duties for various topics. It’s a must to create them your self or import your folks’ Research flashcards.
Value: $24.99
8. MarginNote: A device for idea mapping, flashcards, and studying PDFs and ePubs
What makes it particular? The app means that you can take detailed notes from a ebook, article, or some other textual content.
Who’s it for? For college kids and those that want in-depth textual content examine.
MarginNote has two modes for processing textual content. “Doc” helps you to take fast notes on what you are studying. Examine mode offers you entry to dozens of instruments, together with organizing multi-level notes and thoughts maps, trying to find phrases within the built-in browser, changing notes to flashcards for later overview, and extra.
Extra execs:
- Helps a number of file codecs: PDF, EPUB, MOV, MP3, MP4, M4V, M4A, Evernote paperwork, and internet pages.
- Lets you set up multi-book studying notes in a single map.
Cons:
- Considerably sophisticated navigation: getting used to the instruments might take time. We suggest you watch video tutorials on make notes in MarginNotes.
Value: $59.99
9. Backtrack: Get AI transcripts and summaries of conferences
What makes it particular? It information audio and video from the previous.
Who’s it for? Anybody who often attends on-line or offline conferences.
When the app is working, it information in a loop what it sees on the display and hears out of your Mac’s microphone and audio system. Which means that at any time, it can save you a chunk of video or audio that occurred 1 to five hours in the past.
What do notes must do with it? Along with the recording, you get a transcript of the audio. So now, you do not have to take notes manually throughout a gathering or lecture you probably have Backtrack on.
Extra execs:
- Means to combine with a calendar to remind you to report conferences.
- Means to report in 4K.
Cons:
- In some international locations and states, you want permission from different individuals to report them on video.
Value: from $10/month
Tip. Take notes whereas watching real-time webinars and on-line conferences. With TextSniper, take a screenshot of the fragment you need, and the app will immediately convert the picture with textual content to textual content.
10. MurmurType: Shortly flip speech to notes
What makes it particular? It permits to transcribe and translate voice notes in 19 languages.
Who’s it for? Anybody who makes use of a Mac and has no time or will to kind notes.
Acquired an concept it’s good to jot down immediately? Or your ideas are sooner than your typing? Simply begin MurmurType, converse, and get a textual content be aware.
Extra execs:
- Computerized translation is obtainable: for instance, you converse Italian, however the transcript is in English.
- Computerized punctuation – you get a whole textual content, not only a set of phrases.
Cons:
- The app can mechanically cease recording after just a few seconds of silence. Right here, silence means not the absence of voice however the absence of noise. So if there are extraneous noises within the room (e.g., the sound of an air conditioner or a espresso machine), this function might not work completely.
Value: €20 per license and one 12 months of upgrades.
How to decide on the most effective note-taking app for Mac
We now have examined every app described above to be secure, safe, and handy. You possibly can decide up and use one in every of them. However if you wish to look additional, take note of the next choices:
- Compliance together with your wants. Every app is nice for its personal goal. For instance, Craft in all probability makes essentially the most lovely notes with out requiring any design style.
- Light-weight. You’ll in all probability use your note-taking software program usually, and it’ll run within the background. So it is necessary that it solely makes use of slightly RAM and CPU. In any other case, it may well decelerate your Mac.
- Quick access. Ideally, it is best to be capable of open a brand new be aware in three clicks. If the app’s primary options are hidden deeper, you might discover it inconvenient to make use of.
And bear in mind, you do not have to spend hours establishing your note-taking house – it must be a fast and intuitive course of.
FAQ
What’s the finest note-taking app for college students?
One of the best note-taking apps for college students are Research and MarginNotes. The previous helps you create flashcards to memorize materials. The latter helps you dig deeper into textual content by making notes, annotations, and thoughts maps.
What’s the Apple model of OneNote?
The built-in note-taking app on Mac is Notes. It has a easy interface and allows you to lock notes, tag them, and collaborate on them. Nevertheless, you may’t sync them together with your calendar or obtain them as a file.
Is there a free note-taking app for Mac?
The built-in Mac Notes app is free. The opposite apps described right here have a 7-day free trial inside Setapp.
Attempt each note-taking app without cost
The app could make or break your productiveness, so depend on your wants and habits when selecting. Use these fast tricks to discover the most effective note-taking apps for Mac:
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