How to store notes in Markdown format and why it is better than Evernote
Technologies / / December 19, 2019
Last summer Evernote raised rates and restricted the number of free synchronized devices to two. Many users were unhappy and moved on to other services store your notes, which abound on the Internet. They are comfortable, beautiful, each has its own characteristics. But only - if your favorite service decides to raise rates as Evernote, or cut back on functionality completely closed as Springpad, you have to spend a lot of time to save your data and export notes.
Do I have to resort to third-party services to create notes? After all, there is another way. Organize notes in a simple text file with Markdown-marking, laid out the folders in any cloud storage.
What is Markdown
About Markdown repeatedly wrote on Layfhakere. It is extremely easy to use text markup language that lets you create documents formatted in plain text files. View the syntax can be, for example, here.
Benefits
Cross-platform
Evernote, apparently, is not going to let the official client for Linux, as well as the OneNote, and third-party clients are far from perfect. Notes in Markdown, you can open in any system, and on any device - Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS.
Easily synchronize
You can use any cloud storage as desired. Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud - selection After you. As a consequence - the convenience of backup, since most cloud storage support recovery of files from previous versions. If necessary, you can organize and store your own. Naturally, you can change the selected cloud any minute. Just copy the folder with notes.
Ease of migration
If you are trying to migrate from Evernote to OneNote or WizNote, you could see how messy migration utility to handle your data, losing notes and spoiling their formatting. Keeping notes in Markdown-files, spread out on folders, you can not worry about problems with the export. You can quickly convert the notes in any popular format with the help of tools to work with text formats, such as Pandoc.
Opportunities sorting notes
Evernote users unhappy that notebooks do not support more than two levels of nesting. In Simplenote can create tags, but you can not create folders. Save your notes as text data, you can sort them as you like, depending on the means of your operating system and file manager. You may want to improve the system by adding tags to the notes as plain text, indexed search.
Large selection of tools
Notes in plain text files to Markdown-marking are good that by working with them, you can do without third-party tools at all. You will only need a file manager to organize them, and "Notepad" to open them. But the use of programs for notes can make editing Markdown-files more comfortable.
What can I use Markdown
Notes
This markup language is good to make short notes quickly with minimal formatting, or to keep records and notes. Created documents can then be easily converted to other formats (.docx, .odt, .pdf, etc.) to preserve formatting. Using Markdown you can write posts for your blog.
Articles from the Internet
Markdown is not only suitable for writing your own articles, but also to save information from the Internet, such as through service Fuckyeahmarkdown. Saved article, cleaned of extraneous information, you can comfortably read on your computer or tablet.
lists
Markdown allows you to create visual lists and using applications such as Simpletask or Cheddar, your todo.txt becomes a full-fledged task manager.
post office
Through Markdown Here you can quickly create e-mails with markup Markdown, without being distracted by pressing the buttons on the formatting of the web interface or email client.
Tools for working with notes Markdown
Windows
Of a plurality of editors can distinguish MarkdownPad - a simple and functional editor, which lacks only the file pane, or ResophNotes. To write a text in an abstract suitable mode Writemonkey.
Mac
In a large number of macOS zametochnikov working with Markdown. Write and iA Writer support synchronization with Dropbox, iCloud, and other cloud storage and have clients for iOS. Notational Velocity and nvALT perfect for lovers of minimalist interface. application Ulysses - a great tool for writers.
Linux
Linux users can try P.S.Notes - A simple, lightweight and quick notes manager. Similar to nvALT, it has a file cover and distraction-free-mode. To write notes more perfectly suited GhostwriterIn which you can insert images and export to various formats to get the results Uberwriter or Typora.
Cross-platform solution
Cross-platform text editor like Atom, Brackets or Sublime Text the panel of files and multiple extensions are converted into comfortable notes manager. They support the search for documents and simultaneous editing of a plurality of notes with AutoCorrect and regular expressions.
iOS
To edit notes, you can choose any of these applications.
Application not found
Price: 699 rubles
Price: 459 rubles
Android
Editors for Android lacks in abundance. Support, for the most part, synchronization via Dropbox or Google Drive.
Price: Free
Price: Free
Price: Free
Web services
- Fuckyeahmarkdown - a convenient service that converts pages from the Internet in Markdown. Bookmarklet from this site can replace Evernote Clipper.
- recipe IFTTT, Allows you to save selected articles from Pocket in a text file with Markdown.
- Expanding Copy as Markdown for Chrome will come in handy if you copy information from the Internet.
Price: 0
- Expanding Save Text to File for Firefox saves the selected text in a file, adding a note of time.
Developer: developer
Price: Free
- Also, there are many Web editorsSupporting Markdown, e.g. StackEdit and Dillinger.
Eventually
I'm more than a year using text notes in Markdown. I do not have only two functions that were in Evernote - search text in images and auto-tagging. But the benefits of a new way of storing notes outweigh the disadvantages. Now I really feel that my data belongs to me. Markdown-note - this is not a cloud service. They do not require a fee for access to them and do not report one day that they intend to close.
What do you think about this method of storing notes?