{"id":73584,"date":"2014-06-04T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=73584"},"modified":"2014-06-04T12:13:19","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T17:13:19","slug":"a-quest-one-productivity-app-to-rule-them-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=73584","title":{"rendered":"A Quest: One Productivity App to Rule them All"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ New Hampshire<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A Quest: One Productivity App to Rule them All<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"alexisrohlfing\"<\/a>There must be something in the air in June and July that attacks the productivity apps that I love. Many\u00a0people scrambled to find a new feed reader last year when Google Reader shuttered, myself among\u00a0them. I had a similar feeling recently when I logged into Springpad<\/a> only to find it will shut down in late\u00a0June. So often as users, we go through a search process, trying out dozens of apps before we find the\u00a0one that fits our needs. The transient nature of the digital world makes it hard to plan on something\u00a0being available forever, yet I found I had treated my app that way, loading it full of personal and\u00a0professional information; shopping lists, blog post ideas, and professional goals all in their own neat\u00a0notebooks.<\/p>\n

Now what?<\/p>\n

In my mad scramble to find a new home for my data, I came across several alternatives which I\u2019ll share\u00a0with you today<\/strong>. My main criteria were that I needed a platform that was available by web and by mobile\u00a0(though a desktop interface wouldn\u2019t be amiss to complete the package), I needed something that had\u00a0sharing capabilities for any collaborative projects or ideas I might have, I wanted to have control over\u00a0privacy so that I could draw clear delineations between public, collaborative, and private, and I wanted\u00a0something that had firm backing and didn\u2019t appear to be going anywhere.<\/p>\n

Springpad<\/a> was also different than most of the other apps\/sites out there, in that there was a visual\u00a0component in the organization.<\/strong> Rather than a list of notebook titles, the notebooks had visual\u00a0representation with pictures of some of the content inside. When working with text, this was neither\u00a0here nor there, but for the visual projects it was nice\u2014the interface within the notebook was similar to\u00a0Pinterest, allowing you to see at a glance what was listed and what you had saved.<\/p>\n

No app is perfect, but these are the ones I found worth exploring. Only time will tell which work best,\u00a0but here are a few to get you started:<\/p>\n

EVERNOTE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 The big one: Evernote<\/a>. Most people are familiar with Evernote as one of the largest apps\/\u00a0websites in the digital notebook space. Evernote has some nice add ons, like Evernote Food,\u00a0that I like. There\u2019s a fairly robust tagging feature, a nice spread of formatting options for each\u00a0note that you create, the ability to import from the web, and a desktop application. I\u2019m not\u00a0a huge fan of the layout, and I\u2019ve had the app on both mobile and desktop go finicky on me\u00a0(which prompted my initial switch to Springpad). It is also go for on the go note taking and\u00a0brainstorming because you can work on your notes\/draft across a variety of platforms and come\u00a0out with a fairly complete document. My biggest beef is the checklist making option. If you are\u00a0a list person (and I am) the checklist function is not the best one I\u2019ve come across. You have to\u00a0hit the list button for each line item. If you\u2019re not a list person, this won\u2019t bother you, but if you\u00a0find yourself making to do lists, goal lists, etc. you may want to explore another option as the list\u00a0feature is time consuming. I\u2019ve also had some trouble with sharing\/collaboration and having the\u00a0work saved. (Web, iOS, Android, Desktop)<\/p>\n

OneNote<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 OneNote<\/a>: This is Microsoft\u2019s version of Evernote and its bundled with the Microsoft Office suite.\u00a0If you have the suite on your machine, it\u2019s possible you already have this installed but haven\u2019t\u00a0used it. It has a clean interface, and it does have a mobile presence\u2014the mobile app is free even\u00a0if you don\u2019t have the full program on your computer. I used this program for a project I worked\u00a0on for my alma mater\u2014prepping the catalog for digital conversion as well as drafting library\u00a0policy. I found the software easy to use on my main machine and the online version easy to use\u00a0on site. The printed format was also nice. Sadly, I upgraded my personal machine and lost the\u00a0code for the office suite, so I no longer have the full application. The mobile alone is not quite\u00a0robust enough for full document creation, but would serve for in depth\/on the go note taking\u00a0(Web, iOS, Android, Desktop)<\/p>\n

SIMPLENOTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Simplenote<\/a>: This is backed by Automattic, the same folks who bring you WordPress, so little\u00a0concern on that front. The interface is very simple and clean and there aren\u2019t a lot of frills. The\u00a0downside to that is there is no way to format your text\u2014no bullet points, check boxes, for text\u00a0formatting. This is a good app for simple note taking, but it\u2019s not enough for lists, collaboration,\u00a0or note taking that is in-depth (like you would have at a lecture or conference). It does allow for\u00a0tagging and sharing, and it has a web and mobile presence. I like it as a secondary app because I\u00a0don\u2019t get distracted by features, I simply record information. (Web, iOS, Desktop for Mac).<\/p>\n

HACKPAD<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Hackpad<\/a>: Hackpad is probably the closest you can get to Springpad other than Evernote.\u00a0Hackpad has some of the more visual elements that Evernote lacks, though it does not have as\u00a0many formatting options within the pad itself. It also allows for direct embedding from some\u00a0sources (such as Youtube). Hackpad started independent, but it now owned by Dropbox, which\u00a0provides the back up. One of the suggested uses is collaborative note taking at conferences\u00a0(for those are their way to Las Vegas). The main issue with Hackpad is that it\u2019s still a relative\u00a0newcomer and certain features are underdevelopment\u2014mobile apps and the ability to sync and\u00a0edit within Dropbox on desktop or mobile being two of the big ones. Still, there\u2019s a lot to like,\u00a0including unlimited public workspace with privacy controls and the ability to set up a private\u00a0workspace for your group (though that is for a fee). (Web, mobile web).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some omissions have been made, as with any list.<\/strong> The main one is Google Keep<\/strong><\/a>. It certainly has\u00a0organizational features that would make it eligible for the list, but my largest concern was whether\u00a0it would suffer the same fate as Google Reader. Another tact you can take is to look at family\u00a0organizational apps. There will be certain features built in that are more suited to personal life, however\u00a0the calendar feature and to do list features are the strongest parts of these apps, and because they are\u00a0meant to track multiple people, you can generally color code various tasks for appointments\u2014simply\u00a0name the categories according to what you need to track. These apps will be less focused on the ability\u00a0to take notes or save articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexis Rohlfing, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ New Hampshire A Quest: One Productivity App to Rule them All There must be something in the air in June and July that attacks the productivity apps that I love. Many\u00a0people scrambled to find a new feed reader last year when Google Reader shuttered, myself among\u00a0them. I had a similar…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":57676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[3802,4792,69,3592,6271,5947,6269,3599,6087,6270,6268],"class_list":["post-73584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-alexis-rohlfing","tag-apps","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-digital-data","tag-evernote","tag-hackpad","tag-inalj-new-hampshire","tag-onenote","tag-productivity-app","tag-simplenote"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/alexisrohlfing.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-j8Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}