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Note-taking app

K

km_androidfan

Lurker
I have been using Catch notes for over 3 years now, until recently when the latest update to the app solemnly declared that it is getting discontinued by the end of August 2013. I now am on the quest to find the best alternative to Catch notes, but what I am surprisingly discovering is that most of the popular apps like Microsoft OneNote, Google Keep, Evernote, etc., will mandatorily sync the notes to the cloud. This really is a bit puzzling for me. What would happen if I or somebody else intentionally/unintentionally deletes my notes. Due to the regular syncing feature, I will also loose the notes from the cloud. This is actually the opposite of the concept of safe back up!!!

Some other requirements:
-I would also like to be able to manually backup all my notes in a convenient manner to some other place/device.
-I am not quite interested in the handwriting recognition feature.
-There must be a copy/paste feature (OneNote seems to be missing on that). I need this because I keep modifying my notes frequently. Edit and move lines of text across notes.

Any suggestions please!!!
 
The somebody else part is unlikely unless you plan on giving people your password for the app. Plus there is a confirmation dialog.

Anyway, you can try ColorNote.
 
ColorNote is the way to go. I've ben using it for over 4 yrs now. If you really like the app your using, just save the apk file for that app. (Save it to your SD by using an "appSaver" app) If you can install from unknown sources, just reinstall the app that way. The only down side, is there will be no more support for that app and you won't find it in the Play store. (So make sure to keep a back up of the apk file.)
 
Catch Notes also used cloud syncing.

Particularly if you don't care about syncing, I would look at Note Everything. The pro version allows you to make backups to your SD card, if you have one. The free version lets you backup to Drop Box if you don't have an SD card.
 
@chanchan05 :
You don't need to enter a password every time you open any one of the apps I mentioned like "Microsoft OneNote, Google Keep, etc". All these apps open straightaway when you tap on their icons. And whatever changes you make to the notes immediately get synced to the cloud when your data connection/wi-fi is enabled. This also means that if I accidentally delete something or someone else maliciously deletes any thing, that stuff will get deleted from the cloud too.
 
itsallgood said:
ColorNote is the way to go. I've ben using it for over 4 yrs now. If you really like the app your using, just save the apk file for that app. (Save it to your SD by using an "appSaver" app) If you can install from unknown sources, just reinstall the app that way. The only down side, is there will be no more support for that app and you won't find it in the Play store. (So make sure to keep a back up of the apk file.)
Click to expand...
The problem with ColorNote is that the SD card backup file which it creates is in some proprietary format rather than a generic format like "txt". Catch note used to create backups in txt format. Some additional tags in the txt file wont bother much, but in my opinion using a proprietary format for backing up is not a good option as it relies on the availability of the app.
 
Hook said:
Catch Notes also used cloud syncing.

Particularly if you don't care about syncing, I would look at Note Everything. The pro version allows you to make backups to your SD card, if you have one. The free version lets you backup to Drop Box if you don't have an SD card.
Click to expand...
Catch only provided the user an option to Cloud sync. It was not compulsory to use it and I never cloud synced my Catch notes.
But what I did do was to periodically create a single backup text file in which all my notes were appended one after the other. I did this using a feature of the app. I would then store this text file at a location other then my mobile device just as a contingency plan in case my device gets lost.
There are 2 key points here:
1. The app had the ability to create a backup file having all my notes. (apps like OneNote, Google Keep, etc. can't do that.)
2. Secondly, the backup file is in text format so that I do not rely on any specific app. Although it is one huge file having all my notes but at least nothing is lost.
 
SEMIJim said:
I was using ColorNote. At some point I decided I wanted to sync between multiple Android devices. ColorNote had only the option to use their cloud services. I already had DropBox and Google accounts. I did not want Yet Another Cloud Service Account. I found Simple Notepad, which has an optional DropBox conduit/plugin that works very nicely.

For the OP: Simple Notepad has export to and import from SD card in its Tools menu. Or, if you prefer, it's easy to find Simple Notepad's directory with something like ES File Explorer, with which you could then copy to/from an SD card, a network share, or what have you.

I've copy and pasted in/out of Simple Notepad numerous times. I can't say for certain that I've copied/deleted/pasted/moved within Simple Notepad... lessee... (testing... first time I've actually done anything with Simple Notepad on my new-to-me Sensation...) Yup: Works like a champ :)

I'm quite pleased with Simple Notepad.

HTH,
Jim
Click to expand...
Jim, you are quite correct about Simple Notepad. In fact, it is the app that I find the closest to Catch and also the one nearest to matching my requirements.
There are a few glaring issues with the user interface though. For instance, when you search for a word from the "All Notes" default screen, the layout of the search results screen that subsequently opens is identical to the default screen and you can't tell that it is actually the search results screen and not the default screen. This is counter-intuitive and I doubt I have seen anything else that follows a similar design philosophy.
 
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