Back to the fold

By Brian Clegg

For a good number of years I used Microsoft’s OneNote for all my note taking. It is wonderfully freeform – a bit like having a scrapbook for anything and everything you can clip or write or type. But as I observed a whole 6 years ago, Microsoft were slow to get things going on (Apple) mobile phones and tablets – and when they did, it just didn’t work with the sophisticated facilities of the desktop version.

I’ve recently been alerted to the latest version of OneNote and I’m pleased to say that the mobile versions are now good enough that I’ve moved back from Evernote. Although Evernote is great, it lacks the on-page flexibility and structuring of OneNote – it’s like coming home.

It has taken a little while to move back, but Microsoft do provide a migration tool to get your notes in from Evernote. They then take an age to synchronise on all platforms (at least if you have 800+ notes like me), but now we’re there and it’s great. What’s more it’s free – where Evernote now charges if you use more than 2 devices, or do significant monthly uploading or want facilities like business card recognition.

There are still things Evernote has the edge on – for example its synchronisation seems much faster than OneNote’s. But for those who make complex notes, annotate by hand, put together all kinds of resources in planning a book… OneNote can’t be beat.

Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.