Hey y’all. I’ve been testing a bunch of Note taking solutions and nothing seems to check off what I want and need.

I want a simple interface (both for list view and note editor/view), preferably similar to Google Keep, but a regular list is fine as well.

Key features:

A. being able to drag and drop re-order checkbox lists.

e.g.

  • [ ] item 1
  • [ ] item 2
  • [x] item 4
  • [x] item 3

I’d like to be able to just drag and drop the above to sort things correctly.

B. E2EE at rest.

C. CTRL+F inside the note view/edit!!

Honestly, the only functionality I truly want is A. But most of the solutions I found are either proprietary or can’t do it.

Self hosted options I’ve tried:

  • Joplin (can’t do A; UX is not great)
  • Standard notes (A + C is gated by their self hosted premium subscription; I don’t mind paying for my apps, but the prices are ridiculous)
  • Silverbullet.md (can’t do A)
  • Quillpad (very similar to Google Keep and can do A, but has terrible file syncing, not E2EE)

Notesnook looks almost as insane as Standard Notes to self host (mimicing AWS stack locally is nuts). Has anyone tried Notesnook yet? I don’t want to spend another afternoon setting something heavy up only to find that the feature I want is gated by a heavy $.

Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: Woops! I am looking to use the notes app on both Android and Web/Desktop Linux. Preferably an open source solution.

  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    Hi quaff!

    The app I use for this purpose is called Notally, on android. It supports reordering the checkboxes, but it doesn’t do find in page or sync to web (although it can do backup /restore – I sync the folder with nextcloud and I can access the text files)

    That said if you try it, you might love how simple it is and use it for something!

    https://f-droid.org/packages/com.omgodse.notally

  • daytonah@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    Obsidian and good ol’ paper and pen. (or epaper). The paper I use is on bullet jpurnal style.

  • BackYardIncendiary@lemmy.sdf.org
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    14 hours ago

    Not for everyone, but I use a self-hosted single user email server for this. All the formatting your client permits, clients for every platform, attachments, organization into folders, synced automatically everywhere, etc. No spam filtering, DMARC, DKIM, and the like because you only ever email yourself and you don’t permit external senders. I love it.

  • nycki@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    code editors might have the features you want, and its easy to repurpose a code editor into a notes app.

    sync a folder between your devices (syncthing is great for this) and put markdown text files in it. I like to call this folder “Memo” since its like writing letters to myself.

    edit the markdown using VS Code (desktop) or Carbon (android). I haven’t tested whether Carbon can do this, but I know in VS Code, you can reorder a list with keyboard shortcuts.

    click anywhere on a line of text, then hold Alt and press Up arrow, and the text will swap places with the line above it.

    edit: Syncthing and Carbon are open source. VS Code has some proprietary code added by Microsoft, but none of it is relevant to your use case, so you may prefer the fork called Codium.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    I self-host Notesnook and found it easy to set up. Been using it as my main note-taking app for years now and I’m really happy with it.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOP
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      7 days ago

      Are you able to drag & drop to reorder checkbox list items in notes? 🙏

      • communism@lemmy.ml
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        7 days ago

        Yes, if you use the “task list” block. You can also have checkbox bullet points but I don’t use them, not really sure what the use-case for those are when you can just use the task list.

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I spent several years looking for the perfect selfhosted solution to this, but ultimately I realized an offline solution was just going to be better. So I started using Obsidian which is as simple or complex as you want with no paywall.

    Some of the self hosted solutions I’ve tried were:

  • tal@olio.cafe
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    8 days ago

    You might want to list the platform you want to use it on. I’m assuming that you’re wanting to access this on a smartphone of some sort?

    • quaff@lemmy.caOP
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      8 days ago

      Ah good point. I edited my post! Android and Web (nice to have is desktop Linux support). Thank you!

  • orosus@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I use Logseq with ToDoList plugin to handle task list. Logseq is similar to obsidian but open-source. And to syncronize notes among devices, I use syncthing. No need to selfhost.

    • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.uk
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      6 days ago

      +1 on all of this.

      Logseq basically saved my mind when I took on a new job where I needed to take a lot of notes quickly, easily and keep track of all the ToDos.

      Syncthing keeps my laptop and phone in sync (with my NAS) so I can start notes on my laptop and then finish on my phone.

      You can definitely reorder checkboxes, but on Android it’s still not quite a smooth experience, but it’s ok.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOP
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      7 days ago

      I already use Tasks.org :) But that’s for specific things.

      I like writing list of things. Like groceries, and as I write them, I tend to re-organize them. Having the ability to re-order the items easily helps me tremendously.

      Tasks.org can’t fill that note aspect. Let alone re-ordering a task.

      • conrad82@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I see 🙂

        I used emacs org-mode before. Can do a lot of stuff on PC, but mobile experience was lacking. And learning curve is crazy

        I am currently testing out logseq + syncthing. I don’t reorder things much anymore though

        Good luck!

    • tom@jlai.lu
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      7 days ago

      I also recommand Task.org app to sync tasks with CalDAV and I use raw Markdown files with WebDAV, both using the DAVx5 app for synchronization. For editing Markdown, I prefer minimalist apps that suit my needs. Right now, I find SimpleMarkdown (with disabled telemetry) to be the best choice.

      • quaff@lemmy.caOP
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        7 days ago

        SimpleMarkdown doesn’t allow for re-ordering checkbox list items.

  • Spooky Mulder@twun.io
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    8 days ago

    Every now and then this question comes up. It’s a timeless software engineering conundrum. Kind of like how med students might start to think they have all kinds of diseases and conditions because they’re learning all these symptoms.

    Software engineers, especially new ones, tend to be heavily biased toward applying technical solutions to non-technical problems. Most never actually grow out of this.

    I’ll advise what I advise every time someone approaches me or one of my peer groups with this very question:

    Get yourself a notebook and a pen.

    I’m dead serious, not trolling, and not some kind of technophobe zealot.

    When it comes down to it, if you let go of what you think you need in a to-do list app, you’ll find that what you actually need much simpler.

    Notebooks are e2e encrypted. Self hosted. Offline. As ephemeral as you like. Indexable for search. Versatile. Take a picture of a page if you really want to. OCR it if you need to.

    Pen and paper.

    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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      7 days ago

      I carry a phone, I’m not carrying a notebook and pen.

      I did that 40 years ago.

      Plus that list doesn’t show up on my laptop or my desktop, other places I’m working.

      It’s not sortable by date/time, priority or project.

      That’s terrible advice, and doesn’t even meet the basic requirements of the question.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOP
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      8 days ago

      I hear ya. I don’t carry a notebook with me, and don’t like to fill my pockets. So I appreciate the low tech suggestion, but will have to pass on this!