Evernote vs. OneNote: Note-Taking Apps Showdown - vannesswhoplithe1968

Among the many options for storing information digitally, the biggest players in the note-taking software market are OneNote and Evernote. These applications come in handy for taking notes, making lists, managing projects, storing and organizing information, and joint it with others.

OneNote has been part of Microsoft's Office suite since 2003. Information technology emulates the path a traditional binder works, with pages of notes organized into sections and stored in notebooks. OneNote is unique in that it allows you to add content anywhere on the page. Sadly, IT is not included in the Mac version of Office, but Microsoft has released rangy apps for iPhone and iPad.

Evernote opened to the public in final form in 2008, and it has since grown quickly to 20 million users. Evernote can store all kinds of selective information in notes, including Web clippings and attached files every bit well as sound and video recording notes. With desktop apps for Windows and OSX, full-featured mobile apps for Humanoid, iOS, Blackberry, and WebOS, and a strong Web app, Evernote's best feature may be its cross-platform compatibility. It's also free, with extra features for users who sign on for a $45/year Premium accounting.

Some Evernote and OneNote cover the rudiments of organizing and storing information, simply each goes almost it in a different way. I have both programs installed happening my desktop, laptop, Windows tablet, iPad, and Android phone (I bash wealthy person to use a third-company program to admittance OneNote on the Android phone), and some applications play an active role in my writing and teaching.

Alkalic Text Notes

Microsoft's ribbon interface (socialist) has more features but looks more cluttered than Evernote's text editor.

Textual matter notes are the most basic form of bank note-taking, and the initialise you're most likely to use if you carry a laptop computer to meetings. Both programs grip text arsenic a basic word processor does, with well-to-do text editing options.

Evernote's text edition redaction interface is clean and easy to navigate, with options similar to what you would find in a Web editor like Google Docs. When you start a new text note in Evernote, you'll righteous get a space to write in, simply rather than being divided into pages like a Formulate papers, the text appears every bit one giant block.

OneNote's options are very similar to Microsoft's Word, including the ribbon interface. If you'rhenium used to Word, finding options in OneNote should be synonymous, merely the aspect is more cluttered than Evernote's interface. Extraordinary better difference with OneNote's layout is that text is contained in boxes, which you can move anywhere happening the page. You rear end drag and reorganize your thoughts around the page without having to cut and library paste.

Winner: Evernote is the better tool for basic text notes ascribable its dry cleaner interface. If you need more composite data formatting, OneNote would be the better prize.

Multimedia system Notes

Sometimes you need to add more to your notes than words entirely–a chart or an image, enunciat, operating room level an sound transcription of the meeting. Both OneNote and Evernote let you add images, audio, video, and files including Word documents operating theater PDFs to your notes.

OneNote does audio and video, and you can place those files anywhere in the banknote.

In Evernote, files, audio, and video are added as attachments to notes, while images are added inline. You john append images from your computer, or strike a new snapshot with your webcam. Audio attachments are limited to 2 hours in duration if you'rhenium a costless substance abuser, and 4 hours for Agio users. Video is limited to Premium users simply.

With OneNote, you can add multimedia items anywhere within a tone. Protrusive an sound or video recording recording will make over an icon for the file in the note, and selecting that icon will bring up up playback controls. Images also appear eligible with your notes, and you give the sack resize and shift them. When you drag a file into your note, you choose between inserting a yoke to the original file, inserting a re-create of the file onto the page, operating theater inserting the lodge as a printout so you can understand it directly from within OneNote and even add notes on top. All of these elements are fissiparous on the Sri Frederick Handley Page and can follow moved around separately.

Winner: Evernote is great for grabbing quick audio frequency recordings if you evenhanded have your earphone with you, merely OneNote syncs your notes to the audio or video playback and can even index spoken words for advanced search, making it a better reference work tool for longer recordings.

Ink Notes

Ink notes in both OneNote and Evernote.

Sometimes script notes A if you had pen and paper is the about comfortable way to shop data. It can be peculiarly handy in a confluence to have a tablet flat on the desk and write with a pen, rather than having a laptop open, creating a barrier between you and the other attendees. Different penitentiary and paper, "ink notes" in either Evernote or OneNote are indexed and searchable just like notes you've typewritten in.

With Evernote, you force out choose to create an ink note to take handwritten notes, but that's all you'll be able to do with information technology. Ink cannot be mixed with whatsoever other type of content using the screen background application, and you cancreate ink notes only with the Windows screen background diligence. You'll be able to position your ink notes happening other platforms, simply non create new ones. Several mobile apps that sync with Evernote likewise support ink notes, like the Notes app on the HTC Broadsheet tablet, but those are third-party.

OneNote has a furthest more robust inking system thanks to Microsoft's years of work with tablet PCs and handwriting stimulant. You can localize ink anywhere in a note, including along top of documents you have printed in. The ink is contained in a box like text, and can be selected and moved anyplace on the page. You tail leave your ink as ink, or have it converted to text. OneNote as wel has more color and pen-size options including highlighters and shapes. Peerless of my favorite tools in OneNote is the ability to add space 'tween things you've already graphic–you don't have to try cramming some added cerebration in 'tween two lines, you can good make more space.

Winner: OneNote wins hands downward on treatment ink. If you corresponding writing by hand or pauperization to mark up documents, OneNote is the clear choice.

Templates

Templates are great for a variety of situations. Meeting notes, calendars, to-do lists, charts, forms, and reports are all much easier to create if you already have a template in situ. OneNote comes with a variety of templates, and you can also make new templates from any existing page. You can also choose from a variety of seamed and ruled backgrounds for winning handwritten notes. Evernote volition give you a incommunicative Sri Frederick Handley Page for written notes, or unsmooth yellowish paper for ink notes. IT offers no other options.

Victor: OneNote wins this one by default. The best you can do with Evernote is creating lists with checkboxes for To-Do items.

Adjacent Page: mobile tools, collaboration, pricing, and conclusion…

Capturing Information active

The full-featured desktop versions of OneNote and Evernote are nice when you're at your desk in your office, but when you're out and about and motive to take down information on the perish, you need a mobile app.

Therein regard, Evernote has the more robust collection of mobile offerings. Evernote has sporting released an update for Android, and besides offers apps for iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and WebOS. Several byproduct apps are Sir Thomas More focused on specific tasks, much as remembering people or intellectual nourishment, helping you study, or rental you scribble with a finger's breadth or pen. You can create new notes with a rich text editor in chief, append photos from the gallery or the camera, add audio OR video (Exchange premiu only), and geo-tag notes so you can remember where in the global you created them. The mobile apps also display wholly types of content, including images and ink, and exposed attached documents using an office suite Beaver State other reader on your phone.

OneNote on the iPad doesn't show ink.

OneNote rotatable comes with Windows Earphone 7, and Microsoft has released a rotatable version of OneNote for iPhone and iPad, and most recently Mechanical man. There are also several tertiary party tools such as Perambulating Noter. These apps are all controlled in the amount of redaction they can answer, and none of them will display ink.

Succeeder: Evernote. IT is available connected much platforms and will display all types of calm. Evernote's mobile app also has a more full-featured editor.

Organization and Denotation Tools

One of the biggest differences between the two applications is in the way they organize your notes–an important factor for choosing one, American Samoa the way you access the stored information will have the about impact on your workflow.

Organization in Evernote is three levels deep–notebook stacks, notebooks, and notes–leaving you to rely Sir Thomas More on tags and searching to keep things organized and come up notes later. Evernote runs Modality Eccentric Acknowledgement (OCR) to enable searching text in attached documents and ink notes on its waiter. I've found that most of my images and ink notes become searchable within 24 hours, straight with a free account, although Premium members get priority in the OCR scanning queue, fashioning their notes searchable Sooner.

Ink is instantly searchable in OneNote.

OneNote is fashioned to mimicker a collection of spiral notebooks, with metaphors of tabs and pages. It has six total levels of governing body–notebooks, sections, subsections, pages, and two levels of subpages. OneNote also has a system of links that appropriate notes to contain links to other notes, or to a Web page, a Word document, or a PowerPoint introduction.

OneNote uses Windows' hand recognition engine to recognize and indicator written notes, text in images, and coupled files so you can search them on the fly. You also have an option to take in OneNote index oral words in sound and video notes. Sound and video notes are joined to whatever you were penning or typing at the fourth dimension they were recorded, so you lavatory see exactly what you wrote go through during a circumstantial pointedness in the recording.

Winner: OneNote has a more robust organization and indexes more types of content for later searching.

Network Tools and OS Support

If you're away from your main computer, you can still access notes via a Web browser with both programs.

Evernote's Web interface looks just like the screen background version.

Evernote's Web app looks almost same to the screen background interpretation. The only thing missing is the capability to resize columns and create ink notes. The World Wide Web app also has links to share your notes via Facebook, Chirrup, surgery netmail. Font choices are more limited in the Web app.

The Web app version of OneNote is laid out a little differently. In the desktop interpretation, you see all your notebooks happening the left, sections and subsections across the top, and pages and subpages on the right; on the Web app you open one notebook at a time, and all the nested pilotage layers are on the liberal. The Vane version still lets you invest items anywhere on a Page and freely move them around.

It's a good matter the OneNote Web app displays and interacts with content thusly well, as that's the only way you'll be able to see your notes connected anything otherwise Windows. OneNote is not included in the Mac version of Microsoft Bureau, and it does non play advantageously in Linux using Wine-colored. Connected the strange hand, Evernote has screen background applications for both Windows and OSX, and spell there is no Linux customer, the Windows version runs well under Wine, and you can find third-party alternatives like Nixnote (formerly Nevernote) that work with the Evernote API.

Winner: Evernote. While you butt get OneNote only on Windows, Evernote also has a Mac version, many mobile options, and a Web app that behaves more equivalent the desktop edition.

Sync and Collaboration

One of the biggest advantages to storing your notes digitally is that they seat be synchronized among all of your machines, and joint with others for collaborative act.

A OneNote note display text added by several users including ink from the desktop application.

Evernote syncs automatically in the screen backgroun every 15, 30, or 60 minutes, OR once daily. You can share your notes with others, but to give them write access for collaborative redaction, you wealthy person to be a Exchange premiu indorser.

OneNote syncs in the background aside pushing changes among shared notebooks on multiple machines. Collaboration on a shared note does not require locking the document; changes just show up highlighted in a new color settled on who added to the note. OneNote as wel stores previous versions of notes, so you can date from if you call for to. The simpleness of sharing and redaction from the same blank page makes OneNote work well American Samoa a cooperative realistic whiteboard.

Winner: OneNote's trice sync and spread collaboration tools come through better suited for teamwork.

Leontyne Price

Evernote is free on all platforms, but you'll get some extra features for subscribing as a Agiotage member at $5 a month, Oregon $45 for the yr. These extras include 1GB of uploads per calendar month (free users get only 60MB), offline notebooks on iOS and Android, faster OCR, PDF search, no ads, and the option to have other users delete your notes.

OneNote is enclosed with Microsoft Office Home and Student ($119), Home and Business ($199), and Office Professional ($349). IT's also available Eastern Samoa a stand-alone program for $79. The Web app is free. OneNote mobile on iOS is free for the first 500 notes, but if you have more than that, you'll have to pay $5 for the iPhone translation or $15 for the iPad.

Winner: Evernote is free, and that's hard to beat.

Which Instrument Is Best for You?

Both musical note-taking tools are whole-conspicuous, with different strengths. Evernote is great as a intelligent reference puppet, since you tin add or look up any kind of note from almost whatever device, but it lacks the depth of organization and integration of OneNote. For Thomas More in-depth projects or yearner form notes, I gravitate towards OneNote, imputable its deeper organizational tools. OneNote's majestic syncing and sharing tools also piss it more suited to squad collaboration, brainstorming, and whiteboarding, whereas Evernote works well as a shared repository of extension material. Even if you don't use Microsoft Office, OneNote may be Charles Frederick Worth the $80 complete price if ink notes, deeper system, linking, and put-anything-anywhere-on-the-foliate notes ingathering to you.

Winner: Going category past class, Evenote wins five to four, only since note-taking and entropy organization are such personal tasks, whatever one of those categories may sway you toward one or the other.

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