Help! Staying Organized with Electronic Notes

I'm struggling to stay organized and finding good workflow for documentation of design ideas and setups of machining. I have tons of pieces of papers in my tool box and on my computer I have random notes in word and google keep.

What does everyone use for simple electronic note taking? What about have an idea or project? What steps do you do document this idea? Draw out sketch then scan into pdf of jpeg or something similar? Using Onenote, word or Powerpoint and break it out to job/project? Most important how do you keep track of it and keep updated and organized

It's getting to be a pain in the ass when I work on a project for a couple weeks then come back to just to start over because I can't find the notes/references from before.

Onenote or Evernote

m98custom1212 said:

I'm struggling to stay organized and finding good workflow for documentation of design ideas and setups of machining. I have tons of pieces of in my tool and on my computer but random notes in word and google keep.

What does everyone use for simple electronic note taking? What about have an idea or project? What steps do you do document this idea? Draw out sketch then scan into pdf of jpeg or something similar? Use Onenote, word or Powerpoint and break it out to job/project? Most important how do you keep track of it and keep updated and organized

It's getting to be a pain in the ass when I work on a project for a couple weeks then come back to just to start over because I can't find the notes/references from before.

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Both work well, can use your phone or tablet to take pictures, notes, etc. Both allow spoken notes/speech to text so you can do it at the spur of the moment.

Both use notebook type of organization, Onenote is a little deeper and more can have more branches in the tree so to speak.

KevinV_MEI said:

Both work well, can use your phone or tablet to take pictures, notes, etc. Both allow spoken notes/speech to text so you can do it at the spur of the moment.

Both use notebook type of organization, Onenote is a little deeper and more can have more branches in the tree so to speak.

Click to expand...

Used to use evernote for school but they nerfed the free plan so I just don't use evernote anymore

I like to use folders and subfolders on the computer to organize things. I scan to acrobat for sketches, scribbles, and notes. Titles are very important when looking for things later.

Scottl said:

I like to use folders and subfolders on the computer to organize things. I scan to acrobat for sketches, scribbles, and notes. Titles are very important when looking for things later.

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Do you name your scribbles?

m98custom1212 said:

Do you name your scribbles?

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If they are important enough to save. When I say scribbles I mean roughly drawn design concepts, not just wasted ink aka doodling.

Scottl said:

If they are important enough to save. When I say scribbles I mean roughly drawn design concepts, not just wasted ink aka doodling.

Click to expand...

I ask so easy to search and find it again without going to the folders

True about evernote. You need to pay for the advanced features, onenote is completely free.

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I'm not sure about any issues with Evernote for a single user. I have both a free and a paid account and with the way I use it, I have never noticed a difference other than support and upload data limits. I'm retired now, but I would have been dramatically more efficient if I'd had it when I was working.

I use the free version on my android phone and main PC. On my android phone, can create a note from the camera, an attachment, record audio, set timed reminders, write with a stylus, and type a note. On the PC, there's a nice browser add-in that captures web pages to evernote.

The biggest difference on the free account is that you can only use the native app on two devices. I use my phone and my main PC. You can still access the info with their browser based interface anywhere.

On the free plan, you are limited to 60MB a month, which I've never run into.

I have a Premium plan as well, as I send EVERY document I get through a ScanSnap scanner into that instance of Evernote. The documents are converted into .pdfs and indexed, so finding anything is a snap. I've passed the 60MB limit there on many occasions, but the premium plan that's $50/year(oops, I see they just jumped it to $69.99/year) gives you 10GB/month. There's a middle tier as well. Get Evernote Basic for free or upgrade to Plus or Premium | Evernote

Get yourself a free account and see if it meets your needs. All you lose is some of your time. Here's what the Premium account has that the free one doesn't:

Access notebooks offline
Forward emails into Evernote
Customer support via email
Customer support via live chat
Search for text in PDFs
Search for text in Office docs
Annotate PDFs
Scan and digitize business cards
Present notes in one click
Browse the history of your notes
See related notes and content

I use evernote. Have to say that it's worth looking into, and even for the premium version the fees are small.

But there's another very strong program which isn't free, but lots of people have, which can do far more of this sort of work than people think it can.

outlook.

Yes, the "mail client" - with folders, huge storage, the ability to edit existing messages (a couple of clicks) and so on and so forth. some things I do in outlook, some in evernote.

If you don't have outlook, then of course this is of no help.

Google Keep.

I use Evernote, which i loved, but I've ported the data to OneNote. My need is much less now so I can't really report on it.

For quick notes of a semi-temporary nature use the iOS Notes app. this is great for recording measurements, part numbers etc. The neat part is it automatically syncs with my gmail account so I see my notes from my desk PC or anywhere i else i can log into my Google account. If I need to I can copy and paste to EverNote or OneNote.

Sounds like I probably should look at Google Keep.

I've been using Evernote and Swipes for a while now. Evernote for notes, images of sketches/programs/alarms/etc. Swipes for day to day tasks/projects/jobs/etc. Both are super quick to setup and use, I just wish Swipes allowed printing out the list of tasks easily. There's an app and web viewer for both so makes it easy on my phone in the shop or comp in the office.

As a software consultant, I was seriously attached to Windows due to the market at that time. When I started my own CNC shop, the first thing I did was to give all the Windows computers the boot. No more BS virus crap or unexplained delays while Windows decided to do who knows what.
If I am going to possibly work with a new design, I sketch it in CAD without any dimensions and few constraints. If it's really a new concept, I prefer to work on paper. For Notes, pictures, Job run sheets, etc, Regular notes on a Macbook has sketching, iCloud storage for free. You can use OneNote on a Mac but the application drove me nuts when I had to use it. I use a $10 App called Notability. It was a Mac App of the year App as determined by Apple. It really has too many cool things to go over here, especially since you are probably mostly Windows users. Add and annotate PDF's, add and annotate pictures, incredible sketching. I use dropbox but other storage options are included too, Google drive.... Runs on all OS X and IOS devices, so I am seamless.

I use OneNote on my Galaxy Note with stylus. I can sketch out ideas, anotate pictures or type if I want to. That setup is really great for collecting information on a job site since I always have my phone with me. It all gets backed up and is accessible from my work pc as well.
I also use Evernote as a day timer and for taking down notes during phone calls or meetings since its search function can recognize my hand writing.

Richard

you should take things easier

you work fast, but there is no order

you need help, so to have time to organize things how you wish; maybe there are required 2 persons on that task

if you keep it this way, you may fall in a bubble that will consume your energy, making it hard to find the solution

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i know a recent case, when someone payed a lot for a digital platform, that was doing things in a new way

after employess got used to it, problems appeared

why ? because he did not know what to ask for ...

you may be using something that does not work how it should, and maybe you don't know that

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imagine that you have nothing; what do you need ?