Best Note Taking App for Android

My favourite Note Taking App for Android: ColorNote

 This is not so much a review but an overview of the reasoning why I have settled on ColorNote as my note taker of preference.

If like me you are blessed with a doctor's handwriting, the invention and proliferation of the personal computer was like manna from heaven.  Suddenly it was possible to tap away at the keyboard and produce a document that other people could actually read!!! Something truly amazing for those of us with the affliction of "doctor's scrawl syndrome".  Enter the laptop, you could lug this thing into meetings and click away at the keys annoying everyone around the table and driving people on teleconferences crazy as the tapping of the keys is amplified over the telephone line.  Not a great solution and we had to resort to still carrying around our note pads then trying to decipher the jagged lines on the page afterwards.  It really fell into the too hard basket.  This is where the tablet really comes into its own.  Touch keyboard means that text can be entered silently but you can still keep up with the conversation if your keyboarding skills are up to it.

OK, so we know that we need a note taker but which one.  It tried lots and there are still some that I loaded on my Asus Transformer that I need to delete.  I just do not use them.  I have put together a list of things that I have come to realise are most important to me.  Originally I wanted something that I could also use as a todo list and calender.  As I searched I found that these Apps get more and more complex to use.  I finally decided to separate out the functions.  Leave Google Calendar as my reminder application as it is up there in the cloud so is available on all my devices.  I also use Todo List Widget for quick lists for shopping or jobs to completed for the day, this just leaves a note taker to find.



What I needed in a note taker

• It had to be easy to use and quick to navigate.  You do not have time in meetings to muck around getting the application to load, then navigate through multiple menus.  It just has to be there instantly.
•  It had to have a search function so that you could find notes from past meetings.
• The notes had to be kept on my tablet not in the cloud.  When you take notes in a meeting you want to know where your data is and who will be reading it.  If it is in the cloud your don't even know which hemisphere your data is, let along which country.  Many of the meetings I attend I would not want our private discussion to be plastered across the Internet. 
• The ability to export this data in an encrypted file for backup purposes.
• You had to be able to make entries attached to specific days.

ColorNote ticked all these boxes and was really easy to use.  Note taking is really the domain of the tablet.  You need the screen size that gives you a keyboard that has the same size and shape of a real keyboard.  I therefore recommend this app specifically for tablets.  I think that to try and keep up on a phone is not realistic.  One of the nice things that the backup module  is capable of is that, as well as copying your notes to an SD card, it can email an encrypted file to various online mail systems including Gmail. 


The latest version gives you the ability to either start a specific note or you can bring up the calendar and start a note on the day you choose.  This is what I do.  You can give different notes different colours so that you can colour code your meetings.  You also have the ability to archive after a certain amount of time using different time filters.


What this app does not have are all the fancy insertion of pictures and other formats.  While these features are handy to have it means that the complexity of use is increased so I am happy to keep with the basics and continue to have an app I do not need to think how to use.  One feature I would include though is to add the ability to use bullet points while taking notes.  Currently you can only select text or checkboxes.  This addition would increase the clarity of the notes that you have taken when you review them.  Currently I use text mode and separate each note by a line.


In short I use this app every day and is my first shortcut on the screen.  I have used it for about six months and it has not missed a beat.  It is what a note taker should be, a replacement for your pen and paper.