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.

  • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    4 months 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:

  • orosus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    4 months 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.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      1·
      4 months 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.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 months 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!

    • quaff@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Whoa. This actually works pretty close. Although, I am not seeing the ability to drag and drop re-order list items. Which is the big feature I want and need.

      I am seeing in their github issues that CKEditor doesn’t support it. Thanks for the suggestion though!

      • Lfrith@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        4 months ago

        If there is a kanban extension or something of the sort you might get the drag and drop list you want.

        There is another Google Keep like app called NotallyX. Can even import in your Google keep backups. You can set up password protected auto backups with the app.

        As for syncing syncthing as others have mentioned would be the best solution that would let you be able to use whatever you choose to go with.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    4 months ago

    I use notesnook but I don’t self host, just the app locally. It has an option to insert a task list into the note, and that has drag and drop reordering. It also encrypts at rest, and has text search. Hope that helps your decision.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      Thanks! I had tested Notesnook with the official server. It worked the way I want. but it seems their self host server doesn’t have that feature. Not obviously tho. Which is really weird, since I’m using the same client app (where I assumed this functionality would live).

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        That’s a very specific and interesting exclusion, weird. Well sorry dude, best of luck finding something that works.

  • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3·
    4 months 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

  • iopq@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    What I want is being able to hand draw something quickly in my notes, what’s the app that has text and drawings?

  • fossilesque@mander.xyzEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    You can do all this with Obsidian and plugins. I just saw a nice keep like interface one. You’ll have to play around a bit but it’s definitely doable.

    • quaff@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I suppose I should have mentioned more directly, I’d prefer if it’s an open source solution.

        • quaff@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          2·
          4 months ago

          Thanks.

          I just set up Notesnook lol I can drag and drop reorder list items (checkbox list) on the official server, but not when connected to my own… Same exact mobile app (just different server)… The fact that Notesnook and Standard Notes both claim to be open source, but don’t share all of their code with the open source world. Maybe it’s gated by env vars. Who knows. I have half a mind to give Obsidian a chance if it can do what I want.

          • fossilesque@mander.xyzEnglish
            2·
            4 months ago

            The plugins are open source at least, and the notes it makes aren’t proprietary. It’s just an app to interact with them. Been using it as a trapper keeper for years and it’s been able to keep up with my changing needs. :) !obsidianmd@lemmy.world There’s thousands of plugins and the discord is a huge resource.

  • daytonah@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

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

  • k4j8@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    Have you considered Kanban apps? All of them should support A+C. I’ve used Wekan and Kanboard. Hope this helps your searching!

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    it might be worth watching this PR for memos, which adds encryption at rest. I can’t vouch for it, as I didn’t read the code but I do use memos and might consider this if it’s merged.

    https://github.com/usememos/memos/pull/5130

    This is not E2EE, but I don’t think E2EE is that important if you’re hosting your own data. And clients can use TLS for encryption in transit.

  • nycki@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 months 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.