Note taking made easy
One of the toughest things to do consistently is note taking. The first challenge is how to take notes. While some people prefer contemporary method of using pen and paper. This method has its own advantage but the challenge is maintaining speed. More and more students are using a computer to do their daily tasks they are not able to develop good speed in writing and that leads to frustrations because of not being able to maintain speed while taking notes. For those who are comfortable this is a great way to make notes. If you want to use preformatted pages for taking notes then the application at pocketmod is a great tool to print sheets to take notes.
The second option is to use take notes using a software. There are a lot of shareware and freeware softwares available. If you have too much money then you can buy the shareware listed at download.com and if you are like me who hates to spend on purchasing software go through the reviews of note taking freeware for windows below and decide which one is best for you.
Scibbleit is a windows based software and has been developed by JMK software and is easy to use program 
to manage your ideas and thoughts. Each note can contain a title, a message, time, date and an URL. Other features available are browsing through your messages, mailing a message, setting an alarm for every message, sorting your messages and more.
SimBust Note Manager is a simple yet robust application that allows you to easily edit, view, and organize various types of information — notes, memos, thoughts, code snippets, logs, etc. All the files can be password protected. You can also export to and import from text files. The interface is very similar to windows explorer and has three panes.Its stealthy folder key scheme, in addition to the typical file password, is especially suited for keeping confidential data, such as diaries or passwords. Another features is that you can run this application from a thumb drive if you do not want to mess up the registries.
EssentialPIM Free is the award-winning, personal information freeware which is supported by a large 
community of users, EPIM has been widely acknowledged as the best personal information management system on any desktop or USB flash. Since the interface is very easy EssentialPIM is regarded as a world leader in visual appointment and information systems area. Some of the features of Essential PIM are
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Tools to satisfy your calendar, contact management, to do list and notes needs.
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Synchronization with Outlook, Windows Mobile devices, Palm, iPOD, Google Calendar.
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Simple printout of any or all modules and quick export of your data into the most useful formats.
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Strong data protection using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.
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Intuitive interface in many languages.
Debrief® is PC software by Idealign® to assist you in making quick notes. If you are one of those who cannot get around to making notes then Debrief is for you as you can have shortcuts for typing and have notes at one place. With mouse clicks you can make general daily notes, meetings, to-dos, assignments, issues, changes, risks, decisions, research, contacts, and more.
There are three editions
- Basic Edition: Basic notes, subject folders, daily notepad. The Basic Edition is no charge.
- Standard Edition: More robust note features, debriefs, views, reports, export formats, categories.
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Professional Edition: Additional contexts for tasks, cases, contact management, library, index, outlines, note decks. Plus reminders, privacy passwords, accounts, deadlines. And more.
The features of the advance version are great but the price is a discouragement.
TreePad™ is an Personal Information Manager, Organizer, Database, and Word Processor. It is easy and intuitive to use and saves you time allowing you to keep your notes, documents, hyperlinks and images at the brief distance of a click. TreePad™ allows you to enjoy better access, organization and control over all your data, notes, bills, projects, clients, addresses, letters, speeches, research, collections, classroom notes, Web pages, links, bibliographic listings, and whatever else your creativity enables you to entrust TreePad™ with, for good organization, easy access, and safe storage.
Treepad can be run from a external disk (such as: USB disk, pen drive, thumb drive, flash drive, memory stick, etc.) without installing it on your hard drive.
Though support and development of Keynote has been suspended but even today it is hand solution for note taking. This freeware has the following features
Store many separate notes within one file- Tree type notes which can be arranged
- Ability to create user-defined styles
- Convenient keyboard shortcuts
- Configurable activation hotkey
- Integration with WordWeb,
- You can protect your data files with secure encryption
Keynote is my personal favorite and would recommend it to those who do not take notes but want to start doing that. Please share what method you use to make and notes on a computer or the good old pen and paper fashion.
