looking for "Index card with keyword search" software....

[BarbWire]

I am trying to figure out how to organize all my snippets and scribbles of travel information gleaned when reading, etc.

For example I have scribbled notes with titles like:

• NY .... Manhattan .... Restaurant .... Wayan, 20 Spring Street, Indonesian
• JP ... Kyoto .... To do ... Hokan-ji Temple
• UK ... Wales ... Abergavenny ... hotels ... Celyn Farm B&B
• EU ... camping ... blogs ...

and with each note a source citation and a few lines of description. I have zillions of post-it notes, paper scraps and index cards like this.

What I would really like is software (Windows) that works like Index Cards with keyword search. Then when I'm ready to plan my Japan trip, I could pull up those notes, sort on locations and topics, and start to plan.

I am not going to make an Access database for this! And OneNote can get cumbersome if you need a different notebook or section for each major topic.

Any ideas? If I Google for index card software, it finds software for screenwriters which doesn't have keyword search-ability. This is really much more similar to an academic research use of index cards.

 

[COcheesehead]

I use Notes on my iPad. Easy to add to, edit and they are keyword searchable.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I guess I would consider OneNote perfect for this. You don’t need to put everything in separate notebooks and sections. It’s up to you to decide what categorization works best for you.

 

[OldShooter]

Evernote basically uses that model. "Notes," which can be screen shots, typed text, pdfs, etc. and "Tags" which are just search terms that can be associated with notes.

Its main shortcoming is that the notes, unlike Windows folders, are not hierarchical. A top level note can contain notes but those child notes are dead ends and cannot contain other notes. So "Food>Main Dishes>Stews>Beef" is impossible.

Actually, travel is one of my main use for Evernote. Under "Tanzania" for example, I can have screen shots of camp home pages, daily schedule notes, copies of flight confirmations, emails to providers, etc. All of this on Windows, then I can also access it from my phone or tablet when actually traveling. Normally this requires access to the Evernote cloud, but there is also an option to keep local copies on the phones and tablets.

 

[eeyore]

How about a DOC

I like to use one large document for that sort of project.

Google docs works for me, using the "outline" left window to see sections, I just stuff all the info I have, and I keep the doc open in my browser.
The "outline" function gives a left window, with "headers" (see style) which I think of as sections and define them accordingly.
Using formatting like tables and colors and especially headers to arrange stuff.

It is searchable, but I define sections ("headers") according to the project.
I can easily move bits and pieces to rearrange them, according to date or priority.

The style / headers allow for 6 levels of hierarchy, which is why I use doc.


Cheap and easy

 

[cathy63]

Take a look at Trello and Asana. Both are free web apps that allow you to create cards and move them around from column to column. They are mainly intended for project management where you have columns labeled Do/Doing/Done and multiple team members moving the cards around, but there's nothing stopping you from creating columns or boards by destination. Both apps have search capability.

 

[TN Jim]

Another vote for Evernote. One can synchronize with computer, tablet and phone.

 

[Jerry1]

I use Lists for that on my iPad. I think Tasks in Outlook would work the same. Not sure if Microsoft has a free online version of Tasks since they do have Outlook mail free online. Also, seems like Google would have something similar.

 

[BarbWire]

Thank you. I will look into these suggestions.


One thing that is crucial is that the software be usable offline. My computer is online perhaps 50% of the time, so software that depends on everything being in the cloud doesn't work.

 

[ERD50]

Whatever happened to Hypercard?

-ERD50

 

[BarbWire]

Whatever happened to Hypercard?

-ERD50

If one Googles "index card keyword software" or similar, one gets lots of hits, dating from 1989 to about 2013..... similar era.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

You'll probably want to go with OneNote or EverNote, but if this is only for travel, I have saved places I want to visit in Google Maps. I have a separate map for each city/area, and I can tell pretty quickly what they are; you can even use different icons for them, e.g., a fork and knife for nice restaurants, a burger and drink cup for fast food/diners, etc. You can add notes, too. I've shared these online with people (mostly my spouse, but plenty of other friends, too), which is very convenient. Mostly I like it because I can visualize where everything is, which usually helps me get around without even consulting the map again once I'm there.

The biggest drawback is that the default icon is a square, but it's not hard to look at the list for hotels or restaurants even if you don't customize the icons. Ronstar even made one for the "Your Own Personal Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" thread (although with public maps I'm not sure if you can change the icons): https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=13_AjHJzoLolWNGGT1N-aHhXOB1iKiuKg&hl=en&usp=sharing

 

[target2019]

When I was serious about my notes, I used TreePad. It's defunct now, but CherryTree is a good replacement. I used that on Linux.
https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/

I think having some structure is a good idea, so the outline helps.

You could just save text files in a desktop file. Then your file browser will search them.

 

[target2019]

Whatever happened to Hypercard?

That was my first thought when I saw this thread title. HyperCard was a significant learning environment.

I went on to use the Palm Desktop database for many years as a replacement. It's not programmable, but an attractive dumping ground for million bits of old data.

 

[ERD50]

That was my first thought when I saw this thread title. HyperCard was a significant learning environment.

I went on to use the Palm Desktop database for many years as a replacement. It's not programmable, but an attractive dumping ground for million bits of old data.

Another co-incidence, but just a few days ago a youtube video appeared on my sidebar, something about the making of the computer game "Myst". I watched, and it was based on Hypercard (I assume you could compile it at some point?).

-ERD50

 

[BarbWire]

As I did more digging I came across "Personal Knowbase" .... which I used circa 2005. The software and website still look like they are from that era.

Alas, it is not cross-platform. Otherwise it ticks many boxes.

(Being old isn't bad: I still rely heavily on OneShot 2009 on my PC: the newer versions removed the features I find most useful ).

Yesterday as I surfed my "magazines" on Flipboard and read three of the travel blogs I follow, I jotted down (pen/paper) notes for future/someday trips to Tanzania, Gapapagos and Iceland. Those are the sorts of things I need to organize/store more efficiently than Post-it notes on my office wall.

For specific trips -- the nuts and bolts -- I use a combination of a spreadsheet, Word Doc and custom Google Maps. I can (clumsily) move those to OneDrive and then to my iPad when I hit the road.

So it is in the dreaming/amassing information stage that I am struggling for organization.

I will look again at OneNote. Three years ago MS had moved it only to the cloud (this bizarre assumption that everyone wants to share everything with everyone and collaborate?). Then in 2020 there was a version re-issused that kept notebooks local. I played with that for my genealogy research notes and realized that it is very difficult (for me) to keep the notebooks from becoming unruly. They resembled Mickey's battle with the water buckets in Sorcerer's Apprentice.

(I stopped in the new MS store in Oxford Circus on a rainy afternoon in 2019 for their OneNote "class" and the staff had no idea how to use the software. I gave them a list of improvement items to pass on to the Product Manager at HQ, which I am sure never happened.)

 

[OldShooter]

... One thing that is crucial is that the software be usable offline. ...

Following up on Evernote, running the Windows version it maintains a complete local database, then periodically synchronizes that database with their cloud. The other devices we use also synchronize with the cloud, so after a few synch cycles everyone is up to date.

There is an Evernote email address where I can forward emails (which become "notes") to the cloud. They don't show up locally until the next synch cycle. The local web page clipper is the reverse; when I clip a page (which also becomes a "note.") it shows up locally but does not show in the cloud until a synch cycle has passed. This can be a tiny bit confusing, but there is a "synch now" button that immediately tidies things up.

So the cloud database is more like a cloud backup than being in a client-server relationship like, for example, the Google Docs cloud.

 

[BarbWire]

Following up on Evernote, running the Windows version it maintains a complete local database, then periodically synchronizes that database with their cloud. The other devices we use also synchronize with the cloud, so after a few synch cycles everyone is up to date.

There is an Evernote email address where I can forward emails (which become "notes") to the cloud. They don't show up locally until the next synch cycle. The local web page clipper is the reverse; when I clip a page (which also becomes a "note.") it shows up locally but does not show in the cloud until a synch cycle has passed. This can be a tiny bit confusing, but there is a "synch now" button that immediately tidies things up.

So the cloud database is more like a cloud backup than being in a client-server relationship like, for example, the Google Docs cloud.

Interesting, thank you. I see there are two versions: free and a paid personal account. Is the free account so lame that one is almost forced to subscribe? (I would sync my Windows PC, iPad and iPhone. Do they count as 2 devices --sync'd to the main device -- or three?)

 

[OldShooter]

Interesting, thank you. I see there are two versions: free and a paid personal account. Is the free account so lame that one is almost forced to subscribe? (I would sync my Windows PC, iPad and iPhone. Do they count as 2 devices --sync'd to the main device -- or three?)

I found the free account to be entirely adequate for several years. One $ step up added for me the ability to download the database to phones and tablets for use independent of internet availability. This was for travel where I would then have all my "stuff" available including provider correspondence, lodging confirmations and receipts, flight information, etc.

Evernote has been tweeking its business model lately and I think the fees and the tiers have changed, so I can't tell you anything except that the free version was almost completely adequate for me except for the database download feature, which maybe added $20-40/year.

Edit: To clarify "synch:" Under the base plan, all your devices have access to the cloud version of the database. You can add, edit, etc. from anywhere as you like, but the database content is not stored locally on the device, just the structure information. So, for example, sans internet a hotel confirmation would be inaccessible except on the Windows machine. To have the receipt accessible/stored on the other devices is what caused me to upgrade for the few bucks a year. (Please check all this out for yourself, as my memory may not be perfect and haven't been traveling/using Evernote too much lately.)

 

[homestead]

Whatever happened to Hypercard?

-ERD50

It is gone but there are clones.
I use Livecode which is similar to hypercard and uses the same programing language. It is cross platform too.

 

[Katsmeow]

Interesting, thank you. I see there are two versions: free and a paid personal account. Is the free account so lame that one is almost forced to subscribe? (I would sync my Windows PC, iPad and iPhone. Do they count as 2 devices --sync'd to the main device -- or three?)

Evernote will do what you want. I do keep a local version on my Windows computer. But, having the online sync is very helpful when I use my phone or notebook.

The free version lets you sync 2 devices so if you have 3 devices you want to use it on you would need the personal version. The personal version is $69.99 a year or $7.99 per month. I also think you can only get offline access on mobile and computer through the personal version.

One thing that I love about the personal version is that it allows me to search inside images, documents and PDFS that I upload to Evernote. I try to keep as paperless as I can. So I scan in receipts, invoices, documents, etc and save them to PDF and OCR them. Then I upload it all to Evernote and it is easy to find stuff.

I do have One Note and I considered using it instead of Evernote for a while but I personally fine Evernote much easier to use.