If you have a practice so much is not very compulsive Web, you must store, during your sessions, of much information of which you wish to keep a trace: an album or a book whose criticism put the chip with the ear to you, a teach ware on the problem which rots you the existence since weeks, a receipt of kitchen or a quotation which marked you. Obviously, the most natural reflex is to mark the page, the favorites being there for that. Nevertheless, it happens that one wants of more than precision: rather than to mark a whole page, which can be bulky, one would wish to keep only the part which interests us precisely. One can then play of copy-sticking towards Word (or your preferred text processing), but handling can be tiresome, and the files to multiply without hierarchy.
The case of figure arises for research on the Web, but can spread with other tasks like planning a project, organizing a voyage or to begin the writing of a book, as many cases which would profit the use of a software which makes it possible to put its ideas in order, to take notes and to organize them in a single tree structure.
The solutions exist and go from simple plug-in for navigator to complete tools of which you will have evil to pass to you to put order in your thoughts.
Scratch pads for the Web
Sometimes the favorites are not enough any more and one would wish to be able to file ends of Web pages like one cuts out articles in the newspaper. It is possible with several local applications or even in line.
Scrapbook
One starts with one of the most popular extensions for Mozilla Firefox in the kind: ScrapBook. Plug-in additions a side panel with Firefox towards which you have only to slip/move fragments of pages so that Scrapbook creates a corresponding note, which preserves working of the original page. You can then create files to arrange your notes by category there, and especially to modify the elements to annotate them or the Salinger. Add to that a search engine and you obtain an essential extension, which exists unfortunately only under Firefox. On the other hand, Scrapbook is compatible with all the versions of the navigator of Mozilla.
To download Scrapbook for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Firefox requires)
ScrapBook for Firefox - Reviews and free downloads at Download.com
Zotero
In the same kind and always for Mozilla Firefox, one finds Zotero, a tool rather intended to the students and for the researchers since it is in particular intended for the library searches. The principle and the ergonomics of the software are similar so that proposes Scrapbook (with this close Zotero opens a panel horizontal and no vertical), but the extension proposes functionalities advanced in the field of the bibliographical references: you can thus recover notes of a catalogue of library, generate a bibliography, organize and annotate its notes, or associate key words to them. The ease of use of the extension makes it possible nevertheless to use it within a framework broader than that of university research.
To download Zotero :: Firefox Add-ons for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (Firefox requires)
Google Notebook
One cannot obviously tackle the subject of the managers of notes without speaking about the service Google Notebook. Compared to Scrapbook, Google Notebook brings two advantages. First of all, it is about a service on line associated with an extension. Contrary to Scrapbook which stores the notes in a local way, Google Notebook enables you to find them on any computer when you connect yourselves on your Google account. The second advantage is the availability of the extension for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. The interface of the extension, containing a pop-up window, is not always more practical, but the management of the notes since the service on line is rather pleasant and in particular makes it possible to slip/move the notes to organize them. The Firefox version of the extension is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
To download Google Notebook for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
Clipmarks
Another service on line associated with an extension, Clipmarks proposes a “social” approach a little more that Google Notebook, in the line of Del.icio.us (with which besides it is compatible) for the bookmarks. The principle is the same one, but Clipmarks stresses more the publication and the division of the notes on the site (even if you can obviously keep them for you). The extension, there still available for Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, proposes an interface enough sympathetic nerve since you can select blocks of the page by flying over them, to click some several and safeguard the whole in the form of note. If you need only one sentence in the block, you can select it in a traditional way. One will particularly appreciate the possibility of “clipper” of the vidéos resulting from sites like YouTube. Clipmarks also allows poster the “clips” on your blog or to send them directly by email to your close relations. The version Firefox Clipmarks is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
To download Clipmarks - Firefox Clipmarks for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
Other tools of catch of notes
In addition to these tools specific to the Web pages, one finds software plus general practitioners to format any form of project, or quite simply to note all that passes to us by the head.
Yojimbo
The “rolls” on the matter is Yojimbo a software for Mac whose interface is such a wonder that one cannot do some any more. However, unless paying the price of the license, it will be necessary well to be solved there, the software being paying. The software arises in the traditional shape of a side panel containing of the categories of notes, and of a principal window for the seizure. The force of Yojimbo lies in its mode of fast seizure: after having copied an end of text, a pressure from F8 opens a window of dialogue enabling you to create instantaneously an entry in the library of the software. A miter on the right of the screen also opens a fast access to this one: you can copy thus there a URL by simple slipping/moving from the Library icon. The software is integrated with several functionalities of Mac OS X as Spotlight (the notes are indexed automatically) and Filevault for the encoding of certain significant information as of the passwords.
To download Software : PRODUCTS : YOJIMBO for Mac OS X
SoftNote
To find an equivalent under Windows is not easy matter to achieve, but one can recommend without no hesitation excel it SoftNote2005, a free software which proposes a simple interface of use and in French. The principle is always the same one: to create notes (with format rtf and being able to contain images and bonds HTML) which one classifies in a tree structure. It is also possible to allot categories to the notes to filter them, and to allot a password to the leading notes.
To download SoftNote for Windows
Notes in the form of wiki
To finish this review, let us evoke a form of which one does not think inevitably for this use, but Wiki lends itself very well to the fast creation of hierarchical notes, and two software makes it possible to create personal wiki: WikidPad (for Windows) and WikiNotes (for Mac OS X) Wiki rests on the writing known as “CamelCase” which consists in attaching the words, the first letter of each word being in capital letters . Each word in CamelCase is then automatically detected like a bond towards a new page, which makes it possible to very easily create hierarchical documents, that one can then export, for example in the form of page HTML. WikiNotes also manages the export of the notes towards a iPod and is integrated with the indexing of Spotlight.
To download wikidPad for Windows
To download WikiNotes for Mac OS X