Ubuntu – Microsoft OneNote alternative

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Is there any program for Linux that has about the same functionality and usability as Microsoft OneNote? At the moment I am checking out Basket (for KDE), that seems to point to the right direction, but still lacks much of the functionality of OneNote and is very buggy unfortunately.

For those of you that don't know what OneNote is, here is the first paragraph from the Wikipedia entry:

Microsoft OneNote (formerly called
Microsoft Office OneNote) is a
computer program for free-form
information gathering and multi-user
collaboration. It can gather user's
notes (handwritten or typed),
drawings, and audio commentaries and
share them with other users of
Microsoft OneNote over the Internet.
The desktop version of OneNote is
available for the Microsoft Windows
platform.

Best Answer

Zim

Install via the software center

Zim is a similar note taking application with wiki like features. Zim supports rich text formatting, links between notes and to external resources, inline images and even LaTeX equations. It has a familiar 'notebook' layout with tabs.

Here is a quick screenshot demonstrating some of the features:

alt text

Zim is extendible using plugins - such as the LaTeX plugin. There are lots more. Here is the list of default plugins (you may need to install dependencies of some):

  • Calendar
  • Create Note (from command line for keyboard shortcuts etc.)
  • Diagram Editor (using graphviz)
  • Equation Editor (using LaTeX)
  • GNU R Plot Editor
  • Insert Screenshot (using scrot)
  • Insert Symbol
  • Link Map (using graphviz)
  • Spell Checker
  • Task List
  • Tray Icon (actually an application indicator)
  • Version Control (using bzr - this should make synchronisation and back up really easy)

The only feature it seems to be missing is Ubuntu One synchronisation like with Tomboy, however, if you use the default Notes directory (~/Notes), you can synchronise this over Ubuntu One, as your notes as held in files in this folder.

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