Taking notes on a Mac is as simple as opening Notes and starting to type. But the best way to take notes actually depends on your own personal habits and workflow.
Some people are better with sticky notes that stay on your screen all the time, or an app that syncs seamlessly with Calendar and Reminders — like NotePlan. If your notes tend to turn into blog posts, an app like MarsEdit can keep them organized until they’re ready to publish. And if your main focus is writing itself, it doesn’t get better than Ulysses.
This note-taking tablet runs on the Android 9.0 operating system and is powered by a Snapdragon quad-core processor for faster boot and application loading times. The 10.1-inch screen gives you a large working area and features an eye comfort mode that filters blue light to reduce eye strain.
Setapp is packed with useful apps that might fit your unique way of note-taking better than a one-size-fits-all solution like Apple’s own Notes. With over 200 apps to choose from — and a free trial — you’re bound to find the best app for jotting down your thoughts. Here are our favorites.
Keep track of everyday tasks, record your brilliant ideas, and up your productivity with the five best note-taking apps for 2021. Back to Menu Search. As well as a desktop version for Mac. Evernote lets students take notes across multiple devices. They can create and organize notebooks for different subjects, using lists, text, images, sounds and other media. Evernote’s interface is simple, which may be helpful for kids who are easily distracted. Apple Notes The stock Notes app that comes with Mac OS itself, is actually not that bad. It comes with basic note taking functionalities like formatting, lists, checkboxes, drag and dropping pictures/files. While it doesn’t offer anything out of the box, where Apple Notes shines is how fast it is to open and get started with a new note. How we’re taught in class makes learning harder. Try Glean, the notetaking app that helps students become better learners. Take notes online with a free trial!
Best note-taking apps for Mac
Get the most out of your notes - with a huge set of top Mac apps in one pack!
Create sticky notes with Unclutter
Unclutter is perfect for capturing the smallest germ of an idea, since it works as both a sticky notes app and a clipboard manager. Because it’s always open, you can write down an idea the second you have it. Unclutter’s notes are sticky because they never go away, and the interface is even better than default sticky notes on the desktop since Unclutter doesn’t clutter up the view when you’re working in other apps.
To access Unclutter, you can just mouse to the top of your screen and scroll down (or choose your own key command), and its three-pane layout appears, with sections labeled Clipboard, Files, and Notes.
In Clipboard, you’ll see a list of everything you’ve copied to your Mac’s clipboard, ready to re-copy and paste whenever and wherever you need. You can star favorite items to keep them accessible here forever.
Files is a handy place to drop files you need an easy access to, like things you’re working on right now.
Unclutter’s Notes pane is a text field where you can type out notes and also drag text and links into. You can keep one long-running note to yourself or create multiple notes and view them in a list — the Search field searches the full text of all of your notes, so you can always find what you’re looking for. All panes are easy to resize to give yourself more room.
Unclutter is easy to fit into your workflow since it’s always there, and the search field helps you find things later. Dropbox integration even syncs your Unclutter files and notes across multiple Macs. When you want to turn your thoughts into something more edited, you can choose another note-taking app from Setapp.
NotePlan for tasks + calendar + notes
If you’re looking for a productivity app that can change the way you work, NotePlan is your best choice. It combines notes, powerful markdown, Calendar, a handy spot for to-dos with progress tracking, Reminders, and so much more. In the recent update, NotePlan added bi-directional links so you can create links across all your notes. Also, it supports fast CloudKit sync that allows you to transfer and backup content safely across devices.
It’s fair to say that NotePlan replaces macOS apps like Notes, Reminders, and Calendar completely. Even more, it gives you the power of such popular tools like Bear, Evernote, and Notion — in a single interface and for a lower price.
For instance, Bear has great Markdown but doesn’t link with Calendar. Notion has a lovely interface but you can’t use it for recurring reminders. Evernote with its premium features is just too expensive for many folks. So NotePlan really fills the void here. Try NotePlan Mac and iOS app for 7 days free with Setapp.
MarsEdit and Strike for blogging
MarsEdit makes it easy to create content, cleverly edit what you write, and integrate with WordPress as well as other blog publishing services right from the app. Besides giving you a place to write in Markdown or Rich and Plain text, MarsEdit lets you build and format robust blog posts, complete with links, images, and other media. You can add tags and schedule your posts to go live anytime.
MarsEdit even makes it easy to gather links and media to blog about. It has a Safari extension that lets you save URLs and start blogging instantly once you find something worth writing about.
If you’re looking for a writing tool that allows to collaborate on a doc, you should go with Strike. This effortless text editor lets up to 10 people to work on the same content in real time.
Improve your writing with Ulysses
Ulysses is a writing app with outstanding organizational features, so you can move from notes to an outline to a full manuscript. In fact, Ulysses is a popular app for Mac users participating in NaNoWriMo, a month-long exercise that encourages people to write a novel. It has all kinds of features to get you to write more, from flexible themes to eliminate distractions, to writing goals that count words written.
You can use Ulysses to post to a WordPress blog, export Word documents, or even format an entire ebook. But at the most fundamental level, it’s a great note-taking app because you never have to save anything, and your writing can sync between multiple Macs and iOS devices via iCloud or Dropbox. Your notes can contain images, keywords, and PDFs. The search function is incredibly thorough; for example, you can find keywords in notes created before a certain date, in case you want to see how your thoughts about something have evolved over time.
Take study notes with Studies
While other note-taking apps are flexible enough to handle work and personal topics side-by-side, Studies is created especially for those in academic settings. It’s designed to take your notes and turn them into study notes, which are basically flashcards on steroids.
Instead of a traditional two-sided flashcard for memorizing terms, the study notes in Studies can have as many “sides” as you need. They can contain text, images, videos, even audio. This makes them flexible enough that you can create study notes for any subject, from accounting to zoology. You can share study notes with classmates or even download pre-written note sets from Quizlet.
Then, you can use Studies to quiz yourself. The app can set up a schedule for you, based on prepping for an exam or just learning the material as quickly as you can. It chooses notes to study every day, and the cards you got wrong will re-appear more frequently in future sessions, so you can get it right.
Setapp puts all the best note-taking apps together
All these note-taking apps are available in Setapp, so you have access to them for your ideal workflow. You could start an idea as a sticky note in Uncluttered, paste it into NotePlan, where you flesh out the idea a little more. Then, maybe you want to turn that note into a full-featured blog post for the world to read. Ulysses and MarsEdit got your back there, too.
It’s all up to you, and Setapp lets you focus on the work, instead of finding the right apps, buying them, and then buying them again for updates. Just consider subscribing once and get everything you need in one place.
You often see lists online with the title “Best apps for doctors” or “Best apps for lawyers.” Those lists are filled with helpful apps for professionals, but they may leave you saying
“This is great, but I’m not a lawyer yet! I’m in law school!”
If this is you, you are in luck. Today we have a post for you law students who need some help organizing yourselves. Staying organized is critical in law school, especially when the handouts, books, and pamphlets start to pile up around exam time. If you think you are organized with binders, dividers, and folders, we still encourage you to embrace that thing sitting next to you right now: your smartphone and/or tablet!
Here are some great apps that can help you stay organized in law school:
Genius Scan
Genius Scan turns your mobile device into a pocket scanner. It’s really easy to use: just take a picture of a paper document, adjust the borders of the picture, and, magic, the app scans the document to your phone. The result is a PDF or JPEG scan that you can send to anyone.
No more trips to the library scanner!
As a law student you may want to convert your handwritten notes to digital format (read why hand writing your notes in class is a good idea) or you may be drowning in hand-outs from all your classes. With Genius Scan, you can easily scan all your paper documents to your phone, which is why we highly recommend you getting this FREE app!
Law School Note Taking Software Mac Free
Dropbox
We have talked about the importance of backing up your work in law school, and Dropbox is a great app for that. A free Dropbox account gives you 2GB of storage, but you can get up to 16GB more for free by just recommending your friends. If you want to go all out and use Dropbox as your main online storage, you can sign up for 1TB (1,000GB!) for $99 dollars a year (a worthwhile investment!)
In this post we want to talk about Dropbox’s value as an organizational tool. We have all run into the problem of trying to email attachments that are too large… Dropbox is a solution to this problem because you can upload large files and share links to access the files online. You can make and share folders, collaborate in real time, and the best part is that all your work is synced automatically.
Online storage is pointless without easy access, but Dropbox excels at providing both. Getting into the cloud storage game is easy to do with Dropbox. Check it out here.
Law in a Flash
Law school is studying. There is no way around it. We all have our preferred study methods and tools, but let’s be honest, we try and use the method that takes the shortest amount of time. That may be why you’ve never tried flash cards. Well the Law in a Flash apps want to change that! Law in a Flash apps are sets of (pre-made!) digital flashcards organized into specific law school topics. But the cards don’t just test terms! There are actual hypothetical situations like you would find on a law school exam. Additionally, you can add your own notes to each card to tailor the information or answers to your professor’s preferences.
There are several card packs you can download, each filled with quality questions and answers: 1L courses, 2L + 3L courses, and an Electives pack that covers topics like transactions law and environmental law. Given their breadth, quality, and ease of use, the Law in a Flash apps can help you study for law exams without having to create and keep track of piles of flashcards. Get this app!
Evernote
Law School Note Taking Software Mac 2019
While we strongly recommend handwriting law school class notes, for those of you who can’t bear the thought of not using your laptop, there’s Evernote. Evernote is perhaps the best note taking application out there because of the things you can add to your typed notes: insert pictures, clip pages from the web, and checklists just to name a few. The result is a rich note taking experience that, of course, automatically syncs across all your devices. You could type notes on your computer and study them on your tablet later in the day.
If managing multiple notebooks for your classes is tough for you, consider Evernote for your note taking. It not only helps you create detailed notes, but also helps you organize and share them. Evernote is free, but if you get hooked on it there are two tiers above the free edition that are packed with even more features. Evernote Premium is the top level of Evernote and has some incredible features for $49.99 a year.
— – —
Want more law school tips?Sign up for our free mailing list today.
And check out these helpful posts:
Photo Credit: Violet Kaipa /Shutterstock
Law School Note Taking Software Mac Os
Looking for some help to do your best in law school? Find out about our law school tutoring options.