RightNote

I've been using RightNote for over 10 years and have found time and time again that no other note-taking app provides both "tabs/pages" and a list of "notes", allowing for the easiest way to manage a plethora of notes and content within one app.

I use one RightNote file for coding, where the tabs separate the languages like Flutter, Dart, JavaScript, MySQL/MariaDB, etc.. I use another for personal notes, one for career-related notes, and yet another for journal entries. And because you can password protect either a full RightNote file or just an individual tab/page, it's also perfect for keeping passwords protected.

My personal view is that RightNote is a one-of-a-kind, power app for all your notes.

RightNote has many different data types on which to base notes - including spreadsheet, rich text, rich view (super-charged rich text), memo, source code, and evernote. Creating and mantaining nested tables is a snap in rich view. pages can be exported as "web book" which is a complete export of pages and notes (tree structure of a page) with images and tables and all other formatting. I used to use Keynote NF but this is much better and more functional.

I have used and purchased everything from big products like OneNote, EverNote and Google keep, to small indy products like RightNote looking for the perfect all in one note/data application. It's like Goldilocks and the three bears. Each of the big guys cripple their product in some way as a part of their market strategy, and so using any one meant giving up some basic feature like formatting, sorting, tables, etc.

RighNote ticked the most button in terms of features that are lacking, and added some great ones like securing the information with local encryption, and an ability to sync notes with EverNote.

While the interface is dated and in some places common functions are in unusual places, generally it is highly functional. I purchased RightNote and have used it extensively for about 1 1/2 years.

Over time I have stopped using it as I have had continual crashes and error messages related to it's underlying database. This happens regardless of my hardware (two different desktops and a laptop) or operating system (Win 10 pro and home).

11/13/2022 3 years later, I'm looking for PIMs for web clipping again because of work.

(--) RightNote still uses Internet Explorer to process the html ─ although many note apps are improving and benefiting from web technology! ─ is used and does not handle web clipping properly. If you paste something copied from the web in Evernote's note function, it works fine at first, but when you click it again, the CSS is deleted and its shape is all messed up. During the three-year period, Evernote improved their app. (Although not available offline is a mistake)

(-) Despite adding Evernote from the Context Menu, it just creates a plain note. Is this because of the trial period? How to add Evernote notes?

3 years ago (+) The various functions function as they were intended, and as the program pursues, I feel more intensive than Evernote or Onenote.

(+) Various themes are supported, so the aesthetics of UI. Dark theme!

(-) The browser's capture features seem to recognize only chrome and firefox; they do not recognize browsers such as the Chromium source-based Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave. The browser's exe was specified as the option's 'Use web browser at specified location' but was not recognized.

(-) Dispersal of feature options seems to need improvement. Let's talk about colors: Paragraph colors, background colors, font colors, etc. I wasted an hour to replace the background color of the note, and then I succeeded in replacing the BG color in 'Edit Page'. Before you found this, you could change the background color on the theme or other menus, but it did not respond or went back to its original state.

If I remember anything, I'll rewrite it later.

I purchased the program in 2017 because it had a lot of elements I liked but one of the most important was "Rightnote floating tree" which the description said it had. After multiple times trying to activate this "floating tree" I finally contacted the developer who said that feature was not available and would be added. Well I purchased an upgrade but no "floating tree" now 2 years later and another upgrade still I do not see any listing for a "floating tree" so I will not be upgrading software that obviously has deceptive advertising.

I bought RightNote Pro with a life time License for around $140 US. because it incorporated a new Journalling feature ( entry by calendar). Right note's back engine is SQL Lite - rock solid engine , right ?

At first it worked really well. This version V4.0.3.0 and a few previous revisions to that one then kept having ongoing problems with searches that hang and crash the data base. Copy and pastes from web pages that also hang and crash the data base and so on.

The developer Rael, to be fair has tried hard to rectify each problem as I find them. But really for the kind of money I'm paying I just want to get on with the job of entering saving and searching for notes. I'm not the buggy beta tester thanks. Its exasperating when you enter two notes and crash each time on the third entry and/or search.

It looks like the data base indeed is robust as at least no data is lost. Only lots of time and messing about sending messages and broken data bases to the author to see if he can help fix. In conversations with the author / developer it became obvious the problem was with the filtering of the data to the data base. The thing is getting choked up with incorrect data. For example a common crash message I get on a crashed search is something along the lines of Canvas drawing cannot be done on data. Hey data base what are you doing messing around with canvas drawing - I'm only doing a text search !

Note, I persisted with the crashing and updates for about 3 to 4 months before giving up. So I gave it a solid try.

So , to conclude , I don't know what Kool Aid all these other wonderful reviews are drinking but , Im getting sour notes.

System PC Windows 10, 64 bit all updates installed as of July 2017 No other programs misbehaving.

Back ground - I've been searching for a replacement for Infoselect V 9 ( 2007) that's breaking down. Info select 10 was a disaster , and Info select 11 even LOOSES data !

I have now worked with V7 of The Journal by RM David and can say that it is ROCK SOLID. The developer is super responsive. Very happy.

Sorry Right Note , you initially looked like a database to party with. Problem was all you did was crash the party (and often).

The author is responsive and tries hard but I needed to move on after 4+ months.

[Edited by geor, July 10]