What is Reddit's opinion of
CherryTree?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
63 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Right, so, I think cherrytree would be ideal for you.
Currently doing a PhD and had the same difficulties as you when I converted to Linux. It was a bit irritating having to find something that would suit my purpose (reading hundreds of journals and then making notes on them). I decided to give cherrytree a go. It works pretty well... You can make folders, sub sections, hyperlink to a file or web page, there's basic text formatting (bold, underline, italic). You can import figures too.
Answer to your wants:
> Hierarchical organization in notebooks (I keep one per term), sections (For each lecture), pages (for each topic), subpages and outlines (headings 1-6).
Cherrytree has the option to make a hierarchical organisation of notes. You can make different folders, sub sections, etc etc.
> Fast search in all my notes. I often use it to look up something I remember from a few years back, complete with hyperlinking.
Cherrytree has the option to create tags that you can search, or you can just search and it'll trawl through all your content. It has native hyperlinking to webpages and local files.
> Formula editor
Cherrytree does not have this option, but you can bring in formulas from LaTeX by using an image file for example.
> Collapsible outline items
Doesn't have this, I'm afraid.
> Automatic sync to OneDrive (and to my Android tablet and phone)
Afaik, there aren't any native OneDrive clients on Linux. However, there are options to sync.
> All features usable via key combos that I have in muscle memory by now, usually I work with the ribbon bar collapsed (not as important by now as I am largely studying on my own by now) collaborating with other people in my workbooks.
Now you're asking for too much, mate!
I use CherryTree. For me, it's the perfect balance between whiz-bang cloud solutions and a legal pad. I put my high-level task as the top-level bullet, then add subtasks underneath. In the notes section for each bullet, I add actions taken with dates so I can keep loose track of things.
Example (for a greywater system I'm looking at installing):
Greywater system
AQUS greywater for sinks
- Figure out where to connect pumps
PVC + 55 gal drum greywater for washer
- Determine piping color (code compliance?)
- Determine storage tank location
PPA usually contains ready-made packages. In the AUR, on the other hand, recipes are offered, so to speak. These recipes are used to install the respective software. Checking these is much easier than testing a complete package. For example:
# Maintainer: Morgenstern <charles [at] charlesbwise [dot] com>
pkgname=cherrytree pkgver=0.99.20 pkgrel=1 pkgdesc="Hierarchical note-taking application" arch=('x86_64') url="https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/" license=('GPL3') depends=('gspell' 'gtksourceviewmm' 'libxml++2.6' 'uchardet') makedepends=('cmake' 'python-lxml') source=("${pkgname}-${pkgver}.tar.gz::https://github.com/giuspen/cherrytree/archive/${pkgver}.tar.gz") sha256sums=('358dc45f9fc71076ee189660b1fd78f3a7ad5fe84cad64389f62c6a7e5da1e8e')
build() { cmake \ -B "${pkgname}-${pkgver}/build" \ -S "${pkgname}-${pkgver}" \ -DBUILD_TESTING:BOOL=OFF \ -Wno-dev make -C "${pkgname}-${pkgver}/build" }
package() { make -C "${pkgname}-${pkgver}/build" DESTDIR="${pkgdir}" install }
Apart from that, my main point was that you have one source and don't have to search for several sources according to your needs.
CherryTree is a nice hierarchical note taking application that I like to use for arranging my DM notes for my D&D campaign.
I know at least one of my players likes it, too.
It takes a little getting familiar with, but once you've got it down, it's super great.
Give that a look, if you're interested. (It's free!)
If this problem doesn't occur in any other program, it's most likely not a hardware issue, but a bug which should be reported and fixed.
I've had similar issues with keepnote in the past, where data is lost due to a bug and undo doesn't work half the time.
I highly recommend CherryTree, which is the best note taking program out there by far. Don't forget to donate to the author if you like it. (also: source code repo)
>What do you guys use?
Currently QOwnNotes. Before that I had used Cherrytree. If you don't have a problem with non open source software, you can also look at Obsidian. However, as far as I know, none of the mentioned tools supports drawing. But I'm not sure, because I didn't need this function myself.
I really like Cherrytree. It saves everything in sqllite or XML and have the option for encryption. Cross platform Markdown and many other programming langs highlight support.
Giuspen's FOSS CherryTree. Program is pretty fast, and makes it very easy to take notes in a hierarchical fashion. You can copy/paste images, insert Code Blocks, italic, bold, hyperlinks, etc.
It even smartly-parses the contents of web pages, so you can just copy a whole page and it'll look just as it did on the web. good stuff
And if you're very tech-savy, consider making your own 'Tasks.org + (Radicale w/ InfCloud GUI)/Self-Hosted NextCloud' setup. Makes it easy to create "tasks" (reminders) that can have links, voice notes, locations, notes, sub-tasks, etc.
hope this helps ;p
Try CherryTree.
It can do quite a lot, so instead of re-hashing it all, you can read it all here cherrytree – giuspen
It's available in the repos for some distros.
Presonally i use Cherrytree, i started using it on my first campaign and now i couldn't do without. Notes are hierarchical in so when you create something like an NPCs you can just drop it under the town not and it will be easy to find, or items in a shop, towns in a region, regions in a continent ecc.
I only create documentation or technical articles which I publish online. So no novels or similar. For this I use the following tools:
Cherrytree (to collect ideas. For notes. And so on) Sublime Text (to create the stuff. Currently often with Markdown) Pandoc (if I want or need to convert the stuff to another format)
I would suggest Cherrytree, it has a nice folder system that you set up to work how you need it to. It's cross platform, I use Linux. https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
If you want something on your device I suggest SimpleNote. And I would always make periodic backups of the whole database on any notes program in case it has a problem. I really like Cherrytree because your data can be exported out and imported to another program, you are not trapped into it.
UPDATE: Well, after considering all the options, I finally decided to go with Cherrytree. It has almost all of the features I wanted, including:
​
- Can export to HTML, PDF or plain text - either a single note, or an entire notebook.
- Notes can be either plain text or rich text format.
- You can embed pictures, insert files, create charts and it has WYSIWYG formatting.
- Linux compatible
- The UI isn't exactly what I wanted, but close enough.
- You can customize the look and feel of the UI.
​
Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions! I'm pretty happy with Cherrytree at this point, and suggest everyone to check it out (if you haven't already). Thanks again!
GTK3 and Qt in LibreOffice are merely backend plugins for VCL. Why not contribute to Joplin or Cherrytree, though?
Disclaimer - I'm not part of a bioiformatics lab, but we generate and analyse large-scale data.
For note taking I highly recommend CherryTree (https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/), a kind of open-source Evernote based on local individual files with support for media and rich text. Very easy to share and backup and future-proof as well, by export to xml.
>Does there exist libre replacements for commonplace programs, like PowerPoint, OneNote, iTunes, Lightroom, etc?
PowerPoint (and the entire office suite) can be replaced by Google Docs and Libre Office.
I've never used OneNote, but I currently use CherryTree for note taking, it's absolutely ridiculously powerful, better than anything else I've used (also GPLv3).
A lot of things can replace iTunes, and my favorite (but proprietary) music player is MusicBee, which runs on WINE without an issue. Other than that, some really nice players are Rhythmbox, Clementine, and CMUS. I personally use CMUS on Linux since it's super lightweight.
Not really sure about Lightroom, since I've never used it, but some really nice image viewers and editors exist on Linux, not sure how they stack up though.
EDIT: I should add that I (and some others I've talked to) have had problems saving docx with Libre Office, but saving as doc works fine.
If you updated recently and haven't removed anything, snap list cherrytree --all will show you old versions you still have cached and snap revert cherrytree should restore to the previous version. Maybe there's a way to run something like snap refresh cherrytree --channel=$VERSION but I couldn't figure it out before I had to move on. Either that or download the official appimage on the developers website: https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
I'm kinda surprised no one mentioned cherrytree yet.
- Supports password protected files.
- Works totally offline, but you can combine it with other file syncing services easily since it saves everything in a single file.
- Tree structure makes it easy to organise pages by date.
I use FocusWriter. It's a lightweight, full-screen app that does more than enough for a manuscript. I used to use Google Docs with Wavemaker, which has a lot of extra functions like cards and timelines, etc. Docs slowed down a lot with a lot of open windows or really long docs, however. And with WFH the sync isn't that important to me anymore. For notes lately I've been using CheeryTree. All these are free.
CherryTree for a general note-taking database. As an Application Packager I can't remember PowerShell scripts I wrote two weeks ago, so saving my recipes in here is priceless.
Also offline which has it's pros and cons depending where you work.
Ja1Zamp!
Thank you for this fascinating post! I learned a lot from what you and others said. Your technical achievement, especially considering the limited machine you are using, is eye opening. Much respect! I will keep a link to this post for reference!
This sub-reddit should take a collection to get you a better rig so you don't have 3 hour Loot breaks! It would be interesting to see how far you could go!
Question:
How do you keep track of/document everything? I have been using Cherry Tree. It is a fancy open source note taking program that lets you keep notes in a tree like structure.
In the past I used CherryTree because it facilitates hierarchical note taking. However it has several drawbacks: it allows you to embed images/figures, but it becomes very slow over time as the XML file it writes to becomes larger and larger. It also has some other issues, like lack of support for including code snippets and LaTEX, and pretty counter-intuitive interface and limited import-export options.
Then I switched to Notable, which is great. It supports hierarchical note-taking using "notebook" tags, is blazing fast, and has everything I need. In addition, it stores everything as flat markdown files on your hard drive, no giant XML files or anything. It's great and it's been a tremendous productivity booster for me. It's also free.
Cherrytree may be what you're looking for. It's written in C++ and GTK, can handle images, tables, code boxes, rich-text formatting, hyperlinks, internal links and much, much more. It can import and export to a wide variety of formats, produce PDFs and has a small memory footprint.
There's a short Softpedia writeup about it with some screenshots. The homepage has some more, though a bit dated. I've used it for years and it's been solid as a rock.
The search in it is blazing fast, opening a separate dialog that shows all the matches. As you move through the matches the main app switches to the note with the match, highlighting it. That to me is the most important thing in any note app, being able to find something quick and easily.
You should learn some Python my friend, in order to be able to create scripts do scrap sites, and get the info you need. You have plenty of tools though...
Anyway, I'm not sure if this helps you, but life became easier when I started using cherry tree. It exports results as readable pdf reports and even basic html pages. It's awesome!
Earlier, I did exactly what you have done here. I used MS Word. But as soon as the document became 2-3 pages long I started to have navigation problems. I couldn't find what I was looking for, not fast enough. I needed an outliner, and I chose Cherrytree. I won't go back - that's for sure. You can also find a portable version of the program, so that you can carry the notes with you, on a memory stick.
I still write small notes on pieces of papers. I got so many and there's no order, they're mixed up and I never look at them anyway...
Note taking with applications like CherryTree works best for me because you can create categories for your notes, place photos inside them and such.
It's Open Source, for Win, Mac, Linux. https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
I use CherryTree (it's basically an open source free offline equivalent to OneNote or Evernote). It can do tree structures and links to other sites (so basically an offline wiki) and graphs/pictures/tables can all be added and/or pasted into.
It exports to PDF and HTML.
If I wanted to do something online, sharable, I'd probably use TiddlyWiki.
When it comes to notes, I consider QOwnNotes, for example, not bad. The notes are saved as markdown files, so you can use git well for this. At https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/issues/350 there are also a few examples of how you could automate this.
Another very good program is https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/. Here, however, the notes are stored in an XML file or SQLite database. For Git probably rather less suitable.
QOwnNotes has a Vim mode (https://www.qownnotes.org/blog/2018-08-07-Vim-mode.html). Cherrytree does not, to my knowledge.
If you want a native Qt application, Feathernotes might be something to consider. I don't know if it does automatic backups, it does autosave though.
Another option if you don't mind using a GTK app is Cherrytree. Similar to Feathernotes, and it does autosaving as well as auto-backups.
You'd have to see if they're in your disto's repositories. Both are simple to use and fairly lightweight, should do what you want.
In my opinion, the objectively best solution does not exist.
But in my opinion QOwnNotes (the use of nextcloud is optional and has to be consciously activated) or Cherrytree are good programs for creating and managing notes.
Interesting! Moving to OneNote felt like such a huge improvement to me. Being able to crosslink between notes, and structure notes in a nested structure/tree became an essential part of my organization.
I did find that OneNote loaded a bit too slowly, and didn't have enough nesting levels though. I switched to cherrytree(https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/), and then more recently to zim(https://zim-wiki.org), which are similar to one-note - but which load instantly, let you nest as many levels as you want etc. Potential downside is that they are local programs - not cloud-based. Not a problem for me, but might seem inconvenient to some.
Hi and thank you for answer. Here the template...
# Template file for 'cherrytree'pkgname=cherrytreeversion=0.99.15revision=1archs=noarchbuild_style=python2-modulepycompile_dirs="usr/share/cherrytree/modules"hostmakedepends="gettext python-devel desktop-file-utils"depends="pygtksourceview python-dbus python-enchant desktop-file-utils"short_desc="Hierarchial note taking application with syntax highlighting"maintainer="Logen K <>"license="GPL-3.0-or-later"homepage="https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/"distfiles="https://www.giuspen.com/software/${pkgname}_${version}.tar.xz"checksum=9215451dd7d53ff64917caaa28d501f333708d03ae01dffbeb3c4fbdfddb06fbpython_version=2post_install() { # don’t install useless egg rm -rf ${DESTDIR}/usr/lib/python*/site-packages # remove old mime registration files rm -rf ${DESTDIR}/usr/share/application-registry rm -rf ${DESTDIR}/usr/share/mime-info}
have you tried CherryTree, (it just doesn't get a lot of new updates) but it is no login , has a page system just like notion and is customizable with Rich Text formatting (bold , italics, lists, tables , etc)
​
https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
That's the one i was thinking about, but it seems it wasn't able to import from OneNote.
Maybe find a way to convert them to another (more standard) format ? Maybe that exists. :(
I prefer Cherry Tree, a free, hierarchical note taking application. It has rich text, loads of formatting options, syntax highlighting, images, simple tables, TOC generation etc. With all data stored in an XML file. It's available on Linux, Mac OS and Windows https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
Every time I do a one-off upgrade or do something that I'm unlikely to do again for a while but might need in the future I use this handy little program as notebook:
Any question about hardware/software records triggers me to recommend checking out the excellent Snipe-IT.
But the focus on daily notes means this time Id say also take a look at Cherrytree
It's a lightweight-to-use but feature packed note-taking app.
You press F8 and it takes you to or creates a note page for today. It sounds "meh" but that single feature has been a game-changer for me in keeping all the random daily "what I did" and "I don't want to forget this, but don't know where to put it" junk for better searching. It's just so much easier to use than a wiki. Difficult to explain why until you try it!
Daily notes created this way are organised in year/month/date hierarchy, but you can also create new notes in your own pattern.
Comprehensive search is built in.
Image embedding and/or linking and all usual formatting (bullets, tables etc) supported plus code/config file blocks which can be syntax-highlighted and can even be executed/launched into external viewer.
It stores in a single database file. It can keep x of versions for backup and can be set to do timed auto-backup. Its easy to sync the file to multi devices if needed.
Ok, I went a bit fanboy (I am!), but I think it's definitely worth a look for your use case.
I've been using Cherrytree (a hierarchical note taking application) for years to save notes for pretty much anything in life. You can easily encrypt your database from the application menu. The reason I like it the most is because you can relate notes between themselves, create links and such.
I feel you're not trying to understand my point... I understand you're talking mostly about flatpak, snaps and that kind of containerized application and that is not what I'm talking about. In fact I understand how building and distributing an application works, what dynamic libraries are and such.
What I'm saying is that PCSX2 has an official Ubuntu PPA (the one they mention in the website in the page where you download the Linux build), but that's stuck in 1.4.0. They haven't updated it in years to match newer releases... Yes, you should install apps straight from your distro's repositories, but it's also common for devs to release the packages in their website as well for at least the most popular distros. I can, for example, download the package files for Cherrytree (.deb or .rpm in this case) and install them with my package manager without downloading from the official repositiores. That's completely valid.
What bothers me is that PCSX2 has Linux builds released, but they're very outdated. The only option for a Linux user to use a recent build is for then to compile from source (e.g. downloading package pcsx2-git on Arch or compiling it manually). If they cared about their Linux community they would at least update their Ubuntu PPA.
I personally use CherryTree (Linux, Windows) for university, it's a hierarchical note-taking app and I sync it via Dropbox (there are other options I assume) and it works wonders.
I use a mix of spreadsheets, FreeMind, and cherrytree depending on exactly what kind of information I'm managing.
I use nvALT. It uses text files with markdown formatting, so it's easy to version control via Git and sync together with your code.
nvALT works only on macOS. A good Windows and Linux alternative is CherryTree:
I will add CherryTree https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/ to the list. It's free and cross-platform. You can have as many notes as you want, arrange them in hierarchies, paste text, images, drawings etc. and link from note to note (sort of like a personal wiki).
Also, it's free and it exports to PDF.
For the tech team, we have a small wiki which we use (mediawiki I think it is)
For personal notes I have just started using CherryTree and find it nice and easy - https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
I'm interested in this too; I was using WinOrganizer, but that has been discontinued. (And that's the problem with these kinds of apps - you spend years painstakingly putting notes into them, and then when they stop being developed, you're up shit creek if newer OS versions refuse to run it.)
Anyway, just doing some Googling, I found this:
https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree
No clue how well it works, and you may have to get your hands a little dirty to get it to run on Mac.
There's also Treepad, but I'm not sure if it runs on Macs (the website isn't coming up for me right now).
I tried ZIM and the similar cherrytree but couldn't get dark modes configured as I'd like, and there were quirks that I didn't get around - like with keyboard shortcuts. That said, both are popular and well-featured
Wow, I cannot believe the attitude of those developers.
From: <https://smos.cs-syd.eu/features.html>
> Smos intends to deprecate Emacs org mode by being more robust, more customisable, by providing a better and more tool-friendly file format and by using a more sane configuration language.
I understand that author has some animosity against Emacs and Org Mode within Emacs. Well... we say that after the good horse running, there is some dust behind, meaning, there will be jealous and envious people.
There are various hierarchical note taking applications, like Zim Wiki or Cherrytree and I appreciate those efforts, beautiful work. Yet, none of them are bashing on others. Sad situation that a developer has personal problems with peace of software he did not quite grasp or understand. ☮
I recommend cherrytree, a hierarchical note-taking software - https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
​
For books, I fold the top corner of the page while reading and when a session is over, go back and record what I want in my cherrytree notebook.
How you install Cherrytree? What version of Cherrytree you have?
​
download last version 0.38.8 (February 21st, 2019)
​
https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/#downl
​
Stab in the dark suggesting.
​
edit your config.cfg and change to systray = False
I would be eternally grateful! As I can only program, barely, a "hello world" program.
But any format that CherryTree, QOwnNotes or Zim Desktop accepts and keeps the folder hierarchy will do.
Although zim desktop seems to be able to then use those notes and export it via wiki. Which could prove to be useful in the future(although it would need to, automatically cut more than half of the entire news article for it to be legal in case I ever decide to publish it online)
Mostly though, I use a combination of CherryTree for note taking and development and Google Drive/Docs for "publishing".
One solution is Zim, as mentioned by /u/Zlyme, but i'd also recommend CherryTree. It has rich text editing with inline image support, pages, subpages, etc a very GUI-driven design (which i prefer), export to several formats in case you want to share what you write and saves everything in a single file (which can be either XML or an SQLite database).
Cherrytree. The current app is very solid, but it's written in Python and the developer is now in the process of porting it over to C++. I've used the current version for years, it does everything you ask for an much more.
> Edit: I'm not sure of the terminology here. I'm a writer looking for a way to organize text, URL links, images, and that's pretty much it. I have no need to organize programming code or technical material. Is there another term for what I am looking for? Something along the lines of FileMaker?
The term "database" is pretty much reserved by high-efficiency data storage technology, so tables and tables of data without context that can be queried with SQL statements or similar.
"Knowledge base" is perhaps a better term. "Personal Wiki" is another term, I've seen people use.
Cherrytree and Zim are two that exist, though yeah, they do look kind of dated.
/u/dougie-io is working on Vibrato, which is based on Qt5, so should look much more modern and hopefully actually good on KDE.
If you want something mindmap-like, I've been using LibreOffice Draw with reasonable success. It's obviously not what it was made for, so feels clunky at times, but it works and has all the tools one could need.
For my latest need of something like that, I've actually even gone with just a simple file-tree, as I want to be able to view and to some degree edit it on my phone, too, and will likely need to incorporate lots of files as well.
I use Cherrytree, it's a fantastic hierarchical note taking application, you can add as many sub-pages as you want in a very clear manner. The only downside is that's only desktop.
If you don't mind using a GTK-based app, Cherrytree is a full-featured note taking application that can live in the system tray. It's an option in Cherrytree's preferences.
The Kate text editor also has a "Sessions" widget that can live in the Plasma panel. Create a note in Kate, save it as a "Session" and install the widget in the panel. Kate's perhaps overkill for simple note taking, but it's an option.
The one I use is Yakuake. It's a drop-down terminal that supports tabs. In one of the tabs I keep Neovim running with my scratch note file. Press F12 by default pops it open and closed. You could use any CLI text editor you're comfortable with, Nano, Vim, MCEdit, etc., and Yakuake has options for how much of the screen it occupies when opened.
Cherrytree. It's a GUI application, but it's very lightweight. Hierarchal note-taking with codeboxes, formatting, etc. It's great, I used it throughout highschool and plan to use it through Uni as well :-)
You didn't explicitly tell whether you're looking for a local or a web based solution but since you mentioned a basic text editor I guess local solutions like Zim Wiki or CherryTree might be worth a try. Both allow managing a hierarchy of notes in a tree structure.
Due to it's way of storing notes in folders and plain text files I personally favor Zim and have been using it on both Linux and Windows for quite some time.
> Joplin??? Where are the drawing tools? Where's the icon to change font and text color? How do I drag text around on the screen? Where is the microphone icon so I can add audio?
You are talking like Joplin could not add these features. LibreOffice does not have audio recording functionality either.
If the current state of Joplin does not impress you, look into something else like Cherrytree.
You said you have been stuck on Windows for 5+ years. You have to take a more active role to move things forward. Get involved in the development of the existing note taking applications and try to gauge which one has the most potential.
I only moved full-time to Linux in 2016, but I started contributing to cross-platform FOSS around 2011 precisely with the idea that I have to do something to make this work for me.
I use a client-side program called cherrytree for a lot of my stuff. It's a hierarchical note taking program that also lets you hyperlink between nodes so it's effectively a wiki program too.
Just go back to OneNote 2010 or 2013. I am using 2010, it's nostalgic, it's fun, it has everything I need. I would go back to 2007 but that didn't support .one files afaik.
Technically, word-processors have pages and such limits.
A notepad is infinite canvas, more or less.
Sadly, there is no product out there that is a true alternative to OneNote.
Note-taking apps there are plenty, it's just a matter of finding a right one for you.
Cherrytree is one. Input is cumbersome. No dragging and dropping on this one. But the html output is very nice.
Zim-wiki is another. It didn't work out for me because of its lack of support for line-breaks.
Check out alternativeto for more options.
CherryTree. Ça marche sous Linux (et, accessoirement, tout le reste mais pas les mobiles). Mon fichier est sur DropBox et j'ai un client sur toutes mes machines.
- <strong>CherryTree</strong> - best notetaking app imo.
- Kwin, Compiz - Featureful, eyecandy and configurable WMs. Yea, Compiz is still a thing :)
- EasyStroke - make custom mouse gestures to do anything you want. Brilliant app.
- Zsh -awesome shell. like bash with steroids.
- Korganizer, Kmail - good calendar and email clients.
- Conky - extremely configurable and lightweight system monitor