Joplin is an open-source notes and tasks application that allows you to take notes in markdown format, create to-do lists, and synchronize them across multiple devices.
Having an application to manage our notes will always be useful. I use it for work notes, personal notes, organizing blog content, or even keeping your programming snippets.
There are many alternatives available as a program to manage our collection of notes, such as Trello or Evernote. I used Boostnote before, but with the latest updates it has ceased to be Open Source.
Therefore, I have been using Joplin for a long time to organize my notes and tasks. It is easy to use, the user interface is very pleasant, and it has all the options I need.
In Joplin notes are written in Markdown format. We can easily import or export from a directory containing our Markdown documents.
On the left side of the program we have a tree-like structure where we can create folders and subfolders, with any degree of nesting, to organize our notes.
The rest of the program window is mainly occupied by the markdown text editor. As is usual in this type of program, it can switch between viewing mode or editing mode.
Joplin stands out for its capabilities to organize and find our notes. So we have a very powerful search function that allows us to search in both the title and the content.
On the other hand, we have the option to add tags to our notes as a way of adding metadata, relationships, and cross-navigation to our content.
Note that, in both folder names, tags, and notes, we can use emojis. You might think, why would I want a smiling face in the title of a note?
Well, there are also emojis like colored circles or squares 🟢🟡, or check marks ✔️and many others, that we can use for visual identifiers.
One of the strongest points of Joplin is being able to expand functionalities through plugins developed by the community. There is a very extensive catalog, some of them very interesting.
We can also customize the appearance by installing Themes. They are all quite ugly, especially in the code display part.
On the other hand, it has synchronization between multiple devices through different cloud services. The option recommended by the program is to do it through Joplin Cloud. It is a paid service, and a way to support the project.
Alternatively, we can opt for one of the free synchronization mechanisms, such as using Dropbox. Although, I can tell you in advance, it works terribly. It is very slow, and sometimes it has caused some damage.
Joplin is available for multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. It also has a browser extension that makes it easy to take notes and screenshots of web pages.
It is Open Source, and all the code and documentation is available on the project page at https://github.com/laurent22/joplin