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There are times when you just need to quickly take a note, jotting down something you need to do or a thought that pops into your head that you don’t want to forget. Sure, you could\r\nopen up a text editor or even text yourself that forgettable notion.\r\nBut when you’re already working within an application that offers the power of\r\nadding easy note-taking features, why not take advantage of it?
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Firefox is just that. With its powerful add-on system, you\r\ncan include note-taking to the already long list of things Firefox do.
I have found five solid note-taking add-ons for you to try. Each offers the\r\nvery basic feature of allowing you to take notes, while some offer just a\r\nlittle bit more to entice you into usage. Let’s see which one suits your needs\r\nbest.
QuickNote\r\nis a basic note-taking tool that offers but a few frills. Once it’s installed, you\r\ncan enjoy tabs, browser/email integration, and auto-save. You can open\r\nQuickNote as a floating window, a sidebar (see the screenshot), or within a tab.
Customization of QuickNote includes: Per-user note saving\r\nlocations, font type, background color, custom CSS styles, auto-save on Xth\r\ncharacter, and more.
QuickNote has a single keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-F7) that you can customize to open QuickNote in its various forms (floating window,\r\nsidebar, or tab).
You can get to the QuickNote Settings through the Firefox Tools menu.
QuickNote is free and does require a restart\r\nupon installation.
UberNote toolbar is an extension that requires a service and that you sign up for a\r\nplan (which means you can access your notes from any supported browser).
To start working with UberNote, select Launch UberNote from\r\nthe drop-down, and your Dashboard will open in a new tab.
Note Board is another account-based application that opens inside a tab within\r\nFirefox. This app is less like an extension and more of a bookmark for a web\r\npage, but it’s still effective.
You can rename your boards by clicking the Board button and\r\nthen clicking the edit icon for the board you want to rename.
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You’ll notice the free account does include\r\nadvertisements. To get rid of the ads, you’ll need to purchase a premium plan\r\n(single payment of $1.99 here).
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QuickFox notes is a multi-tab note-taking extension for Firefox. This particular take\r\non the note-taking add-on uses either an integrated bookmarking systems or\r\nsqlite database to store notes. With it, you can either store your notes locally\r\nor integrate them into a cloud-based storage solution.
Click the drop-down, and you can define where you\r\nwant QuickFox to open (in tab, new window, or application content). Click the\r\nQuickFox button, and the QuickFox floating window will appear.
From the QuickFox window, you can access the main settings of\r\nthe tool. Click the settings drop-down, and you can set up your cloud storage\r\n(under Network) and much more.
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QuickFox is free and requires a restart upon installation.
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FloatNotes is one of the more interesting note-taking add-ons I’ve found. What\r\nthis handy little extension does is allow you to take notes on web pages — anywhere on the page. All you do is right-click where you want the note to be\r\nand then select Add Note. A small window will appear where\r\nyou can add your note.
If you close the page, re-open the page… the\r\nnote is still there! This makes it incredibly handy to take quick notes on a\r\nweb site and be able to recall them later. Once a note has been taken, you can\r\naccess the settings of that note by hovering over the note window.
You can also pin a particular note to a page, a site, or\r\neven globally (to all sites).
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FloatNote is free and does require a restart upon\r\ninstallation.
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If you’re looking for a handy way to take notes from within\r\nyour web browser (and who isn’t?), give one of these five note-taking\r\napplications a try. There’s something for nearly everyone here and one of these\r\napps should have you efficiently taking notes either about the sites you work\r\nwithin or just random thoughts you need to be able to quickly recall.
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Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.
