Five apps that make it easy to capture audio notes

AudioNote

AudioNote offers a free trial for Mac, PC, iOS, and Android users. If you fall in love with the app, you can purchase the upgrade version for $19.95. Actually, you may need to make that call fairly soon if you record a number of notes, because AudioNote limits you to five minutes per note in the trial version.

AudioNote

AudioNote's tools are simple and straightforward: You click or tap Record to get started, speak into your microphone, and click Pause to finish the recording. The last step involves clicking File and choosing Save, then specifying a folder for the audio note. You can also use the simple pen and highlight tools to add drawings, handwritten notes, and highlighting to your notes or click one of the papers at the top to change the look of the screen. The Export tool (on the File menu) lets you save the audio note as a .WAV file so you can access it outside AudioNote.

OneNote

OneNote is part of the Office 2010 suite, so if you're currently using that version of Office, you likely already have what you need to record audio notes.

OneNote

To create an audio note in OneNote, fire up the app and start a new note (or display the page on which you want to add the audio clip). Click the Insert tab and click Record Audio in the Recording group. When you've finished your audio note, click Pause or Stop. You can leave the clip on the note page or right-click it and save it out as a WMA file so that you can use it with other applications if you like.

Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-taking application, used by more than 10 million people worldwide. Evernote offers two versions -- a free version and a premium version -- and you can capture audio notes using either one.

Evernote is available for just about any computer or device you use: Mac, PC, iOS, Windows Phone, Android, Blackberry, and iPad. Your notebooks are synchronized easily so that you can access your latest notes no matter where you are or what you're using.

Evernote

To record an audio note in Evernote, simply open your notebook, click New Note, and choose New Audio Note. You can enter a note title, tag it if you like, and then click Record to begin recording your note. After you finish recording, click Save. You can listen to the audio note by clicking the Play button to the left of the audio clip object in your note.

Voice2Note

Voice2Note is a unique audio note utility. You can use it as an add-on to Evernote or you can call Voice2Note directly to leave your audio note by phone. Voice2Note transcribes your note, using both a digital transcription service and quality control checks by real human beings. It then sends the text of the note to the Evernote notebook you linked to your account.

Voice2Note

Begin by logging in to the Voice2Note site. (You'll need to create an account if you don't yet have one.) Voice2Note gives you a call-in number you can use to dictate your note from any phone. After you record your note, you can tag it by simply saying "tag with" and adding the name of the tag you want to apply.

Audio Notes Recorder

Audio Notes Recorder is an interesting little Windows app that's a hoot to try. You can download a 42-day trial version and install it in just under a minute. It's designed to resemble a real hold-in-your-hand cassette recorder. (Yes, I know, flashback to the 80s.) But the tool actually has a number of interesting features.

Audio Notes Recorder

Audio Notes Recorder has good sound quality, and you can choose to record in one of three modes: Spy, Normal, or Voice-operated. The app also has a transcription mode that lets you import and export in a variety of common formats.

To customize the app, click Settings in the upper-right corner to display a menu of options for tailoring things to your liking. If you think you'll be doing a lot of audio note taking, this tool might be worth a closer look (although your officemates are likely to make fun of you if they see it open on your desktop).