What I am looking for is an app that allows one to have several projects, enter text, possibly tables and equations, pictures and photos, and possibly even hand-made sketches. A nice feature would be to be able to attach whole pdfs or other files to an entry. Ideally, it would autmatically tag entries with date and time and allow for additional tags.
Thank you very much, those apps might be close to what I am looking for. I will certainly give them a try.
I used Evernote with some success. The integration with other apps and desktop software means that you are not necessarily stuck with a proprietary software format later down the line.
Anything you are doing for publication or patent should be certifiable of course. Absent an official standard to sustain this in whatever app you use, I would translate immediately to PDF at the end of a session to at least lock down what I had written. You can do a search for ELN (electronic lab notebooks) to see the range of other options and their claims to compliance with certifiable standards.
My most recent experience leads me back to the realization that nothing beats a good pen + hard-bound notebook for efficient laboratory work. By the time you try to sketch or comment or notate or ... whatever in some "clean" way in an electronic pad, you can have your thoughts scribbled neatly in a hard-bound notebook with far less effort. And some places don't allow you to take pictures of the equipment along the way.
I'd advise Microsoft OneNote. It is free and you can synchronise it with your PC or laptop, so that eveything you write will be added to other one. Like you can take a note in lab with phone, and then edit it in PC after leaving the lab...
I use Labfolder, which is free for small research groups (up to three researchers)
https://www.labfolder.com/
You might want to check out Vessel. It's a research management software that helps track, organize, and share your research both through a web app and mobile app. For a bit more info, check out:
https://app.vesselsci.com/
There's 3 free users per lab as well as a 60 day free trial for any additional members.
https://app.vesselsci.com/
I use labfolder and started to use Docollab. The advantage of labfolder is that it can be accessed using a browser and android devices (tablets and phones).
The disadvantages of cloud-based software methods recommend strongly against using them in certain cases, and specifically as sole-source systems to keep notes. They
- require an internet connection to access the content
- put your data in to someone else's hands
- locks you in to proprietary, potentially non-future-proof file formats for data storage
I suspect that no industry or government laboratory would ever support the use of such methods. No-one should ever be misled in to thinking that cloud-based e-notebooks are the only things they need.
Use a hard-bound notebook while in the lab. Transfer the information to the cloud as needed. In the latter case, set up you own local data server (e.g WebDAV protocols) with local "notebook" services and use "standard" file formats to store the content (e.g. ASCII text or PDF).
Thank you very much for all your contributions. I have tried several of the suggested solutions. Unfortunately, they all have their shortcomings. I have been using labfolder for a while now, not as a replacement for the hardcopy notebook in the lab (see also the comments by Jeffrey), but more as a place to collect thoughts and comments.
Update to my previous comment:
My new workplace strongly focuses on MS Office products. Because of that I now use Microsoft OneNote (version 2010) a lot to take notes. I find it quite useful and easy to use. It also offers the possibility to share your notes with other people. I have not used this functionality a lot, so far. So, I don't have enough experience how useful it is for larger groups.
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