ZuluPad

[Homepage and download]

I’ve been on the lookout for the “perfect” note taking application for years, and nothing previously tested really did what I wanted, i.e. basically a free-form note taker with cross-referencing, that was very easy to use. ZuluPad comes very close. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s near perfect for my needs.

ZuluPad is a very young application (version tested here is 0.3.6), but is already showing signs of maturity. I’m testing the Windows version here, but it’s also available for OSX.

Think of ZuluPad as cross between a notepad-type application and a Wiki. It’s described by the author as “ZuluPad is a notepad on crack”

When you start the application, you’re presented with a single “Index” page, with some navigation icons across the top, a menu bar and a large text area. You can just start typing in the text area to enter your notes.

The fun part starts when you want to start cross-referencing data. With the text you’ve just entered, highlight a word or phrase, click the Link button (or press Control-L) and you’ll be presented with a new page, with a title of the word or phrase previously selected. You can now see a list of these pages in a drop-down list at the top of the page allowing you to easily navigate through them. Each time you enter a word you have previously created a link for, it is automatically linked to the created page for you.

It really is very easy, very intuitive and, most importantly, very useful. I love the fact that you can just enter whatever you want, and it automatically references your other notes for you.

Installation is a breeze. Just extract the downloaded files wherever you want. I have it installed on my USB pen drive so I can take it anywhere with me.

Another great feature is ZuluSync. The idea is that you sign up for a free account on their web site, then enter those log-in details into ZuluPad. Once done, you select ZuluSync Send from the menu, and your entire document is stored on the ZuluPad server. When you get home, you can select ZuluSync receive and it’ll download the document to your local copy of ZuluPad. You can also view your “sent” documents via the ZuluPad web site. Terrific idea.

This application shows an awful lot of promise. I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on developments.