Back in August, I wrote this post where I explained why I moved back to OneNote after trying to move my note-taking workflow to plain text with markdown syntax. Well, it did not happen. For me to go back to OneNote was simply not possible and here is why.
In the time, I have used markdown I started to explore what I could do with plain text files. The fact that it is just plain text files makes it insanely easy to manipulate the text with code. I wrote some scripts that make a series of tiring tasks that I often have to do as quickly as running a script.
OneNote Version
The Windows version of OneNote is the only one that supports local notebooks. On a daily basis, I use both Windows, Mac, and Linux and I need access to my notes on all of them. However, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I do not want my notes in the cloud. That on its own, rules out OneNote as it is heavily focused on cloud.
Cross-platform
I do not want to remember multiple ways of accessing my notes. Therefore the experience has to be consistent across all the platforms. Using Markdown gives me precisely that. A consistent way of accessing my notes. Using a cross-platform text editor as for example Sublime Text or vim makes the experience the same on all platforms. I personally use a cross-platform note-taking tool I develop myself because it is fully tuned to my need and preferences.
My needs combined with my reluctance to store potentially sensitive information in the cloud make it impossible for me to use OneNote and this time I can safely say that I am no longer using OneNote and have not for a long time. In fact, OneNote is not installed on any of my computers or devices.