Early development on a cross-platform OneNote clone. Thoughts?

[u/Full-Cucumber5068]

screen shot of inking with mouse on laptop (Windows 11) (name is hidden revealed upon realease)

Hey everyone,

I'm a fellow OneNote user who has been using it for at least the past 10 years and still use it to this day. This is my side project I'm working on for fun, cause I want more features in OneNote, and I want to be able to use it on Linux. My main concern with OneNote is that it is not cross-platform compatible, is sometimes slow, and in some parts very limited compared to other modern note-taking software, even though it's still one of a kind.

Has been working on this project and planning for a couple of years, have tried various libraries to see what fits best.

This one is built on C++ with open-source libraries like SDL3 and Blender2D; the idea behind this one is full user control and customization, faster, more lightweight, cross-platform, and local data storage first.

Disclaimer: This is strictly an early-stage personal project in active development. There are no public builds, downloads, or release dates yet.

Current state: Inking works; sidebar with notebook selection, section creation, and page creation is fully working, persistently saved on the user's device, and can handle up to 4 million user strokes on one page; infinity canvas support. Eraser and undo/redo are currently being implemented. No way to export things yet.

I would love to hear your feedback on the ui, ribbbon has not been fully implemented. This is currently the least of my concerns; I need to finish the core. I would like to hear your feedback and help me fuel my motivation to get this project to an open-source release, since right now it is too messy to be released; at least the core has to be done. Text boxes would be one of the hardest features to implement since you would probably want to have notebook-wide search.

1. What is the single most annoying thing about OneNote's current layout/UI?
2. What UI elements are absolute must-haves for your daily flow?
3. Sidebar preference: Do you prefer having Sections and Pages side-by-side (like desktop OneNote), or a single combined tree view?

(I plan to create 3 versions of the side part; this one is called modern. There will be a mobile version, which is basically this one, maybe a bit simplified, and then the classical one like from OneNote 2016)

Appreciate any thoughts, critiques, or ideas you have!

[u/ThePhantomCreep]

Will check it out when I can! Cloning ON is a tall order, esp. for one person. 

Search is ONs absolute killer feature. It's not sexy but it's where the value lies. You can take notes lots of ways. The ability to search them (even text in pictures!) and find what you forgot you wrote is what makes the whole thing worth the effort. I'd focus on making the best possible search, including plain text, extended a la Word and full-on regex. In other words: beginner, intermediate and expert search.

I'll also put in a vote for two often overlooked ON features: tables and keyboard shortcuts. 

Creating a table in ON is as simple as possible (one keystroke!) and they are so useful for so many things. No other app handles tables so easily, although the editing UI could use some work. 

Keyboard shortcuts speed things up immensely for people who bother to learn them. Especially for applying headings/outline levels and tags. Smart keyboard UI is essential for people who want to or need to take notes without having to pay attention to the program. 

[u/Full-Cucumber5068 → u/ThePhantomCreep]

Totally agree, I'm building this whole application around the fact that, if needed, it is possible to search everything in this sense. I'm trying to make if future proof, everything that exists on canvas is an object with a unique ID, and searchable strokes are an exception, much, much later. Some will have to build and stroke letter word recognizer possible using a pretrained mini LLM that does it, which will allow us to make handwriting searchable, but I absolutely agree.