Elephant, currently in rapid development and at Release 7 as of this review, is an open source java based note taker or organizer with an old Evernote type interface. It is no install software and doesn’t use a database, all files are stored and organized in plain text and folders. The storage location is chosen at first launch.
The interface is divided into three panes where notes are parts of notebooks. A preview of notes belonging to the chosen Notebook is visible in the middle pane. The right pane is where the note editor is, it supports several common formatting options, markdown and inline images via drag and drop. PDFs can also be dragged and dropped with inline preview. Tagging and search as you type features make notes organization much more effective. It is also possible to search using Tags: tagname or notebook: notebookname to narrow the search to specific locations. There are keyboard shortcuts for every action such as New Note (Ctrl+N), Move to Notebook (Ctrl+M) and Edit Note Tags (Ctrl+Quote)
Being java based Elephant is available for Windows, OS X and Linux computers. There is more to come but Elephant promises to remain lightweight. The program’s window title is ‘Elephant Premium’ but the author is keen to say that “Premium is free, no ads of any kind”.
Just started using yesterday. The perfect app for me. Is there a way to link notes either in the same notebook or a different notebook? Thanks for your help
Thanks for the comment, I do not believe Elephant supports internal links.
Does its user interface allow the user to select higher contrast? Gray text on a gray background does not work for people with low vision, and gray text doesn’t print well if we want to print the note. (By the way, this web page http://www.rgdot.com/bl/2015/01/13/simple-notes-with-elephant/ also uses gray on gray, making it difficult to read.)