PrimeNote

PrimeNote is a clever and highly adaptable note-editing tool designed for both Linux and Windows. Its functionality allows for swift editing, storage, organization, and backup of an unlimited number of notes. With PrimeNote, users can take advantage of advanced text operations and an extensive range of modes encompassing text and image processing, as well as a built-in terminal emulator and Vim integration for advanced users. Its main features include;

• Always-On-Top - Notes stay at the forefront without causing any clutter on the taskbar.
• Druide Antidote Grammar Tools - PrimeNote offers built-in support for versions 9, 10 and 11.
• Smart Formatting - Input is standardized through the use of 'enhanced plain text', permitting basic text decorations.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility - Out of the box support available for Linux and Windows 7-10.
• Well-Organized Layout - Data is preserved in a folder structure using user-friendly formats.
• Fernet Encryption - Ensures the protection of critical and sensitive data.
• Quick Search - An in-built, keyboard-driven tool to swiftly flick through note titles and content.
• Special Paste - Quick text copying from PDF documents at your fingertips.
• Image Support - Offers basic image viewing features.
• Customizability - Extensive personalization, including appearance, menus, hotkeys, and mouse events, powered by CSS styling.
• Virtual Machine Support - Facilitates real-time editing and easy sharing of content within a shared note repository across multiple operating systems.
• Command-Line Interface - Get thorough access to all notes (exclusive to Linux, refer to 'pnote -h' for details).

Getting Started — Installation

Microsoft Windows

• For Windows 7 and above, download and execute the latest NSIS installer

Arch Linux

• Install primenote-git from the Arch User Repository (AUR)
• To enable console and vim modes, install qtermwidget and gvim community packages.

Debian Linux

As a convenience, a one-step install script is provided. As piping unknown scripts to bash is a controversial topic, use the manual installation procedure if preferred. In case that pipx is used for the first time, re-login after the installation may be required in order for primenote to be accessible from the command line.

One-step automated install

• Installation curl -sSL https://install.primenote.cc | bash
• Upgrade pipx upgrade primenote
• Uninstall pipx uninstall primenote

Manual install

# Update system packages
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

# Install PrimeNote using the 'pipx' tool
sudo apt-get install pipx
pipx install --include-deps primenote
pipx ensurepath

Vim and Console modes support

• Manually install QTermWidget with PyQt bindings enabled. Refer to the QTermWidget project page for more details.
• Install vim-gtk with client-server mode enabled

Advanced Features

Customizable window styles and palettes

• All notes are decorated using CSS files located at the program root;
  • ui/global.css: defines the overall geometry and style for all notes
  • ui/styles/*: overrides and extend global.css attributes
  • ui/palettes/*: handles widgets and icons color schemes
• Users can extend those with custom palettes and styles, override or ignore them
• PrimeNote adds its own CSS selector NoteDecorations for enhanced customization

Console mode

• In this mode, the text box is replaced with a native terminal emulator
• When a shebang is found, the file content is automatically executed in the terminal
• More QTermWidget color schemes can be added into ui/terminal

Vim mode

• Provides a fully featured Vim instance in every note
• System-independent vimrc file and theme files
• Two-way communication between Vim servers and PrimeNote command-line interface
• Default settings allow for a seamless design between the text editing modes

Virtual machine support

PrimeNote can be used simultaneously across two operating systems (OS). Thus, one can share a note folder with another user, a backup server or a virtual machine.

PrimeNote fully supports symbolic links (symlinks) on Linux, and partially on Windows. Hence, all notes can be stored in a remote location simply by replacing the notes repository folder with a symlink. Likewise, a symlink can be added into the repository. On Windows, however, please note that shortcuts do not equal symlinks, which require administrator privileges. Thankfully, PrimeNote provide a utility to ease the addition of symlinks into the note repository.

Virtual machine

• Create a symlink to the host notes repository
• Place it into a folder shared with the client machine
• On the client side, open a PrimeNote instance and right click on the tray icon
• Select Open in a file manager
• Replace the opened folder by the symlink, or add the symlink into it

Limitations

• Rename and move operations on symlinks will behave unexpectedly if used across two OS
• Nested symlinks are not yet supported on Windows

Issues and bugs report

PrimeNote has been developed for X11 and Windows 7-10. Wayland is not currently supported. If you encounter any bugs, please report them in the issues section, including the last session log. Logs can be located at ~/.config/primenote/logs on Linux and C:\Users\<user>\primenote\logs on Windows.

Contribution

• C++ developers: Help is needed for an upstream contribution to LXQt's QTermWidget project, in order to streamline PyQt-compatible deployment across Linux distributions.
• Python developers: We need unit tests for everything.
• Graphic artists: We would welcome assistance to create a logo, banner, and corresponding application icon.
• Donations are greatly appreciated and help cover hosting costs.