Growly Notes lets you capture just about anything all in one place. It's a great tool for organizing research projects, trips, to-do lists, or journals. In addition, its equally competent at creating scrapbooks of random images, web links and video clips.

Like OneNote, the great strength of Growly Notes is that it can contain almost anything, including formatted text, images, movies, audio clips, PDF files, tables, lists, web and file links, and drawings you create in Notes. You can place things anywhere so you don't have to worry about inflexible templates or rigid rules. You can separate ideas and brainstorming sessions into tabs which you can navigate very easily.

It's impressive that Growly Notes offers for free many of the features of a highly polished application like Curio. Growly comes amazingly close to OneNote in many aspects with the bonus of a slick OS X interface of course. However, some of the more advanced features of OneNote - such as integration with OneNote web app and syncing with Outlook aren't possible in Growly Notes.

Growly Notes is an excellent free Mac alternative to OneNote and is perfect for mind-mapping, note-taking and brainstorming.

Download Growly Notes 1.2.5 in Softonic

Download iSticky 3.4.4 in Softonic

That's why I wasn't so thrilled to try out this new program, SketchBox, which lets you create and manage sticky notes. Yet I have to admit I have impressed at the way the program worked, and it almost made me want to start using sticky notes again.

Sticky notes created with Sketchbox include three tabs, for writing, sketching and setting an alarm. You can use different pens, fonts and colors and take a screenshot of your note. Setting an alarm is a little confusing at first but works really well: with three columns for days, minutes and seconds, you just need to use your mouse roll to select the number you want.

SketchBox also includes a manager interface through which you can preview and search your notes and organize them into folders.

SketchBox actually makes creating and managing sticky notes fun. Who would have thought?

Download SketchBox 1.4 in Softonic

However, it's not the easiest of formats to work with and PDF Split and Merge enables you to divide and join separate PDF's to make one big one. The program is not helped by what is both a very dated and awkward-to-use interface, which doesn't actually make the splitting and merging of PDF's particularly easy. You'll spend a good while working out what the various buttons and hierarchical folders do.

Once you've worked out that selecting the right mode on the left menu "Merge", "Split" and "Alternate Mix" is essential, you'll have more hope of progressing. Opening and saving documents is then a case of clicking the buttons until you find the right one. What makes PDF Split and Merge most difficult to use however is the fact that there are no visual previews of what you are doing. If you want to split between a certain page range, then you should be OK. However, if not, you'll end up fumbling in the dark for the right settings.

There are better programs out there for splitting and merging PDF documents than PDF Split and Merge but for those that know exactly which pages they want to remove, it does the job.

Download PDF Split and Merge 1.1.2 in Softonic

Well if you do miss the ease and convenience of adding a sticky note to remind you of something, the strangely named app Tomboy may appeal to you, although it goes much beyond that. Tomboy is a powerful desktop note-taking application that aims to relate notes and ideas together. It uses a Wiki-style linking system to help organize your ideas and thoughts. It's a little bit like a mind-mapping program enabling you to add and change links deriving from your original idea.

To access your notes, click on the Tomboy applet which remains on your screen after installation. You can create or search notes from here. The Table of Contents lists all of your notes in the order they were last modified. The accessibility of the application is it's strength although the whole idea of interlinking your ideas seems a bit unnecessary. Most people just need to make a quick note of something and then move on although it depends on how detailed the thought is, I suppose. If, on the other hand, you feel Tomboy doesn't cover all of your note taking needs, there is also a series of plug-ins available to extend it.

Tomboy is an interesting note-taking application that serves as much more than just a run-of-the-mill Post-It-Note app.

Download Tomboy 0.15.1 in Softonic

You can add text, images and signatures, make corrections, fill out PDF forms, merge, delete and reorder pages. To edit, simply select the text you want to change and click "Correct Text" – PDFpen then magically replaces the original text with an editable text box. In this Pro version, you get all the PDF editing power of PDFpen, plus the ability to create and edit PDF forms and Table of Contents (TOCs).

Alternatively, PDFpen can be used to add a real signature to documents that you're sending electronically - such as by fax. It's not exactly easy to use the pen with your mouse but you can come close to a general approximation of your signature without breaking your wrist.

One added bonus is that the program can perform basic OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on your scanned document to make the text editable. Effectively then, it's an OCR software as well as a PDF editor. It has to be noted that basic is the operative word here and you'll spend a fair amount of time correcting words that have been interpreted wrongly before you can do anything else.

For adding real signatures to electronic documents or going through documents with a red pen like your teacher used to, PDFpen makes it very easy.

Download PDFpen Pro 5.4 in Softonic

In Stick ‘Em Up you can create notes of all sorts of colors and resize them or move them around anywhere on your screen. Stick ‘Em Up lets you store notes in categories. You'll find a little categories window that lets you view notes by category and create as many new entries as you want.

Stick ‘Em Up does not limit you to plain text. You can choose font and color, enter links and photos in your notes. This gives you much more possibilities.

If you right click (or CTRL-click) on any text a menu of various options appears. Text can be searched in both Spotlight and Google (a choice of other search engines would have been nice), and looked up in your Mac's dictionary.

Stick ‘Em Up does not offer much more in terms of advanced features, so if what you are looking for is a professional note taking tool you might be disappointed. For quick notes it works a charm though.

Stick ‘Em Up is similar to Apple's Stickies, but with more features.

Download Stick ‘Em Up 2.1 in Softonic

There are plenty of productivity apps out there, but some are so complex that it feels like using them is a task in itself. Remember strips everything back to just a list, that you can check items off as they get done. There are no complications like syncing, sharing or clever processes.

You add items in order, and can add subtasks if necessary. That's as complex as it gets. The interface is super minimal, and its subdued color means it doesn't distract from the rest of the screen. Better still, Remember can add itself to your menu bar, only popping up when you click the icon.

The downside to Remember is that its simplicity might be too limiting for some people. However, it's not designed to be a complicated process manager, and it works really well just as a to-do list.

Remember will help you keep track of your tasks, and is ideal for anyone who thinks getting things done has become too complicated!

Download Remember 1.1 in Softonic

To store your notes, you can create smart folders or use the preexisting ones, like iPod, Receipts or Serial Numbers. You can set a note as private and add a password and apply different colored labels to keep your notes organized.

The program doesn't limit itself to saving text notes though. You can painlessly add video, photos, audio files or PDFs.

Download SOHO Notes 9.1.4 in Softonic

This discreet little program works by creating Stickies-style notes, onto which you can jot down pretty much anything and attach to a document or application. You can add more than just notes and even include links, pictures or videos. Via the preferences menu you can also choose between nine different bright Stickies colors.

Paperclip works with almost anything but you can also choose to specifically exclude applications but just adding them to the list in the preferences. Paperclip also offers a note viewer, which includes a search box, from which you can browse and find all similar notes or quickly look for a specific one.

Paperclip can be a little unstable, but don't forget that it's only been recently released.

A simple and sober note taker, Paperclip can associate 'Stickies' to any document or application.

Download Paperclip 1.4 in Softonic

Pluto allows you to store text-snippets, notes and outlines and access them with ease from your menu bar. So, if you have a sudden blog idea, or remember something you need to do, just add it to Pluto. It goes beyond just a note taking tool however because it integrates with iCal meaning you can export your notes into iCal.
In addition you can export data from Pluto into other applications for further editing as well as import data too.

However, although Pluto is easy to access at the top of your menu bar (represented by a small tick) it doesn't really make adding notes as easy as it could do. You always have to click "Add" rather than just clicking directly on the note taking panel and enter a note. In addition, you can't seem to highlight more important notes in different colors. It could also do with some way of categorizing your notes when they are entered.

Pluto could be a very useful tool although the developers have a bit of work to do before I'll be relying on it to record my to do list.

Download Pluto 3.1 in Softonic

Pear Note fills that gap by integrating audio, video, and slides with traditional text notes. As a result, you have an application that can record anything simply by clicking record or entering text. It's an ideal tool for anyone that's taking part in an important meeting, in class or making a speech of some kind. The really clever thing though about Pear Note is that it can synchronize notes, video and audio with what you type.

So for example, let's say you're taking notes during a class. When you scroll to a part of the text where you noted a particular point, the audio that you heard at the time will be played back to you. In this way, you'll never again have notes that you wondered where they hell they came from. Pear Note also features an easy to access search box to bring up your notes by keyword or in chronological order.

The same applies for slides used in Keynote or Powerpoint presentations - just drag them in and type your notes next to them - the text you write about them be forever associated with them in the timeline.

Pear Note is incredibly simple and yet extremely effective at what it does. If you need a multimedia dictaphone, or are forever forgetting what your notes relate to, you won't look back.

Download Pear Note 2.1 in Softonic

Curio's features a free form interface and tool kit that allow you to place items anywhere you want including notes, pictures, audio and even video. The only limits are your imagination as you can place elements in any position which gives it a distinct advantage over all those similar programs that restrict you to text boxes or certain areas.

You can even give your brainstorm plans or notes their own unique look thanks to a variety of backgrounds and styles such as note paper, graph paper style and linen paper texture for example. However, Curio is a victim of its own depth in a way. Unlike similar programs, Curio isn't particularly easy to get to grips with due to the sheer number of features it offers but a very detailed user guide is available for those willing to make the effort. Those that like to record their ideas on the move and don't want to carry their MacBook around with them too much may also be disappointed to hear that there is no iPad version of Curio yet either.

As far as mind mapping and brainstorming applications go on the Mac, Curio is one of the most complete out there..

Download Curio Standard 7.4.2 in Softonic

If you're the same then TaskMate is worth a look. TaskMate is a lightweight task manager designed to help keep you organized without getting in the way. The TaskMate interface stays in the corner of your screen, so it's always at the ready to add new tasks. If you're working on a MacBook's small screen, this can be annoying but all other users shouldn't be bothered by it too much.

Tasks can be managed easily and the whole application has been designed with speed in mind. You can drag and drop tasks according to their importance but it would also have been useful if tasks no longer important could just be dragged out of the application to be deleted. As it is, you have to delete them with the keyboard or by right clicking.

TaskMate takes the hassle out of keeping on top of your tasks and to do lists by making it accessible, easy to use and flexible.

Download TaskMate 1.1.0 in Softonic

Curio is an incredibly detailed and rich brainstorming and note taking application that helps map out your ideas in stunning detail and this professional version leaves no stone unturned.

Curio Professional includes everything you get in the standard version but includes templates and stencils, a status shelf for color coding tasks and events, a presentation mode for sharing idea spaces, dossiers and project encryption. Curio Professional also includes a tool called Sleuth which allows you to search resources such as Google Images and Flickr from within Curio.

Curio features a free form interface and toolkit that allow you to place items anywhere you want including notes, pictures, audio and even video. The only limits are your imagination as you can place elements in any position which gives it a distinct advantage over all those similar programs that restrict you to text boxes or certain areas.

You can even give your brainstorm plans or notes their own unique look thanks to a variety of backgrounds and styles such as note paper, graph paper style and linen paper texture for example.

Curio is a victim of its own depth in a way, however. Unlike similar programs, Curio isn't particularly easy to get to grips with due to the sheer number of features it offers but a very detailed user guide is available for those willing to make the effort. Those who like to record their ideas on the move and don't want to carry their MacBook around with them too much may also be disappointed to hear that there is no iPad version of Curio yet either.

Overall though, as far as mind mapping and brainstorming applications go on the Mac, Curio is one of the most complete out there..

Download Curio Professional 7.4.2 in Softonic