Ask HN: Is there a shorthand equivalent for taking notes digitally?

[borncrusader]

I have briefly studied Pitman Shorthand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitman_shorthand) in the past and I've wondered how easy it is to concisely represent a lot of information in a few pencil strokes.

For those of you who take notes regularly - short of improving typing speed, is there a shorthand-like alternative to taking notes or encoding information digitally? Are there any efforts that have been made in this regard?

[elviejo79]

Stenography

Look at this video introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62l64Acfidc&t=80s

And this is a developer using steno, to program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBBiri3CD6w

[borncrusader]

This is precisely what I was looking for :)

[auslegung]

Have you thought about creating keyboard snippets for common words or phrases? Similar to how iOS replaces omw with On my way! You could create replacements at the OS level that would apply to everything you type. Build them as you go so that your average characters per word is 3-4 characters, it might work out.

[borncrusader]

This is an interesting idea. I've used tools that have autocompletion and also on vim with a plugin that I use to type notes. But the annoying thing is this is something that I'll potentially have to set-up.

[davchana]

Textpand is a wonderful app for this for Android, no connection, just a happy user.

[ClassyJacket]

You could get a stenography keyboard, but they are expensive and hard to learn.