Every once in a while, I bump into an URL or some valuable piece of information which might be useful later so I save it in a text file somewhere on the hard drive. And I'm sure most of the people do it too. They put aside documents, pictures and such just to have it available later. Not long ago, I ran into a program called BasKet which was supposed to easily take all sorts of notes and keep track of them in a smart way, using an advanced organizing technique. At first, I've said to myself no more text files, documents and screenshots all over the desktop and documents folder so I've started using it right away.

Installing BasKet is a relatively simple task and anyone should be able to do it. Unfortunately, not as easy as using apt-get or yum because the latest BasKet package isn't available in any of the repositories (except maybe fedora's) but as easy as opening a terminal and typing one command. BasKet's source archive has a script which does all the work for you.

When I first installed it, I was thrilled about finding such an application at last. Unfortunately, the more I was using it, the less excited I was getting about it. This doesn't mean BasKet is a useless application. No, not at all. It has a clean and easy to use interface which makes the program very usable, while its note-taking software and great organization makes it easy to use for inexperienced users. Moreover, if you're already used to other note-taking applications, you'll be glad to find out that BasKet can import data from KNotes, KJots, Tuxcards, Sticky Notes or Tomboy. And don't worry about your data if you're not going to keep BasKet as the default note-taking application, as it makes no modification to the data itself, so it can easily be imported back to the program it came from, while the new notes can be exported as HTML.

BasKet can even export the whole archive to a HTML page while keeping the formatting. But this doesn't mean you can start using it as a HTML editor. Maybe just for quick web pages that just need to be done quickly, regardless of their design.

The main window of BasKet shows the hierarchy of baskets and the contents of the currently selected basket. You can drag'n'drop notes to the basket which contains texts, images, links, files, color codes, application launchers, while to some notes, you can assign special tabs such as TODO, important, idea, highlight. The items in the baskets can be manually arranged by preferences, or you can automatically arrange them into categories. Above the basket contents, there's a toolbar for searching within the basket.

Because your BasKet can end-up holding sensitive data such as personal files or passwords, it offers a security-related feature: the ability to encrypt the baskets with a password. Keep in mind that its baskets are unencrypted and have no password set by default so if you plan to use BasKet for sensitive data, make sure you first set a password.

Another feature you can use is its integration with Kontact. If you would like to have a single big program for taking notes, reading your email, fetching RSS feeds and so on, you may give it a short while it's running inside Kontact. New baskets can easily be created through a dialog which offers pre-defined templates. The proprieties dialog for each basket allows you to change the basket's background image, color, layout and keyboard image. The proprieties dialog can be reached from the Basket dialog or by selecting the basket and pressing the F2 button. Also in this dialog, you can select an icon for a basket.

BasKet can be configured through the Configure dialog, which is divided into several sections. General allows you to change options regarding the basket tree and filter position or whether to dock in system tray, Baskets section allows you to change options regarding their appearance and behavior, while New notes section holds options about how new notes should look, while the Notes Appearance allows you to change the looks for all notes. The last section, Applications, allows selecting the path for default applications.

The Good

BasKet is an application which can easily take all sort of notes, collect research results and share them, centralize your project, organize your thoughts, keep track of your information in a smart way and more. Definitely useful for people lacking their organization senses and bad memory.

The Bad

As an application, BasKet is stable, impressive and easy to use; however, it’s a bit too much for people that only need a notes taking application.

The Truth

Basket is a very good application for people in need of saving their notes and such. However, it might be a little too much if you only need a notes-taking application.


Check out some screenshots below: