Private notes in your own cloud with Synology Note Station

Note taking apps are popular. Think Evernote, OneNote and many others. The downside is that a lot of that software stores their data in the cloud. That can just mean annoying risks to privacy and security. With Synology Note Station, you can keep your notes private in your own cloud. We tell you how that works here.

As beautiful as cloud storage is, it always comes with certain risks. In recent years we have seen more and more large data breaches caused by digital thieves. All sorts of things are stolen during these thefts. Backdoors are also very annoying, and of course there are also companies that are naturally very curious about the trade and walk of their users.

If you own a Synology NAS, you can access quite a few apps – including a complete Office package – from your browser. Because this all runs on a NAS under your own management, in principle you don’t have to be afraid of co-readers. It is important to protect the NAS with at least a very strong password. Especially if you make it accessible via the internet. Preferably in combination with two-factor authentication.

That’s all possible with your Synology, but that’s not what we’re going to talk about in this article (but assume you take care of that).

Download Note Station

One of the more useful apps these days is digital notepads. And by that we don’t mean just a simple text editor, but much more about those apps where you can collect all kinds of data, organized by project, for example. Text, of course, but also sketches, links, web snippets and much more.

For example, if you use Microsoft Office, then you are probably familiar with the OneNote part of it. So we mean exactly that kind of software. The nice thing is that Synology also has such an app available for the NAS: Note Station. You can install it separately on your NAS and use it in your browser after logging in to the web interface (in the form of a desktop). Handy, because that way you always have it at hand.

Except if you sometimes run out of internet on the road, or if you prefer not to make your NAS accessible via the cloud. For those scenarios, you can use a mobile (see your device’s app store) or desktop app as a bonus install on your laptop† Syncing will then happen the next time the app can connect to your NAS.

Also read: Access NAS via browser with Synology File Station in DSM 7

Install and Discover Synology Note Station

Note Station is an extensive whole with a lot of possibilities and is certainly not inferior to its commercial counterparts. The first thing to do is to install the package. Log in to the web interface of your NAS and click in the start menu on Package Center† In the window that opens, choose the category for . in the selection menu provided for this purpose Productivity† Then click on the button to install Bee Note Station and wait for the component to be installed.

After installation you will find Note Station in the start menu of your NAS, click on it to start it. At the first start you will see an information panel that offers you the option to install the Synology web clipper. That only works in the Chrome browser (and a few that are based on the Chrome engine and/or support Chrome extensions, such as Edge).

If you use that browser, you can install the tool if you wish. If not, then there’s no man overboard either: Control-c (or Command-c) obviously works fine too. For the rest it is now important to press the button +Create then you can create your first note.

Create tables and graphs

First, Note Station is great for typing text in neatly formatted form. The formatting buttons are self-explanatory, have fun with fonts, color, and more. Do you need a table? Then click on the rightmost button on the button bar, in the form of the double inverted roofs.

A toolbar with a variety of additional auxiliary troops will now appear. Click the table button to insert a table. Drag under the option Insert table the desired size of your table.

Charts can also be inserted via the same ‘hidden’ toolbar. So click again on the double inverted carets button and then on the graph button. You can now fill in a data table; By default, some sample numbers are already filled in. click on Completed if you are either done filling in your own numbers or just want to use the example numbers for now.

Choose from one of the three available chart types and then – when you’re happy and maybe made some adjustments to labels and color – click To apply† Your chart will now be inserted into the note.

Add web links, photos and more

Very handy is (of course) the option to add URLs (web addresses) in your document. It is most convenient to use the web link button in the hidden toolbar for this. First, copy a web address from your browser, then click the web link button (in the form of a chain) and paste the address. Add a description so that you later understand what the link refers to and click on OK†

Another option to insert a web link into an existing text is to select one or more words in that text and then click the web link button. In the dialog that opens, click OKthen the selected text becomes an active link.

Of course you can also insert photos and graphics in a note. Click on the button with the stylistic landscape in the ‘hidden’ toolbar and browse for a photo on (for example) your mobile. Tap that and then tap or click OK in the open window, done.

You can insert even more elements via the button bar(s), such as a divider, sub and super scripts, check boxes, a search field and more. You can create multiple thematically arranged notebooks via the button +Create† Various actions are also possible via the buttons at the top right of the note, including sharing, showing a presentation, making a to-do list while via the button † even more options appear. Including the ability to print and export.

There is also no search function. All in all, it is a very complete unit that can be used perfectly for all kinds of work and study projects. Especially when you consider that you NAS for multiple users and thus collaborate on notes.

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