Hello, Hdion,
There really are no elegant solutions to taking notes on a Kindle. I keep hoping someone would make a native application for note-taking, just as they are making applications for games right now. I'm not much of a programmer, but I applied to be a programmer for the Kindle just so I could try to make a note-taking program. :-) No word back from Amazon in quite a while though. :-(
If you have a Kindle 3 (the newest one with Wi-fi), then you're in pretty good luck. You can get online and use great websites like:
http://www.simpletext.ws (free online notepad)
http://simplenoteapp.com (this should work, also free)
But if you have a Kindle 2, like I do, then it's not so easy, as the built-in browser doesn't work for the above sites. BUT, there are ways you can still take notes on your Kindle 2.
http://www.google.com/notebook/mThis is Google's Notebook, mobile version. You can add notes and save them. Once saved, you can see them again, but cannot delete or edit them. However, once you're back to your laptop or desktop, you can get onto the full version and edit / delete there.
https://mail.google.com/mail/x/This is Gmail's mobile version. It's the fastest interface for Gmail available... still slow on a Kindle 2, but quite do-able, especially if you remember computing 15 years ago on 25MHz machines. :-) For note taking, you can write notes to yourself and then "send them."
There is a problem doing it this way, though, the text gets slower and slower to enter. I'm not sure why... I have my guesses, but either way, there's little we can do about it. So, using Notebook or Gmail is only really viable for short notes.
BUT, what I end up doing is this... a fairly simple trick and it works pretty well. For note-taking, I open a non-book file on my Kindle and add an annotation to it. That annotation (no matter HOW LONG it is, will show up in the "My Clippings" document. You can edit that annotation all you want, as well.
When you're done with your note-taking, and when you're back at your main computer, you can get your "notes" off the Kindle by plugging your Kindle into the USB port, then going inside the "DOCUMENTS" folder and opening the "My Clippings.txt" file. Your edited note will be there, complete and beautiful.
Perhaps the best way to do this is to add an annotation to something in the "My Clippings" document to begin with, that way it doesn't really matter if you forget to delete it later... sort of a "sandbox" to try out note-taking and such.
Personally, I have a "My Schedule" file I keep on my Kindle. It's a simple text file, but it's my entire year calendar. So, when I want to make a note, I just add an annotation to today's "To Do" list. That serves double-duty -- it gives me a place to put my annotation, and it also reminds me later to copy it off the Kindle.
Anyhow, there are some ideas for you. Nothing is as elegant and as beautiful as a dedicated "Notepad" application on the Kindle, but we don't have one of those yet.
Best wishes,
Jeffrey
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