TreePad Alternative For Windows
MyInfo is a free-form organizer, which is the best alternative to the no longer maintained personal information manager TreePad.
You can easily import your existing TreePad files in MyInfo! MyInfo supports TreePad Plus, TreePad Business and TreePad Lite files.
MyInfo is mature and stable Windows software (first version created back in 1999) and is actively developed.
What happened to TreePad?
TreePad was a personal information manager software for Windows. It was a popular tool due to its mix of an organizer, database, and word processor capabilities. It was offered in few different editions (TreePad Lite, TreePad Plus, TreePad Business and TreePad X Enterprise being the most popular).
TreePad was actively developed from 1995 until 2019. Since then, the software is no longer maintained and there is no customer support for it. Their web site is also no longer available.
Compare MyInfo vs TreePad
| Collect | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Capture web snippets directly from your browser | - |  |
| Attach and edit files from other applications | TreePad X Enterprise only | |
| Organize | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Organize notes hierarchically | |
|
| Multi-section notebooks | - | |
| Note tags & attributes | - | |
| Edit | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Text editor with rich formatting with tables and pictures | |
|
| Rich formatting of note headings in the tree | |
|
| Spell-checking | |
|
| Links between notes | |
|
| Text styles | - | |
| Word count | - | |
| Find | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Find notes | By text | By text, boolean operators, date ranges |
| Quick filtering in the tree | - | |
| Search in attachments | - | |
| Search in multiple notebooks | - | |
| Share | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Print & print preview | |
|
| Web site export | |
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| Microsoft Word document export | - | |
| Productivity | TreePad | MyInfo |
| Portable edition. Install on flash drive | |
|
| Encryption | TreePad Enterprise X only | |
| Dark mode | - | |
| Undo anything | - | |
| Customize menus & toolbars | - | |
| Customize keyboard shortcuts | - | |
| Note templates | - | |
The Press
Imports full structure, including images, from TreePad (the only program I could find that does this). Many features including sophisticated searches (called filters in MyInfo).
MyInfo provides a way to arrange different kinds of research data, creating hierarchically organized documents that store and connect these snippets of multimedia. Documents can be saved in the TreePad format.
For me this program has turned out to be the closest to being the perfect note taking program of all the programs reviewed in this blog.
MyInfo Highlights
Full-featured Tree and Text Editor
You can format both your tree items and your text data with different fonts and colors. You can also apply styles, insert links, pictures, and tables in the text editor.
Multiple Field Types
MyInfo supports user-defined fields in the tree of different types: dates, numbers, pop-up lists, and texts.
Capture Anything
Store documents, images, notes, email messages, spreadsheets, web pages, and files.
Full-text Search
Easily search for any text in your data, including wildcards and boolean operators.
Tags and Comments
Tag and comment your notes to find them easier later.
Import & Export
Native import and export from and to Treepad, plain text, rich text, CSV, HTML, and other file formats via third-party plugins.
Browser Add-ons
MyInfo has add-ons for all major web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge), which help you capture new information quickly.
Encryption
Protect your data with industry grade AES-256 encryption.
Getting Started
- Download and install MyInfo (free 30-day trial).
- Import your TreePad (.hjt) files in MyInfo (File > Import > TreePad) and start using them right away!
Note: If you have TreePad X Enterprise or newer TreePad version that uses .tpd file format, you need to convert its database to a .hjt file first.
You can do that in TreePad via File > Export > Subtree > To Files. Then choose Export to One File > TreePad file and in the Save dialog choose (.hjt) as a file format.