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The 10 Best Meeting Note Taking Software Tools

The 10 Best Meeting Note Taking Software Tools are digital platforms designed to facilitate efficient recording, organization, and retrieval of information from meetings for better productivity and collaboration.

Learn more about our top picks for: Meeting Note Taking Software

Meeting Note Taking Software is a type of digital technology designed to assist individuals or teams in documenting the key information, discussions, decisions, and tasks that happen during meetings. This software enables more efficient and structured note-taking by offering features like live editing, task assignment, documentation archiving, multi-platform support, and sometimes even real-time transcription services. The primary intention of such software is to help users systematically capture, organize, and revisit important details without missing or forgetting valuable insights, thereby promoting better collaboration and project execution.

The Best Products

Our Recommendations: Meeting Note Taking Software

Pick #1

Evernote

Evernote is a versatile digital note-taking software that serves as an indispensable tool for capturing and organizing meeting notes. The platform allows you to write, collect, and capture ideas in a variety of formats like text, photos, audio, video, PDFs, and web clippings. Evernote not only stores this data securely across multiple devices for easy accessibility but also offers advanced search features for quick retrieval of information. Its collaboration features provide the ability to share notes, track changes by other users, and contributes to a centralized and efficient meeting management system. Its in-built reminder and tagging system ensure you never miss any detail from your meetings, making it a comprehensive meeting note-taking solution.

Evernote allows you to easily create different notebooks for each meeting or project, allowing for better organization and efficiency in recalling specific details.
The application has a powerful search functionality, allowing you to search across all notebooks. This means you can easily find and recall specific details from previous meetings, such as who was in attendance, what was discussed, and any agreed actions.
It has a feature to instantly share your notes with other stakeholders, making collaboration more seamless. This is particularly useful for those who could not attend the meeting, as they can be brought up to speed very quickly.
Evernote's audio recording feature allows you to capture all verbal communication during the meeting. This can be beneficial for those who may miss out on key points during note taking, allowing them to revisit the audio to ensure accuracy in their notes.
The tool is cloud-based, which means notes taken in a meeting can be accessed from anywhere at any time, be it from a laptop or a mobile device, adding an element of convenience to time-strapped professionals.
Limited Formatting Options: Evernote does not provide as many text formatting options, as compared with other note-taking software. This can make it harder to highlight key talking points and actions, which is essential for meeting notes.
Weak Collaboration Features: While Evernote allows you to share notes with others, its collaborative editing capabilities are wanting. If your team uses a meeting note as a living document that needs to be updated by various people, Evernote may not be the optimal tool.
No Real-Time Synchronization: Changes made in shared notebooks are not automatically updated in real-time. Team members would have to manually sync to see updates. This could result in miscommunications and outdated information during meetings.
No Integrated Calendar: Evernote does not have an integrated calendar for scheduling follow ups or to track upcoming meetings. It can be quite cumbersome to organize meeting notes chronologically without a built-in calendar feature.
No Native Audio Recording Feature: Unlike some note-taking software, Evernote doesn’t have a built-in feature for recording audio. If you’re trying to capture everything said in a meeting, you’d have to use a separate app or tool for audio recording and then attach it to your note manually.

Pick #2

Notion

Notion is a comprehensive and versatile workspace tool, which serves as a meeting note-taking software among other functions. It provides a digital space where teams can collaborate, create and manage documents, spreadsheets, and databases, facilitating the process of note-taking during meetings. You can create, customize, and share live meeting agendas, take collaborative notes, assign tasks, and organize all the details related to meetings in one integrated and visually appealing setup. With features like templates, tagging, and advanced search, it ensures efficient record-keeping and easy retrieval of information. Notion’s real-time collaboration feature further enhances its utility as a meeting note-taking software.

Consolidation and Organization - Notion is an all-in-one platform that consolidates all your notes, tasks, and agendas, making it easier to keep meeting information organized and retrievable.
Template Features - Notion offers customizable templates for various note-taking styles or meeting formats. This allows users to streamline their note-taking process and maintain consistency across different meetings.
Collaboration Tools - Notion allows multiple team members to simultaneously take notes during a meeting. This collaborative feature ensures comprehensive documentation of the meeting and enables real-time sharing of ideas and information.
Integration Capabilities - Notion can integrate with other software such as Google Calendar, making it easier to schedule meetings, set reminders and manage activities relating to any particular meeting.
Version History and Backtracking - Notion keeps a record of all changes in the note-taking document, allowing users to backtrack and reference previous versions if necessary, adding to the reliability and accountability of the meeting notes.
Limited offline access: Notion lacks adequate offline functionality, making it difficult to take or access notes during meetings if there's unstable internet connection or no access to WiFi.
Complexity: While Notion is feature-rich, its user interface can seem quite complex and overwhelming for beginners. This complexity can result in disruption or slower operation during meetings when time is of crucial essence.
Lack of direct audio transcription: Notion doesn't support built-in audio recording or direct audio-to-text transcription, a feature that’s useful during meetings for effortless notes taking. Users would need to rely on external software for such features.
Not great for quick note-taking: Notion is more structure-oriented and isn't designed for quick, on-the-fly note taking during meetings. It takes time to structure your pages, and spontaneity during discussions may not be effectively captured.
Lack of real-time collaboration tools: Notion's collaboration features are limited when compared to some competing software. Notion doesn’t have the ability to track changes in real-time or leave inline comments, which are essential for collaborative note-taking during meetings.

Pick #3

Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is a versatile, cloud-based tool designed specifically for note-taking, information gathering and multilevel structuring. In the context of being a meeting note taking software, OneNote stands out thanks to its ability to seamlessly capture, organize, and share notes from meetings. It has features that allow both real-time and automatic transcription of meeting minutes, powerful search functionality, and collaborative features for team-based note taking. Furthermore, as a part of the Microsoft Office Suite, it seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft applications, making it ideal for business settings.

Centralized and Shared Access: OneNote integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365, meaning that notes can be easily accessed across different devices by different users. This shared access is particularly beneficial in a meeting context, enabling attendees to collaboratively edit and view the same set of notes in real-time.
Integration with Outlook: OneNote can automatically generate a meeting note page with important details from Outlook such as date, location, attendees, and the agenda. This feature helps to keep information organized and readily accessible.
Audio Recording and Playback: OneNote has a built-in audio recording feature which can be very useful in a meeting scenario. Attendees can choose to record the meeting for later reference and OneNote also synchronizes the notes with the audio. This means that clicking a line in the note will replay the audio from that moment, a genuine benefit for reviewing the erudite or complex discussions.
Easy Organization: OneNote allows notes to be organized in multiple layers including notebooks, sections, and pages. This offers a structured layout making it easy to categorize, locate and manage your meeting notes effectively.
Features for Quick and Efficient Notation: OneNote also provides features like to-do lists, tagging, and quick shortcuts that make note-taking much more efficient during meetings. For example, you can instantly create a checklist for action items that unfold during a meeting and assign tags to delegate responsibilities among team members.
Limited Collaboration Features: While OneNote does allow for collaboration, its features are somewhat limited compared to other software. For instance, there is no real-time collaborative editing, which can make team note-taking during meetings complex.
Limited Formatting Options: OneNote's formatting options are not as robust as other note taking software. This can make it difficult to create properly structured notes for official meetings.
Syncing Issues: Users often report syncing issues across different devices with OneNote, which can cause complications when trying to share meeting notes or accessing meeting notes from a different device.
Disadvantages 4: No Integration with Other Meeting Tools: OneNote doesn't integrate with popular meeting tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Hence, it might be difficult to smoothly transition between the meeting software and OneNote for efficient note taking.
Non-intuitive UI: Some users find the user interface of OneNote non-intuitive, which can affect efficiency when taking notes during fast-paced meetings. Its interface is different from traditional word processors, it could be a learning curve for new users to get used to it during meeting note taking.

Pick #4

Google Keep

Google Keep is a note-taking service developed by Google designed to help individuals store, organize and access various types of information. Utilized as a meeting note-taking software, Google Keep allows users to quickly jot down important points, ideas, and tasks during meetings and access them from any device due to its effective synchronization feature. With its easy-to-use interface, users can create comprehensive notes, lists, and voice memos, and can also include images for better understanding and recall. Its reminder feature adds to its utility for meeting note-taking as it can prompt users on important tasks or follow-ups arising from these meetings.

Real-time Collaboration - Google Keep allows multiple individuals to work on the same note simultaneously, enabling live sharing of discussions or modifications in meeting notes in real time.
Seamless Integration with Google Suite - As the part of Google Suite, Google Keep integrates perfectly with Google Calendar, Gmail and other Google apps. This means meeting notes can be directly linked to calendar events or relevant email chains.
Voice Notes - Google Keep has a solid voice note-taking feature that enables users to make oral notes during a meeting, which is very handy when keeping track of conversations or brainstorming sessions.
Visual Orientation - Google Keep integrates image capture and even optical character recognition, helpful for capturing visual materials in a meeting such as whiteboard usage, documents, etc.
Powerful Search and Organizing Functionality - With Google Keep, users can easily categorize and label their notes for specific meetings, and sift through them efficiently with Google's powerful search functionality, which is very useful when revisiting past meeting notes.
Lack of Hierarchical Organization - Google Keep does not offer structured hierarchical note organization, such as folders or subfolders. This could make finding specific meeting notes difficult if a user has a lot of different notes.
No Rich Text Formatting - Google Keep lacks rich text formatting features such as bold, underline or italics. This limits the user's ability to emphasize certain aspects of their notes or make them more readable.
Limited Integration With Other Applications - Although Google Keep integrates well with other Google apps, it lacks integration with broader array of productivity and project management tools. This could be a problem for team meetings where notes or tasks need to be integrated into other workflows.
No Built-in Collaboration Features - While Google Keep allows for note sharing, it doesn't offer real-time collaboration on a single note or a feature to track changes made by different users. This would be a drawback for meetings where notes are shared among a team and real-time collaboration is required.
Limited Export Options - Google Keep has limited options to export notes into other formats, making it complicated to share the meeting notes in a universal format with others who do not use Google Keep.

Pick #5

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is a versatile and user-friendly meeting note-taking software that aids users in recording and organizing information efficiently. It allows users to record, categorize, and store notes in an easily accessible digital format. This cloud-based software excels in capturing a variety of data types, including text, images, audio, and checklists, creating a comprehensive platform for note-taking. Additionally, Zoho Notebook supports synchronization across multiple devices, making it possible for users to access and edit their notes whenever and wherever they want. This software is highly beneficial in a meeting context as it allows easy sharing and collaboration of notes among team members.

Advanced Structuring: Zoho Notebook allows users to create notebooks for specific topics, which can further be broken down into individual pages, making it highly effective for organizing meeting notes according to different projects or agendas.
Integrated Voice Notes: Zoho Notebook has a unique feature of recording voice notes. This can be specifically beneficial during meetings as one can record important discussions and attach them to their typed notes for better comprehension and recall.
Real-Time Collaboration and Sharing: Zoho Notebook allows multiple users to work on the same note simultaneously. This feature boosts productivity during meeting note-taking as changes and additions can be viewed and edited in real-time by all participants.
Mobile Accessibility: Zoho Notebook is available across various platforms including iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows. This makes accessing and editing meeting notes convenient on-the-go and ensures you can always have your notes with you.
Integration with other Zoho apps: If your organisation is using other Zoho apps like Zoho CRM, Zoho Mail, etc., Zoho Notebook can integrate with these apps seamlessly. This means meeting notes from Zoho Notebook can be easily linked or shared with relevant tasks or discussions in other Zoho applications, providing better workflow integration.
Limited Text Formatting: Zoho Notebook offers fewer text formatting options compared to its competitors. This can limit the level of detail and organization you can achieve in your meeting notes.
No Inbuilt Task Management: Unlike some other note-taking apps, Zoho Notebook doesn't provide inbuilt task management functionality. You can't set reminders for specific notes or convert them into actionable tasks without using a separate tool or platform.
Organization Structure: The structure of Zoho Notebook can be limiting if you want to create sub-folders or categorize notes under multiple categories. This can make it difficult to find specific meeting notes when they're nested under other notes.
Lack of Real-Time Collaboration: Although Zoho Notebook allows for sharing, it lacks real-time collaborative features. This can be a downside particularly in a meeting scenario, where multiple people may need to add to or edit the notes simultaneously.
No Audio Recording: Some note-taking apps offer built-in audio recording functions, which are very useful for recording meetings. But Zoho Notebook doesn't provide this feature, making it more challenging to document a meeting if you're relying on post-meeting recollections without any audio-visual reference.

Pick #6

Bear

Bear is a popular note-taking software designed for ease of use, with a focus on flexibility and beautiful interface. Its key utility lies in its ability to help users, especially teams during meetings, capture, organize and manage notes effectively. The software offers robust features including neat organization of notes with tags, the addition of attachments, multi-level formatting, and advanced search capabilities. Users can add tasks, drawings, images, links or even hashtags to their notes, making Bear a comprehensive tool for managing various forms of data. This makes it an excellent tool for both individual users and teams to streamline the process of jotting down crucial details during meetings.

Advanced Markdown Support: Bear has extensive markup options which makes it easy to format, organize, and prioritize meeting notes. This aids in making notes easily scannable and searchable later.
Inter-Note Linking: A unique feature of Bear is its ability to link notes together. During meetings, if different topics or previous discussions need to be referenced, these can be quickly brought up with inter-note links.
Tagging and organization: With Bear, it is easy to sort notes using tags. This becomes very handy when a single meeting covers multiple topics, all of which can be individually tagged for easy retrieval later.
Note Export: Bear supports multiple export options including PDF, HTML, RTF, DOCX and more. This makes it incredibly easy to share your meeting notes with attendees, even if they're not Bear users.
Seamless Sync: Bear syncs across all your devices. If you switch between gadgets during a meeting, you can always pick up where you left off. Additionally, it makes reading or revising notes manageable from any device.
Limited Collaboration - Unlike some other note-taking applications, Bear does not provide native collaboration features. While you can share notes with others, they cannot edit or contribute in real-time which can be crucial in a meeting environment.
No Inbuilt Audio Recording - For a meeting note software, you expect a feature like audio recording for transcription later. However, Bear does not offer any inbuilt audio recording features.
No Dashboard or Overview - Bear lacks a home screen or a dashboard where you can see an overview of the notes you have taken. This might be problematic if you use the software for taking large number of meeting notes and want a quick overview.
Limited Formatting and Customization - While Bear does support basic styling and formatting to organize your notes, these features are quite limited compared to other professional note-taking tools.
No Cross-Platform Availability - Bear is limited to Apple devices. This means people using other platforms like Windows or Linux cannot use the software. This limitation might make it a less attractive choice for diverse corporate environments.

Pick #7

Quip

Quip is a collaborative meeting note-taking software designed to streamline workflow and improve team productivity. It enables users to create, share, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and task lists in real-time. With Quip, multiple team members can edit or provide input on the same document simultaneously, reducing email clutter and improving communication efficiency. Its robust features also include chat functionality embedded directly into the working documents, allowing for context-specific discussions and seamless information sharing. It is highly versatile and can be integrated with various other business applications, thus making it a comprehensive tool for project management and team collaboration.

Real-Time Collaboration: Quip allows multiple team members to take, edit, and view notes simultaneously, eliminating the need for back and forth emails and redundancy, improving communication efficiency tremendously.
Integration with Salesforce: If your team already uses Salesforce, Quip allows for live document embedding and collaboration within the Salesforce platform, so team members can access necessary information and work on documents without leaving the application.
Comprehensive Document Versioning: Quip keeps a record of each version of your notes, allowing you to easily review changes and revert to an earlier version if needed. This ensures that no information gets lost in the editing process.
Built-in Project Management Features: With Quip, not only can you take notes but also create task lists and project plans, making it an all-in-one tool for managing aspects of your meetings together which is time efficient.
Platform Agnostic: Quip is available for virtually any device, making it easy for team members to access the meeting notes regardless of their location or the device they use. This aids in remote work and global team collaboration.
Quip lacks advanced formatting tools, which can make it challenging to structure meeting notes comprehensively and neatly, particularly for long, complex meetings.
It does not allow audio recording, which can be crucial for later referencing or transcribing detailed discussions during meetings.
The software does not support handwriting or drawing inputs, which might be useful for illustrative purposes during a meeting note-taking process.
Quip doesn’t offer built-in time-stamping which means you can’t automatically track when certain notes were taken during a meeting.
The software lacks a dedicated task management feature. With meetings often resulting in actionable tasks, this absence could complicate the tracking and completion of these tasks.

Pick #8

Apple Notes

Apple Notes is a built-in application on Apple devices designed to facilitate quick note-taking. As a meeting note-taking software, it enables users to jot down important points, ideas, or tasks in an organized manner during meetings. Users can create separate folders for different meetings, add attachments like photos or documents, and even sketch diagrams or drawings for better understanding. The notes can be easily shared among Apple users, facilitating collaboration within a team. Furthermore, it supports the iCloud sync feature, meaning your notes are always updated and available across all your Apple devices.

Integration with Apple Ecosystem: Since Apple Notes is an Apple product, it integrates seamlessly with other Apple devices. Meeting notes can be created on a MacBook and viewed or edited later on an iPhone or iPad.
Collaborative Functionality: Apple Notes allows multiple users to collaborate in real time on the same document. This makes it excellent for meetings as changes or additions can be made by all participating members.
Automatic Saving and Syncing: Apple Notes automatically saves and syncs notes across devices. This means that meeting notes can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and from any device as long as it is logged in into the same Apple ID.
Inline Attachments: Apple notes provides inline attachment support which means you can attach photos, maps, web links, or even other Apple Notes directly within the note for quick and intuitive access during a meeting.
Note organization: With Apple Notes, you can create folders and sub folders to categorize and organize your notes. This allows for efficient retrieval and reference of information from previous meetings.
Limited Collaborative Features: Unlike other note-taking apps, Apple Notes does not provide real-time collaboration capabilities. Team members cannot edit or suggest changes simultaneously, which may limit its usability during group meetings.
Platform Compatibility: Apple Notes is not fully compatible with non-Apple devices. For people using Android or Windows devices in meetings, access and synchronization could be troublesome, reducing overall productivity.
Limited Formatting Options: Compared to other note applications such as Microsoft OneNote or Evernote, Apple Notes provides fewer formatting options. Advanced features like aligning text or creating tables are not available, which can limit the range of note-taking during meetings.
Absence of Version History: Unlike some other note-taking applications, Apple Notes doesn't provide a version history, which can be a downside when critical changes are made during a meeting and subsequent revisions are required.
Lack of Integrated Task Assignment: In a meeting setting, it's often helpful to assign tasks or follow-ups. Unfortunately, Apple Notes lacks this function, making it a less optimal option for comprehensive meeting management.

Pick #9

Simplenote

Simplenote is a lightweight, streamlined note-taking application designed for straightforward use across various devices, which can be ideal for meeting note-taking. It operates on a cloud-based system, allowing users to jot down and access notes or ideas from any device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Simplenote also supports offline access and syncs data when the user is back online. Other features include the option to tag and pin notes, creating a simple system to organize and prioritize information. Moreover, it offers a clean, distraction-free user interface. However, it’s worth noting that Simplenote does not have extensive formatting tools or the ability to embed pictures or documents, keeping it simple rather than feature-rich.

Cross-Platform Functionality: Simplenote is compatible with a wide range of platforms including iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows, and Linux. This allows people in a meeting, regardless of their device, to use Simplenote to take notes effectively and without issues.
Real-Time Syncing: All notes in Simplenote are synchronized across connected devices in real-time. This means if you modify a note on one device, those changes will be instantly reflected on all other connected devices. This is especially useful in a meeting setting where revisions or additions may be made frequently.
Collaboration Capabilities: Simplenote allows users to share notes with others and even collaborate on notes together. This feature is particularly beneficial during meetings as it allows all participants to contribute to a single note, ensure everyone is on the same page, and track changes.
Markdown Support: Simplenote supports Markdown, a lightweight markup language that lets you format text on the web easily. For meeting notes, this means the ability to highlight, bold, and italicize important points for easy reference.
Tagging System: Tagging notes is a standout feature where you can assign tags to your notes. It makes categorizing and searching for meeting notes easier. For instance, you could tag all notes for a certain project or a specific meeting by a common identifier for quick reference in the future.
Simplenote lacks advanced formatting options: While taking meeting notes, you might require to insert tables, upload images or videos. In Simplenote, you don't have the ability to include any kind of media attachments or tables,
No collaboration features: Simplenote does not have real-time collaboration features, making it less than ideal for taking notes during a meeting with live participation from multiple people,
Lack of organizational tools: Simplenote has a very minimalistic organization system. There are no folders or hierarchical organization features for better structuring of notes during a meeting,
No integrated to-do list capabilities: In a meeting note-taking tool you'd want to make tasks and assign priorities. Unfortunately, Simplenote doesn't have integrated task list or to-do list features,
Limited export options: Notes can only be exported as .txt files, which limits the ability to distribute and share the notes with others who may not use Simplenote, since .txt lacks much of the formatting.

Pick #10

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is a highly secure, privacy-focused, cross-platform note-taking software that suits various use cases, such as meeting note-taking. It operates on an open-source platform with end-to-end encryption, ensuring that your notes are entirely private and safe from unauthorized access. Standard Notes supports a rich ecosystem of extensions and themes, making it adaptable to your unique note-taking requirements. With Standard Notes, you can seamlessly take, organize, and retrieve meeting notes across all your devices, online or offline.

Extensibility: Standard Notes offers numerous extensions including markdown editors, code editors, spreadsheets, etc. which can be quite useful when taking meeting notes. One can easily enhance the functionality as per their specific note-taking needs.
Synchronization across Devices: Standard Notes can synchronize your notes in real time across all your devices. This means you can start taking notes on your laptop during the meeting and then review and edit them later on your smartphone or tablet.
Longevity Focused: The platform is built with a tenet to last for a very long time which ensures that your meeting notes will be available to you safely even in the long run. This helps in maintaining long-term records of meetings.
Tagging and Organizing: Standard Notes allows for easy organization and retrieval of notes from different meetings. You can easily tag your notes according to different meetings and topics which is crucial for categorizing and retrieving meeting notes when needed.
Offline Access: Standard Notes is designed in such a way that it functions perfectly offline too. So if you are in a location with poor internet service, you can still take your meeting notes without any disturbance.
Absence of Collaboration Tools – Standard Notes doesn't allow real-time collaboration. This means that during a meeting, only one person can take notes and others can't meaningfully contribute or edit in real-time.
Lack of Rich Formatting – While Standard Notes excels in simplicity, it lacks rich text options. It uses markdown language for formatting, which takes some time to master and may not be user-friendly for everyone, particularly during a fast-paced meeting.
Absence of In-App Multimedia Support – Standard Notes does not support the embedding of multimedia like images, videos, or graphs directly into the notes. This can be a setback when taking meeting notes, as visual aids often play a crucial role in comprehension and retention.
No Built-In Scheduling or Calendar Integration – This makes planning and organizing meetings more difficult. There are no options to directly link note-taking with a specific meeting time or send reminders, features often needed in a corporate environment.
Lack of Transcription Capabilities – Unlike some other note-taking apps, Standard Notes does not have automatic voice-to-text transcription abilities. This could make recording and understanding spoken content in meetings more challenging.

FAQs

What is meeting note-taking software?

Meeting note-taking software is a digital tool that facilitates the process of recording, organizing, and sharing information discussed during meetings. It can automatically transcribe spoken words into written text, allow for real time collaboration, and even generate summarized minutes after the meeting.

How can meeting note-taking software improve team productivity?

By automatically capturing and organizing meeting notes, the software saves time, ensures no info is missed, and allows team members to focus on the discussion rather than taking detailed notes. With this software, notes can be easily shared and accessed by all attendees, promoting clarity and task follow-ups.

Can meeting note-taking software integrate with other office tools?

Yes, most meeting note-taking software can be integrated with popular office tools such as Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, project management software, and various communication tools, which streamlines the process of scheduling meetings, sharing notes, and assigning action items.

Is it safe to use meeting note-taking software to store sensitive information?

Many note-taking software providers prioritize data security and offer encryption and other security measures. However, it is important to review the vendor’s privacy policy and security measures before entering any sensitive information.

Can meeting note-taking software be used across different devices?

Yes, most meeting note-taking software is designed to be cross-platform capable, meaning it works across different operating systems and devices such as laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones. This provides flexibility to access meeting notes anytime and anywhere.

Overview