544: The Notes Roundup

LOL :rofl:. Registered recently and 1st post with that statement, suspicious :thinking:

I haven’t found NotePlan b3 stable for my use, especially the calendar. But, that’s why it’s a beta.

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Like I just said elsewhere: I started using Noteplan, abandoned it, and picked it up again.

I find it scratches one particular itch for me very well as a daily notes app. I use it to jot down quick notes from meetings, or anything else that comes up during the day that doesn’t have a home elsewhere.

Can you say anything about new or better features in the beta?

I bought (upgraded to?) NotePlan_2 two years ago, and I’m on the mailing list, but I don’t recall hearing about the beta, and it’s barely mentioned in the subreddit. I’m not the type to jump onto betas, but I’m intrigued.

I played hard with the current v.2 and found it to be a really solid app, but the interface’s calendar focus doesn’t work well for my needs, and I was only satisfied with one of the themes (and I didn’t like the font). I guess Todoist already handles my -plan requirements and I’m really looking for cross-platform apps focusing more on the -Note part - something more focused on notes/lists/subtasks with better formatting and fonts/colors/themes.

The main thing for me is folder support in the notes. I only used NotePlan 2 for long enough to realize it didn’t have folders, then stopped using it. (Instead, it kept all notes in a flat structure, even if you organized your notes in folders on the filesystem.)

NotePlan 3 now represents notes within folders as they exist on the file system.

However, it still insists on .txt format, which makes it incompatible with some other markdown apps… the developer says interoperability is on the roadmap.

I wish I could comment on some of the other changes, but I don’t have the comparative experience. Still, here’s a few excerpts from the mailing list for the beta:

What’s new? Quick intro
:one: Plan your days in " Daily Notes “.
:two: Use the calendar on the right to navigate through the days.
:three: Hit ⌘+J to open the command bar to quick-search notes and jump to calendar days (type “tomorrow” for example). Also, you can add tasks (”* Buy milk at 10 on Saturday").
:four: Time-block tasks by writing a time behind them like “* Review website at 10am”).

I have redesigned NotePlan around the note editor as the central view. Because this is where you do most of your work. Everything else has been pushed to the left and right sidebars.

Use the left sidebar to navigate between different views and to work on un-dated notes. You can create folders and organize your notes. Smart folders like recent, archive and trash help you to keep your system clean.

The new Week view allows you to plan a full week at once. You can write your tasks or notes below each day. In Review, you can filter notes to re-surface tasks from anywhere you have added them.

The right sidebar is integrated with your iCloud calendars and reminders. You have a timeline with your meetings for the day or for the complete week (in the Week view). Manage your events and reminders there. This gives a clean separation between tasks and events.

Between that and folders (subfolders too?) it seems like a big improvement, more akin to the way I work. But I think ultimately I won’t be upgrading because right now I’m not looking for an app that helps me plan as much as one that does notes/tags/attachments/subfolders/themes - as a better version of Apple Notes. (There are a few contenders but nothing that ticks all the boxes for me.)

Still, NotePlan could be really useful for those who don’t use a separate to-do app, and want Reminders+Notes and views on those plans. Something like NotePlan could also be easily used for journaling, and as I noted a month ago in this thread The Sweet Setup wrote about how to use v.2 as a bullet journal.

I’m overall pretty impressed by the work the dev Eduard has been doing, along with his regular participation in the NotePlan subreddit.

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Agenda is at the top of my list of “Apps I Wanted to Love and Use But Couldn’t Ever Find a Place For.” I bought it, left it, came back, tried again. The idea of notes linked to dates seems like a powerful metaphor … but no matter how hard I try, Agenda just never “clicks” for me.

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Argh I am so close to the perfect system for me but still feel so far away…

I love Drafts for capture but cannot get my head around storing all my notes in there.

I am therefore looking for the best place to store them… like a filing cabinet…

Just downloaded Bear… looks neat and its easy to share notes from Drafts into it. Love there is an IOS app too…

Love the look and feel of Obsidian… and its free… but cannot find an easy way to get my notes out of Drafts…

ARGH - what do I do?!?

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Obsidian is just editing text files in a folder. So you could create notes in Drafts and just export to Dropbox (which Obsidian could use) or another cloud synced folder.

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You can also use 1Writer on iOS/iPadOS to view the same markdown files you have in Obsidian. It isn’t perfect feature parity, but it’s close. Note that you have to use Relative links (in Obsidian’s preferences) in order for 1Writer to understand them.

That way you can skip Drafts (I’m like you, and hate keeping notes there).

If you decide to go with Obsidian, the forum’s a great resource: https://forum.obsidian.md/

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Is anyone else having trouble accessing the “Save Note and Send Tasks to OmniFocus” Draft Action from the show notes that @MacSparky created?

I am getting a 404 error from the link in the show notes, and searching the Drafts Action Directory is finding nothing except the original Action from @RegularCraig.

@Mike_Burke Some changes between OF and AppleScript have broken the app. Fixing it is high on my list. Stay tuned. :slight_smile:

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Sorry to hear about the trouble; thank you for working to fix it, I am excited to use it in my workflow!

SnipNotes continues to improve. Menubar QuickNotes, Apple Watch app, etc. If if accepted PDFs I’d have switched from Apple Notes by now…

I would enjoy it if Agenda was covered too.

I love Agenda! I appreciate the way the developers respect the customers and are readily available.

I have loads of notes apps but Agenda is my favourite! And the UI is just gorgeous!

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Well I really enjoyed this episode, I am in a bit of an odd state whereby I use three differing platforms day to day and to find a good notes app that works with Windows/web, Linux and iOS.

So far use Apple notes only if I have items I refer to on my phone and also any notes I may wish to share with my iPhone using wife.
I use Linux mint personally on a netbook most days and also use windows for work.

I am going through a bit of a app cull in that I am trying to use fewer apps avoiding information being all over the place.

For work notes I use Simplenote

I use Notion for one item only and keep very little data in that world and I have started using Standard Notes for a few personal notes that were once living in Notion.

I would ideally like to use only one but you find with differing OS’s require some different tools.

Oh and I use Bear notes for a very, very minimal use case but I mainly just like it visually. It is rather beautiful.

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Great to hear from you. I’ve been on the search for the Holy Grail of note apps for a while. While I haven’t found the Holy Grail, I believe I’m getting closer based on my workflow needs. I encourage you to explore Craft. See my post here. It is worth a good look.

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If I owned and used a Mac this would sit nicely with me :slight_smile:

Thanks though!

Actually, it was designed for the iPad first. It is outstanding on the iPad for what that is worth and I use my iPad for 80-90% of my work. :slight_smile:

Ah I see, my ipad went to the wife and kids lol

Been tempted to get one again but not just yet. One day maybe :slight_smile:

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