Agenda - Version 17

Software
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I’ve never really used the app myself, but I check in on Agenda from time to time.

I noticed today they’re now on version 17 and it addresses one of my main, long-held concerns; no ability to view a note on its own, apart from the big list. This version addresses this.

My only real remaining gripe is that to see a concise list of your notes within a folder, you have to click the folder name at the top. This works well enough but it adds an extra click to every interaction where I want to see a list of my notes, and moving notes around, navigating - it’s a bit clunky.

Aside from that though, I’m shocked we don’t hear more about this app. At least it’s not on my radar much. Browsing to the subreddit today, there are only a few hundred members, though their message forum seems lively.

I just wonder why this isn’t a more prominent app in the MPU universe. Good pricing model, good features, seemingly good export and import options. Worth a look if you’re just hearing about it now or haven’t taken it for a spin for some time.

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I might have been an Agenda user if I wasn’t so far into NotePlan and my Daily Notes.

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I’m glad you mentioned the update. It’s a nice one. The always-on-top second window option, especially.

Also, there’s a new lifetime purchase option, which is a good deal for those who think they’ll pay for annual premium at least four more times.

I think there were only ever a handful of us using Agenda here. I’ve wondered why as well, and I think it’s because most people don’t fit the primary use case (a need to keep track of multiple streams of chronologically sorted notes.) As Karl mentioned, Agenda has been resistant to adding an automatic daily note (though it’s now on their roadmap), so it also doesn’t feel very PKM-y.

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I tried Agenda several times. It’s a very nice app. It just never clicked for me. It doesn’t work the way I think.

Also, it suffers from a problem of using a proprietary file format, as Craft and other otherwise very nice apps do.

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I tested a few exports. They now seem to allow export of folders and individual notes to markdown, pdf etc.

Seemed decent for export options

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most people don’t fit the primary use case (a need to keep track of multiple streams of chronologically sorted notes.)

I’ve bought and paid for it a few times and never understood what job it was trying to help me with … until now.

I think their marketing is too lofty and confusing.

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Yes, and at the same time, the marketing can be too tactical. There is a heavy focus on the On the Agenda feature, which turns out to be a useful button and filter, but makes you feel like you’re using the app wrong at first. (“What’s supposed to be on my agenda?”)

In the section where they should be driving home how they do time-oriented notes differently, they’re talking about On the Agenda quite a bit.

Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 4.41.51 PM
Screenshot 2023-03-14 at 4.41.51 PM1962×1090 233 KB

I might split this up. Maybe one column for calendar and one for On the Agenda, and then an element below both about internationalization.

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I’m sure export is great. But it’s something you have to remember to do.

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Yeah, they’ are pretty reluctant to implement things that nopteplan has like time-blocking.

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I bought Agenda a while back. I found its price modeling encouraging. Agenda has a beautiful UI which is the aspect I find most attractive although I do not use it as much as I use to. Agenda’s tech support is quite good.

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I would only ever want to export if I’m leaving the app, in which case I would remember to do it. But different use cases.

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But what if export fails at that point? If your Agenda notes are important, a user should test-export now and then to be sure it’s working right, which could be time-consuming if done correctly.

This is a problem for me with Agenda, Craft, and even DevonThink.

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I used it extensively for exactly this - but only for work. For every (or most) meetings and conversations I will either connect the the note to a calendar event or write a note / reminder / thoughts.

Agenda replaced several notebooks where, over the years, I had developed the habit of a day book for most of my notes, meetings, to do lists, reminders of key information etc. I also used a single notebook (normally A4) for larger clients. In that book I would keep meeting notes, client-based reminders, thoughts and ideas. I would also use it to glue in in relevant presentations, key data, magazine and newspaper articles. Everything for that client is in one place

I am not sure I use it to its full extent, but I love the fact that everything is in one place. being digital means I can export it and pass it on if needs be. I can keep a log of meetings alongside dropping in images of articles and presentations, links out to the web etc.

I find it invaluable. However, I have never used it for anything personal.

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I took the plunge about a year ago (paid for two years in advance actually cause the price was so low), but I never actually used it long term. I think the way notes are being displayed is not for me.

The app is great is no many ways but I just can’t stick with it for some reason. Currently using NotePlan as a replacement for calendar linked notes, Bear for just notes, and Craft for KB - wikis. Spread across different apps but works well for me.

Just so happens that Craft and NotePlan is part of Setapp so that makes sense financially, too. One could argue that I could drop Bear and just stick with the other two, but Bear is just too slick and polished and the price is more than reasonable.

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What does Agenda do ? is it a todo list manager like Reminders?

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It’s like Noteplan in that it enables calendar-based notes but the presentations differ. You may prefer one or the other. Also, I believe Agenda still offers a free level.

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I just bought Agenda 18 after using practically every note program on the planet. My needs are such:

I want a native app for memory conservation,
I want it to support daily notes,
I wanted it to be easy to organize, navigate and search,
I want it to be easy to set reminders for checklist items,
I want the iOS app to be useful when I’m in the field.

I need a daily note most days, and I made a specially crafted template which has the title date formatted the way I want (ISO).

So far, it’s working well for me, especially on import of my daily notes from older programs.

The import was especially helpful because it knew what day each daily note was supposed to be linked to. All I had to do for each note imported was to click on the calendar button in the upper right hand corner of each note, and then click “Assign Date”. I did not have to search for the date to be assigned.

Organization is by category, project folder, note. Every note can have a calendar date attached to it but for my collection of technical information none of that has a calendar date attached. Every note that I have, except for the active notes, is “marked as done“. I like the “on the agenda“ section because it’s always at the top and I can see what’s active and unfinished right now. That really helps me focus.

Agenda is not a task management app, but I have two task lists. One is “short term” and the other is “medium term”; they both live “on the agenda” and I can move and copy items in and out at will. I did not know that setting reminders for individual checklist items was going to be as useful as it is, but it helps me remember when an item gets old and needs to be looked at again.

If you want to automate this program, I have seen that you can use the shortcuts app and x-callback URL links to do an awful lot of the background work, but I don’t know if I want to be that complicated in my setup.

I don’t mind that Agenda has a ‘proprietary’ format, I think I actually (perversely) want it that way because I want to slow down in my “perfect app” searching and simply Use. One. App. for a while. Export is possible in many ways.

Agenda also has a sharing extension and inside of Agenda it has many ways to get note content out to various apps. I think that was the initial draw. I did not want email to die where it landed, but I wanted to be able to use it elsewhere and with Spark 2, for the moment, I can. (as an aside, I detest the new Spark Desktop (Electron-based now and it looks and works an awful lot like Hey!. And Hey! doesn’t work for me, personally.))

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Sounds like a good setup. How are you handling new daily notes in Agenda (understanding you’re keeping automation light?)

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navigate to my journal project, click the plus button, find my daily note template, make sure “today” is the assigned date, start typing. Any new note is automatically “on the agenda” so I know where to find it. I periodically adjust the Short Term and Medium Term task lists so they’re below the current daily note, which should always be at the top.

I keep the daily note open, and all others collapsed. I just add jobs and data to the daily note as the day progresses.

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