Looking for recommendations for software like Apple Notes but with support for Markdown.
I tried Joplin and it is ok but the notes do not get synced instantly. There’s a little delay and this could get irritating when I quickly switch devices and want to see/edit the latest note.
Thanks in advance.
I really like Bear. The sync is super fast, and it doesn’t muck with the Markdown like Ulysses does.
Drafts. I use it in conjunction with OneNote where I export my notes to, but you can use it on its own or with any other app.
I thoughts Drafts is only for initial notes and it has to be sent to other apps.
Drafts has evolved a lot in recent years, it’s where a lot of my text lives now. You may find our recent episode of Automators about Drafts to be useful:
No you could just use it on its own if you like the interface. It’s free (for most basic use cases) so give it a go and see how you like it!
I use Drafts for note taking on iPad, iPhone and Mac – with the “pro” subscription. I rare send text from Drafts to other apps. Sync is fast and reliable. Drafts is not “like Notes” in that it does not support the pencil or (easily) support images, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Ulysses has a few options: Markdown, Markdown XL, Minimark, and Textile’d, so you can choose regular Markdown if you like. Markdown XL is the recommended default because it implements some of the niceties of the app for writers - it allows you to cross out and highlight inside a document as well as implementing the incredibly useful comment feature, for instance (which in writing/draft mode shows however you like it [font/styling/color] but doesn’t output). If that’s muck give me muck.
Can you point me to a resource on inserting/embedding images inside Drafts? I understand it is not easy.
While I’m extremely partial to both Ulysses and iA Writer as editors, for pure notetaking with Markdown, I highly recommend Standard Notes (https://www.standardnotes.org).
Sure – if you search in Google for “insert image in Drafts” the first 5 or 6 results are all pretty good for offering various approaches, especially the MacStories info and coverage of Drafts actions.
Give FSNotes a try. It’s a modern nvALT kind of app on steroids natively implemented in swift, opensource and actively developed available on both macOS and iOS
FYI, while FSNotes is open source the dev still sells it for $4 on the MAS and $3 on iOS. I think it’s more like an alternative to nvALT though
Interestingly, Brett Terpstra (nvALT’s dev) recently announced a replacement for that discontinued app. He’s calling it nvUltra.
It first came out around 5 years ago, from ashokgelal.com (whose site makes no mention of it now), and then lightpaper.42squares.in (which now directs to getlightpaper). I think it even was originally an Android app (though maybe that was someone else using that same name).
I tried it a few years ago and liked it but it didn’t fit for my purposes at the time; it was missing some features, like word count, and I can’t remember what else. Seems like a solid option for Markdown writing, but I don’t know how robust it is with hundreds of Notes (which Apple Notes handles with aplomb). It seems okay for $15, but of course it’s not cross-platform.
Perhaps its main competition is Quiver, which is as old as LightPaper, and is $9.99 on the Mac App Store.
Another similar app is TextNut (free with IAP; I have the $9.99 TextNutSD for the Mac, which I think is the same as unlocked TextNut), which is available both for Mac and iOS:
Thanks for the replies, everyone.
I tried a few of the suggested ones and Bear Pro is the winner for my needs.
ns for “note search”, space/return, search term, return and boom!)I’ve taken Cmd+Shift+1 keyboard shortcut from Drafts and set it to a new note in Bear.
4 years later, I am a happy user of UpNote.
Notenik – great app, great developer.