Too many writing/notes apps?

Software
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So an update here from me about how which and how I use my notes/writing apps. Bear in mind, not “Bear” the app, but “bear” in mind, hehe, that I’m only iOS and iPadOS and don’t have a Mac anymore.

I still feel there are too many of them, but it it is just not possible to consolidate all the purposes into one single app. I think the only app that would be THAT app is Drafts.

I tried doing that last night actually, I really wanted to make Drafts my go to only-purpose writing and notes app. But it’s just too much work setting it up and figuring it out and all the intrinsic little details.

I have about 250 notes in Bear which is my current notes app and exporting and importing those to Drafts on iPadOS is not easily done. Then comes setting them up in folders that I have to create with tags and workspaces. Drafts is just not a note-storing app, it really isn’t.

Anyway, here is an update of which apps I use for this purpose today. Love to get some input:

Apps:

Word: Work documents and documents that I send out to other people, because everyone in the real world use Microsoft Word. I know that people use it and have access to it, so if I need to attach something a document then I put it in Microsoft Word, it’s the anticipated and often expected format in most environments today. Right now I have a free subscription through work. I would never pay for it myself then I would use Pages instead.

Drafts: While this app could be THE app to end all the others for me. It could be my note-taking app, scratchpad, long-form writing app. It could be everything. But it’s just not intuitive enough for storing a lot of notes. So now I use it for very few notes which I can interact with Shortcuts in particular way that other apps won’t do. But I’m trying to have that replaced and then I dont see much use for Drafts anymore, as Bear can easily be my scratchpad and I have never really understood the idea of opening an app to send text somewhere else. If I need to send a text message or an email, I’ll go and write it there. I have never done it otherwise.

Apple Notes: very rarely open it. I actually don’t mind it. But it’s just no match for Bear for me. There are so many things I can do in Bear much more intuitively and the design and look is so much nicer. I will use Apple Notes rarely to collaborate with someone.

Scrivener: I just downloaded it yesterday and I want to start using Scrivener for distraction-free writing and for writing longer pieces

Bear: All notes that I store for long-term use. I have about 200-250 notes for work, personal and studies etc. Most are active and when I do archive a note for good then it goes to KeepIt

KeepIt: To store archived PDFs, documents of all sorts, images etc. Just a big filing cabinet. Right now it’s all still in Evernote, but I want to use KeepIt going forward so I will make a transition soon. It’s sort of like Finder for me, but for Archived stuff that I may or may not need in the future.

Google Docs: for collaboration with fellow students and certain writing-groups that I’m a part of.

Pages: For particular templates and for collaborating with die-hard Pages fans online. And if I ever have to pay for an Office-subscription myself, then I will rather be using Pages.

Alright, just an update. Love to get your thoughts, especially on Drafts and people who use Drafts as a purpose-all text storing and writing environment

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I use Drafts for storing all my notes. I did this because I was fed up of having to search through multiple apps to find notes, and I start everything there. I used to have Apple Notes, DEVONthink to Go, briefly used Bear and in the past Evernote. Now, I know where my notes are and finding anything is a breeze. The search is all I tend to need to find notes, although I spent an hour or so setting up tags when I first migrated. The main reason I chose Drafts is the ease of export to other apps, and actions - which I use all the time. A lot of my notes are templates that allow me to start new projects in my task manager or documents in Ulysses.

I also have Ulysses which I use for all my writing. If I need another format I export from there. I did a similar convergence a while ago because I had documents spread across iCloud, in Word, Pages, Scrivener and open document files. I consolidated them all and I have no problem finding any writing projects now.

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43

I have wanted very much to love Keep It but always found it extremely buggy and I was fed up with it, so now I use Bear like you do, but also keep archived stuff in there. One less app to worry about.

I use Drafts too but it’s only an inbox / temporary storage place, that way I am sure to keep my notes system clean and ordered. I use tagging to quickly find transient notes (the equivalent of post-it notes you trash once you have dealt with them) and anything more important is appropriately stored into Bear. (I talked about my own system and the way Drafts works like the second-tier of an inbox here: KillerWhale’s system for organising knowledge and creativity (not PARA) (LONG)

I was a diehard fan of Scrivener but the recent dismissive attitude of support regarding sync bug has really challenged my trust of the app. I have begun a slow move to Ulysses to see if it can support the complexity of my writing projects.

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Could you please provide a URL to the posting on Scrivener’s support site for this bug?

I’ve been using Scrivener for years and synching via Dropbox all that time to four devices, with no issues. Not that I’m looking for issues, but keen to keep up on at least confirming all ok. I trust that it is, but please provide the URL.

thanks,
rms

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45

It’s been fixed since 13.4, but it lasted since the release of iOS 13. It was an Apple bug, to be fair.

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46

Thanks for being fair.

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47

I see you pointed out that the bug was Apple’s. FWIW I gave Ulysses a try and even got the course on using it but there is no way it can hold a candle to Scrivener IMO. Way more stuff I can do to customize Scrivener and much, much more powerful for what i use it for.

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Absolutely though at times it can be overkill for simple writing. That said I love Scrivener’s organizational features and layout.

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I have long thought and said the same, but I have increasingly found that Ulysses is deceptively deep. TextExpander support on iOS, feature-parity with the Mac, seamless sync and charming support bring a lot to the app. We have discussed replicating some of Scrivener’s advanced features in Ulysses here: Transitioning from Scrivener to Ulysses

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Since posting in this thread over a year ago, my list has simplified:

The ones I use and why.

  • Pages My go-to short form word processor.
  • Notes To share with my iPhone.
  • Coda 2 For my websites.
  • Scrivener Long form writing.
  • Epsilon An Emacs editor. I’ve used Emacs for nearly 40 years. My go-to programming and plain-text editor finally available in 64-bit as beta so can use again.
  • BBEdit Everyone says this is fantastic, but I’d rather use Epsilon. Now Epsilon is going 64-bit I’ll probably drop this.
  • Growly Notes Replacement for Circus Ponies Notebook, RIP, when I need mixed media notes (such as planning trips) that are not related to writing books (for which I use the features in Scrivener). Has gone from paid to free!
  • Nisus Writer Pro Use for formatting Scrivener output for printing.
  • LibreOffice . I use this for my Office compatible and also to read my old WordPerfect files (I was a big WP user and totally resisted Microsoft Office).
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51

Drafts is one of the apps I use the most, since the beginning of iOS, so I guess that part of the truth is that my workflow is being shaped by (and around) drafts, and it might be why I still use it.

Text usually starts in drafts.

If it is something that needs to go somewhere else (long email, work stuff etc.) it is exported either to plain text (long form writing - usually for work - may go in the appropriate folder of the file system and stay there as a txt file to be completed in another editor - bbedit, emacs or iA writer these days - and then exported / converted to word or pdf) or directly converted to the appropriate format for transmission (usually email, pdf or word).

If it is some text that does not need to go somewhere else (notes, journal type things, lists) it stay and lives in Drafts.

I like Drafts’ integration with Shortcuts (I found very difficult to append text to a note living in some iCloud Drive folder that’s not an application folder via Shoortcuts) and am working out a workspaces structure that fits me. I like that every workspace can have its own settings.

And I love the newly added quick search feature, that makes searching stuff very easy.

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I went a similar route with similar criteria as you I think. Drafts for notetaking and I know where they are, that seems to be the key thing for me I realized after years of experiment. I also use the DEVONthink 3 note taker extensively and they go straight into the app again they show up if I search and in that sense I ‘know’ where they are: I use Houdah Spot and Alfred for that reason. So that things show up on search even if I don’t actually know where they are directly. Officially I use LaTeX and TexPad but I don’t much these days. I haven’t even loaded it yet onto my new machine. It is a labor of Love really if I do use it.

Otherwise I write longer form, if you will, in Ulysses and Final Draft. I use Pages and Mellel but if I do something longer form it gets saved as a pdf into DEVONthink 3. I struggled a bit with learning Drafts and nearly abandoned it for that reason.

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53

I think you highlight a key point. To start things off in one place I think is important regarding notes. Otherwise, as you say and as I did for years I kept losing things really. They were there but forgotten you might say. I do the same thing with reading lists and bookmarks. I am trying to correct that too. Too many writing and note apps really? I settled on Drafts recently. It seems ideal for the way you and I use it.
I have followed almost an identical trajectory to you I see. The difference maybe is the way I use DEVONthink 3 extensively.

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How do you integrate Scrivener – or Ulysses – with DevonThink?

I love Ulysses and Bear but I don’t use them because they don’t play nicely with DevonThink. Or, rather, DT doesn’t play nicely with them. DT can only see things in the Finder folder structure, which neither U nor Bear use.

Same problem with Drafts. Love it, but don’t use it as much as I otherwise might like.

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I don’t. They are different tools for different things.

I haven’t changed much from 2018 above, LibreOffice for word processing formatted stuff and for spreadsheets. Scrivener for longer form writing and for blogs and of course myNaNo novels. DEVONThink for all shorter form notes and a few things in paper and pen.

My only addition is that I am experimenting with Goodnotes for notetaking but the PDFs will probably end up in DT later.

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I understand Scrivener has more more features. But, I like to look at the benefits coming to me. What are the benefits that the features bring to me. Years ago when I did this comparison exercise. I went from Scrivener to Ulysses. Features are features…

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How many notes do you have in Drafts?

How have you set up your tags in there?

I really hate tags. I don’t mind them in Bear because they are more like nested folders in Bear, which I like. But in Drafts it’s not really possible to nest the tags right? So I would just feel a lack of control with my notes if I can’t have them nested

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I’ve no idea what a nested tag is, so I do not know if it is possible or not (I do not use tagging much in general). I use search normally and hardly ever use the tag filtering except when I need to find a group of notes, which is not often.

In Drafts, I have applied tags for categories (e.g. software, personal, work, home, family etc.) and then topics (e.g. project names etc.). All my notes have at least a category tag and topic tag and this is sufficient for my needs.

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Yes, and for me the features provide benefits that are important. Things like storing references, easy way to group and move large chunks of the writing around. Since I also use Scrivener for the more typical writing of novels, research papers and blog posts I like things like the character naming tools, different compile options for different formats, manuscript submission tools and so on. Since there isn’t a need I have that Scrivener doesn’t handle and since Ulysses is missing some key features I do use, EVEN IF it might be ideal in one or more small use cases it’s not worth my time and effort to learn and maintain a whole new writing app.

That’s something I look at when adding to my toolset and also as I’ve been reducing my toolset. Not necessarily is the tool I use the BEST in all categories, but how much of the features it provides do I use, what is the cost to learn a new app and does it provide some important feature that I am missing from existing apps that I have a specific and critical use case for.

Also, when I think I’ve found something Scrivener can’t do if I really start looking at it I usually find it can, sometimes it’s more hidden and a bit harder to get set up initially but it is possible. It’s a lot like Omnifocus and DEVONThink in that regard. All 3 apps are complex, big and have lots of things that seem somewhat useless, until you really need them, when they become essential. Plus I just like how Scrivener works and feels better than Ulysses. It’s like the writing app equivalent of a custom made fine writing pen vs a dime store ball point.

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A nested tag is for example in Bear they have folders but they are actually tags

So in Bear it’s eg like this #Work/meetings/Monday so that’s one tag, but #work/meetings would also be a tag and so would #Work be and there can be notes in either of these “folders” which is what they really are

So a nested tag system what I really mean is a nested folder system and if that’s possible in Drafts