Notebook app with tabs

[jojoba]

It looks like I can define specific tags for each area, and anything I put in that area will automatically have those tags assigned to it.

Yes, this is what I do, which brings a lot of possibilities for customisation. In 2Do (which has the same infrastructure as Things) you can also make an 'area' based on searches with a range of criteria. Combined with the ability to use 'today', 'next three days', 'scheduled' etc categories, and linking to relevant documents elsewhere on my mac/iPad, it combines to make a great task organiser.

 

[sracer]

Not sure I understand. Looks like the only difference is the OneNote compatibility on the "+" version. And that only goes for the iPad versions. For Mac, I can only find Outline - no "+" version.
But you say Outline is a different app. Where do I find it?

Ah, looks like Gorrillized has changed their products around since I first purchased them.

Here's what I see now:

iOS:
Outline... = Tabbed notebook app for iOS (sync w/OSX version)
(an in-app purchase from within Outline... can upgrade it to OneNote compatibility)

Outline+ = Same tabbed notebook app for iOS but with OneNote compatibility & syncing

OSX:
Outline = Tabbed notebook app for OSX (can sync with iOS version)

They've really confused things with their different and changing names.

My recommendation was for Outline+

 

[rhett7660]

Not sure I understand. Looks like the only difference is the OneNote compatibility on the "+" version. And that only goes for the iPad versions. For Mac, I can only find Outline - no "+" version.
But you say Outline is a different app. Where do I find it?

Ah, looks like Gorrillized has changed their products around since I first purchased them.

Here's what I see now:

iOS:
Outline... = Tabbed notebook app for iOS (sync w/OSX version)
(an in-app purchase from within Outline... can upgrade it to OneNote compatibility)

Outline+ = Same tabbed notebook app for iOS but with OneNote compatibility & syncing

OSX:
Outline = Tabbed notebook app for OSX (can sync with iOS version)

They've really confused things with their different and changing names.

My recommendation was for Outline+

http://outline.ws/

http://outline.ws/ipad

http://outline.ws/mac

there is currently only an iPad and Mac OS version.

I own both and use them quite often. I have contacted the developer(s) and they have stated an iPhone version is in the works but no date as of yet.

 

[diane143]

You can make lists in Reminders, if that's what you mean by nesting?
I'm using GoodTask, consider it a Reminders client that adds a few rather nice functionalities along the way (one of them being a beautiful interface IMHO).

Yes, in that you can create a "folder" for work or home etc, and then put reminders inside it. I haven't used it in awhile, so maybe that was something that got introduced in iOS7

Notes Plus lets you create notebooks and folders, the idea being to nest your notebooks into folders.
In GoodNotes you'd have Categories and Main Categories, same difference.
In Noteshelf you can drop a notebook onto another, to create a "sub-shelf".

So, all of the above have their own way of two level nesting. To me, two levels is enough - I don't like to dig any deeper when I need a note. YMMV


About Notes Plus, I used it for about a year...
The thing is, Notes Plus turns all your handwriting into vectors. Better yet: double polylines (yes, you can write in hollow letters, pick different colours for your character outlines and their fill colour). As beautiful as your writing will look, the app works extremily slow - most likely because of all the background calculation going on.
You won't notice this on a quick review, writing stuff like "This is a test" "Hello World" "Get Milk". Just try and write a notebook of about 20 pages, add some graphics in it, import a pdf, do some markup. Then... try to select and move a sentence on one of your pages. Personally, I found it to be close to impossible. The lagging is horrible to work with.
Not only that, if I were to write fast enough (taking meeting notes!), I'd often find my scribbling to be a whole word ahead of what was actually showing on screen.

2 levels is all I usually need, but sometimes 3 depending on how many jobs I'm juggling in a particular client.

Interesting about Notes Plus. Almost looked like you were reading my test scribbles lol. Did you ever use it just typing rather than writing?

Yes, this is what I do, which brings a lot of possibilities for customisation. In 2Do (which has the same infrastructure as Things) you can also make an 'area' based on searches with a range of criteria. Combined with the ability to use 'today', 'next three days', 'scheduled' etc categories, and linking to relevant documents elsewhere on my mac/iPad, it combines to make a great task organiser.

Looks like Things is starting to implement linking as well, but I haven't read the notes fully enough to be sure. I wish they'd allow a time in a todo rather than just a date. Apparently it will hook to Reminders IF you use Siri and iOS 8. I'm with 7 for this phone and Siri and I really don't get along well so......

Ah, looks like Gorrillized has changed their products around since I first purchased them.

Here's what I see now:

iOS:
Outline... = Tabbed notebook app for iOS (sync w/OSX version)
(an in-app purchase from within Outline... can upgrade it to OneNote compatibility)

Outline+ = Same tabbed notebook app for iOS but with OneNote compatibility & syncing

OSX:
Outline = Tabbed notebook app for OSX (can sync with iOS version)

They've really confused things with their different and changing names.

My recommendation was for Outline+

Yep, I looked again last night and saw what I had seen the first night. I hate when that happens!

 

[diane143]

As a side note, I downloaded the Mac demo of Outline (guessing its + for the price). I do like it but it runs horrendously slow on my late 2008 unibody, and crashes when I attempt to email myself something. (I would be more likely to email myself something from the ipad to myself.)

I went out on a limb and bought the basic version. Like it, got it to sync with the desktop. Was able to email a section myself. But I can't import anything. More specifically PDFs. I even read the manual and the option for Outline is just not there.

And on a hunch I checked Noteabilities site, and they now have a Mac version - <edit> which I can't use as I'm still on ML

 

[GerritV]

This topic is a good opportunity to do some reviewing LOL
Here's a quick comparison between 3 apps, left to right:

1 Notebooks 7
- very clean, minimalistic interface
- distraction free writing space
- the left sidebar ("DOCUMENTS") is automatically hidden when in portrait
- markup support
- you can import numereous file types (pdf's, images, excel...)
- default font can be changed, as can the default paper background
- universal app, same interface on Mac (for now less features though)
- semi-automatic sync through Dropbox (you need to open a notebook to trigger the sync)

2 Daily Notes
- a journal actually, so the month on top is inevitable I guess
- slider at the left opens yet another calendar
- maximum writing space
- tasks can be linked to Reminders (one way, to a separate list "Daily Notes")
- you can attach numereous file types (pdf's, images, excel...)
- customizable tabs and tags
- several colour schemes to chose from (overall GUI)
- default font can be changed
- iOS only (iPad and iPhone), but it can sync to Evernote (to use on Mac) - where every tab becomes a notebook

3 Outline+
- very structured notebook
- creative way of taking notes: adding floating text objects, tables, images... all on one page
- universal app, same interface on Mac
- stylish interface, but it takes up a lot of screen estate
- the left sidebar ("Pages") is automatically hidden when in portrait
- you can attach numereous file types (pdf's, images, excel...)
- rather limited writing area

 

[jojoba]

Looks like Things is starting to implement linking as well, but I haven't read the notes fully enough to be sure. I wish they'd allow a time in a todo rather than just a date.

2Do does time as well as dates, and their latest iOS update is really quite nice. They have a free trial version for mac if you want to check it out. I consider it a better version of Things.

http://www.2doapp.com/

 

[zhenya]

Reading through your original wants again, I really can't stress enough how good OneNote is. As far as I can tell it does everything you want. To-do lists no problem. Has by far the best translation of a physical notebook to the digital domain. Can do as many levels as you want, without it quickly feeling unmanageable. It syncs across platforms - Windows/iOS/OSX/Web.

Yes, it doesn't do handwriting on iOS, but you say that's not really a priority. Good handwriting on iOS is such a specific niche that I've found I have to choose the best handwriting app separate from the best note-taking app because the two don't go together.

Microsoft has been expanding support of OneNote for years, and with the move towards tablet computing they are accelerating that development. Many of these apps built and maintained by a single developer are at risk of being abandoned at any time. OneNote isn't going anywhere.

Honestly, OneNote is good enough that if you are a very heavy note-taker, I'd go so far as to say it's worth buying a dedicated Windows tablet with a stylus pretty much just for OneNote. It's that good.

 

[GerritV]

Reading through your original wants again, I really can't stress enough how good OneNote is. As far as I can tell it does everything you want. To-do lists no problem. Has by far the best translation of a physical notebook to the digital domain. Can do as many levels as you want, without it quickly feeling unmanageable. It syncs across platforms - Windows/iOS/OSX/Web.

Yes, it doesn't do handwriting on iOS, but you say that's not really a priority. Good handwriting on iOS is such a specific niche that I've found I have to choose the best handwriting app separate from the best note-taking app because the two don't go together.

Microsoft has been expanding support of OneNote for years, and with the move towards tablet computing they are accelerating that development. Many of these apps built and maintained by a single developer are at risk of being abandoned at any time. OneNote isn't going anywhere.

Honestly, OneNote is good enough that if you are a very heavy note-taker, I'd go so far as to say it's worth buying a dedicated Windows tablet with a stylus pretty much just for OneNote. It's that good.

I agree that OneNote is a good app, in fact even more than a note taking app (which is not always a good thing though). But To-do lists? I mean, where's the calendar, the reminders, the GTD stuff? I may have overlooked it.

 

[zhenya]

I agree that OneNote is a good app, in fact even more than a note taking app (which is not always a good thing though). But To-do lists? I mean, where's the calendar, the reminders, the GTD stuff? I may have overlooked it.

This may be more specific to the Windows version as not all versions of OneNote are yet fully featured. In Windows there is an option to flag an item as a To Do item that can be checked off and searched for. There is also the option to set it as an Outlook Task which allows you to set a specific due date/reminder/tie it to your calendar, etc.

On iOS it appears possible to mark items as To Do and many of the other Tags that OneNote uses, but the extensibility is not there as compared to Windows because iOS doesn't have Outlook, etc.

 

[GerritV]

This may be more specific to the Windows version as not all versions of OneNote are yet fully featured. In Windows there is an option to flag an item as a To Do item that can be checked off and searched for. There is also the option to set it as an Outlook Task which allows you to set a specific due date/reminder/tie it to your calendar, etc.

On iOS it appears possible to mark items as To Do and many of the other Tags that OneNote uses, but the extensibility is not there as compared to Windows because iOS doesn't have Outlook, etc.

I see, the link to Outlook sounds good (if on Windows).

 

[culb0743]

If you want an app that behaves and looks like a real-life tabbed notebook, you can't really do any better than Notebook by Circus Ponies. There is an iPad client as well which syncs over iCloud. I used it on and off during my undergraduate years, but moved on to Notebooks by Alfons Schmid (also recommended by GarritV) when I began my graduate studies. In addition to iOS, a Windows client is also available. Syncing is done via Dropbox, or over your personal Wi-Fi network. Both apps are good, but I never took advantage of the freehand drawing/writing/annotation tools offered by the Circus Ponies app, therefore moved on to Notebooks, which better suited my needs (Markdown) at the time. However, Notebooks on the Mac isn't quite up to feature parity with the iOS client, which is where the app really shines. Both of these apps are feature-rich and will serve you well in note taking. Check them out. My personal experience with Outline+ was not good, but then again I've never used OneNote.

 

[lexvo]

There is no perfect note app. I prefer Notability after trying several others, but Notability has its drawbacks too.

Daily Notes
+ handy for quick entry of notes
+ good search function
+ arrow keys for quick navigating
+ easy navigating between notes
+/- you have fonts the choose from, but font sizes are limited
- has only 1 level of tabs, but it does have tags
- because of the calendar on the top of the screen, there is not much text visible when typing
- moving a note to a different map requires a few steps
- no WebDav support
- very simple bullet function

OneNote
+ good format options
+ on iPad, iPhone and iMac
+ more text visible when writing than Daily Notes
- no support for iCloud, DropBox or WebDav (only OneDrive)
- no arrow or word keys for quick navigating
- date of a note cannot be changed
- does not have "Open in..." function

Notability
+ good format options
+ on iPad, iPhone and iMac
+ more text visible when writing than Daily Notes and OneNote
+ support for a lot of cloud services
+ arrow and word keys for quick navigating in text
- no quick navigating between notes
- the new layout is a step back (personal opinion of course)
- when exporting a note, the title and date are not included, clumsy

Notebooks (tried a few times)
+ unlimited folders
+ tags
+ very good PDF export
+ support for a reasonable amount of cloud services
- it has arrow keys, but you have to swipe the key set to access them
- it has a lot of format options, but these work through styles, I can't get used to that (personal of course)
- crashed at some places

Notesuite
+/- has in theory a good combination of notes and actions, in practice this turned out in "Jack of all trades, master of none"
+ unlimited folders
+ good format options
+ arrow keys for quick navigation
+ tags
+ nice grab webpage text function (though not always working)
- slow
- cannot change date of a note
- cannot see all actions, only a part of them
- no WebDav support