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syncing notes.app to imac without icloud?

eclipse

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
989
14
Sydney
Hi all,
* I'm wondering how 'big' notes.app is meant to get?

* Can you store a whole bunch of stuff on it, like gigabytes worth, and avoid syncing via icloud if it goes over the icloud 5 gig limit?

* Is notes even meant for that kind of storage?

* Would it even be practical at that level? EG:, does the iphone show up 'Folders' folders containing different notes show up on the iphone?

If I wanted to try something really stupid, like writing a novel on my phone, how would I do it — allowing for 'offline' time? (Evernote doesn't really do offline on ios devices, and might chew through my phone plan's data allowance).
 
Afaik Notes does not use iCloud storage since it is piggy backing off an email account (which is required for notes syncing).

Additionally, for what you want, you may want to check out UpWord app, which uses Dropbox. On the Mac you'll get normal text files.
 
Hi Paco,
Actually, I just stumbled across the answer!

I'm trying to write a book in Scrivener and was looking for something like it, but found that free Simplenote syncs with Scrivener. So I can do the bulk of my work at home on my iMac in beautiful, complex, wonderful Scrivener (with all my character descriptions and face-photos and place descriptions and maps etc), and then just sync it to Simplenote for the occasional lunch time browsing and organising and thinking at work. Awesome!
 
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eclipse said:
Hi Paco,
Actually, I just stumbled across the answer!

I'm trying to write a book in Scrivener and was looking for something like it, but found that free Simplenote syncs with Scrivener. So I can do the bulk of my work at home on my iMac in beautiful, complex, wonderful Scrivener (with all my character descriptions and face-photos and place descriptions and maps etc), and then just sync it to Simplenote for the occasional lunch time browsing and organising and thinking at work. Awesome!
Click to expand...

If only Scrivener would get around to finishing & releasing their iOS app! Supposedly it'll come out in 2015...

But yes, there's at least half a dozen apps that sync with Scrivener. I've tried several over the years and keep coming back to the same app I use to replace the stock notes app for everything else: Notebooks 7 (using Dropbox sync). The big failing of the Notes app for me is organization...there really isn't any built in. So the more notes you create, the harder it is to find anything. Notes probably isn't designed for something like writing a book. Or even tracking your research for one.
 
OK, so Simplenote syncs with my Scrivener novel writing text but does not store any images or photos, and I use photo's in character descriptions and item descriptions, basically, all that novel background wiki stuff.

Do you know if UpWord or other systems can store images in the text? I like the way Evernote works for this kind of 'wikipedia' Notebook Stacks => Notebooks => Notes system (with tags is also brilliant) but am also a bit sad that it doesn't store the whole Evernote file on ios devices. Ios is limited to browsing online, and I don't want to use up my phone data allowance just browsing online.

Perfect would be some kind of Evernote, photo-storing app that could store all that wiki stuff on my phone. Any ideas?

Edit to add: thanks IrishV, and I hear you on the notes.app lack of organisation, stacking, notebooks, or even tags!

Actually, I just read one review and they hit it on the spot! I wanted Evernote to work on my phone (not have to browse to the internet server the whole time) and just look what this Notebooks 7 review says!

I just want to thank you for developing Notebooks. I’ve been searching for a note-taking app to replace Evernote for a LONG time, and I’ve finally found the perfect solution.
I especially appreciate these features: customizable color for note backgrounds (something Evernote has refused to do for years!), cross platform syncing with desktop app, rich text editing, simple and straight-forward design, multi-level hierarchy, offline notes on mobile, integrated to-do functionality, etc.
Kudos to you! This app is just what I was looking for a very long time.
Click to expand...
http://www.notebooksapp.com/about/what-users-say/
 
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OK, bad news all.
I think I'm going to the dark side! Microsoft's OneNote stores on my iphone and syncs with my iMac and can do all my novel wiki stuff (handling photo's and notes and wiki stuff).

Then I can stay Mac with Scrivener for the main story, syncing with Simplenote for the mac.

It's whatever works for us, and making them all compete with each other for our customer loyalty so that all the software out there gradually improves, right? ;)
 
OneNote is a great app. If it will do what you need, there's no reason I can think of not to use it. Glad you found something that will work for your needs!
 
Blargh! I thought I was all good, because I thought (stupidly) that I had read onenote stored everything on your device and only needed to SYNC with Skycloud now and then... that I could browse everything on my phone offline.

But now it seems not so much! I'm doing the David C Cox tutorial on OneNote and he said it stores everything on line. Is that as well as on your phone, or instead of on your phone?
 
eclipse said:
Blargh! I thought I was all good, because I thought (stupidly) that I had read onenote stored everything on your device and only needed to SYNC with Skycloud now and then... that I could browse everything on my phone offline.

But now it seems not so much! I'm doing the David C Cox tutorial on OneNote and he said it stores everything on line. Is that as well as on your phone, or instead of on your phone?
Click to expand...

Well, just tested out on my iPad with the WiFi off. It certainly looks like stuff is saved on the device. I couldn't create a new notebook while offline, but could create new notes and open old ones.

No idea if it's scalable; I've barely scratched the surface with only two notebooks and four pages to work with. But on a small sample, it seems to save in both places.
 
IrishVixen said:
Well, just tested out on my iPad with the WiFi off. It certainly looks like stuff is saved on the device. I couldn't create a new notebook while offline, but could create new notes and open old ones.

No idea if it's scalable; I've barely scratched the surface with only two notebooks and four pages to work with. But on a small sample, it seems to save in both places.
Click to expand...

Scale is not an issue with my phone having plenty of storage for notes, and my microsoft365 having a terabyte up on Skydrive!

But OneNote's huge 'tag' section is decoration only! The 'To Do' and other functions are not searchable! (From August 2014). That's a major bummer to me. I need different ways of searching through information.

Now that I'm clear I need more of a wiki than a notepad, because I'm splitting my writing (Scrivener & Simpletext) and wiki into different apps, maybe I'm free to look at different software solutions more geared to wiki approaches?

I'm new to smart phones. My wife says that browsing Evernote online wouldn't use more data than, say, browsing a newspaper during lunch and commuting to and from work. I doubt I'd use that much data, so maybe Evernote can be my thing after-all?

Note: Do either service let me highlight a book / folder and search & replace all names in that folder? If I have a name change in my book, I don't want to have to go through and change it all manually for each note!
 
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Curiosity killed the cat...

Just spent ten minutes browsing my own Evernote account on cellular. (I had not previously downloaded the app to this device, so it was perfect for testing this as none of my notes were locally stored.) Mixed notes: a couple of clipped web pages, lots of text, some photos that I individually opened to view, but did not save to my camera roll. I also didn't upload anything. Total data used according to the cellular data page in Settings: 1.5 MB. So I suppose it depends on your data plan.
 
eclipse said:
Hi all,
* I'm wondering how 'big' notes.app is meant to get?

* Can you store a whole bunch of stuff on it, like gigabytes worth, and avoid syncing via icloud if it goes over the icloud 5 gig limit?

* Is notes even meant for that kind of storage?

* Would it even be practical at that level? EG:, does the iphone show up 'Folders' folders containing different notes show up on the iphone?

If I wanted to try something really stupid, like writing a novel on my phone, how would I do it — allowing for 'offline' time? (Evernote doesn't really do offline on ios devices, and might chew through my phone plan's data allowance).
Click to expand...

Why do some people write .app after apps they're talking about as if they're some sort of computer?
 
My dream would be an easy to use wiki / note app that lets me search & replace names (across everything in that book / project), and syncs just with my imac and doesn't really need the cloud: cloud would be a nice option for backup, now and then.
 
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