The long awaited update should appear on the App Store within the next couple of minutes. This always is as exciting for us as it is for you, because we hope that you like our additions, and we also hope that the update runs smoothly for all of you.

Before you install, a few remarks and recommendations:

  1. Back up your iPhones, iPads and iPods through iTunes
  2. If you use Dropbox, make a full sync before updating
  3. If you use Notebooks on several devices, update all of them. We have made a few changes to the way custom background colors are handled, and they are not compatible with older versions. Should you run into this issue, just turn off Custom Colors in Notebooks’ settings and you should be able to work with the older version.

Now, this is the “real stuff”:

Synchronization

  • Dropbox – Automatic Sync
  • Activate in settings, disable for individual books
  • Top level book is not automatically synced
  • Syncs changes you make in Notebooks to Dropbox
  • Checks if currently displayed book has been changes in Dropbox
  • Sync is shallow and does not look at sub books!
  • By default, sync is disabled on wireless networks
  • Manual sync is available as usual

WebDAV (NO autosync)

  • Support for additional servers like box.net, Zimbra, and Pincette
  • Performance and stability improvements

General Sync Improvements

  • When changing task lists on multiple devices, the changes are merged during sync; no more conflicts!
  • Protection state of objects is synced, too
  • When a huge amount of documents has been deleted from the server, user is asked for confirmation
  • More reliable connection to selected service
  • Sync completes even when Notebooks runs in the background
  • To get a list of documents that have been up/downloaded, create a note “Dropbox Log” or “WebDAV Log” at top level before syncing

Task Management

  • Calendar (for setting due dates)
    • Touch and hold forward/back arrows to jump a year
    • Today button jumps to and selects current day
    • Markers for days that already have todos
    • Select a day to displays its tasks
  • Due Tasks (Smart Book)
    • Option to show all task lists
    • Option to sync all task lists
    • Option to view tasks on calendar
  • Done Date is displayed for completed tasks 
  • Always correctly display the number of due tasks on app icon
  • Deleting done tasks automatically creates a summary of those tasks
  • Split to Tasks has a new option that splits by “—|-” (at least four dashes)

Appearance/Interface

  • New and changed keyboard buttons
    • insert current location
    • navigation buttons: tap to jump a word forward/back or to beginning/end of selected text; tap and hold to jump to beginning/end of paragraph
    • Automatic lists accept leading spaces or tabs
    • inserting special items replaces selected text
    • on iPhone, insert actions are now available through a single button
  • No more pencil icon (which caused a lot of dispute)
  • Black info bar replaces gray and beige bar
  • Font size in formatted documents better matches selected font size
  • Out of sync indication for documents in smart books
  • Search hits in document: new buttons and interface
  • On Info page, add a description to non editable documents. Description is searchable and appears as preview
  • iPad 
    • login on startup does not automatically show keyboard
    • new interface for drawing, better placement of action buttons

Misc Functionality

  • Markdown
    • Automatically append two spaces at end of a line to enforce line break
    • Option to disable automatic conversion (when selecting extra buttons)
    • Format Document… displays a preview and offers new options
  • copy HTML code
  • save as new document
  • replace original document
  • Import from iTunes into any book
  • New editable file types: .pm, .t
  • Insert photo from pasteboard directly into a note
  • Import Palm Todos (Mac only)
  • Open in Safari for all imported documents
  • When navigating to a different website in Notebooks, a new action is available to import that page or to open it in Safari
  • After 3 failed attempts, login is blocked for 5 minutes
  • Send to The Hit List
  • Unfinished but available if desired – Voice Memos: to activate, create a note titled Enable Voice Memos at top level; to stop recording, open a note and tap the Pause button. The user interface for voice memos is unfinished!

Bug Fixes

  • iPhone
    • Fixed issue of menus not popping up
    • Fixed rare issue that the last few characters might get lost when switching apps while keyboard is visible
  • iPad
    • Fixed rotation issue when starting up Notebooks with login prompt
  • Tasks starting with @ caused Notebooks to crash on launch
  • Fixed occasional crashes after import from Safari
  • Combining notes with images inserts images in correct sequence
  • All embedded images are attached when sending a note by mail
  • Fixed various interface glitches
Notebooks 4.2 / 2.2