Highlights in Notebooks 12.1 for iPhone and iPad

  • Settings synchronize across devices: Some of Notebooks‘ most important settings synchronize across devices, so you no longer need to adjust them on each device separately. These settings include link management, context handling and the default inbox.
  • Copy and Paste multiple documents at once.
  • Markdown editing font: In Markdown, you can use a dedicated font for editing, different from the font used in the rendered result. Moreover, you can now adjust the table of contents and insert pagebreaks.
  • Delete to end of word, sentence, paragraph etc: The Forward Delete extra button provides a menu with a set of options.
  • Extra keys with Digits: This new set comes in handy when you need to enter a lot of numbers. It is like a row of keys on a calculator.
  • Document Themes have been refined.
  • New URL schemes are available.

For all the details, descriptions and guidelines, please read on.

Notebooks 12.1 is available on the App Store. If you have any questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

The Changes in Detail

Document List

  • New action Copy/Paste Multiple: copy selected documents to the clipboard and paste them elsewhere (in Notebooks or in other apps). With multiple items copied (from Notebooks or another app), New from Pasteboard inserts all items from the clipboard.
  • New setting Sort titles numerically. This has been the default in Notebooks for many years, but now there is an option to change it. Turning this option off changes a numeric order “Note5 – Note 12 – Note 27” to an alphabetic order “Note 12 – Note27 – Note 5”.
  • Open conflicting iCloud documents from the Conflicts smart book as expected.

Plain Text

  • Improved scrolling behavior when center current line is selected.
  • On an iPad with minified keyboard, the row of extra keyboard keys no longer appears truncated.
  • Fix crash when dropping items into an empty plain text document.

Formatted Documents

  • Dropping text or images into a formatted document adds the items at the expected position (iOS 16).
  • Address the case that dropping text into an empty document might not have saved the text as expected.
  • Use shift-alt-command-H as keyboard shortcut to highlight currently selected text. This does not show a menu and is meant as convenience shortcut.
  • On iOS 16, formatted documents no longer hide the last line of text below the shortcut menu when using an external keyboard.

Markdown

  • New option to use a dedicated font for Markdown editing (available from Write & Edit > Markdown settings).
  • Specify which heading levels to add to the table of contents using notations like {{TOC:2}}, {{TOC:2-3}} and {{TOC:2-}}. This is available in both Markdown converters.
  • Insert page breaks with {{pagebreak}}. This code needs to appear at the beginning of the line and can have trailing whitespace.
  • The default converter supports MultiMarkdown anchor labels for headings, which allows you to specify the id by which a heading is referenced, as in ## Details about Link Management [details] ##
  • The default converter has the option to automatically create heading anchors identical to the MultiMarkdown format. The advantage is that links to headings remain unchanged when switching converters.
  • Tapping a formatted Markdown text to make it editable more precisely positions the cursor at at the tapped position.
  • Avoid potential crash when making Markdown editable.

Document Themes

  • The Default Theme displays images full width on small devices.
  • Tables display with borders in all themes now.
  • Monochrome & Scientific themes leave the link color colorized.
  • Source Code theme resolves an interference with Mermaid. Now syntax highlighting and Mermaid code correctly render in the same document.
  • Scientific Theme is now based on Source Code, so it handles syntax highlighting and Mermaid, too.
  • Scripts included in custom themes are correctly appended at the end of the theme, so they remain intact and functional.
  • Fixed a bug that the first custom document style used to fall back to the Default Theme.

Extra Keyboard Keys

  • Tap and hold the Forward Delete key for a menu with options: delete to “end of line”, “end of sentence”, “end of word”. The menu also includes a few “advanced forward delete” options for quick access. (These advanced delete options are still available as separate keys, but summarizing them here makes them more efficient).
  • There is a new set of extra keys Digits which – well – adds digits as extra keys. This is very convenient when working with text and numbers.
  • The extra keys dynamically adjust their font size to display more text.

Sketches / Drawings

  • Create a new sketch from the Home Screen shortcut (tap and hold the Notebooks icon).
  • There is a new URL scheme to create a sketch. See URL Schemes below.

Embedded Images / Attachments

  • When moving a document with embedded images, Notebooks resolves a potential conflict with automatic link management and takes better care of duplicates. If necessary, Notebooks renames images and adjusts links in the document accordingly. So it may happen that moving a document modifies its contents.
  • Embedded images and attachments generally use a timestamp to avoid duplicates or conflicts.
  • When automatically removing unused attachments, Notebooks preserves items with valid backlinks.

Settings

  • Updated icons.
  • There is a new option to show smart books at the bottom of the list.
  • The Write & Edit section reliably displays all options, organized in an optimized order.

Storage Location Specific Settings

Storage location specific settings are synchronized across all devices which use the same storage location. – Different storage locations can have separate settings.

To explain: some settings are more convenient when they apply to Notebooks on all devices the moment they are set or cleared on a single device. For example, once you decide to use Link Management and activate it in Notebooks for Mac, it should be active on all devices, without having to turn it on individually for Notebooks on the iPhone, iPad, and another Mac.

Storage location specific settings currently include settings for Link Management, Contexts, and the default Inbox.

The current settings will automatically migrate when you launch this version of Notebooks.

Link Management

  • Correctly assign backlinks to embedded voice memos.
  • Improved feedback when detecting broken backlinks.

URL Schemes

  • New URL Schemes notebooks://wifi_sharing and notebooks://webdav_sync to trigger the corresponding action. Both schemes accept an optional start path, like notebooks://wifi_sharing/optional%20path/to%20book
  • A new shortcut to add a sketch: notebooks://addsketch takes an optional parent parameter like other schemes.

Misc

  • Notebooks may asks for permission to use the microphone if necessary. This could be the case when using dictation while an external keyboard connected.
  • It is now easier to change a document’s creation time in info.
  • Add new versions of Lexend Deca, Exa and Giga as weighted fonts, which now correctly appear in formatted documents, too.
  • Performance and usability improvements.
Notebooks 12.1 for iPhone and iPad