Yet another update of Notebooks for Mac and Notebooks for PC available for download. The apps are still in beta and available for free.
The version we uploaded on May 3rd refused to launch on Mac OS 10.6.8. We fixed that, the package we made available on May 6th runs fine on Snow Leopard, too.
New in Beta 10
Additions
- Option to set font and font size for tree and list views
- Use “Open With…” from Finder to add documents to Notebooks (use alt-cmd to add any document)
- “Insert Timestamp” from context menu (it is just one format at the moment, more to come)
- “Copy Link” from context menu
- When inserting photos, Notebooks by default opens the folder that was used last time
- Settings: use TAB or four spaces to indent lists
- Remembers size and number of visible columns between restarts
- “Native” Fullscreen Mode (on a Mac)
Fixes
- Markdown conversion now correctly handles closing “#”
- Titles starting with “_” are not longer ignored
- Renaming PDF documents in list view works reliably
- Email and link to website available from Help menu
As always, we appreciate your feedback, comments and ideas, which you can post right here or send us by mail.
[button style=”download” link=”/Download/Notebooks%20for%20Mac%201.0b10.dmg”]Get NB/Mac 1.0 b10[/button]
[button style=”download” link=”/Download/Notebooks%20for%20PC%201.0b10.zip”]Get NB/PC 1.0 b10[/button]
Notebooks for Mac/PC 1.0 Beta 10
I can’t toggle out of full screen mode with the new version. Looks like a bug. I am running Mountain Lion on a MBP 13″ retina
Regarding the Search function: It does not find text that is the name of a Notebook, even when that text is in the first line of the file.
Example: I search for “Notebooks App” and the notebook named “Notebooks App” is NOT returned in the search even when “Search all books” is checked. Yikes!
To be useful, Search should list Notebook file names containing the search string. This is especially helpful the more one uses Notebooks and grows the number of Notebooks and files!
Hi Don,
you are absolutely right, Notebooks/Mac/PC currently does not search the titles for books. There is no reason for that except that we – hmm – forgot about it… It is on our todo list now!
Thank you for pointing this out!
Alfons
Version 1.0b10 won’t open on my Mac OS X 10.6.8.
Dyld Error Message:
Symbol not found: _OBJC_CLASS_$_NSRegularExpression
Referenced from: /Applications/Notebooks.app/Contents/MacOS/Notebooks
Expected in: /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation
This has been fixed, we uploaded an update May 6th.
Alfons, I know I asked you this before but I could really use the ability to passcode protect Notebooks, at least on the PC as that’s my work computer. Any chance of seeing that soon? I’m reluctant to download the PC version without it.
thanks.
Yes, we are working on that. And we are also working on a ‘real’ encryption option, one that makes it impossible to view the documents without a password.
On the Mac version, it would be great to utilize the system spell check to underline misspelled words.
Hi Chris,
This is in the works, it should be available for the final 1.0 at latest.
Best,
Alfons
I think I found a bug. When I print some rich text notes, it adds an extra blank page on the front of the document. It seems random to me, but I’m beginning to think it is only happening on notes that have been converted from Markdown.
Hi Chris,
this empty page is actually caused by the style sheets that were part of earlier versions of Notebooks (5.2.1 and earlier), but we fixed that in the latest release (5.2.2). – In case you are not using the default theme, would you mind switching to that theme and trying to print? Does that still have the empty page?
– Alfons
That seemed to work. Thanks.
Is there a way to create custom styles?
Hi Chris,
yes, there is a way to add your own styles sheets. Please allow me to point you to a tip here on our blog: https://www.notebooksapp.com/2012/08/21/create-your-own-document-style/
Best,
Alfons
What will be the approx price when notebook 1.0 will be released.
We ar still not quite sure about the price, but it will be in line with other, comparable applications. We will have an introductory offer for our beta users of course 😉
Hy Man,
I use Notebooks on my iPhone 4. Really nice
But i’ve got also one Samsung Galaxy S3. Hope one day find this app for Android…
Mny Tks and keep well
We’ll do our best!
Hi Alfons,
I know it is on your “Things to do”, any idea when “contents” will make it to the Mac platform?
Hi Doug,
I guess you are asking for “Contexts”, is that right? If so, we are currently working on them 🙂
Best,
Alfons
Been using notebooks for a couple of hours and really enjoying it so far, between the desktop beta and iPad client.
A few suggestions (sorry if these are duplicates, haven’t had time to read all the previous posts):
* A hotkey on the desktop version to toggle between ‘plain-text/markdown’ view, instead of having to click the ‘edit/done’ button.
* Integration with the ‘import selection from screen’ system clipping service for grabbing screen shots directly into the app (for the desktop version).
* A way to store the markdown documents as markdown instead of/as well as html documents.
Other than that, looks great! I’ve been looking for something to replace Circus Ponies Notebook (too heavy) and Evernote (too subscription-y), and I’m cautiously optimistic that Notebooks will fit the bill.
Dear Ward,
thanks a lot for your suggestions and requests. I am glad to say that all of your wishes are already on our todo list, and if all goes well, they will be implemented in the next update of Notebooks. – There are countless other ideas and topics on our list, and we will do our best to provide a real alternative to those other apps you mentioned 🙂
Best,
Alfons
Hi Alfons – firstly, I absolutely LOVE Notebooks and have used it for ages on my iPhone, them iPad. Finding today that you’d done a Mac desktop version as well has been great – I’d almost drifted off to Simplenote!
Is there any way to edit the line spacing/height in plain text mode in the Mac version? – I find it just a little too tight to make reading easy.
Thanks again for a really great product 🙂
Al
Hello Al,
great to hear you like Notebooks! – Regarding line spacing: we are currently working on a few fundamental changes in the way plain text is handled in Notebooks/Mac, and these changes will allow us to modify line spacing, paragraph spacing as well as indentation for list. If all goes well this might be available in the next beta, although I cannot guarantee. Anyway, we are working on it!
Best,
Alfons
That’s great news, ALfons – I’d enjoy tweaking all those settings! Keep up the good work on a fantastic suite of products 🙂
Alfons,
I didn’t check other comments that thoroughly, but a few things I’ve noticed:
*No ‘folder coloration’ as in background cells–mostly since I am identifying my folders almost as much with color as with the names
*Font issue–I tried ‘format->font’ for Verdana to set the body text to 10pt, but it seems to only support 8. It fits in the lines for the background (I like the one with the spirals) at 8pt, but it’s a tad small on my computer. Maybe have the background ‘shift/grow’ with the font and allow larger sizes?
*Passcode lock–has been brought up before, but as for your encryption, it will only help if it affects the files on dropbox. I’d love the feature (a lot!), but if they can close the program and open my folder, it’s not going to be helpful.
*Customization–as far as folder order. Alpha’s great and all, but besides recognizing color cells, I prefer my own order of N before S, but W before T and B, etc.
Otherwise, I’m liking this a lot–will make going from computer to app more intuitive and allow for faster changes (sometimes you just need a mouse and keyboard). I’ll post a new comment if I get anything else.
Cheers,
Mason
Hi Mason,
yes, there are still a few things missing in the desktop version of Notebooks; colors in tree and list views and custom sort order are just two of them, but we have then on our list.
The lack of encryption and the fact that all documents are stored on Dropbox in an unencrypted fashion is indeed a limitation. We are working on a solution (AES encryption), but we will bring “protection” as an intermediate step to the desktop version as well; that does not change the fact that documents are unencrypted, but you can freely move around in Notebooks for Mac/PC without worrying about protected documents getting displayed when you don’t want.
Regarding the font: are you using the PC version of Notebooks? There is a known issue with the font size selector which seems to reduce the selected font by a few points; if you set the font to 12pt is might show as 10pt etc, and the background lines should always grown and shrink with the font size.
Thanks for your feedback,
Alfons
Hi! Notebooks is the app I’ve used most and the longest time of all my apps on my ipodtouch. I like the desktop version (mac) as well.
I have one feature request: Quick notes via hotkey. A small note window that pops up and floats above all windows after hitting a hotkey. Maybe even as advanced as in macjournal (that I no longer use) that also lets you chose what folder/notebook the Quicknote should be filed (an alternative would be to assign a notebook in the options).
What do you think? Thanks!
Hi Nomad,
Thanks a lot for your suggestion. We have received several very similar suggestions and made them a topic in our todo list 🙂
Best,
Alfons
A current feature request for the *option* of list view, notes nested under their book in the same column. Less width with one less column, initially see notes in expanded tree, less clicks to these notes. I would love this on the iPad too.
Thank you for the excellent development on the Mac version!
Hi Echo,
thank you for your suggestion. The early versions of NB/Mac featured a nested tree view in a single column, but it was difficult to handle once a certain number of book/documents was reached. That is why we decided to switch to the “three pane” view and introduce the cmd-1/2/3 shortcuts to selectively show or hide some of the columns. Both implementations have their advantages and disadvantages…
Regarding the iPad: Apple discourages the use of tree views on iOS devices, and acting against these “recommendations” could lead to an app getting removed from the App Store; so I hope you understand that we need to stick with the current type of navigation.
Thanks again and best regards,
Alfons