Notebooks - All Your Documents, Files and Tasks App Reviews

I was SO entirely hopeful at the prospect of migrating all my notes out of Evernote, and the single most expected and MISSING feature in Notebooks just ruined it! I can’t add TABLES?? Really? I’m not going to use the HTML toggle and write code every time I need a quick 3x3 or custom table. What I’ve discovered is that it is a feature I absolutely use to organize my notes with and was really disappointed to see it isn’t in Notebooks (for the $20 price tag). If that single feature gets added I’d gladly make the migration and certainly raise my review!

I’m really hesistant to write a bad review because this app shows some promise. But I hope this will motivate the developer to work harder to make this a true evernote and Circus Ponies notebook replacement. Here’s what I like: 1. nice interface 2. Clean 3. Able to search my files locally and with format that is recognised by all other apps. Here’s what I don’t like or missing from the app. 1. no tagging - better yet, update mavericks tagging while at it. 2. no way to insert image in a user friendly way - every image i inserted is presented with the “?” symbol. 3. Image that is outside of the “home” folder is greyed out. You can only select the “home” folder’s image. Even then it’s “?” symbol. 4. The only way to put an image? Drop the image into the folder (inside of the notebooks app ) and then use the “link” button to link to that image. (you must copy the link before hand) If you don’t understand this, that’s my point. 5. no way to resize the image. I’ve even tried to write the HTML code myself, it doesn’t respond. 6. Where’s the highlight? I can’t highlight text. Searched high and low for this. 7. no way to annotate PDF. Even if I open the PDF inside notebooks with Preview, annotate it, and save….notebooks does not reflect the hightlights etc. So there’s no way to annotate as i know it. What’s the use of storing “almost any” documents if you can’t do anything with it? Conclusion: Extremely limited. It’s not ready to be launched. I hope it will get better in time and this is the only reason why I’m not going to ask for a refund. Like I said, I like the clean look.

Excellent otherwise.

I purchased NoteBooks hoping as I always do … for the perfect note taking app. But alas … There is no way to resize photos and only “in-line” spacing to change the position on a page. You are limited to one font per note and … oh yeah … there is no auto save. Forget to save a note before closing and your note is gone. Sorry to say … this just isn’t going to fill my needs. I buy pretty much every note taking app that comes along, looking for something better than Evernote. Currently trying out MS OneNote (even though it makes me feel dirty) So far … actually not bad.

This app DOES NOT IMPORT PHOTOS -- thought they sell it that way. Its a scam. Dont buy it. Also there are no clear directions how to import documents, or music. NOT GOOD.

A lot of the UI widgets in Notebooks don’t feel native to OS X; namely, the sort options in the two left columns; the search text field in the upper-right corner; the search results/due tasks window (why are its tabs highlighted so oddly?); and the two left lists themselves. Notes that are in no notebook are only shown when you de-select all notebooks in the leftmost column. Why isn’t there an “All Notes” item? Everything just doesn’t feel “right”. It also advertises WebDAV syncing, but this is handled just by mounting a WebDAV drive and saving to it using OS X’s native WebDAV support, which is fine, but not really what I was expecting. I’m also getting an error mounting my server just now, and that results in two identical, consecutive pop-ups that say “There was an error mounting the server,” with no further help or explanation. There’s also some flickering when expanding/collapsing the left two columns, and the buttons that do this expanding/collapsing are not intuitive. Clicking the right-pointing arrow in the bottom of the notebooks list pane hides the notes list pane? Very strange. Overall I love the idea of being able to have what is essentially an Evernote clone, hosted on my own server, with companion iPhone and iPad apps; but Notebooks lacks a *lot* of polish that make using it a prickly experience.

I’ve been using the beta version and the iPad version for several months. It’s wonderful. The best part is that the documents are not in a proprietary format. I love Markdown. I’m typing up 15 years worth of personal handwritten journals and creating iBooks with photos and text. I love the folder organization. This is the way I think. The one app I use every single day. Every single day.

Dreadful experience trying to enable the features promised in the extensive promotional lingo. Link to other documents? Find the controls they refer to in their Q&A? Set a task due time? So many other issues. And, non-existent documentation. This experience has eroded my confidence in the App Store. Just a hustle?

The combination of the OS X and iOS app for Notebooks is a huge win. In the desktop environment your files are stored in ordinary folders in the file system, so you can access them directly from other applications and the command line as needed. Documents created by Notebooks are stored in non-proprietary formats so you’re never limited / locked in to one application. Syncing with DropBox allows you to take notes, capture images, etc. from your iPad of iPhone in a meeting and have them on your desktop before you get back, and of course all of your existing documents will be available on all devices for reference any time. I use Notebooks to manage documents for multiple projects and have used the desktop app since early beta versions. If you like to have full control of your documents but still have the ability to work with them on both OS X and iOS, you’ll certainly want to check out this app. The developers have been very responsive to questions and have a good vision of where they want to take the app going forward (check the iOS app for some additional features I’d expect in the desktop app soon). The desktop app by itself is a 5 star application, but combined with the iOS version you need an extra star or two!

about this app. I think that in the end, whether it’s THE notes app for you depends on what you need. I currently use NoteSuite because on both iOS and OSX it can 1) create rich text format (RTF) files. For RTF, this includes a drawing/writing mode in addition to normal keyboard entry (in iOS), 2) create PDF files of web pages, just enter the URL - you can pdf the whole page or just the main panel, 3) create to-do lists 4) create tags 5) uses iCloud syncing and can connect to DropBox, Box, Google Drive, Instapaper, and Pocket to copy files to. (I can’t copy files from DropBox using iOS, but with iCloud sync, I can get files from OSX’s NoteSuite to the Mac’s DropBox folder.) 6) nest folders. On the OSX version, you can drag in graphics. Admittedly I don’t rely on all these features, but 1, 2, 5 and 6 are critical. So I decided to explore Notebooks to see what it offered for me. It does “connect” with Scrivener via DropBox, a nice plus for me. But while I can add an RTF file inside a notebook, I can only view it there, I can’t edit it. The native writing formats it does support are text and HTML. I guess I wasn’t reading the specs carefully enough, because I thought it would support writing RTF. Alas, no. I use other RTF apps on the mac and those files originating in NoteSuite can be opened by my other RTF apps on the mac. I don’t care for Notebooks HTML “formatted” files. However there are other pluses for Notebooks: Markdown has become indispensable for a lot of writers, and Notebooks does support it nicely. It has a good search function. It also supports hierarchical notebooks (nested folders). The iOS-OSX interaction interaction with Dropbox, Notebooks also does very well So the bottom line is, what do you needs a note app for? You need to look at Notebooks vs other note apps carefully and think about your needs. For me, I frequently find good material at various websites, and the ability to create a PDF of the web page by copying the location while in Safari, then having NoteSuite recognize a URL in the clipboard and offer to convert to PDF is very important to me. That and RTF format makes NoteSuite a better choice for me.

I’ve been looking for a good note taking app - and while this isn’t perfect - the intro price tempted me to take a punt. I’d looked at number of note taking apps, but the fact that it recognises Markdown text was a key. In terms of functionality I’ve no complaints and it appears to live up to the developer’s claims. Is it perfect? No - there are a few things that I’m hoping will appear in future revisions: 1. Native iCloud support - the developer is apparently working on this, but given that there are iOS versions of this app, using a third-party platform (dropbox) seems a backwards step. I have a journal app (Day One) that offers this natively - and I love the “it just works seamlessly” approach 2. As some have commented, the UX is “clunky” -this actually seems to be an issue with most note taking apps that I’ve seen. Not sure why this is though 3. Markdown doesn’t seem to be fully implemented. Don’t seem to be able to add tables

Notes these days include documents that others hand out, downloads from the web and photos. Notebooks accepts all these. It accepts documents from Macs, from Windows and pdf files. It works on Macs, Windows, Iphone, and iPad. It syncs across my Mac, my ipad, and my iphone, so wherever I am, I have my notes. Most important, it is in a standard format, so if Notebooks ever disappears, my data is all intact and available. It has a fully functional search. I can use special characters to flag things I need to go back to, and then just search on those characters. It uses a notebook organizing structure that we are all familiar with. It also allows me to easily find the tasks that need to be completed. I can use my special search characters to pinpoint the high priority items. It’s not as pretty as some other apps, but it actually gets a lot more done. I am unaware of any other app that uses a standard text format, syncs across ipad, Mac, and iphone, accepts Word, Pages, photo, web content and pdf files, and keeps my project tasks organized. No software is perfect, but this gets the job done while protecting your valuable information.

I would have given this app a 5-star except there’s a minor but annoying bug when synching with Dropbox. Basically, I bought the Mac and iPad version of this app thinking it would be the perfect replacement for Apple’s Notes app. On one hand, I love how easy it is to edit/create notes in this App and the formatting you can do. On the other hand, synching between your devices is not as seemless or straightforward. It’s a little buggy actually. Here’s a common and simple scenario (I can’t believe the QA/Dev teams missed this): 1.) Create a document either on your Mac or iPad. 2.) Put this document in your own notebook. 3.) View that document on your iPad (again in non-editing mode). 4.) Now, while that document is loaded on your iPad (in non-editing), make changes to the document on your Mac. 5.) Sync your iPad with either QuickSync or full Synch Dropbox (the result is the same). 6.) The document you were viewing on the iPad simply goes blank! It looks like your document got cleared out. This immediately triggers a panic reaction especially if you have spent some time creating and editing the document on your Mac. The what-if scenarios will run through your head. What if this blank document you are looking at gets re-synch back to Dropbox and thereby clearing the version you spent hours editing on your Mac? Now, the reason I still gave this app a 3-star is because I found out that although this is a bug, it is not a serious one. To get around this simply: 1.) Click on another notebook and load another document from that notebook. 2.) Do a full synch using the “Synch Dropbox”. 3.) Go back to the notebook and document you were previously viewing and it will refresh properly. It would seem that the developer simply forgot to “refresh” or “repaint” the document you are currently viewing if that document has changed right after it synchs with Dropbox. Strangely enough, it remembers to clear the screen, the devs just forgot to re-render the document you are viewing. Very odd. Due to this synching bug, I still, unfortunately, copy and paste my notes from this app and paste it into Apple’s Notes app. Sort of defeated the purposes of spending $30 dollars to get the iPad and Mac version of this app. Another minor annoyance is once you spend any good length of time editing and formatting your document, you’ll realize it begins to behave a little strangely with the formatting. The formatting don’t exact stick around even if you use the pre-defined Styles. I would apply the Heading 1 style on one paragraph and then another and you would expect it to always look the same, but it doesn’t always. I realize this is the same double-edge sword of all HTML editors, like FrontPage / Dreamweaver. Whenever you edit HTML documents, the cascading style sheets (CSS) will eventually cascade in the wrong fashion. And this app is no exception. I’m hoping the developers will refine and perfect the synching eventually and maybe do something with the HTML editor so the pre-defined Styles always behaves the same. Really, guys. Add iCloud support! Many many Apps do it now. Coming from Apple’s Notes app, Dropbox seems like a step backwards in ease of use (and do I really want to pay yet another cloud space provider besides Apple?). I realize Dropbox is cross-platform, but you guys are selling your App on the Mac App Store, why not fully support the platform you are on and utilize iCloud in addition to Dropbox. If you guys could perfect the synching and add support for iCloud I would easily give this app a 5-star. But for now, its a good “version 1.0”. It needs some polishing and I can’t wait for what the updates to come.

Like one of the other reviewers, I’ve tried all sorts of note taking apps. This one is starting off with almost everything I look for, especially cross-platform sharing through Dropbox. The layout is nice as well - clean and easy to navigate. Still… — The Dropbox sync works, but at least for me it seems a bit confusing. (Perhaps when I have more practice I’ll find it more to my liking.) — Text editing and general document formatting seems pretty basic at this early juncture. I plan to stick with Notebooks through future releases - have no doubt that I’ll later add the 5th star. Meanwhile, Evernote’s my favorite note taker.

I’ve used this on iOS for a long time. I synched to/from the mac via dropbox, so I would access my notebooks documents (and add new ones, like recipes) through the finder. That was OK. It’s rather nicer to have the app with the same paradigm. I stopped using dropbox and set up my own webdav using OwnCloud. This works well too, though it’s not quite as seamless as the dropbox for setup or syncing.

This app had a lot of potential. It unfortunately falls short. My biggest gripe is the UI is indeed “clunky” as other reviwers have mentioned. It doesn’t feel like a modern Mac app. I’ll see what happens a few versions from now, but as it stands this is one to pass over.

Ive been waiting for something like this app for a long time, so Im jumping in with both feet - iOS and Mac Desktop versions. But be warned, its very 1.0-ish. From the insanely long app load time, to its intermittent sync issues, its cluttered file sheme and all those crufty metafiles it creates in your Dropbox root directory. Its a great start for me but it needs some serious point-releases before I can recommend it to a friend.

Used the beta versions for past few years. Use the mobile versions on my iPad and iPhone. Really, really love these apps. Use it for all my writing, journaling, and note taking. It does need much better image handling, tagging, and pdf handling. Am updating my review. Still an awesome app! The Dropbox sync seems to be a little slower than the previous release. However, I use this app as my number one (#1) go to app. It is in my dock on iPad and iPhone, and on my Mac and PC. Really, really a great app. Keep us up to date with minor fixes and new feature releases. This has been and continues to be a great app. Thanks… BTW: Would love to see integration with some other apps or services, like Toodledo, for example (for task tracking).

I’ve been a heavy user of nvalt and evernote. I have experimented with Microsoft’s OneNote. I have tried to shanghai Ulysses into serving as a note taker/organizer/filer, even though that’s not exactly its main purpose. I drifted into trying Notebooks, in spite of the high (excessive?) price, because 1) I’ve had trouble finding a satisfactory iOS app, 2) I’ve been getting a lot of annoying crashes from nvalt, which seems to no longer be in development and 3) I saw a lot of advantages to a notes application which makes proper use of directories. The iOS app is stellar. I’m surprised it took me so long to find it, given all the inferior solutions I’ve worked with. The Mac app is seriously lacking in polish, as others have said (in some ways it simply doesn’t feel native, the full screen mode is awkward, I can’t find a keyboard shortcut for global search, etc.), but it’s also quite powerful. I’ve been using the iOS app exclusively and mixing the Mac app with Ulysses, replacing Evernote & nvAlt. The clean use of directories as notebooks (so obvious - and yet, nobody does it!) opens up the application beautifully, which is exactly what I was looking for. If notebooks continues to gain in polish, it will have been a great investment. As it stands, I think it’s currently better for me than nvAlt and Evernote, despite the beautiful simplicity of the former and the great polish of the latter.

Notebooks is a must have app. I use it everyday and it keeps me organized. I now have a very small file cabinet as I was able to get rid of a lot of old paperwork. The developer is very helpful and responsive to any qustions that I have posed. The program is a great bargain for the price.