Dropbox Synching Issue

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.

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