Awesome Note or Daily Notes for iPad2?

Posted by Dr Andus
May 28, 2012 at 12:02 PM

Hi Ken,

I agree with what the previous commenters said. The important thing is whether you want the iPad to be the central device or just a note-capturing device, and what software you want to import your notes into on the PC. Here is my journey in terms of note-taking on the iPad (and on the iPod Touch - in fact the best thing is having both (or an iPhone), so you are never without a device for capturing digital notes):

1) I started out with the native Notes app. I liked the fact that it synced automatically with my Gmail account (notes show up under “Notes” label), from where I could copy and paste into other apps in the PC. However, once I had over 90 notes, I started losing a sense as to what’s in there. I wished it had tags or folders.

2) I switched to Notebooks for iPad because it offered folders and synced with the iPod via Dropbox. However, having a hierarchical folder system brought its own problems. After developing a complex hierarchy, again I had problems remembering and finding where everything was and I lost the overview again. Also, importing information into the PC from a folder hierarchy in Dropbox is not trivial. It’s not easy to see which Dropbox sub-sub-sub-folder might have a new or altered note that needs importing. Apparently now it’s possible to import notes directly into Scrivener (not sure if for Windows as well). I haven’t tried it because I moved on in the meantime. But Scrivener seems to me more of a writing tool, rather than database for notes (but I might be wrong).

3) Eventually the answer to the above 2 questions (“flat” list or hierarchical?) was “neither”: instead I’ve converted to the religion called “wiki.” On the PC I now use ConnectedText for storing all my notes. I realised that all I needed was a Dropbox-enabled text editor, so that I can use the iPad/iPod for capturing notes and sync them to a dedicated Dropbox folder called “ConnectedText” from where I can import them into CT and organise them there. I use Nebulous Notes for this and I love this app for its simplicity, the customisable keyboard, and the way it handles the sync with Dropbox. So the iPad/iPod are merely capturing devices now. Processing/storing happens in CT.

I do think Notebooks for iPad/iPod is a remarkable app (and Alfons a responsive developer). But I did have some problems with the auto-sync, which is why I like Nebulous’ solution, which gives you some control over when and which file you want to sync, thus reducing the risk of sync conflicts.

Good luck with this all and have a speedy recovery!