Notetaker defunct?

Posted by MadaboutDana
Apr 12, 2015 at 11:04 AM

I do empathise with Steve’s description of remote drooling! Indeed, CP Notebook was one of my earliest Mac purchases. And I never use it.

In fact, I think it’s an interesting indication of the peculiarly limited appeal of skeumorphism. It looks great - from a distance - but start to work with it, and you soon discover that it’s fiddly and irritating. A number of my formerly favourite apps have gradually fallen by the wayside as their skeumorphism has first irritated me, then become positively distracting. Live long and prosper, Jony Ive, is what I say!

All my current go-to apps are super-streamlined, my favourite (at the moment, okay, okay, I know!) being Ulysses 2.0, which is an awesome interface achievement. I’m also looking forward to the next version of Scrivener which (rumour has it) will be more streamlined and less fussy than the current one. And support dual panes on the iPad, something I find myself increasingly in need of, especially when writing. Currently I use a rather clunky mix of Ulysses and the good (if somewhat quirky) Side by Side+. I’ve tried using Tapose, but despite my goodwill towards what is undoubtedly an extraordinary concept, it definitely falls into CP Notebook-land - i.e. something that’s just too fussy and irritating to use all the time.

I wonder if developers really understand how useful dual panes would be on the iPad? It’s striking that the only one who’s confirmed multiple times that his (writing) app will definitely have two panes on the iPad is himself a writer (Keith at Literature & Latte). Because writers of anything of any sophistication/complexity KNOW that two panes simply make sense (notes/ideas/reference material in one, actual text in the other; or in the case of us translators, source text/reference material in one, target text in the other etc. etc.). From this perspective, Side by Side+ was actually way ahead of its time, being capable of opening more than two panes simultaneously (by default up to four, but more if you want them). The latest version of Side by Side+ also syncs automatically with Dropbox, which makes it surprisingly flexible. But I’m wandering off-topic…