NotePlan 3 public beta (and subscription)

Posted by satis
Feb 10, 2021 at 03:22 PM

@MadaboutDana I agree that the app is becoming very compelling for text notes and many types of planning. It has the possibility to replace a lot of apps, but for it to replace a text editor like MWeb/BBEdit/Typora, it needs to step up its game and offer theming, and a user-contributable theme gallery.

And it could not take me away from a writing-oriented app like Ulysses, which offers near-unlimited font, color and size customization of the writing space. Noteplan’s single light or dark-mode, and no choice of font or user themes, makes it painful for me to use for anything longer than a page.

That’s a shame, because I’m researching alternatives to Day One before my subscription expires in June, and saving $35 by dropping the Day One subscription app would have made migrating to NotePlan’s $60/yr palatable.

As I’ve mentioned previously I’d love to be able to coalesce around one app, or fewer apps, but task managers offer some unique properties I’ve become accustomed to, like 2-way sync with my calendar (which is color-coded by personal, work, hobby, etc) and sophisticated recurring entry options, like “every first and third Thursday at 10am”.

I think NotePlan’s introduction of folding was pretty smart and will hearten those who like the feature and lamented the flameout of Folding Text (and the slow, sideways development of TaskPaper). I wish the folding symbols weren’t hidden (or at least that there was a Prefs option for persistence), and that a gray ellipsis tp show that something was folded wasn’t so subtle. I write a lot in OmniOutliner and the basic black disclosure triangle is a comforting and clear sign of folding that I don’t want hidden from me.