Another goodie for Mac users

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Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 24, 2014 at 11:53 AM

Well, I’ve discovered a rather powerful alternative to NoteSuite (by a Chinese developer), that has really impressed me. Alas, no iOS versions are - as yet - forthcoming, although apparently they’re in development.

The app is called NoteSpirit (http://www.notespirit.com/index.html).

The website gives you more details, but not enough to really appreciate how extraordinary this app is. It’s note-based, like NoteSuite, but is altogether easier to use (although it doesn’t have the same powerful search functions - search is, in fact, fairly rudimentary). It uses a variety of hierarchical tools to do what it does:

- you can create libraries of notes
- in each Library, you can create folders, and store the notes in different folders
- you can insert ‘to-dos’ in notes
- all ‘to-dos’ can be accessed through a single, overarching ‘To Do’ portal (classic simple layout consisting of Today, Tomorrow, Later, Unscheduled and Projects). This covers all Libraries, Folders and Notes, so ALL to-dos are automatically included
- a note with multiple to-dos in it is automatically treated as a ‘Project’

The notes which act as the core element in the whole thing support rich text, images, web pages, attachments and audio recordings.

It’s an immensely satisfying tool, and can be used to quickly put together a GTD system, using the to-do portal as a time-tracking system. For example, I’ve got a couple of libraries called ‘Home’ and ‘Work’ respectively, each with the same set of folders: ‘To do NOW’, ‘To do later’, ‘To do sometime’ etc. It’s easy to move notes from one folder to another, and in the main Notes and Library views you can easily switch between folders. In the To Do view, you can easily jump from a to-do to the note in which it is embedded - so you can either edit to-dos directly, in the To Do view, or you can edit them in their host note (a convenient way to keep histories of actions, track of hours spent and so on).

I’ve been profoundly impressed by it. In fact, it’s such an elegant solution to the complex-but-simple approach I’ve been searching for that my faith in my current task management app, OmniFocus 2, has been shaken. If they do produce an iOS app, I shall be taking a very serious look.

The only downsides? The rather basic search function, and the skeumorphic wood-effect interface (which is actually quite pleasant, but looks very slightly old-fashioned). But the app appears to be young (or rather, this particular incarnation appears to be young - I believe there was an earlier version that’s been almost completely rewritten).

So: enjoy, fellow Mac users!

Cheers,
Bill

Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 24, 2014 at 11:55 AM

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that it supports tagging, as well. Tags are bound to each Library, however (so can’t be used across Libraries). You can have as many tags in each note as you like (a distinct point of difference from OmniFocus, for example).

Posted by Hugh
Aug 25, 2014 at 11:13 AM

Thanks for this, Bill. It looks interesting.

All I’d say is this. You mention Omnifocus. I’ve used Omnigroup products for as long as I’ve owned a Mac. I still have licenses for several of them, including Omnifocus (which I’ve had since it morphed from OmniOutliner and a collection of AppleScripts, and contributed a great deal to the explosive development of the “to-do list” genre of applications, pretty much all on its own).

I myself continue to have an ambivalent view of the Omni applications. Several aspects of them continue to frustrate me. Why doesn’t OmniOutliner even now offer “clones”? Why can’t Omniplan sync easily and straightforwardly with Omnifocus? Why can’t Omnifocus offer more than one tag per task? (Not strictly part of the GTD credo, it’s true, but what harm would it do to those who want to keep to the one true David Allen way?)

And yet… Omnigroup still seems to me to be a bunch of clever people, with the right instincts. Unlike more than one of their rivals, they don’t go dormant for months on end, or unexpectedly shut up shop. Generally speaking, their products seem to be the result of very careful thought and design (even if what I’d regard as the wrong conclusions are sometimes reached). In my experience, new versions always work as billed. If you need guidance on running any of their products, there’s a huge amount available. In a word, Omnigroup and its applications appear to have staying-power - which experience tells me may not be the case with some of their rivals.

Posted by MadaboutDana
Aug 25, 2014 at 02:40 PM

Ha, quite right, Hugh. I’ve watched OmniGroup since long before moving over to Mac, and been as part-baffled/part-impressed as you clearly are. They’re expensive, they don’t always include longed-for features, sometimes their products stay the same for long periods of time. And yet clearly they’re listening and planning, because suddenly a hugely modified product will emerge (OmniFocus 2, for example) that’s really a big improvement.

And yet other products are infuriating (the lack of OmniFocus 2 for iPad, for example! the non-sync of OmniFocus with OmniPlan you mention). They’re certainly idiosyncratic. But they’ve also been around for a long time. What NoteSpirit has encouraged me to do is take another look at the way I use OmniFocus and maybe streamline it (quite) a bit. It’s the kind of app it’s very easy to over-use, but which can also be used in simple, streamlined ways.

Having expressed my appreciation to the NoteSpirit team, I got a very pleasant and enthusiastic response back. They’re planning great things, apparently, which sounds encouraging. An iOS version would be favourite, of course! But I’m currently using it as my main task manager because it’s such a pleasant environment (and syncs with Reminders and Calendars, which takes care of my iPhone). For more sophisticated task transfers, I simply copy the body text of entire notes into the pleasant ListBook, which doesn’t support rich text but is otherwise nice to use and cross-platform.

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