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Fundamental shifts of position
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Posted by Paul Korm
Jan 17, 2015 at 05:38 PM
Having now had some time to spend working with Keep Everything, I don’t think I would use it. The markdown is nice and crisp; the style options adequate. Converting web pages to “articles” (the in-app term for ad-free markdown versions) seems to take a while. The app must be using a web service such as Markdownifie on a slow server. The app keeps its data in binary files—an odd choice for a markdown-centric app. We can export articles to PDF, but not export or save to a plain-text markdown file. There is no browser extension or bookmarklets to get items from the browser to Keep Everything—we need to copy/paste.
The share sheet on the toolbar implements only email sharing.
(Tip, the rest of the share sheets are available in a round-about manner—select an atricle, click “Edit”, then select all and open the contextual menu. The rest of the share options configured for that machine are available from the contextual menu.)
But, in the vein on software that does “one thing well”—Keep Everything is well built and pleasant to use, IMO.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jan 18, 2015 at 11:11 AM
Not entirely true, Paul. You can copy the plain-text Markdown code out of each article in ‘Edit’ mode (granted that’s less convenient than a proper export option). And you don’t need to copy and paste web pages: you can either drag and drop the URL from your browser’s address bar onto Keep Everything, or use the option to import from URL (invoked by simply copying the URL), or import portions of web pages directly from the clipboard. It’s all there in the ‘Add data’ button (the cross-shaped icon above the notes list). The iOS version automatically pastes anything copied to the clipboard (as soon as it opens). I’ve never yet had to use a paste function in Keep Everything (desktop or iOS)!
Paul Korm wrote:
Having now had some time to spend working with Keep Everything, I don’t
>think I would use it. The markdown is nice and crisp; the style
>options adequate. Converting web pages to “articles” (the in-app term
>for ad-free markdown versions) seems to take a while. The app must be
>using a web service such as Markdownifie on a slow server. The app
>keeps its data in binary files—an odd choice for a markdown-centric
>app. We can export articles to PDF, but not export or save to a
>plain-text markdown file. There is no browser extension or
>bookmarklets to get items from the browser to Keep Everything—we need
>to copy/paste.
>
>The share sheet on the toolbar implements only email sharing.
>
>(Tip, the rest of the share sheets are available in a round-about manner
>—select an atricle, click “Edit”, then select all and open the
>contextual menu. The rest of the share options configured for that
>machine are available from the contextual menu.)
>
>But, in the vein on software that does “one thing well”—Keep
>Everything is well built and pleasant to use, IMO.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jan 18, 2015 at 11:14 AM
As for the web archive conversion: in my experience, it’s about as fast as converting web pages for DEVONthink Pro or EagleFiler, certainly not much slower. And it takes place in the background, too, just like the other two.
But it’s all a question of expectations, I suppose.
Posted by MadaboutDana
Jan 20, 2015 at 11:21 PM
Finally, Paul, you mention that Keep Everything stores its data in binary files. Again, not entirely true. The main library consists of binary files - but if you use Dropbox to sync with your other devices, the data in the _SCRAP_DATA folder in Dropbox (under /Apps/Keep Everything) is held in its original format, i.e. as both .md (Markdown text) files, .html (web text) files and .webarchive files, plus any images in their original formats if you’ve saved them out. _SCRAP_DATA_ is a misnomer - it’s actually the main data repository; all the other folders appear to be full of zero-byte placeholders; effectively filenames used as coded references. A clever way to use Dropbox, in my view.
I’ve enhanced QuickView with a Markdown filter, consequently it’s very easy to scroll through Keep Everything data and view it in its original formats, whether as Markdown articles or as web pages.
Keep Everything continues to grow on me. The one negative I’ve found to date: despite the fact it supports a slightly enhanced form of Markdown (thus for example tables, plus ~~ for strikeout), it’s not entirely GitHub-compatible, so it doesn’t support marking, commenting, footnotes and a couple of other desirable extras. But that’s not a major issue.
Posted by Paul Korm
Jan 21, 2015 at 02:45 AM
If I could delete my opinions I would. This forum doesn’t support that. So, I’ll just shutup.