In iOS 15 I think Reminders and Apple Notes are now good enough that they are probably fine for 80% of users vs. evernote, things, devonthink, etc. I'd certainly recommend that most people try those options first before downloading anything else. Not for CRIMPers, obviously, but for everyone else who is using Apple products, they seem to cover most of the basics pretty well.

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-notes-reminders-apps/

Reluctantly, as an inveterate CRIMPer, I’m forced to agree with you! ;-)

Luhmann wrote:

In iOS 15 I think Reminders and Apple Notes are now good enough that
they are probably fine for 80% of users vs. evernote, things,
devonthink, etc. I'd certainly recommend that most people try those
options first before downloading anything else. Not for CRIMPers,
obviously, but for everyone else who is using Apple products, they seem
to cover most of the basics pretty well.

https://www.macrumors.com/guide/ios-15-notes-reminders-apps/

Federico Viticci covers Notes in his excellent iOS and iPadOS 15 review, and this is the link to the section about Notes (once you get to the bottom, make sure to hit Next, as the review of the Notes app continues on the following page):

https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-and-ipados-15-the-macstories-review/13/#notes

At a high level, the new Notes now supports:

- "Quick Notes"
- Allows taking a note related to the current activity, with an automatic "deep link" added to the part of the app or web page you were on at the time you took the note.
- If you open back that part of the app or web page, the OS shows you have a note for it, and provide a quick way to open the note.
- Tags
- When collaborating on notes: change tracking

Those are very nice additions, especially Quick Note. It is unclear to me whether the new Notes does anything to alleviate the following 2 shortcomings, which I would think many of us here would consider showstoppers:

- Import & export (wouldn't need to be perfect, but some ability to import would allow one with a substantial collection of notes to move to Apple Notes, and provide some peace of mind that she would be able to move out of it, if necessary, or called for by her CRIMPing!).
- Linking to notes (whether from other notes, or from other apps like a todo app).

-Alex

The scanner feature is nice in Notes. Easy cropping, seems to correct for camera aspect well.

Well, you can link notes in Notes by using a slight kludge, i.e. using the Share function to copy a single note's URL, then typing it into another note (or creating a link in another note).

As for importing/exporting: there are several App Store products that export notes into various formats (e.g. PDF, markdown, .doc, .rtfd). Importing is slightly trickier, but that depends on what you want to do: you can import a whole bunch of files and folders into Notes, but they won't be converted into notes, they'll be treated as attachments. However, they will be viewable and searchable. There are, apparently, other methods for importing notes, but I'm not sure how well they work.

Notes is a pretty cool app, not least because you can also draw directly into it. I generally use Notability for creating drawings, transferring PDFs and such, but the new Notes will make that redundant.

avernet wrote:

Federico Viticci covers Notes in his excellent iOS and iPadOS 15 review,
and this is the link to the section about Notes (once you get to the
bottom, make sure to hit Next, as the review of the Notes app continues
on the following page):

https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-and-ipados-15-the-macstories-review/13/#notes

At a high level, the new Notes now supports:

- "Quick Notes"
- Allows taking a note related to the current activity, with an
automatic "deep link" added to the part of the app or web page you were
on at the time you took the note.
- If you open back that part of the app or web page, the OS shows
you have a note for it, and provide a quick way to open the note.
- Tags
- When collaborating on notes: change tracking

Those are very nice additions, especially Quick Note. It is unclear to
me whether the new Notes does anything to alleviate the following 2
shortcomings, which I would think many of us here would consider
showstoppers:

- Import & export (wouldn't need to be perfect, but some ability to
import would allow one with a substantial collection of notes to move to
Apple Notes, and provide some peace of mind that she would be able to
move out of it, if necessary, or called for by her CRIMPing!).
- Linking to notes (whether from other notes, or from other apps like a
todo app).

-Alex

I'm going the other way ߘ.

I'm finding the icloud sync extremely unreliable on ios 15, especially reminders which is almost unusable. I'm therefore removing all my notes to Drafts and Devonthink and using Things rather than Reminders.

Drafts syncs via Apple CloudKit, and I've found it to be rock-solid on that app, as well as in Notes and Reminders. Notes especially has been bulletproof for me.

So I think it may be something in your system. You can always do some simple things that have worked to reset iCloud sync: delete and restore your data from iCloud, or else sign out of iCloud on all devices then log in again.

The Notes's Quick Note feature has made it my main notes app again on iOS - dragging up from the lower right (with or without Pencil) brings up a note page and has helped transform how I use my iPad. I'm even using the Pencil regularly now, in conjunction with Apple's surprisingly good handwriting recognition.

MadaboutDana wrote:

Well, you can link notes in Notes by using a slight kludge, i.e. using
the Share function to copy a single note's URL, then typing it into
another note (or creating a link in another note).

That sounds really cool. Is there a trick to getting links? I have "copy link" enabled in my allowable share methods, but it doesn't show up in the share menu for notes.

One of my recent favorite stupid human tricks is something I do with item links in Devonthink.

When I have something to write, I often start by jotting down ideas or snippets of how to present sidelights on the topic. Everything that pops to mind goes in Devonthink notes, no matter how crass, inappropriate or (rarely) genius the idea.

That's my warehouse of ideas. I can "outline" by tagging the ideas. "Beginning" pools what I want to say at the beginning. "Middle," "End," and "Deep regrets," might round out my outline.

Sometimes a more visual layout is helpful. I discovered I can copy an item's link in Devonthink and paste it as a node link in MindNode.

That gives me a mind map with notes that work as fluidly as internal MindNode notes, but with a great difference. Just like outlining with DT's tagging, I can delete stuff from the mind map without losing the source note. If I have alternate outlines in multiple MindNode documents, I can develop and enhance the source material without missing the update in either outline.

Better yet, MindNode nodes can point to tags in Devonthink, not just individual documents. Imagine a node in MindNode, "Snuffed," linked to an eponymous tag in Devonthink.

Three documents in Devonthink describing Colonel Mustard, The Library, and The Candlestick get the Snuffed tag. If I decide later the conservatory makes more sense than the library, a little tag shuffling in Devonthink is automatically applied to the MindNode map. Adding a backstory for the curse of the candlestick, just another document tagged with Snuffed.

Anyway, didn't mean to ramble. Deep links are cool for getting cross-application utility. Hope I can get links in Apple Notes figured out.

Not sure it's just my setup. There's some chat about it in Macpoweruser forum and and a few others, so it seems not to be an isolated case.

I find it annoying that iCloud is regularly causing issues. Reset's should not be necessary.

I find non-apple apps and services more robust and have moved my workflow in that direction. I'm also using drafts and Devonthink.

satis wrote:

Drafts syncs via Apple CloudKit, and I've found it to be rock-solid on
that app, as well as in Notes and Reminders. Notes especially has been
bulletproof for me.

So I think it may be something in your system. You can always do some
simple things that have worked to reset iCloud sync: delete and restore
your data from iCloud, or else sign out of iCloud on all devices then
log in again.

The Notes's Quick Note feature has made it my main notes app again on
iOS - dragging up from the lower right (with or without Pencil) brings
up a note page and has helped transform how I use my iPad. I'm even
using the Pencil regularly now, in conjunction with Apple's surprisingly
good handwriting recognition.

Like I said, Drafts uses Apple's CloudKit and iCloud, so at least some of your syncing seems to be working. And my syncing from Mac to iOS has been bulletproof all this year, using close to a dozen different apps.

Sometimes you need to do a reset. Sometimes in other cases you need to do a restart. It's always been this way. And Dropbox/Box/Google are not immune to glitches.