United StatesImagine this: a few text fragments, randomly created, want to be combined to a chapter of a book and saved as PDF or eBook; or a quick note sparks off an idea and generates a set of tasks which call for the collection of research material; and business related documents should be stored separately from private diaries, records and files.
Notebooks handles these jobs with ease, because it is a writing app, a text and markdown editor, a file organizer, a task manager, your Zettelkasten and personal Wiki, an eBook creator and more. – You will quickly learn to appreciate this unique combination, while remaining creative and focussed on your tasks.
• Create formatted documents with styles, attachments, tables or checklists, and add a table of contents if you like. Choose between a variation of ready made document styles, or create your own, if you want.
• Write your documents in plain text and allow Notebooks to automatically handle lists, display line numbers, highlight and center the current line, automatically insert closing characters for (, {, [, " etc. - Plain text is a universal format that can be used on any device without any specific software.
• Use Markdown to create formatted documents. Notebooks supports *MultiMarkdown* and its own flavor of *Discount*, and you are free to choose which converter to use for which book or document. – Click on any word in a formatted Markdown to start editing at that position. Automatic syntax highlighting and a series of dedicated keyboard shortcuts make Markdown editing easy. You can even create checklists (- [ ]) and tick them off in formatted view.
• Select between three, two or single pane layout, open documents in separate tabs or windows, and use fullscreen or dark modes for distraction free writing.
• Compile selected documents or the contents of whole books into a single document, an eBook or a PDF document.
• Convert document between formats, including rtf, docx and webarchive.
• Link to other documents in Notebooks. – In plain text and Markdown you can even use Wiki style links ([[ ]]) with automatic path expansion. When clicking a link to a document which does not yet exist, Notebooks suggests to create it. And when you move or rename documents, Notebooks makes sure the links remain intact.
• Create as books as you need to structure your projects and details. You can nest books as deep as you like, there is no limit in Notebooks. If you ever loose track, Notebooks' full text search helps you quickly turn up even the most hidden document.
• Navigate through your hierarchies in Notebooks' outline view, or use history buttons and "bread crumbing navigation" in the document's header to quickly open other documents. This makes it easy to navigate without leaving single pane layout or fullscreen mode.
• Turn books into task lists to display document as tasks which can be ticked off. Assign due dates and alerts, and divide projects into nested sub projects, which makes them easier to handle. – For simple lists you can use checklists in formatted documents and Markdown.
• Assign Context tags to books and documents to create shortcuts that are accessible for a smart book at Notebooks' top level. – Notebooks can even extract context tags from the contents of documents as you create them.
• Import all documents and files you want to keep close at hand, no matter whether PDF, email, web pages, MS Office or iWorks, photos, videos, music and more.
• Notebooks stores your documents as regular files on your Mac, so you are always in control and never need to worry about how to import or – more importantly – export your documents.
• Notebooks can sync your files with Notebooks on iPad and iPhone, so you can seamlessly work on your documents on any device. Choose between iCoud, Dropbox and many WebDAV servers.
With all that, Notebooks may quickly become the one and only repository for everything you want to keep close at hand.
Great improvements on an already great app
I've been using Notebooks for a long time, and have always liked it. Version 3 is a huge step forward in functionality - particularly the automatic link management. I have a bunch of active projects that I "archive" by moving them into a deeper subfolder for reference, and v3 takes care of re-linking the notes so that everything stays properly connected. Notebooks' ability to handle notes, tasks, tags, etc. make it very powerful - and it has very strong support for Markdown as a bonus. Also, all my data is seamlessly synced across Mac and iOS.
United StatesA wonderful tool
A wonderful and structured tool for writing.
United StatesDefinitely worth checking out
SO much more than a note taking application. I am finding it very useful for writing technical documentation etc.
United StatesI really want to like this app
I really want to like this app. I keep coming back to it because there is just something about it that makes me feel comfortable and I cant put my finger on it. I hope it is me and I am missing something but the how to use this app documentation is practically non existent. Nobody is covering this app on youtube. Documentation on "how to use plug-ins" i.e. Mermaid do not exists. If I am wrong I will change my rating.
United StatesGreat!
After using Notebboks now for a few months, I am bumping up my star rating to 5 stars. During this time found Notebooks to be extremely reliable, solid peformer, versatile, and is usful in more ways than I initially thought. I think it is definately worth the 5 star rating despite the Cons I listed. Here is my revised pros and cons: Pros: 1. Syncs with iCloud Drive, not on a third party or the developer’s server (great for privacy). 2. Good hierarchal organizations with folders, subfolders/nested folders, context .. 3. Attachments and images can be embedded within notes (drag and drop). 4. Supports formatted document including Plain Text and Rich Text with user having full control of font type, size and color in addition to bold, italic, underline .. etc. 5. You can insert tables and checklists within notes. 6. You can created tasks from notes. 7. You can click on the note thumbnail, copy ling, and insert link in any other app oncluding Calendar and Reminders (or any other tasks application). It also syncs across Macs and iOS devices if you also have the same apps on all devices syncing via iCloud. This is really valuable so you can hav the necessary detailed information from Notebook at your fingertip for meetings and when working on projects. Cons: 1. Syncs with iCloud Drive, not CloudKit. You have to choose where to put your “Home” folder on iCloud Drive then every time you install the app on a Mac or iPhone or iPad you have to point to that folder at the start. Not a big problem, and it works well. 2. Sync is slower than I like; images and attachments take long time to sync to other devices. 3. Share needs improvement. If you click the share icon in Safari and choose to dsend the webpage to the Inbox in Notebooks, it just does not go anywhere (in Keep It, for example, it can be saved as a one page PDF for offline reading). However, if you highlight a text in any other app that uses the Sare extension or in a webpages and send that to the Inbox in Notebooks, it will get there. 4. If you choose Print then choose “Notebooks” from the dropdown PDF menue in the print screen, the PDF will not go to the Inbox in Notebooks. 5. If you embed attachments or images in a document, you have to wait a few minutes (or more) for a multipage PDF to be accessed as a multipage document (initially you see only the front page displayed and clicking on it does nothing). Same thing for other documents like movie clips and excel files. 6. Because the app syncs via iCloud Drive and not CloudKit, it may take time for attachments you included in a note on a Mac to show up on the iPhone. 7. If you send text to the Inbox in Notebooks using the Sahre extension, it will not sync to other devices if the Notebbks app is not open. 8. Context (tags) not intuitive. 9. Would be nice to have the option to include font, font color. and print in right there in the toolbar.
United StatesPromising
I have been using Notebooks for over about a week now, and while it has some good features it also has a few bugs and shortcomings. I still like it more than several other note taking apps that I have tried. Pros: 1. Syncs with iCloud Drive, not on a third party or the developer’s server. 2. Good hierarchal organizations with folders (here called books) and nested folders. 3. Attachments can be embedded within notes (drag and drop), including images, single and multipple page PDFs, movies, excel files, .. etc. 4. In addition to supporting Markdown (which I do not use), it also supports formatted document including Plain Text and Rich Text with user having full control of font type, size and color in addition to bold, italic, underline .. etc. 5You can insert tables and lists within notes. Cons: 1. Syncs with iCloud Drive, not CloudKit. You have to choose where to put your “Home” folder on iCloud Drive then every time you install the app on a Mac or iPhone or iPad you have to point to that folder at the start. 2. Sync is slow; images and attachments especially take long time to sync to other devices. 3. Share works erratically. You click the share icon in Safari and you choose that the web page goes to the Inbox in Notebooks, but it just does not go there (or anywhere in Notebooks). However, if you highlight a text in any other app that uses the Sare extension including or in a webpages and send that to the Inbox, it will get there. 4. If you choose Print then choose “Notebooks” from the dropdown PDF menue in the print screen, the PDF will not go to the Inbox in Notebooks. 5. If you embed attachments or images in a document, you have to wait a few minutes (or more) for a multipage PDF to be accessed as a multipage document (initially you see only the front page displayed and clicking on it does nothing). Same thing for other documents like movie clips and excel files. 6. Because the app syncs via iCloud Drive and not CloudKit, it may take time for attachments to show up on the iPhone. 7. If you send text to the Inbox using the Sahre extension, it will not sync to other devices (other Macs or iPhone) unless the Notebbks app receiving the text is open. By contrast, you can send anything (text or PDF or image) to Keep It on your Mac via the Share extension without having to open the app, but when you launch Keep It on your iPhoene that document is already there. This is probably because Keep It uses Apple CloudKit to sync instead of iCloud Drive. 8. Context (tags) not intuitive. 9. Would be nice to have the option to include font, font color. and print in the toolbar (customize).
United Statesgreat application
very useful. Works perfectly. If you are looking for a notes app, a place to write, store images, sync between devices, store webpages, this is it!! Soon it will run on icloud.
United States
This update contains bug fixes and corrections. - Creating Quick Entries works as expected again. - Compiling documents no longer adds embedded images multiple times. This applies to PDF creation also. - Formatted documents no longer "capture" text pasted elsewhere with cmd-v. - Recognize and handle .WebP files as images. - Correctly display YAML headers in rendered Markdown. - Enable "Duplicate as..." for RTFD documents from document list. - Make sure that Notebooks' folder appears under iCloud Drive in Finder. - Address potential crashes on startup or when renaming books. - No longer accidentally display incorrect preview text for documents. - Address UI glitches on macOS 10.15 and earlier.
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