I am looking for a small but complete note taking application for Mac which I will keep using. What I first started looking for was a note-list of files all in one place combined with a notes program. I found these three programs to be closest to my wants and of most use to me due to the way I organize my notes. The three applications are: MacNote3LE, Notational Velocity, and xPad.
Text Edit is okay and it is free of course, but kind of plain. I traded up to Bean, and then to myWritings as the price is reasonable and there are features in myWritings I am willing to pay for. However there is still that empty little niche for short notes. I find I do a lot of small note writing and taking. I also seem to collect numerous short term use notes.
I looked at a number of note taking apps and have narrowed it down to these three. They have there pluses and minus, and if there were only one, any one of them would work work well for me. They are all reasonably priced, one is free, one is ten dollars, and the third sixteen dollars for me to register.
Here is my short synapsis, and is in no way complete or comprehensive. All three applications do basic word processing. I mentioned below only those unique items which may be important to me. As I mentioned for general text editing they all offer about the same basic options. Notational Velocity offers the least options, xPad offers more options, and MacNote3LE offers the most options.
MacNote3LE 2.7.0 – Import and one page at a time export which is all most of us may need. The note-list has tree/outline structure with Parent and Child nodes. The note-list can be located to left, right, or bottom. Export to ipod directly from MacNote3. Search all notes for string occurrence. Holding cursor over Note Title brings up note info. Smart links to other MacNote3 pages, any files, or urls. Pages can be protected from erasure. Screen Capture. Comes with a generous thirty day trial. Sixteen dollars at this time for me to register. Password protection available but author states it is not serious protection.
Notational Velocity 2.0 B4 (7) – Note-list can either be on top or on the side, allowing more preference latitude. Can be synchronized with Simple Note. Secure note encryption, and key logging protection is an option. Search all notes for string occurrence. Autosave note feature. Password protection Can link to other notes. Can be opened with keyboard key sequence. Can use tags. Recognizes pasted urls as urls. Is free to use.
xPad 1.2.6 – Import and Export one or more files. Note-list can expands to allow descriptive titles. Note-list auto opens to left or right depending if the program is open on the left or right side of the screen. Notes can be categorized by color. Searches open note only for string occurrence. Note info button on bottom right. Auto save feature on exit, aware of duplicate notes and appends and integer to the duplicate. Export to ipod. Create links to web pages. Screen Capture. xPad is limited to fifteen notes for the free version. About Ten dollars for the paid version.
At the moment, I really do not know which application I will end up using and which programs will go. I have been using all three, and all three programs do what they do well. I need to decide soon, as syncing all three programs with the same notes is overkill. I thought I would post this as it may be a help to you having a few blips on each program in one place. If you want more in depth more accurate information of these application’s abilities, visit their respective websites listed below.
Notational Velocity additional features:
- The ability to synchronize notes with a directory of text files, allowing synchronization with most Dropbox-based iOS text editors
- Font-independent styles as opposed to rich-text editing
- Automatic wiki-linking including automatic title suggestion
- Preservation of indentation (like BBEdit)
- Note bookmarks that store search context
- External links to notes
- System service for importing any text or document
- Preservation of the source URL when using “paste-as-new-note” command from web pages
- Ability to import web pages as text by dragging URLs onto icon
- Synchronization of tags with other apps that use the OpenMeta standard
- Import any plain text format, as well as PDF, RTF, HTML, Word, Stickies and others
- Export as the same
- Per-note undo management
MacNote3LE additional features:
- User is able in any MacNote3 page, to install links to URLs, Files, other pages of MacNote3 and messages in Mail.app
- Allows the opening of multiple windows.
- Provides a list of “Frequently-used pages” and “Recently-used pages”
- AppleScript compatible
- Windows can be made to appear as tiny icons
- Compatible with other services that apply in Mac OSX
xPad additional features:
- With the category editor you can create and color-code categories, then quickly assign documents in the drawer.
- Documents can be sorted by name, date or category.
- Efficiently manage limitless documents with color coding that provides a constant reminder of your organizational scheme.
- Quickly rename documents, delete one or many, and export a single, multiple, or all your documents in both Rich and Plain Text formats using both drag and drop or conventional panels.
- Instantly export to your iPod, allowing you to read your documents when you are away from your computer.
- Automatically saves your work, so you never have to worry about manually saving what you’re working on or accidentally closing something without saving—and losing all your information.
