An update to Simplenote, the iPhone note-taking application, has finally added a way to keep files in sync between your computer and your iPad. It will only work for plain text files, and only on a Mac (there is a semi-workaround for other platforms), but given those limitations it’s a seamless and easy way to make sure you are always working on the same copy of a file. Better still, it is free.
It’s inexplicable that Apple has not made it easy to keep files synchronized across devices. iWork is available for both Mac and iPad, and iWork.com should surely be the glue between them. But, if you try to shift a document back and forth between computer and iPad, you end up with a bunch of incremental almost-duplicates. Until Apple fixes this (and remember, it took two years to add copy-and-paste to the iPhone), then third parties will have to do the job. Here’s how.
First, get Simplenote for iPhone and iPad (it works on both). Set up your sync account from within the app. Then download the excellent, and recently resuscitated Notational Velocity for the Mac and input your sync details there, too. The two apps are made for each other, and are very similar. In both, you make plain text notes (NV will also do rich text and HTML), and they are stored in a very fast database. Search is instantaneous, and the interfaces are so pared down that you’d think Apple made them. Follow the links below to find out more about Simplenote. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you should download it now.
But so what, right? Why is this different from any other iPhone note-syncing app? Two things. One, a proper iPad version of Simplenote went live today and two, Notational Velocity lets you keep all those notes as plain or rich text files in a folder on your Mac (in the Preferences, Notes, Storage tab). This is big because you can point the application at any folder and it will use that for its home, using those files as your synced “notes”. And sure, you can work on them from within Notational Velocity for lightning-fast search and creation, but you can also use any text editor of your choice to edit these files and, when saved, the changes are instantly added to NV and end up back on your iPad upon your next (automatic) sync.
Simplenote’s update is notable for the lack of added features. You get the now-familiar two-pane list-and-document view in landscape orientation, with a popover of the notes list in portrait-view. Aside from a few bug fixes (and new bugs – note titles with a hash-tag at the front will crash the app) that’s it. Existing Simplenote users will be very happy.
If you use anything except a Mac, you can access your notes on the computer via a web-browser. It’s nowhere near as elegant, but better than nothing.
To finish, here’s an example of how neat this can all be. I could start my work day skimming news feeds on the iPad and then start drafting posts in Simplenote. When I finally drag my lazy ass out of bed, I wake up my Mac and open up these new files, fresh and ready, in TextMate, my editor of choice. Every time I save, the file drifts back across the the iPad (and iPhone), ready should I decide I need to go work on a park bench (my local park has free Wi-Fi, amazingly).
Sure, it would be nice to have this for pictures, Word Docs and everything else, but it’s a start. And like Instapaper and TextExpander, two other great cross-platform utilities, it seems likely that developers will work amongst themselves to make their apps play nice with each other. Oh, talking of TextExpander, did I mention that Simplenote supports it? I didn’t? It does.
Simplenote for iPad/iPhone [iTunes]
Notational Velocity [Notational]
See Also:
