Until we get metatag support in Simplenote, I’ll be using a set of Canadian style dash tags (ex. -JAiB, -food, -osx) that are so common amongst my people.
This has been working quite nicely for the various kinds of notes I create, whether they be JAiB drafts or quick reminders of what quick snack I just enjoyed with my face and a note about where to find more of it. Using the one-line preview setting within Simplenote even makes my notes appear as though they have metatags, when all I’m really doing is pressing Enter after typing in a title.
Another little trick I’ve been using is to separate my larger notes into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Evernote was powerful enough to search for specific words within a note, but Simplenote isn’t quite that far yet. So instead of amassing a giant list of the websites where I hold a personal account, I’ve started separating that list into individual notes with the website or account type as the title. This way I can easily find the email address I used for my iTunes account without having to scroll through a long list of all of my other logins.

I’ve even started using the app as my everyday journal in lieu of Momento (review here), since the entries that I create are easily exportable or transferrable should I find another note or journal app that suits me better. The journal entries are a little different than my regular tags, however, because of the way that my Simplenote Mac client, Notational Velocity, works. NV won’t let me create a new note unless its title is totally unique, so I keep things neater by keeping the journal tag and title one and the same. Each entry is titled “Journal:”, followed by a summary of the contents (usually something to do with chicken).

This method of organizing my notes usually means I’ve got to type at least one keyword into Simplenote to get it to find anything, but, even so, I feel like I’m still getting to my notes faster with Simplenote than with any other notes app I’ve used. I’ll still welcome metatag support with open arms if the Simplenote team decides to implement it this year, but this simple text tagging solution is working just fine for now.

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