From the app description, Notebooks reads like most of the other note taking apps out there. You put text into the app, you title the note, and then you go about your business. There aren’t any incredibly fancy features or flashy tricks, but something about the app makes it more interesting and usable to me than other apps like Notes, Notebook, or even Evernote.
Notebooks. Plural.
This app has been around for quite a while, but one core feature it’s always had is its folder structure. You organize notes into different notebooks (folders) so that you can bring a little order to your iPhone scribbles. There’s always a button in the top-right corner to jump to different notebooks (even when viewing a note), and every single notebook is searchable.
Notes
Within the main notebook or a sub-notebook, the option to add new notes is flexible. You can hold down on the plus button and add a new text note, paste from your clipboard, or add a picture. Once within a note, you can choose different fonts, resize text, or even write in full-screen mode. When you view a note you can see the character count, the number of other notes in that notebook, as well as the amount of time this past season was last changed. It’s also easy to flip through various pages by flicking left or right within a note, and the aforementioned full-screen mode is especially good in landscape mode. You could use notebooks for light note taking, but the power is there if you want to use it as a full-fledged writing client on your iPhone – so long as you don’t mind using the iPhone’s keyboard.
As I mentioned in a previous piece, I like Notebooks much more than the Writeroom iPhone client right now. Both apps focus on a very simple interface, but somehow feels a little more rustic and familiar than WriteRoom’s blank screen. That said, there is one small complaint that I have: there are just a few too many buttons along the bottom of the viewing/editing screen, and I think they take away from what is otherwise a very clean look.
Syncing
Very few apps stand alone nowadays. Many of them have partners in the form of a web app or desktop client. Notebooks has two different ways to sync: SyncDocs or WebDAV. The former requires a client to be loaded on your computer for local wi-fi syncing, but has the advantage of does supporting other apps (such as ComicZeal) as well. The latter needs some sort of online account, such as Mobile Me, which I unfortunately do not subscribe to. I tried looking into other WebDAV services but honestly, I still find the solution confusing. What I’d really like is something as simple as Simplenote or Evernote (both free apps, by the way), where backing up your information is something that just happens. You shouldn’t have to think about backing up your thoughts.
Conclusion
Whether or not I personally continue to use Notebooks really hinges on another app. I use Convertbot to transfer drafts that I’ve written on my iPhone over to my Macbook Pro, and I’m encountering a few problems with my text when I use dashes – and I use them often. Syncing issues aside, however, I’ve found Notebooks to be a surprisingly full-featured writing client, and I’m surprised it’s not more popular. If it were to integrate some sort of automatic, online or local wi-fi sync, I’d be all over it.
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Notebooks is available for $5.99 on the App Store.
Notebooks was bought at author’s expense for review on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: notebook, notes
