Coming up next...

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:23:22 +0100

As the year is closing, we want to give you an update on what we are working on and which new and interesting things you can expect early next year.

You have probably read or heard the rumors about the desktop versions of Notebooks, but we have not yet posted an official statement. Now here we go:

You have sent us countless emails and requests for a desktop version of Notebooks over that past months, and we felt the urgent need for a companion app ourselves. So it was obvious that we needed to fill this gap, and in early 2011 we started working on Notebooks for Mac/PC.
We hoped to be ready for shipping in summer, but had to realize that it was impossible to repeat in a few months what took us three years on the iOS...
Now, almost a year after our decision, we finally feel ready for an extended beta testing phase, and if all goes well, the initial versions of “Notebooks for Mac” and and “Notebooks for PC” should become available in early 2012.

In its initial version, Notebooks for Mac/PC will focus on the core mission of Notebooks: creating and editing documents and keeping them organized. You will find a convenient environment for typing your notes or writing your books and articles, and you will have the freedom to create nested structures to your liking. Your documents remain in open and easily reusable formats: plain text or formatted HTML (you can either use the built in WYSIWYG editor or convert your Markdown document to formatted HTML). Of course you can also put other types of documents into Notebooks and make it your personal knowledge base.
Needless to say, you can pick up what you already have in Notebooks on your iPhone, iPod or iPad. The most convenient option will be via Dropbox: sync Notebooks on iOS with Dropbox, point the desktop version of Notebooks to your Dropbox folder, and have a direct connection between the two. You can do the same using a WebDAV server, and you can even connect directly to your iPhone or iPad through Notebooks’ WiFi sharing.
You can also use Notebooks for Mac/PC without its iOS counterparts and take it as a tool to conveniently organize and edit your documents on your computer. - Just try to point Notebooks at your “Documents” folder and see what happens...

This only gives a taste of what Notebooks for Mac/PC will be like. We will provide you with more details over the next couple of weeks.

Notebooks for Mac: Work in Progress

Also planned for release early 2012 is Notebooks 5 for iOS (we skip 3 and 4 on the iPad to align the version numbers). Just two highlights:

Interface redesign: Notebooks 5 will have a more modern appearance and is should be easier and more intuitive to use. Don’t worry, for those who like Notebooks for the current UI there will be an option to stick with the "classic" interface.

Formatted Documents: some of you might remember that we were very close to WYSIWYG editing two years ago, but we failed and had to work around with Markdown. Now with iOS 5 we make another attempt to provide you with a “real” editor, and things are looking very good, as you see from the screenshot below.

Notebooks 5.0 on iPad: Work in Progress

We hope these are a few things to be looking forward to, so we leave you with this outlook and wish you all

Another minor update: Notebooks 4.2.4 / 2.2.4

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 21:53:08 +0100

Again, a set of iOS5 related fixes. Thank you for your feedback and reports!

This is what this update fixes:

- issue with info view and renaming items
- occasional crash when moving notes
- using the treeview for move or jump for the first time no longer crashes
- closing a note while the "Read Only" message is displayed in the status bar no longer causes a crash

We changed/improved a few things, too ;-)

- write protecting notes now prevents deletion, too
- when Preview is set to 1 line, only the subtitle of note is displayed

Notebooks 4.2.3 / 2.2.3 available for download

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:39:32 +0100

Well, this has been an unusual sequence of updates recently, but we are trying to fix issues (even minor ones) more frequently than before. We hope this is in your interest as well.

Here is what has changed:

iPad specific improvements:
- restored normal operation of WebDAV sync in column view (includes MobileMe and swissdisk)
- improved lock and unlock behavior in column view

iPhone & iPad:
- PDFs open at last visited position again
- importing PDFs from Safari works more reliably
- optimization for live word and character count
- adapted word and character count to international languages
- embedded images no longer appear distorted in Mobile Mail
- when only one timestamp is defined, using it now reliably saves the note
- corrected issues with the pasteboard that were introduced by iOS 5

Notebooks 4.2.2 / 2.2.2 available for download

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:29:54 +0100

- Fixed truncated titles in task lists and improved preview
- Resolved display issue after move & jump
- Adapted to new pasteboard behavior on iOS 5
- Support for split keyboard (iPad)
- Preview of formatted documents now has an option to send the HTML by mail
- "Combine Notes" enabled in context books

Notebooks 4.2.x (2.1.x) and iOS 5

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:18:10 +0200

iOS 5 becomes publicly available today, and we guess that many users want to know if the current version of Notebooks plays well together with the new iOS.

The short answer is: Yes ... but there are a few glitches, nothing serious

To be more precise, this is what what we have found out (and were not able to fix short term)

- When viewing PDF documents on the iPhone or iPad, Notebooks currently does not remember the last opened position. This is due to some fundamental changes in the iOS.

- When using the "split" or "undocked" keyboard on the iPad, Notebooks does not receive enough "feedback" from the iOS and leaves the "Tap again to Edit" message visible. Also, it will not display the extra keys, if you have the enabled. So at the moment, we would recommend to use standard keyboard.

- When returning to split view from fullscreen view on the iPad, the right window will be empty and you have to select the document again in the left column.

We will try to fix these issues as soon as we can, and should you experience any other usually behavior, please let us know.

We have posted the same info on our FAQs, so maybe there are additional interesting comments, too)

Notebooks 4.2 / 2.2 available for download

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:53:29 +0200

The long awaited update should appear on the App Store within the next couple of minutes. This always is as exciting for us as it is for you, because we hope that you like our additions, and we also hope that the update runs smoothly for all of you.

Before you install, a few remarks and recommendations:

1. Back up your iPhones, iPads and iPods through iTunes
2. If you use Dropbox, make a full sync before updating
3. If you use Notebooks on several devices, update all of them. We have made a few changes to the way custom background colors are handled, and they are not compatible with older versions. Should you run into this issue, just turn off Custom Colors in Notebooks’ settings and you should be able to work with the older version.

Now, this is the “real stuff”:

Synchronization
• Dropbox - Automatic Sync
◦ Activate in settings, disable for individual books
◦ Top level book is not automatically synced
◦ Syncs changes you make in Notebooks to Dropbox
◦ Checks if currently displayed book has been changes in Dropbox
◦ Sync is shallow and does not look at sub books!
◦ By default, sync is disabled on wireless networks
◦ Manual sync is available as usual

• WebDAV (NO autosync)
◦ Support for additional servers like box.net, Zimbra, and Pincette
◦ Performance and stability improvements

• General Sync Improvements
◦ When changing task lists on multiple devices, the changes are merged during sync; no more conflicts!
◦ Protection state of objects is synced, too
◦ When a huge amount of documents has been deleted from the server, user is asked for confirmation
◦ More reliable connection to selected service
◦ Sync completes even when Notebooks runs in the background
◦ To get a list of documents that have been up/downloaded, create a note “Dropbox Log” or “WebDAV Log” at top level before syncing

Task Management
• Calendar (for setting due dates)
◦ Touch and hold forward/back arrows to jump a year
◦ Today button jumps to and selects current day
◦ Markers for days that already have todos
◦ Select a day to displays its tasks

• Due Tasks (Smart Book)
◦ Option to show all task lists
◦ Option to sync all task lists
◦ Option to view tasks on calendar

• Done Date is displayed for completed tasks
• Always correctly display the number of due tasks on app icon
• Deleting done tasks automatically creates a summary of those tasks
• Split to Tasks has a new option that splits by “----” (at least four dashes)

Appearance/Interface
• New and changed keyboard buttons
◦ insert current location
◦ navigation buttons: tap to jump a word forward/back or to beginning/end of selected text; tap and hold to jump to beginning/end of paragraph
◦ Automatic lists accept leading spaces or tabs
◦ inserting special items replaces selected text
◦ on iPhone, insert actions are now available through a single button

• No more pencil icon (which caused a lot of dispute)
• Black info bar replaces gray and beige bar
• Font size in formatted documents better matches selected font size
• Out of sync indication for documents in smart books
• Search hits in document: new buttons and interface
• On Info page, add a description to non editable documents. Description is searchable and appears as preview
• iPad:
◦ login on startup does not automatically show keyboard
◦ new interface for drawing, better placement of action buttons

Misc Functionality
• Markdown
◦ Automatically append two spaces at end of a line to enforce line break
◦ Option to disable automatic conversion (when selecting extra buttons)
◦ Format Document… displays a preview and offers new options
■ copy HTML code
■ save as new document
■ replace original document

• Import from iTunes into any book
• New editable file types: .pm, .t
• Insert photo from pasteboard directly into a note
• Import Palm Todos (Mac only)
• Open in Safari for all imported documents
• When navigating to a different website in Notebooks, a new action is available to import that page or to open it in Safari
• After 3 failed attempts, login is blocked for 5 minutes
• Send to The Hit List
• Unfinished but available if desired - Voice Memos: to activate, create a note titled Enable Voice Memos at top level; to stop recording, open a note and tap the Pause button. The user interface for voice memos is unfinished!

Bug Fixes
• iPhone:
◦ Fixed issue of menus not popping up
◦ Fixed rare issue that the last few characters might get lost when switching apps while keyboard is visible
• iPad:
◦ Fixed rotation issue when starting up Notebooks with login prompt
• Tasks starting with @ caused Notebooks to crash on launch
• Fixed occasional crashes after import from Safari
• Combining notes with images inserts images in correct sequence
• All embedded images are attached when sending a note by mail
• Fixed various interface glitches