📕 A quick look at NoteList 4 by TensionSoftware

I’ve added NoteList 4 by TensionSoftware as a new note taking app to help with the outlines I use when writing blog articles.

I already have several note taking apps, so why another? Can’t TaskPaper or DevonThink Office Pro handle this sort of thing?

They can indeed, however…

TaskPaper handles an outline format nicely, but when you use a single document for multiple articles, it becomes congested and hard to read. It’s a massive wall of text.

I would need to make and attach a new TaskPaper document for each article. Not a bad idea, but the management and maintenance is terrible.

Further, in order to mark the project, or in my case the article as done, all the items underneath it need to be checked. That’s a ton of clicking. Still, when you look at it in Scrivener, it’s not collapsed, you see all the details again. I should use an outline tool not a list of tasks.

DevonThink Office Pro has these same features, but that is a hefty database to attach. Sure, it would work, but that is a fair bit of overhead. That’s a lot of document management, not just note taking.

NoteList isn’t specifically an outline tool, but it uses the same editor you see in DevonThink, TextEdit and other Mac text editors. The editor supports “list” formatting which is all I need. I’m not writing a thesis or novel, just a few ideas for an article. The List is fine for making a simple hierarchy I want to see. In fact, I used it for this article.

Some other NoteList features:

  • Simple editor that supports Plain Text and RTF.
  • Attaching images if needed.
  • Multiple document navigation in the sidebar
  • There is no problem with capturing links and RTF from websites like Wikipedia.
  • Search/Replace in the document
  • Search for Note by title, content, tag, category
  • User defined categories such as ToDo and Complete
  • Categories can be different colors for easy recognition. ToDo is red, Completed is green.
  • Supports tables when using RTF
  • Import documents by dragging them into window
  • Numbered list, bullet list, roman numerals, or custom

Again, these features are in other apps, but NoteList puts them together in a way that is simple and efficient. It has a simple UI and editor with features I use and isn’t overloaded with needless features.

Further, all notes are in a single file which is easy to attach to Scrivener. This gets synched when the Scrivener project file gets synched.

I have topics in TaskPaper as before, but now the details are outlined in NoteList.

Right off the bat this is far easier to read, edit and manage. You also can’t argue with the price. NoteList 4 comes in at a mere $4 from the App Store. It has the features I’m looking for to get my work done.

Another bonus: A single purchase. No in-app purchases or subscriptions.

NoteList 4

Then again, I could be wrong.
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