Notebooks – Write and Organize 4+

Incredible App - Incredible Support

I have been using Notebooks for many years now. I have never left a review because I just rarely leave App Store reviews (really should be better about it). But after yet another support experience with Alfons Schmid, I just have to say, this guy goes far and beyond what I have ever seen — and he always has. He’s just one of those special people who is a gifted developer and a genuine people person. I can’t recommend this app highly enough. I remember going through dozens of “note taking apps,” before finding Notebooks; it has easily become the best money ever spent in the App Store as it ended my search and serves as a replacement for 3 or 4 individual apps. It’s good — really good. Incredible app and incredible support.

Last update ruined it

This has always been the most used application on my iPad as it would do everything that was important when handling PDFs, word processing and reviewing files of various descriptions. It was worth paying for Dropbox even through many other apps have found a way of synching with iCloud just to have the features available. Sadly, Mr. Schmid has decided that he cannot afford to continue providing PDF integration other than in the rudimentary form that Apple provides. You can no longer search PDFs that have been OCRd or use the annotation tools that were previously provided for an extra fee. His response is that you can open a PDF in one of the other PDF annotation apps and use Notebooks as a file system.

While the program will still fill the needs of many, the lack of going forward with an alternative synch method to Dropbox and removing the extensive PDF annotation and search integration has substantially diminished its value. I would have no problem in paying on a subscription basis if this were corrected but that does not seem to be an option.

Developer Response ,

I understand that the current state of Notebooks 10 may seem like a step back for some users. We have set out the reasons why we removed the optional PDF Reader, so I won't go into details here. - It is true that at time of this writing (Notebooks 10.0.x) search results are not highlighted in PDF documents, but it is work in progress, and we will also improve PDF handling in general. However, we won't add advanced annotation or PDF manipulation - paid or free - because of the availability of first class tools which are free and really just a single tap away (Open in...). - Regarding iCloud sync: what makes Notebooks "special" is the option to have unlimited nested books (folders) rather than a database, and this hierarchy of books is what seems to be challenging for iCloud (not Notebooks). So as long as we feel that iCloud does not reliably sync deeply nested hierarchies of books and documents, we prefer not to activate it in Notebooks for everyone ;-)

Functional, but execution is sloppy for some features

This app has so many great features. But some of them don’t work in a particularly reliable or predictable way. For example, after clicking the icon to bring the text editor into full screen mode, the sidebar and toolbar vanish from view (as expected). However there’s so easy way to bring them back into view and exit full screen mode, so I have to quit the app if I want to access the document browser in the sidebar again.
I wish I could use Apple’s default San Fransisco font, but the so-called “system font” is something totally different.
Finally, Apple’s Universal Clipboard feature for copying text between devices doesn’t always work. ie. if I copy a rich text clickable hyperlink on my iPad and try to paste it into Notebooks on my iPhone, no text appears. My workaround is to open a Quick Note in Apple Notes, paste it there, then copy that and paste it back into Notebooks.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your feedback.
1) To bring back header and footer you can either hide the keyboard with a swipe left or right gesture (as mentioned when you enabled that auto hide feature in settings) or tap once with two fingers. This and other gestures are documented in the Quick Start Guide.
2) Not sure about the "system font", but if you are referring to the "standard font", that is Notebooks' default font, which is Muli, it does not refer to San Francisco...
3) Re Clipboard: that can be tricky at times, depending on how iOS provides the copied data; is there a difference whether you paste into plain text or formatted? - If you want we can continue by mail, via info@...