Macintom Blog

Notebook was recently updated to version 3.0, and let me tell you, it made an extremely useful application even better.  I’m going to explain what it is, and describe some of it’s many uses, including how I use it myself.

Notebook in it’s simplest form is really, a virtual notebook, but in reality the software is as basic as you want, or as advanced as it’s capabilities allow it to be.  These uses are of course a notebook, text editor, an organizer, an idea manager, a filing cabinet, a research assistant, a website creator, to-do list, task manager, outliner, and with it’s ability to password protect and encrypt….it’s a file safe!

Alright, now lets break that down.  First of all it’s a Notebook so lets talk about the design.   When you start up Notebook there is a nice welcome screen and you can choose from a number of templates that just may be what your looking to start (you can of course start with a blank notebook and build it up anyway you like.  You can add as many pages to your notebook as you would like, and choose what type of page you want it to be.  You can choose from a “Note” page (this used to be called an outline page in previous versions), a “Writing” page, a To-Do page, and Cornell writing page.  Changing the style of paper is simple and you have every choice you can think of.  You can also add dividers.  

From the main contents page you can rearrange your pages, and if you tab one of them over it becomes a subsection. The same goes for individual cells within a notes style page, tabbing them over creates a parent and children cell layout which you can collapse or expand with a drop arrow.  It may sound confusing right about now, but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of organizing the pages.  New with this version is the addition of shapes and lines that you can use to annotate and create graphics on the page.  Also the ability to draw with either your mouse, or any type of USB pen or tablet device recognized by your mac.

Alright, so lets talk about some uses that really makes this a must have for everyone.  First off as an organizer.  At work I use Notebook as a virtual filing cabinet.  I have files sent to me daily, I create presentations, review policies and keep all these things in my Notebook.  I have numerous sections separated with dividers, and I drag files into the Notebook to keep everything organized.  With text files you have the option to drag and drop the file to your page, or you can import the files so long as they are .txt, .rtf, .doc.  You can also import snapshots from your built in iSight.  One tip to remember is when dragging a file, if you hold the command key, it will move the file rather than copy it to your Notebook.

Another interesting addition to version 3.0 is the ability to add stickies notes, sticky flags and reminder flags to your pages.  The reminder flags are nice to hang over the edge just as you would in a notebook.  I have found a bit of a bug and I’ve already emailed the devloper about it, but haven’t heard back.  The problem is that I had a flag labelled important, I’ve since taken care of the task…but can’t seem to get rid of the flag.  There is not way to right click on it, there is no menu option to delete, when you drag it off of the notebook there is a nice poof and it’s gone, I hit save to save my changes, and the flag will remain gone until the next day, I go back to work, start up my computer and there it is again.  It’s a like a zombie flag, it just won’t die!  Needless to say, until I hear back from the developer I’ve stopped using the note flags.

Now on to another use I have for this program that I’m sure many of you will appreciate if you do any kind of projects, research, blogging or of course….podcasts!.  With each page you create in Notebook, you can add what’s called a clipping service.  What this means is that you can highlight text, in Safari, or even Apple Mail, and if you right or control click on the the highlighted text, there will be an option for Notebook in your contextual menu, and you can select which page you would like to clip it to.  You can also chose to clip and annotate.  This is great for researching a project, or a podcast.  For my macreview cast segments I create a note page with my macintom notebook, add a clipping service, open up Safari do some google searches, highlight content and clip it to the page I created.  When I’m all finished I can add more pages to the Notebook if I’d like to make it more organaized, or simply just rearrange the clippings.  There is a catch or two for clipping services to work.   The Notebook application needs to be open in order for the option to appear in your contextual menu.  I”ve also tested this with other applications like Entrouage and Firefox and noticed that the contextual menu is different, and you do not have an option to use Notebook in this way.  

Lets talk about finding your information.  For every Notebook created, there is an automatic index created called a Multidex.  It indexes text, capital letters, numbers, hyperlinks, keywords, highlighted items, stickies, to-do’s, attachments, creation dates and dates you changed any of the files.  You can also use Apple’s built in spotlight to search your Notebook, just type in what you’re looking for and if it’s in your Notebook you will see it show up as a search option, if you select it your Notebook will launch and a Super-Find page will show up in your Multidex with links to every page containing what you are searching for.

Notebook 3.0 is so feature full you really need to check out the circus ponies website….but wait a minute…what about the number one use for a Notebook….school work!!

I’m currently working on baccaluarate degree part-time and let me tell you….I’ve never felt so organized.  The most recent course I completed was split into 4 modules, and well, each module had it’s own divider, and I would use wrting pages for notes, and note pages storing my assignments when they would get sent back to me.  To submit an assignment I simply exported the file, and email it off.  You can export a page as a .rtf, .doc, .txt and a few other formats I’ve never used.

Before I finish I need to mention to other cool features.   You can export your entire notebook as a website, and if you have a MobileMe subscription it is WAY too easy.  

There is a very, VERY long list of features on the Circus Ponies website, there are also seven screencasts.  The price for the application is $49.95 for a standard license, $29.95 for an Academic License for faculty, students, staff, and administrative staff at a qualifying academic institution.  A family pack is $99.95 for 3 licenses.  If you are a current Notebook version 2 owner, you can upgrade to version 3 for $19.95, however, if you bought Notebook version 2 this year, it is a free upgrade, but you can’t upgrade through the application itself, you have to download the new version and retrieve a license from there website.  You can find instructions and links to the pages needed to do this from their downloads page.

The only left to do now, is go to their website, www.circusponies.com, watch their video tours, and browse through the features, because if I talked about them all, my segment would turn into an audiobook.  There is one thing I forgot to mention…you can try a full featured Notebook 3.0 free for 30 days so head on over and download it, you’ve got nothing to lose except 15MB on your hardrive.

Update October 23rd 2008:  There has been two updates since this post and the “zombie” flag issue has been resolved.  I was contacted by the developer to let me know there was an update, and that this particular issue was one of the fixes.  Great job Circus Ponies!