The new Notespark is on its way!
notespark by sho
Woohoo! The new version of Notespark (mostly to support the iPad) has been sent to Apple!
There is also a new version of the website to go along with the new iPhone app, which you can use starting today. The new website uses ajax for just about everything, so it should be much snappier. Also, you no longer have to explicitly save a note. It just syncs up as you type.
The new website also supports the following keyboard shortcuts:
- up and down arrow keys to navigate around the note index
- return to start editing a note
- ctrl-s to save the note
- ctrl-shift-n to create a new note
- ctrl-shift-f to find a note
ctrl-delete to delete a note- delete (or backspace) to delete a note
Try it out! Send all feedback (good, bad, or ugly) to feedback@notespark.com
Enjoy!
[update: the ctrl-delete keyboard shortcut is a standard shortcut for "delete word" on windows, so we got rid of it. Instead, we use the delete key by itself. This keyboard shortcut (like the up and down arrows) only works when you are not in the middle of editing a note.]
Thanks for incorporating the keyboard shortcuts and auto-saving feature! The larger editing space is great for notes with lots of text. And the new icon is nice too. You’ve made some great improvements – many thanks!
Glad you like it, Candice!
Loving the update! Puts Notespark back on the top of note taking and sharing for iOS.
ctrl-shift-n doesn’t work with Chrome (under XP at least), as it’s used to start a new incognito window.
Thanks for the info, Chris, and glad you like the update.
I like the arrow keys, as well as Ctrl-S (which you don’t actually need, but it’s good for obsessive compulsives like me who want to tell the system to SAVE RIGHT THIS SECOND!)
As for the other ones, such as ctrl-shift-n, we tried to come up with ones that would be useful without colliding with browser shortcuts, but after a while, it gets hard to remember them, so… well, we tried!
Oh… I forgot to mention earlier that we added the ability to print from the website.
Awesome update, that makes taking notes so much faster. Thanks a lot! Let’s see what the updated app will bring along…
On the iPhone, the app will be much the same. It has a new, double resolution icon, and the search bar has been moved to the top of the index of notes to be more standard. TextExpander support has been added. We also fixed a few bugs.
On the iPad, the experience is obviously way better than it was before. :-)
Sharing doesn’t appear to work from the computer, managed to share from the iphone but it was very slow, and the fact I did share something wasn’t then reflected on the website on the computer.
Guess there might be teething problems. Love Notespark though, so useful, I use mine for recipes of which I now have over 100 filed neatly in various tabs. Great when you go shopping too, I always leave written shopping lists at home, notespark them now and never loose them or leave them behind. Keep up the good work guys.
Kay: Thanks for the bug report. We’ll take a look.
Everything should be working now. Thanks for alerting us to the problem, Kay!
Looks like I spoke too soon. When sharing from the phone, the website doesn’t reflect the changes even after refreshing the page….
Ok. The sharing issue is fixed now on both ends. Thanks!
NoteSpark is soo good I’ve been using it for years. But now I’ve been using Simplenote.The two apps are soo similar with tags/folders, multi-line preview, great search, and cloud synch. Notespark always had a nicer iPhone app, and now, finally, Notespark has caught up in the website department.So, why would I switch when I like Notespark more? Export options is why. I’ve messed around with Notespark’s cvs export file with it’s funky creation dates. I’m obviously no talent at Excel, but Simplenote synchs with Notational Velocity, a desktop app that saves to a database of text files you can keep on Dropbox. Bacup and access is a no-brainer.
I’m leaving this post because I’m excited about the new website. It’s really good. and I’ve always thought Notespark had the best iPhone text note app. Please consider a more user friendly export/import function. Dropbox text file synch is now so common for note apps.
With the new webside, I’d really like to come home.
Thanks
Hi there. (I was about to type “Hi Dirtbagg” but it just didn’t feel right. :-)
What kind of backup are you looking for? Are you looking for something automatic, or are you looking for a way to do a manual backup occasionally?
It appears impossible to delete text from the search bar. If there’s no note selected, the delete/backspace keys do nothing. If a note is selected, Notespark asks if the note should be deleted. I’ve tried in both Chrome and IE7.
Good catch. We’ve fixed it. Thanks!
Hi Sho,
What am I looking for in terms of backup? I’d like access to my notes from three places: my iphone, the cloud, and my mac. You’ve got the first two based covered. I’d like to be able to access notes from a desktop app (perhaps something simple that runs in the menu bar…). As I’ve noted, I’m incompetent in Excel. Synching text file to Dropbox seems ideal. If Notespark exported to Dropbox, Someone else could develop the desktop end of the synch. An application like Nottingham might be ideal (not limited to only a Simplenote synch). Thank you for your response. I’ve visited your blog in the past and hadn’t seen any recent updates. It’s good to know that Notespark is in active development. Thanks again. Dirtbagg
Hi what’s wrong I need my update it doesn’t work it says the item is not available anymore !
Hi guys.
There is something strange happening with Notespark in the AppStore right now. We are working with Apple to try to figure out what is happening.
What happened to the update? I received notice from apple that the update was available. However, when I went to download it, it said it was no longer available. The app doesn’t show up at all in the app store any longer. I really want for my iPad- what’s the deal?
Did something happen to the search function? I don’t seem to have it on my Notespark Ap anymore.
Sorry for the confusion! The search field has been moved above the list of notes. This allows you to search for notes in any category (e.g., a specific tag).
i also cannot find the search function on my phone app – this is the main reason I have Notespark, so I hope it’s in there somewhere! please help?
No longer a way to search via the iPhone 3g app?
I have used Palm OS in the past and recently switched to iphone 3g. I am still trying to get used to the sync and transferring my 5000 memos from palm tungsten t3 to iphone via notespark.
I noticed that the notes fron the notespark desktop application doesnt transfer over to the iphone notespark. The palm does it automatically. Is there a way to have the desktop items transfer over to iphone automatically when you sync?
Did everyone find the search button?
I finally found it in the “ALL” category ABOVE the first note.
Whew!
@James, michael wall, Techlady, Bob:
“You can limit the scope of a search to the notes within a given category, e.g., All (closest to the Find capability on Palm, which always searches through all Memos and other data stores such as Calendar, Contacts, etc.), Starred, or associated with a specific Tag you have created. If you have a Tag for, e.g., Project_1, and you only want to look for occurrences of a particular string within notes that have that Tag, you can do so, avoiding superfluous search results associated with other Tags.”
That’s from my 3/18/11 “Converting Palm memos to iPod using Notespark” blog entry (I hope this html tag posts properly), to which I would add that it can sometimes be confusing because if you are in “Tags” (as opposed to being in a *specific* Tag), there is no search field at the top. One might argue that the search field used in the “All” category could also be found above “Tags”, since they represent the same total set of notes, but it’s true that that would be duplicate functionality in two different places, which can be undesirable.