Numerous web app improvements
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 11:50PM by Simplenote We've been making a lot of improvements to the Simplenote web app in recent months. Have you spotted them all? Here are the highlights:
Tabs. You can now use the Tab key to indent your selection or the current line. If you don’t want this feature, you can disable it in Settings.
Preview lines. You can choose how many preview lines are shown in the note list.
Markdown. For those who want to format their notes using Markdown syntax, you can now enable support for this in the new Note Info dialog. Doing so allows you to toggle between editing and previewing your note. When you publish a Markdown note, the publishing link sends people to a nicely rendered version that stays in sync with your updates.
Sharing. There's now a sharing menu in the web app where you can easily publish a note. To let other people edit a note with you, you can add their email addresses as tags.
Better links. When you click on a shared note link in a notification email, you're brought to that note inside your account (if you're already signed in). The links are now shortened using our simp.ly domain.
Printing. For old school people who like paper.
Import and export. We believe data should flow freely. You can now import and export notes using a variety of formats. This feature, which can be accessed from your account menu, is still in beta (its interface will be improved in the future).
Fixed overzealous warnings. There was a problem where you might be warned about changes not being saved even if you hadn't made any changes. Also, some browsers were displaying an unnecessary security warning. Both of these have been fixed.
Session recovery. If you become signed out of your account for some reason, the app will now prompt you to sign in again. This solves a potential case where unsaved data could have been lost under some circumstances.
Word count. Displayed in the new Note Info dialog. Also shows character count.
Untagged notes. For those who just have to tag everything, searching for tag:untagged will now display all your untagged notes so you can tag them to your heart's content.
Haven't tried the web app in awhile? You can sign in here.
Reader Comments (9)
Accidentally discovered the Markdown feature last week. Honestly, as someone who writes all his articles in MD within Simplenote, this is a PHENOMENAL feature. Thanks for continuing to improve an already great service.
In many ways, i prefer SNA.
Speed is first.
Second: simplicity.
Thanks for your dedication to this nice app!
Hey guys,
Have you thought of adding the option to archive a note? I might want to move it to a folder and not have it in sight all the time, but still not delete it.
Keep up the great job.
Still no way to delete or rename a tag?! Some of these features are kind of frivolous compared to something as simple as the ability to delete a tag. Why has basic tag management been neglected?
Simple Note is a phenomenal app. It's come such a long way. It's cleanness and simpleness makes it my go to research for notes. I hate to do anything to complicate it anymore, but my one request would be some simple text formatting (bold, italics, maybe size).
I look forward to seeing how simplenote continues to progress!
@Marian: This is something we'll consider.
@Jared: We agree. Basic tag management via the web is something we'll add.
@Jon: Thanks!
Great app!
I love the markdown feature.
My personal wishlist:
1) Show math formulas written in LaTeX (e.g. as an extension to markdown, text between $-characters could be interpreted as LaTeX and translated into an image URL using the formula feature in Google Charts)
2) switch between preview and edit modes on iPhone/iPad
Hi,
I have been using Simplenote for quite some time but only recently stumbled upon the markdown feature. It looks promising! I use Simplenote + Notational Velocity and the NV formatting (bold etc.) is lost when I edit the note in Simplenote. Markdown seems a good solution for that.
So, any plans to add it to the iOS app? Personally I would love to see "live preview" of markdown, that is the text is formatted according to the markdown tags, but the tags also show in the text (as in JustNotes).
I absoutely love Simplenote and I hope that many people can appreciate its usefulness as much as I do. It's my default writing app now. I can quickly see my notes from any computer with an internet connection (the few features it does have — i.e. universal search and tags — make it pretty useful).
The reason I can do so much with simplenote (its my task list, school notebook, idea catcher, journal, etc.) is that Ive come up with my own plain-text notational system. It works.
Final thought: I've always loved writing my custom essays with pen and paper; I have many notebooks and I appreciate nice writing utensils. The simplicity and freedom of simplenote makes it feel to me like the closest digital counterpart to a pen & paper.