NoteMaster for iPhone

Posted by:     Tags:  , , , , ,     Posted date:  September 3, 2009  |  11 Comments


September 3, 2009


I thought Awesome Notes was, well, awesome. Then I heard about NoteMaster. It looked like it might be similar to Awesome Notes, so I emailed the nice people at Kabuki vision and requested a promo code. They were kind enough to supply one, so I’m passing on my findings.

IMG_0154The very first thing I discovered was that NoteMaster syncs with Google Docs, whereas Awesome Notes backs up there. Syncing is far preferable. I open up NoteMaster, hit the familiar sync icon, and any changes I made to my documents in NoteMaster are instantly applied to the document on Google, and any changes I (or someone with whom I share a document) made, are immediately applied to what I see on my iPhone.

From reading the comments and application description on Kabuki vision’s website, I expected a difficult process when I set up the sync. But it really was as simple as creating a sync folder inside my Google Documents, and moving  those docs I want synchronized to that new folder. (Google makes it easy.)

IMG_0153You have the option to perform a full sync (my preferred method), or sync one way – either from Google to NoteMaster, or from NoteMaster to Google.

NoteMaster allows you to enter your SMTP information directly so that you can email one of your Google Documents right from the application. Very handy feature, and something I’ve always liked about my all time favorite note app, Evernote.

At this point, I feel compelled to point out that I use Google Docs and Evernote in very different ways. I use Google for large documents, and shownotes for both the msmobiles podcast and the ConvertCast podcasts. If you are not a big documents user IMG_0152(rather than short notes/memos), you may actually be better off with Evernote for all your notes. On the other hand, if you regularly reach for Quick Office or Documents to go for Word documents…you might really want to investigate Google Docs!

When you open up NoteMaster,  you have the option of starting from All Notes, or your Category List. Since I typically don’t use categories, I go straight to All Notes.

The one and only thing I dislike about NoteMaster is that when you view your list of documents, the date that shows is the sync date, regardless of when something was last edited. I know part of t his is a limitation of Google, but for some reason I find it frustrating. IMG_0151NoteMaster gives you several sorting options including date…but that just seems pointless if that date is only the last time you did a sync after a document update.

You can also sort by Category, and alphabetically. Personally, I’m rather partial to the latter.

One of the features I really like with NoteMaster, is the ability to not only view pictures in pre-existing documents, but the ability to add them. You can add from your photo album, or you can take a new photo to insert into a note.

If you look at the bottom bar on the screenshot with the picture of the IMG_0160pig on the bbq (yes, it was quite delicious!), you’ll see three icons on the left. The farthest icon to the left brings up the keyboard where you can add to or edit a note. You can also add in headers (note the way "Photo" is in bold, and slightly larger than the previous text).

The second icon takes you to your photo library, where you can choose any photo you have. And the third icon opens up the camera so that you can take a new photo to insert into a document.

They results on Google via your computer are equally impressive. Frankly, it’s easier to insert the photo into the document on the iPhone than on your computer from inside Google!

IMG_0155Formatting you do inside Google appears, although it’s not quite as pretty. Not a big deal. It’s good enough that I’d rather use this than either Quick Office or Documents to Go. That’s saying something.

If NoteMaster would view Google’s spreadsheet and slideshow documents, it could be most impressive!

 




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11 Comments for NoteMaster for iPhone
Joanne

Hi again. thanks a lot. the review is of great help.
i guess i will go for the note master .
thanks

Phillip

Thanks for the great review Ali,

Was just looking at smoething to use with google docs.

Alli Flowers

Glad this helped you. Like I always said about Palm – the apps that support the platform are what make it great!

Jeni

I have been using Awesomenotes, and just bought Notemaster. I’m not impressed. There is no way to have due dates, which is important to me. Also, no way to designate priority. Awesome Notes is much more useful to me.

Alli Flowers

I totally understand. I wish Awesome Notes had the actual sync capabilities that NoteMaster has, but backing up and restoring isn’t as useful.

Paul

I had some issues when I imserted an imagen from my iphone into Notemaster Lite, then the image didnt display when viewing the doc in my browser. Also, edits from my iphone clears all formatting in the doc

shapeshiftY

Great post! I’ve posted some thoughts, included below, on my search for an uber info management system on a couple of other blogs recently. I arrived at this juncture simply by looking for a way to sync with Google Docs, but I’ve always been refining my current system, and so requirements include all info capture. I.e. email, notes on the go, feeds, bookmarks and docs etc. I am looking to replace WriteRoom with either NotesPro, EverNote or email to Blogger.com. Ideally, would like to have my info in discreet silos, but with one centralised view and search. So Gmail for email, GTD, tasks and notes, Google Reader for feeds and mail lists, Bookmarks for web clippings, and NotesPro + Google Docs or EverNote. I think I’ve already discounted email to Blogger as this is the same as my email note to self method and adds an external app to the equation. Right now I’m leaning towards NotesPro because of it’s Google Docs syncing, and don’t will probably halt my EverNote experiment for now. I’ll let the centralised view and search idea stew for a while and see what comes up

Just wrote a long comment and lost it. Anyway, arrived here looking for an improvement to my current info capture method, which is a very streamlined context based Gmail GTD and WriteRoom. I ditched Superstars and cut some more granular GTD Gmail labels as this was getting unwieldly. Ideally wanted to sync with Google Docs, and believe an iPhone app will shortly be able to do that better than what’s out there right now. But I came across Ruud Heins/Darren Crawford while searching. Whilst I am looking for some justification to use Evernote over my existing system, apart from it’s centralisation, syncing and OCR abilities, the use of it combined with a Gmail GTD system seems like duplication or overkill. People on both threads have talked of emailing to Gmail and then forward to Evernote, and using that Gmail copy as an archive. Doesn’t this make EN superfluous? Would love to hear other thoughts on this.

Just realised this search for a simple way to sync with Google Docs has thrown up other needs. So currently.
– Use Gmail GTD for notes and tasks
– WriteRoom for mobile ideas and text capture
– Google Docs for doc management
– Google bookmarks, Gmail and Reader for web clippings

So I think the requirement is to supplement Gmail GTD and Google Docs, but replace Google bookmarks and Gmail for web clips etc in a more centralised method. Go on convince me!

http://ruudhein.com/gmail-to-evernote-information-management-workflow
http://darrencrawford.com/my-simple-gtd-evernote-combo/
http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/iphone-software/notes-pro-new-iphone-notes-app-syncs-with-google-docs-has-spotlight-style-search
http://www.cloudnotes.net/2009/06/why-google-reader-is-still-hugely.html

shapeshiftY

Oh forgot my own post on the same area.

http://reddog888.blogspot.com/2010/04/search-for-uber-info-management-system.html

Alli Flowers

Yes, it would make Evernote superfluous – if you are one of the people who use Gmail. I don’t. I use Google Docs, but the only thing I use Gmail for is to log into all things Google. GTD is an oversimplification for people who can’t otherwise organize their own lives, no? My calendar and my documents/notes rarely intersect. It’s nice to have them live in the same cloud, but not necessary.

Evernote for notes
Google Docs for…documents (I keep documents and notes separate. A research paper is not a note, it is a document. Likewise, a list of what I order this week for Chinese take-out is just a note and doesn’t go into a document.)
Evernote for web clippings
Agendus for tasks because tasks belong on a calendar.

Dave

I’m a doctor and I am looking for an iphone notes application that can do the following:

most of my notes are short reminders, maybe one page long, of how I approach certain diagnostic problems. I need a notes app that will allow me to type my notes up on my PC and then have them sync to my iphone so I have access to them on the go.

What do you suggest? Thanks for any help.

Dave

Alli Flowers

For that I would DEFINITELY go with Evernote.