OTOH, this one’s had a new release in the last 2 years. I loved the idea of Tot and bought it, but it has its glitches and doesn't seem to be actively supported anymore.
I believe this one is limited to MAC OS only my idea was that it should be available almost every where regardless of which OS we are using. And i am also planning to launch a dedicated app on appstore as well as play store when i have some more time. If you want to be notified about when i launch next set of updates feel free to follow my product hunt launch here -> https://www.producthunt.com/posts/noteux
And any feedback given there would definitely be added fast :)
I like the idea! The different scratch pads are cool. But I'm always a bit worried with localStorage of losing my work, is that a fair concern?
If you're looking for feedback, you could consider:
- Host the javascript and fonts yourself, only downsides (privacy, slower) in using a CDN. Ko-fi, Google fonts, Google analytics, Cloudflare, Bootstrapcdn, Numoh -- are all these entities required for note taking?
- Excessive user analytics: Google Analytics is not configured for privacy. Also another Numoh Analytics, but that seems disabled at the moment?
- A pretty writing experience helps me stay in a flow. Nothing wrong with Arial 16px #000, but not inviting either. There is still a lot to win from a typography perspective.
- The saving to .txt is nice, but I'd want a plain text (or markdown) version, no html. Also would be nice if the filename was optimized (scratchpad + timestamp).
- Instead of all CSS inline, it might prevent the flash of a white-screen if the styling was saved/cached in css file, or the prefers-color-scheme tag.
- You've added an <h1> tag but styled it with a font-size smaller than your body text, this makes it lose it semantics (i.e. also no SEO/UX value).
> A Note On Web Applications Added to the Home Screen
> As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on “after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.” That is the case in Safari. Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer. We do not expect the first-party in such a web application to have its website data deleted.
I'm glad to know that this isn't [entirely] destroying the concept of webpages acting in an app-like manner. At least this gives the developer and user some ability to give permission for actually persistent storage.
Thanks for your feedback, which font do you think would suit better? Also the point to launching noteux was not to compete with full fledge note taking apps but to quickly jot down something instead of thinking about which directory / note to create. I will keep on improving with the community's suggestions.
What I really miss right now is a chrome extension that replaces the new tab page with a note taking space.
I used to use an extension called papier that had a simple interface, just the right amount of configurability and a beautiful design (particularly good color schemes). The extension got removed because of its incompatibility with the new manifest V3.
The current alternatives are either too involved with too much configuration options (i.e. distractions) and not very attractive, minimalist designs.
With your app, you're almost there. If you can get the correct balance right, you could fill the gap in that niche.
I use a variation of this as a bookmarklet, perhaps you'll find it useful:
data:text/html,<html contenteditable>
You could probably set that as the URL of your home page to get the behavior you described.
I add a style="height:100%" in the HTML tag so that clicking anywhere puts focus on it for editing. You could add other styling and initial content as desired.
I do too. I've been wondering if there's some short JavaScript I could add to retrieve text from local storage when loaded, and update local storage after every change. Not so it persists for months, but just so it survives a tab close or a browser restart.
Wow, I used to use Papier all the time. I sort of forgot about it when I migrated from Chrome to Firefox and didn't really find a good alternative, but man that plugin was legitimately a huge part of my life for a while. I'm sad to heard it's going away, it was an absolutely genius idea
Oh yeah, it's one of those pieces of software that goes out of your way and just does its assigned job so well that you literally forget about it.
I remember switching to a new computer at work and noticing something was weirdly missing without being able to put my finger on it. It wasn't until one of those moment where I used to use the extension that I noticed it wasn't yet installed on this machine.
As developers have to support themselves in some way, would you be willing to use a similar ad-supported extension? Or perhaps pay a small amount to support development more directly and go ad-free?
Yesterday, I had a simple need—I wanted a quick way to jot down thoughts without the hassle of creating new notes or organizing folders. Instead of searching for an existing solution, I built one myself. That's how NoteUX was born!
It’s a minimalist, distraction-free note-taking space with multiple scratch pads, so you can quickly type and switch between notes without any extra steps. No sign-ups, no clutter—just an instant writing experience.
Supports Fullscreen Mode, Dark Mode and Download notes.
Hi - thanks for your efforts. I have found myself using this quite a bit over the past few days - I really like the simplicity. Is there a shortcut key to switch to and from each note? To me this is the only feature missing..
I love tiny note taking solutions. My favorite app of all time is (was?) nvALT [1].
The simplest in-browser solution actually requires zero pages or apps, see this bookmarklet [2]. It opens a full-page text area. No saving, but immediate and does not need a network connection.
Alternatively, not as easy as a publicly available web page, but if you want to have a very fast and minimalist self-hosted note taking app (with fast search and the ability to attach files and download websites), check out my small project called Textpod [3].
I was able to use nv (nvALT was a fork) before the development stopped and people slowly figured out it stopped. The website is still up https://notational.net and the last binary is still up for download. It worked for a crazy long time as it was. I am not sure but iirc there were some "stability" patches, in the original nv, or not. Then nvALT also stopped and then Brett started on something else and that kinda took a lot of time, really a long time (might have been released now but not sure). That is when I lost track of that lineage of note apps - the nvX - - the ones I started on. That was the reason my next was Simplenote and I stuck with it for really long.
After leaving Simplenote I could never really find a successor. Kept jumping from one app to another - UpNote (very electron), FS Notes (very unstable; come across a bug every other day that it's tiring), then Bear (might move to it, maybe), Joplin (no sadly) etc and what not. Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud. I could never find another simple note taking app. I wish Automattic took privacy seriously and kept the development of Simplenote afresh and maybe charged for it.
Maybe I am not supposed to find that one note taking app for me. Maybe it doesn't exist. That makes sense. I think it's about notes and not the note apps? Keep the notes and apps are a-changin'.
I just downloaded nvALT on Sonoma (14.3), and it runs, but looks a bit funky. The styling of some elements is slightly broken, but does not seem to affect the functionality. I haven't tested all the features though.
>Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud
I didn't quite understand: do you want an app that syncs to iOS but not via iCloud?
Semi-related: is there a modern equivalent of Notational Velocity? I used to love it. Similar to this app, there was a focus on speed. But Notational Velocity (and NValt) also had great search built-in
The OG drill book (Unix Power Tools) had a tip for quick note taking - redirect to /dev/null. For the past 25 years I pretty much always have a terminal window open with a shell redirecting to /dev/null so I can copy and paste or type quickly. I suppose if you wanted to save it you could redirect to a file instead of /dev/null but I always treat it as a buffer that will eventually go away.
Are you just saying here that you open a shell, redirect cat's output to /dev/null, and then use the terminal buffer for notes? I can't quite parse out from your comment what you mean as a workflow; I checked out my copy of Unix Power Tools and didn't see anything clarifying what you mean in either Chapter 43 "Redirecting Input and Output" or flicking through section IV "Basic Editing".
If you have a few minutes and could clarify, I'd appreciate it. I love a good *nix workflow.
Yes that's it: "cat > /dev/null". Or you can even skip running cat and just "> /dev/null". You exit by typing ctrl-d which sends an EOF (and then sends all the output to /dev/null!).
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And any feedback given there would definitely be added fast :)
If you're looking for feedback, you could consider:
- Host the javascript and fonts yourself, only downsides (privacy, slower) in using a CDN. Ko-fi, Google fonts, Google analytics, Cloudflare, Bootstrapcdn, Numoh -- are all these entities required for note taking?
- Excessive user analytics: Google Analytics is not configured for privacy. Also another Numoh Analytics, but that seems disabled at the moment?
- A pretty writing experience helps me stay in a flow. Nothing wrong with Arial 16px #000, but not inviting either. There is still a lot to win from a typography perspective.
- The saving to .txt is nice, but I'd want a plain text (or markdown) version, no html. Also would be nice if the filename was optimized (scratchpad + timestamp).
- Instead of all CSS inline, it might prevent the flash of a white-screen if the styling was saved/cached in css file, or the prefers-color-scheme tag.
- You've added an <h1> tag but styled it with a font-size smaller than your body text, this makes it lose it semantics (i.e. also no SEO/UX value).
Unfortunately localStorage is not guaranteed to be persistent, especially on Safari/Webkit.
> Starting in iOS 13.4 and Safari 13.1, LocalStorage will be cleared after 7 days of no user interaction on a site.
7-Day Cap on All Script-Writeable Storage - https://webkit.org/blog/10218/full-third-party-cookie-blocki...
This also affects sessionStorage and Indexed DB, which is commonly used by local-first software that runs in the browser.
> As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on “after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.” That is the case in Safari. Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer. We do not expect the first-party in such a web application to have its website data deleted.
I'm glad to know that this isn't [entirely] destroying the concept of webpages acting in an app-like manner. At least this gives the developer and user some ability to give permission for actually persistent storage.
Deleted Comment
I used to use an extension called papier that had a simple interface, just the right amount of configurability and a beautiful design (particularly good color schemes). The extension got removed because of its incompatibility with the new manifest V3.
The current alternatives are either too involved with too much configuration options (i.e. distractions) and not very attractive, minimalist designs.
With your app, you're almost there. If you can get the correct balance right, you could fill the gap in that niche.
data:text/html,<html contenteditable>
You could probably set that as the URL of your home page to get the behavior you described.
I add a style="height:100%" in the HTML tag so that clicking anywhere puts focus on it for editing. You could add other styling and initial content as desired.
I've made this a while ago for myself to take quick notes while browsing the web, so I'm publishing this in case anyone finds it useful:
> minimalistab is an extension for Chrome that replaces chrome://newtab with a blank WYSIWYG editor for taking notes.
https://github.com/hakaneskici/minimalistab
Here's the primary trick [1] behind the scenes that makes this possible:
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43179649
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dhgibmcoiahciekchd...
I remember switching to a new computer at work and noticing something was weirdly missing without being able to put my finger on it. It wasn't until one of those moment where I used to use the extension that I noticed it wasn't yet installed on this machine.
I will try to create a chrome-extention for NoteUX hopefully soon.
you can follow me or directly reach out to me on twitter too x.com/nabeelHQ
It’s a minimalist, distraction-free note-taking space with multiple scratch pads, so you can quickly type and switch between notes without any extra steps. No sign-ups, no clutter—just an instant writing experience.
Supports Fullscreen Mode, Dark Mode and Download notes.
What do you guys think?
Have you missed this part?
The simplest in-browser solution actually requires zero pages or apps, see this bookmarklet [2]. It opens a full-page text area. No saving, but immediate and does not need a network connection.
Alternatively, not as easy as a publicly available web page, but if you want to have a very fast and minimalist self-hosted note taking app (with fast search and the ability to attach files and download websites), check out my small project called Textpod [3].
[1]. https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ [2]. https://bookmarklet.one/bm/quick-note/ [3]. https://github.com/freetonik/textpod
After leaving Simplenote I could never really find a successor. Kept jumping from one app to another - UpNote (very electron), FS Notes (very unstable; come across a bug every other day that it's tiring), then Bear (might move to it, maybe), Joplin (no sadly) etc and what not. Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud. I could never find another simple note taking app. I wish Automattic took privacy seriously and kept the development of Simplenote afresh and maybe charged for it.
Maybe I am not supposed to find that one note taking app for me. Maybe it doesn't exist. That makes sense. I think it's about notes and not the note apps? Keep the notes and apps are a-changin'.
>Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud
I didn't quite understand: do you want an app that syncs to iOS but not via iCloud?
If you have a few minutes and could clarify, I'd appreciate it. I love a good *nix workflow.
https://web.deu.edu.tr/doc/oreily/unix/upt/ch48_03.htm