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Off topic, but I'm loving the Mac equivalent, TextEdit. After trying every kind of fancy task management and note taking system from org-mode to Obsidian to Lo
by FredPret 3y ago
Off topic, but I'm loving the Mac equivalent, TextEdit.
After trying every kind of fancy task management and note taking system from org-mode to Obsidian to Logseq, I now use a .rtfd (.rtf + images) on iCloud to act as a note-taking system / todo-list. I would have used pen and paper but I need to paste screenshots and URLs.
There's an iOS app called RTF Write for 99c. Now I always have my notes, tasks, and shopping, and above all, it's so simple and quick.
- Tsiklon 3y agoAs a tangential aside Textedit I believe used to be provided as sample source code with Xcode. So even if it was removed it may never die.
- HelloImSteven 3y agoIt still basically is — the document-based app template is pretty much TextEdit minus some settings.
- xmonkee 3y agowhy not use the notes app? you get in built folders and shari g options too
- 404mm 3y agoNotes would be a total killer app if it supported Markdown.
- troupo 3y agoThey forced people to upgrade the full operating system when they ever so slightly changed Notes' format recently. I shudder to think what it will take them to support Markdown. (And yes, I use Notes for everything :) )
- xtracto 3y agoI found notes-up when I moved to Linux mint. It supports markdown! Ans it doesn't change quotes like notes does .
- FredPret 3y agoYou’re right - it’s a great option. But you can have multiple notes, and as soon as there are lots of notes to look at, I won’t do it every day. With my .rtfd file, there is only one file with one todo list, and that’s it. I can never lose it or get lost in it, or spend time finetuning it.
- el_benhameen 3y agoFor me, Notes tries too hard. The auto-heading of the first line of text, all the editing and markup options, the sharing, etc. are all more than I want, and they end up being distracting and getting in the way. My mind will easily wander to “what if I make all subjects this font and this color and bold etc.”, and then I lose the context of whatever I wanted to write down. TextEdit, new .txt file, name it “{subject} notes.txt”, throw it in the “old notes” folder when it gets too unwieldy is the only notes workflow that I’ve found actually works for me.
- nicbou 3y agoIf you like plain text, you'd probably love it even more with a better text editor.
- el_benhameen 3y agoI’ve tried many, but the featurelessness of TextEdit is what I like about it. “Better” ends up being more distracting. I do like Sublime for actual dev tasks, though.
- nicbou 3y agoSublime is my go-to for this. It can be customised to be much more comfortable to use, and projects let you have a set of files accessible with Cmd+P. I have different projects for each of my static sites. It's fantastic.
- evrimoztamur 3y agoP.S. Auto-heading is a setting (I turned it off).
- xmonkee 3y agoCounterpoint: syncing across devices, sharing, embeddable media and searchability are actually all kinda table-stakes if I'm going to be using these notes for the rest of my forseeable life. I have shared notes with my wife where we have shopping lists, shared notes with my co-founder on roadmaps, have my vaccine cards and IDs in there for presenting at bars, and all my code snippets in a folder called "Snippets" that is searchable and available to me at my work and home computers. Kinda hard to replicate with a folder full of text files without even more complexity and crud.
- bandergirl 3y agoIf a day I decide to change note-taking app, I can do it by just opening it. With notes I have to figure out an export strategy and third-party export app. There's something great about dealing with raw text files (and I say this as a happy Photos.app user)
- paradox460 3y agoTextEdit dates all the way back to NeXT
- housemusicfan 3y agoCorrect. The Macintosh lineage was SimpleText IIRC.
- icehawk 3y agoYeah TeachText, then SimpleText. You'd make the Read Me documents on classic Mac OS by changing the type of the file from 'ttxt' to 'ttro'
- auroch 3y agoActually, you changed the file type from 'TEXT' to 'ttro' to make a Read Me document read-only. 'ttxt' was the application signature of TeachText and SimpleText and is now the signature of TextEdit.
- sys_64738 3y agoI remember reading that the TextEdit.app is very simple as the basic widget the OS provides is fully featured with all the functionality.
- fiddlerwoaroof 3y agoYeah, the Cocoa text input system is very full-featured and TextEdit.app is basically a demo of it the way WordPad demoed the windows rich text editing component