Hi Paul, There are lots of note taking apps for the iPhone that will integrate with Dropbox, and Sarah's suggestion of Plain Text or Notesy include two good choices. However, I'm going to suggest that you use an app called Simplenote instead, along with a free Mac desktop client for notes called Notational Velocity. If you want to, you can also have this arrangement set up to sync with Dropbox.
Simplenote is optimized for text notes of the form of your TXT files and it is the only iOS note app that I'm aware of that supports searching both for notes that match your search terms and for finding matching positions of text within the individual notes using VoiceOver. I think we discussed this on list earlier -- at least I recall an exchange with Dane about Simplenote vs. Evernote that is in the archives: • Simplenote vs. Evernote [was Re: Printing from my Ipad] http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/msg03148.html With the basic free Simplenote app you get a secure account for your notes that can be accessed through the Simplenote app on any of your iOS devices, or through a web browser. Whenever you open the app on an iOS device with network connectivity all your notes get updated, and then you're able to access all content locally (without a network connection). If you're away from your computer, but have access to a web browser on another computer or device, you can log into your secure account and also access all your notes. While I think there's a limit on the number of notes you can create in the free account over a period of time, in practice I don't believe you ever would hit the limit. If you want to enter notes from your computer, you can use any of the Desktop clients (or even, I suppose, open the files in Dropbox, if you have it set up that way -- but the Desktop clients like Notational Velocity have much nicer features and shortcuts for creating, searching, updating, and managing your notes). I think the reason Simplenote hasn't caught on more with visually impaired iPhone users is that most of them are using Windows, and someone told me that the various available Simplenote Desktop clients for Windows are not accessible. That's not true on the Mac side, and there are a number of clients that are accessible, with more being added. But I've been using Notational Velocity, which some Mac users have been using just for note creating regardless of the iOS devices. I'll excerpt from a blog post that I found about using Notational Velocity. I thought it was pretty funny that the user had a free Simplenote account just so that he could use the automatic syncing and online access, even though he didn't have an iPhone (and stated that he would use the app on the iPhone if he had one). I think this guy went a bit overboard on Notational Velocity, but here's the description. The URL for the full post is: http://mnmlist.com/nv/ <begin excerpt> mnmlist: using notational velocity These days I use the simple Mac program Notational Velocity to write nearly everything — notes, lists, todos, ideas, blog posts, book chapters, rambling rants to the government, and so on. I noted this in a feature Shawn Blanc did on my Sweet Mac Setup (and indeed it is sweet), and several readers asked for an elaboration – how do I use NV? It’s not complicated. Notational, as many of you might know, is a lightweight program that does something very simple: • It allows you to write text. • It saves these texts automatically — you never have to press Save. • It lets you find these texts very easily through a search bar that displays matches as you type the search, very similar to Google Instant. The last part is the magic. In the location bar, you just start typing, and instantly whatever you’re looking for appears. Also if you start typing a name of a new file you want to create, you just press Return and the new file is create — no need to go to “New File” or something like that in a menu. And by learning one keyboard shortcut — Cmd-L to instantly go to the “location bar” — you never need to use the mouse. Just type Cmd-L, start typing your search or new file name, and press Return when you’re done. Then start typing or editing with the keyboard. It’s extremely simple, but it works better than any other text editor I’ve used, and so I decided it would be all I use. I haven’t looked back. My Setup I’ve set up a couple things worth noting: • Under Preferences/Notes/Storage, I’ve set it to store notes as plain text files. This allows me to email individual text files to people if necessary, to open them in other text editors, and to access the files from my phone if needed. • I also have it synchronizing with Simplenote’s online service. I don’t use Simplenote as I don’t have an iPhone (if I did I would) but I like having all my notes backed up and accessible online. You can do this under Preferences/Notes/Synchronization. It’s free. • Lastly, I moved the “Notational Data” folder in which all the plain text notes are stored to my Dropbox folder. I haven’t used this yet, as I only use one computer yet and don’t need to access my files from other computers, but I like that it’s instantly backed up and accessible online — once again. It’s also free and easy to set up. <snip> I love NV for its lightness, its simplicity, its speed. It does everything I need with a minimum of fuss, which is basically perfect. <end excerpt> You can get Simplenote from the App Store: • Simplenote (free) by Codality http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplenote/id289429962?mt=8 • The various desktop clients and helpers are listed at the Simplenote downloads page: http://simplenoteapp.com/downloads/ • The direct link to the free Notational Velocity app is: http://notational.net/ When you start up Notational Velocity, go to the preferences file (Command+comma) to set up syncing with Simplenote (and insert your account information). You can also select your preferred external text editor, etc. There's an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts in the Help menu. But basically, you only need to press Command+L, type in the name of the file or note you want to create, and then type or paste in the text your want to sync to Simplenote. I actually have a premium account subscription to Simplenote (currently either $1.99/month or $19.99/year), which gives me a number of other features (including a more convenient way to set Dropbox syncing, an email address to which I can send content I want to automatically turn into notes, an RSS feed for notes, the ability to convert notes into todo lists or public web pages, more archiving features, and a number of other things). However, I'd recommend that you just get the basic free app and decide whether you like it. The accessible searching with VoiceOver works in the free app. What's different about the way searching is handled within notes in Simplenote is that instead of highlighting the search terms, which doesn't do anything for VoiceOver users, the text with the match to the search term is shifted to the top line of the visible file. So if you touch the top of the screen just below the heading, you'll access the line with the matched text. You can't run your search and find entirely from a paired Bluetooth keyboard because of this, but what I do with the Apple Wireless Keyboard is run the search, then navigate to select the note I want that matches the search term. Then, to check the matches within the file, I touch the screen below the top heading and do a two finger flick down to start reading the matched content. If I want to go to the next match I use VO+Right arrow on the keyboard to move to the button for finding the "next" match and activate that, then touch the top of the screen again to locate the matched phrase and do another two finger flick down to start reading. If I want to stop and move to the next match, I can just two finger tap to stop reading and use VO+Right arrow to the button to find the next match -- or you can navigate to the button for the previous match if you want to move back. This all works really well. Even if you don't care about being able to search in your notes files within Simplenote, I'd still recommend it. By default the notes are ordered so that most recently used notes appear first, but if there's something you want at the beginning, like your train travel itinerary, just use the option to "pin" the note and it will appear first. If you want recommendations about other note-taking apps, I can discuss Notesy, Plain Text, Elements, Nebulous Notes, etc. These are all pretty good. Notesy will let you search for matching terms in either all notes, or just the notes created/modified in the last week. But none of these other note taking apps apart from Simplenote lets you accessibly find and navigate to matched terms within individual notes. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Jan 23, 2012, at 06:11, Sarah Alawami wrote: > I would recomend plain text or notesy for this. both intagrate with dropbox > and you can change everything on the fly and it will reflect back on your > mac when you get home. > > Take care. > On Jan 23, 2012, at 6:43 AM, Paul Hopewell wrote: > >> Hello, >> I have details of a train journey I need to make on a TXT file on my iMac. >> Is it possible to transfer this to my iPhone and then view it on the iPhone >> to remind me of changes during the journey? >> >> In general can one move files of arbitrary file type to the iPhone and store >> them in a folder on the iPhone? This can be done via iTunes for certain file >> types but I am unclear whether it will work for TXCT and DOC files. >> >> Many thanks. >> >> Paul Hopewell <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to mac-access@mac-access.net You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access@mac-access.net/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
