[bobiny]

I'm looking for a quick notepad, so that time between having an idea and writing it down is minimal, like using a camera on a smartphone. App is a must, because I have a phone nearby most of the time. In terms of UI, I don't want to select note, name it, I just want to open it and write like in a paper notebook. Digital is better because you can write in one hand in public transport. Ideally this app is just blank space and cursor is automatically placed one line after previous note — so I don't have to tap screen and double enter to skip a line.

[leobg]

I use Drafts app for this. It’s in my dock. Tap icon. Type text. Swipe and select where it should go: Evernote? Idea journal? Dynalist? Email? Clipboard? You name it.

[bobiny]

Amazing, thank you. That’s 90% what I’m looking for.

One thing though: it saves previous text in separate “files”, could I turn this off?

[bobiny]

I found it: set new draft creation to never.

[piceas]

Markor and Syncthing works well. Better than Dropbox Paper because it works when there is no connectivity.

As a fastmail user I like the notes feature.

[amadeuspagel]

> App is a must, because I have a phone nearby most of the time.

Thinktype is a progressive web app, you can use it much like a native app, it works offline.

> In terms of UI, I don't want to select note, name it, I just want to open it and write like in a paper notebook.

Thinktype works just like that. You open the app and start writing.

[bobiny]

I tried Thinktype on my iPhone — added a shortcut to homescreen. 1) I need to tap screen to start writing 2) I need to save what I wrote — can autosave happen in a browser app? 2*) Save button moved off screen to the right 3) I think new text should be at the bottom like in chat apps, but maybe it's just my taste 4) I presume it wouldn't work offline?

[amadeuspagel]

> I need to tap screen to start writing

I think the issue here is that, though the cursor is in the searchfield, the keyboard doesn't appear? I have no idea how to handle this. Even if you could make the keyboard appear automatically, it's also not obvious that you would want to, because you might just want to read your notes. (And then how to make it disappear?)

> I need to save what I wrote — can autosave happen in a browser app?

I've thought about that. Some issues:

- In thinktype, you write and search using the same field. So autosave would also save every search.

- The notes id is the time that you saved it. Not sure how I would handle that with autosave.

> Save button moved off screen to the right

Wow, that sucks. Can't replicate that, no idea what might cause that. Can you post a screenshot? Is the issue that the entire thing is too wide? Is it possible that you zoomed in by mistake?

> I think new text should be at the bottom like in chat apps, but maybe it's just my taste

I've thought about that. In my view, that makes sense at best for one line texts. If you have longer texts, and you want to read through all of them, then you have to keep moving back and forth. Scroll through a note to read it, scroll up again to find the previous note, and so on.

> I presume it wouldn't work offline?

It does work offline. Notes are stored locally using IndexedDB, and the code is stored locally using the cache interface of the service worker API.

[bobiny]

> It does work offline

That's very nice.

> In thinktype, you write and search using the same field

For my use I wouldn't care about search much. Most of what I write is one-time information like a phone number or some shopping list. Sometimes it's a thought that I just want out there but it has no value beyond that moment. And if an idea can be used in some of my projects or become a seed for one, I'd want to catalogue it using a structured app like Evernote or Standard Notes or any other.

> Can you post a screenshot? Just sent you in an email

[amadeuspagel]

> For my use I wouldn't care about search much. Most of what I write is one-time information like a phone number or some shopping list. Sometimes it's a thought that I just want out there but it has no value beyond that moment. And if an idea can be used in some of my projects or become a seed for one, I'd want to catalogue it using a structured app like Evernote or Standard Notes or any other.

I think there are lot of advantages of using one app for all notes, and that's part of why I made thinktype. It means you don't have to ask yourself where to write something down and where you did write something down.

> Just sent you in an email

Thanks. So it does look like the entire thing is too wide. I have no idea how to fix this, or even replicate it, sorry.

[bobiny]

>I think there are lot of advantages of using one app for all notes, and that's part of why I made thinktype. It means you don't have to ask yourself where to write something down and where you did write something down.

That's the idea behind most note-taking apps like iOS notes or Bear or Google Keep. You can use tags, ad images, lists and so on and so on.

But I dig that there are no folders or separate notes in your app, just one roll.