Marginally-related, but too awesome to ignore: Worth a look in the land of text editors: Kieran Healy has helpfully mapped several text editors onto Lord of the Rings locations. If you are looking for low-stress ways to turn your otters into actual writing, nvALT is worth a look. The arguably more exciting news is that Elastic Threads has released new browser extensions for Chrome and Safari that make it even easier to get information (either the current page, a linked page, or selected text) into your notes. That should make things more consistent for users. I mention all of this simply to point to two new developments this week: first, a new version has been released, and with it the announcement that, going forward, nvALT will merge with the main release of Notational Velocity. It’s the easiest way to get from “in my head” to “drafted” that I can think of. More generally, I can say that every piece of writing that I’ve done over the past 9 months or so that’s not an e-mail, a wiki contribution, or a Google Docs collaboration has been done in nvALT. It is designed to be as light and fast as possible so it doesn’t slow down your computer and you can access it instantly at any time. NValt is, as the name implies, a fork of Notational Velocity that adds MultiMarkdown support. Notational Velocity is a very simple open source app for Mac that lets you take quick textual notes. I've been able to use Notational Velocity and nvALT at the same time as long as the notes have been stored in different folders. The reason is that many of the apps on this list look to Notational Velocity, a Mac app, for inspiration. As PowerPC machines get older and harder to maintain with spare parts harder to come by, Intel machines able to run Snow Leopard should become more popular with users that still need/want to run PowerPC apps. Eddie Smith has often written about ways to use nvALT, and Caleb McDaniel has shown how to use Notational Velocity as an easy task management system (previously linked). Notational Velocity is another such simple app which is given an extra dimension by Livedrive. This is the last version of OS X thats able to run PowerPC apps. LifeHacker has a video showing off the virtues of Notational Velocity here, and Ben Brooks explains some of the strengths of nvALT. Simple formatting is possible, and you can sync your notes across machines in a variety of ways. If what you’re typing matches text you’ve already entered, those notes come up for possible editing if what you’re typing is wholly new, then the app creates a new note. The basic idea of the app is that you just start typing. If youre handy with HTML and CSS, feel free to customize these in whatever way you like. nvALT is a fork by Brett Terpstra and David Halter/Elastic Threads, of Notational Velocity, which is designed to be as friction-free a way to take notes as possible. After the first time you run the Preview window, look in /Library/Application Support/Notational Velocity and youll find two files: template.html and custom.css. NvALT is a Mac application that lies between conventional text editors and elaborate external-brain programs such as Evernote, DevonThink, and OneNote.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |