Notebooks review

Matthew Sparkes

We review Notebooks, an Apple iPhone application to help you write, manage and edit files on the go

Published on Sep 4, 2009

Notebooks is designed to help you write, manage and edit files on the go, and it's surprisingly usable.

This will suit you perfectly well if you want to knock-up a short shopping list, but should you be a bit more ambitious, there's no reason that long documents couldn't be written on the train into work - why not start that first novel?

Landscape and portrait modes are both supported, although for typing long documents, landscape is a no-brainer with its larger keyboard. Once you've swiveled the handset on its side, the larger buttons make bashing away for paragraphs at a time quite comfortable.

As well as creating documents, the app works as an editor and reader. Importing PDFs, Apple iWork files, MS office files or HTML files is easy, and it will even view images.

When creating files, there are a few handy touches that elevate it over a simple note-taker. When taking a journal or log of events, the insert time and date feature is very useful. Tap the clock symbol in the toolbar, and you can insert one, other or both in a range of formats.

Another handy option is creating numbered or bullet-point lists - again, perfect for shopping lists, or even to-do lists. For more sensitive documents, the password-protect option will come in very useful.

Connectivity is where this app blows others out of the water; notes can be synced with the desktop over WiFi (as long as you have some opensource software installed) and can also be emailed directly from the app. This makes it a powerful tool in the right hands.

Navigating from file to file couldn't be simpler either, no matter how many folders, or books, you have. Tap the book icon from the homepage, and you can jump to any folder or subfolder straightaway. There is also a search box on the homepage, which lets you find notes based on titles or content.

Navigating within a note is also simple - swipe from right to left with a finger and you turn a digital page. Start from the other side of the screen and you can jump backwards.

Resizing text is done with two fingers, the same way that most apps zoom. In theory, this makes sense, but in practice we found it to be slightly fiddly. Sometimes the copy and paste dialog box was summoned, when all we wanted was larger text.

The developer's website claims that if Hemingway were still writing, he would be using Notebooks on the iPhone. I'm not sure about that, but at a shade under three and a half quid, this is a mightily useful application for all sorts of users.