SplashNotes Outliner
by Eric March on May 15, 2009 at 10:47 am
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(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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App Name: | SplashNotes Outliner |
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| Developer: | SplashData |
Version: | 2.1.1 | |
| Publisher: | SplashData |
Size: | 753 KB |
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| Category: | Productivity |
Price: | $4.99+/Free | |
I’ve said before that I rather like SplashData’s apps, and I do, although I haven’t used a wide range of them. SplashNotes Outliner is one of those things that I hadn’t used before and really hadn’t even given much thought to, but now that I’ve had a chance to play with it, I rather like it.
SplashNotes Outliner is one of the last of SplashData’s apps to make the transition to the iPhone platform (the other I’ll be reviewing tomorrow), which makes their application library complete on the iPhone now. SplashNotes Outliner is essentially a list maker for whatever purposes you’d need a list maker for: Presentation sections, a list of talking points in a meeting, to-do lists, shopping lists — just about anything that should have bullet points beside it. I’ve actually started using this exclusively for my review queue and shopping lists now.
SplashNotes lets you create outlines in several formats: Standard bullet points, bullet points with checkboxes, or bullet points with removable checkboxes. The former just lets you create a standard bulleted list; checkbox lists can be created either with static checkboxes that remain when checked off (but can be removed manually), or checkboxes that automatically remove the checked item when tapped. Outlines can be given their own titles, as well as their own icon picked from a fairly decent-sized list of built-in choices. In all cases, lists can be nested quite deeply, and all are collapsable by level, so you can keep nice, tidy lists you can drill down into when needed.
Each entry in the outline can also contain notes, so you can enter an outline bullet, then add additional notes inside of it; entries with attached notes wll have a green-highlighted arrow next to their entry in the list so you know there are notes attached. You can also attach images to each note; photos can be brought in from your image library/camera roll, or you can take a photo on the spot.
But perhaps the most important feature of SplashNotes on the iPhone is something that both Windows Mobile and Palm users have always taken for granted: The ability to synchronize data with their home PC or Mac. For them (and I used to count myself among both of them), ActiveSync or HotSync takes care of everything every time their devices are synced, and of course, iPhone users don’t have that luxury. Sure, we have iTunes, but iTunes doesn’t have the infrastructure to accommodate third party extensions to its device sync functions, so developers have to design their own desktop sync clients.
The good news about that though is that the SplashNotes Desktop Companion app effetively gives you a full desktop version of SplashNotes with all of the features and benefits therein — you know, fun stuff like copy & paste, drag & drop, etc. Even better, it doesn’t have to remain resident like so many other sync clients — you load it when you need it. It features proper two-way synchronization so anything you create, edit, or delete on the desktop app gets synced to your iPhone and vice-versa. It synchronizes over WiFi, so your iDevice will need to be connected to the same WiFi network as the desktop machine the companion is running on. However, this companion app doesn’t come free: It’ll run you $9.95 — although if you’re an existing SplashNotes users for Palm or Windows Mobile, you can upgrade your license to the iPhone for half that.
In either case though, trials of both apps are available: SplashNotes Lite will let you try out the app while limiting you to just one outline at a time, and the SplashNotes Desktop Companion (Mac/Windows) will let you try out the full fully-functional desktop companion for 15 days before you have to decide if it’s a keeper. I quite like it myself; I’m already using it exclusively now for my review queue and shopping lists because it’s a lot easier than the built-in notes app or even Iconic Notes, which I was using previously (though those are just generic note taking apps, not outliners, but for what I need in these departments SplashNotes is a better fit.) It might be a little pricey for the average iDevice user, but it’s quite a handy app that has certainly found a permanent place in my 148.
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Splashnotes iPhone version would be the ultimate but it lacks the ability to copy/paste using the iPhone. I would like to take items from my action list and place them into my calendar (using pocket informant) as appointments or to-do’s. If anyone knows of an app with almost unlimited hierarchical capabilities, copy/paste, backup/syncing… please let me know. I tried zeptoliner but it doesn’t allow for backing up data.