Show HN: Notes Plus – A Markdown Apple Notes Clone with Latex, Excalidraw etc.

Show HN: Notes Plus – A Markdown Apple Notes Clone with Latex, Excalidraw etc.(notesplus.io)

4 points by sliqqq 32 days ago | 9 comments

tldr: clone of Apple Notes, but every note is a local Markdown file.

Hi, I used a summer of unemployment to actually finalize a hobby project, a literal clone of Apple's Notes, with open access to the filesystem, meaning each note is just a markdown file. Then implemented renderers for Excalidraw, Latex, AsciiMath, mermaid diagrams, PlantUML, Graphviz, Vega Lite, mhchem and footnotes (a feature i need a lot in texts).

It can also show notes in vertical lists, like swimlanes, I call it "JIRA view" ;)

Free for now (might monetize later if anybody is actually interested in the tool, with $19 one-time payment, NOT subscription)!

macOS app, but Windows and Linuxes are planned too.

I'm not 100% sure about the legal aspect of this, but i will try to even list it in the Appstore. The binaries are signed / notarized by Apple.

*PLEASE NOTE:* This is an early alpha! SO BACKUP YOUR STUFF OR JUST WORK WITH COPIES! There are issues! I'm posting this here to collect hurtful user feedback. There's a bug report button in the app, and it will notify you about available updates.

Thanks, I kindly request any form of feedback!

tarwin 32 days ago |

Very impressed, especially with the markdown/visual syncing. Tried it myself in an app (see tinyjs.app - nib example) and it's hard. Also the copy/paste from other places can be complex woop!

Appreciate the app size - including releasing separate Intel/ARM versions - no need for giant binaries! Thanks.

I realise you're not trying to be Obsidian (ie markdown is everything) but wondering how you are saving your priority etc? In a side directory like VSCode does or just internally in the app?

sliqqq 32 days ago | |

Thank tarwin! The app saves metadata like priorities, tags and rank/orders, pin status, favorite status (for files) and sorting (for folders) inside the app itself, technically in ONE simple .json in the app's macOS data folder (might have different locations on Intel and Apple silicon macs):

~/Library/Application Support/.... .notesplus/notes-metadata.json

It's a simple key-value JSON, simply a list of every file, and the according prio, tags, etc. (if set). The notes themselves are not touched and there are NOT any .files or so.

Regarding speed: To be honest i rebuild the app multiple times from scratch, every single time for performance reasons. ;)

tarwin 31 days ago | | |

Can I suggest an option to allow saving a .nodes-plus/ directory in any open directory? And save the metadata there? That way you have a portable collection?

zakxxi 31 days ago |

Really nice work, feels solid for an alpha. I'd be one of the first buyers once you flip on the $19 payment!

One feature request: iCloud or other cloud sync for iOS/iPadOS/Another Mac or PC would make this a daily driver!

On the editing side: I like the idea of moving text blocks via the drag handle on the left, but in practice it's a bit fiddly to grab and manipulate precisely.

sliqqq 31 days ago | |

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!

The cloud sync feature request is already on the roadmap (https://bugreport.notesplus.io/tickets/02a2ddcb-6770-4915-8b...), the fiddly grabber has now a bug ticket too (https://bugreport.notesplus.io/tickets/ad5a1c48-b652-43cd-91...)

;)

zakxxi 31 days ago | | |

Cool! I have subscribed to the newsletter ;-)

timer_interrupt 32 days ago |

It looks really neat! I use Latex still for a few documents, but I honestly have never loved the overall interface for Latex editors. Even the VSCode extensions are pretty temperamental. I can always appreciate a nice UI over these things.

sliqqq 32 days ago | |

thanks!