Note-taking apps are a dime a dozen. From all-in-one workspaces like Notion to sticky-note systems like Google Keep, there’s a spectrum of options to choose from. But what if you want something lightweight, fast, and easy for everyday note-taking needs?
Sadly, your options are limited. Among the ones available, Simplenote is a solid choice. Aside from being completely free to use and offering apps for all major desktop and mobile platforms, it has several characteristics that make it an ideal note-taking app for minimalists.
A sleek and uncluttered interface
Simplifying navigation and note creation
Simplenote finds its strongest appeal is the interface. It keeps things simple by limiting the number of menus and buttons. The app’s desktop and web versions feature a simple two-pane interface: the left displays a list of all your notes, with a search bar at the top for quick searches, whereas the right is essentially a blank canvas where you type your notes and view the contents of the currently selected note. There’s also a sidebar to the extreme left with buttons to access all your notes, trash, and tags.
As for taking notes, you get a minimalist editor with no toolbar, ribbons, or pop-up menus taking up your valuable screen estate. This helps create a distraction-free experience, making it easier for you to capture your notes. But that’s not all. Simplenote also offers Focus Mode, which opens the editor pane in full-screen mode, stripping away all the other elements on the screen, for an immersive writing experience. You can toggle it on using the Command+Shift+F or Ctrl+Shift+F keyboard shortcut, or by clicking View and selecting Focus Mode.
Includes what’s truly essential
Keeping you focused while fulfilling essential note-taking functions
Despite being lightweight, Simplenote packs all the essential note-taking features you’d typically need. For instance, it includes a complete offline mode, which allows you to access, edit, and create notes even while you’re offline. Then, you get instant search—accessible via the search bar at the top—that helps you find notes using appropriate keywords.
Simplenote also supports tags for note organization. This is much better than the folder-based approach for anyone seeking minimal experience, as it makes organizing similar notes and finding them convenient and efficient. To tag a note, click or tap the Tag text at the bottom of a note and type a tag name; existing tags appear as you type their name. All your tags appear in the left sidebar, and you can click or tap on one to view all the related notes.
There’s even an option to pin important or frequently accessed notes. Pinned notes appear at the top, so you can access them quickly. To pin a note, bring up the three-dot menu and toggle on the Pin to Top option. Another essential feature Simplenote includes is the ability to import and export notes. The former makes transitioning to Simplenote easy by helping you import all the notes from your current note-taking app in one go.
Sprinkles a few advanced features for power users
Facilitating note-creation, sharing, and collaboration
Aside from addressing the basic note-taking needs, Simplenote packs a bunch of advanced features for those who need them. Markdown support is a popular one on this list. For those unaware, Markdown is a markup language that enables quick text formatting. Since Simplenote doesn’t have a rich-text editor, this comes in handy when you want to format your notes. You need to enable Markdown for notes individually. You can do this by clicking or tapping the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of a note and flipping the Markdown toggle on. Learning Markdown has other benefits, too.
Simplenote also supports version history. You can use it to go back in time and view or restore changes you’ve made to a note. To view the history, click or tap the three-dot menu and select History. Use the slider to navigate the timeline and hit Restore Note to restore a version. Collaboration is another handy feature. It lets you invite another Simplenote user to view and edit a note, allowing you to brainstorm on ideas together.
Similarly, for times when you want to share a note with a non-Simplenote user or many people at once, Simplenote has the publish feature, which lets you instantly publish a note on Simplenote’s servers. Go to the note you want to publish, and from the three-dot menu, toggle on the Publish option. As soon as you do this, it returns a unique public URL for the note. You can share this link with anyone, who can then open it in a web browser to view the note. Published notes are read-only, and you can unpublish them with the click or tap of a button, any time you want.
Automatically syncs notes across all your devices
A seamless experience
Simplenote not only has apps on all major platforms but also keeps your notes synced across all devices. As such, you can start a note on one device and continue editing it on another. Any changes you make in a note appear across all the devices in real-time.
The best part? You don’t need to pay extra to sync your notes, nor do you need to go through any complicated setup. Just log in with your Simplenote account, and all your notes appear automatically.
Note-taking shouldn’t feel complicated
Feature-rich note-taking apps are great when you want to create a knowledge base or have your notes structured a certain way. However, they aren’t ideal for quick note-taking.
For that, you need a minimalist note-taking app that lets you quickly jot down your thoughts, ideas, or anything important without getting bogged down by various features, as that can cause you to lose track of what you want to capture. Simplenote does that really well, removing the friction between your ideas and capture.
