NoteBook 2.1 by Circus Ponies Review

Many a review has been written about Circus Ponies’ NoteBook since its inception several years ago. Though the program isn’t new to me (I use it constantly for my daily to-dos, and used it to plan my wedding last year), I recently was reminded once again why I love it so much.

When I started here a couple of weeks ago, I was initiated pretty quickly into the Small Dog family, and thus, inundated by the work that inevitably followed! There’s a lot to keep track of, so I figured out pretty early on that I need to have an organizational plan in place for calendars and lists galore. Being the helpful guy that he is, Ed sent me the weekly breakdown of things to do, which I then quickly reformatted the plain text into a new NoteBook page (shock and awe ensued at how impressive page looked).

However, Notebook has substance to back up its good looks. (Personally, form always has to have an element of functionality in it to be worthwhile!) So, read on to see what I find so great about it:

1. Simple formats: When you go to open a new notebook, a dialogue box pops up with several formatting options. For example, if you’d like to keep a journal, select that page, and you have a page formatted for paragraphs along with the date at the top (I’m writing this in NoteBook now). Every notebook has a table of contents, indices, and a divider page.
2. Outlining is key: NoteBook uses cells that you can set to perform different functions. If you are in a List mode (ideal for to-dos), the cell is closed once you hit the Return key, and a new cell is created. If you’re in Paragraph mode, hitting the Return key just takes you to the next line without creating a new cell. One of the things I like most is that you are able to expand and collapse the tree easily (say, if your list is just too long to look at).
3. The Inspector (gadget): This function is what really gives NoteBook a superior interface. The Inspector is the window that pops up when you hit the small “i” in the lower righthand corner of the notebook, and it follows the same look and feel that many OS X applications have (Dashboard, Pages, etc.) From there, you can change Fonts, add Keywords or Dates, Colors, Page Backgrounds, Add HTML links… the list goes on. Pretty much every aspect of the notebook can be controlled from here to suit your preferences.
4. The Tabs!: There’s something about having a digital notebook look just like my old spiral bound notebooks from school. You can choose to add a tab or delete one easily, change the fonts and colors, and it works fantastically to keep everything looking organized.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of NoteBook’s functionality and features (including the ways you can use it to organize digital photo albums and add other digital content), but if I had to sum it up, I would describe it as “elegantly simple.” Sure, I could always think of more things I’d like it to do (adding a Customized Template option would be great), but it is simply the best program I’ve found to track all of the different things I have going on in my personal and professional life.

To download a free 30-day trial, click here.