Development Progress
Note: this page is outdated. Instead, please check out the v3 page right below.
Significant change in my development: The rewrite of Notes Plus in Version 3.
To make it easier for you to monitor my development progress, I put here the list of all development items I’m working on. They are classified in four groups: New Features, Improvements, Structure, and Bugs. Please let me know if I missed anything.
Special thanks to my beta testers (who is testing the pixel eraser feature I1): Alberto G., Alex K., Alistair C., Ashraf T., Bert O., Casey C., Ciaran P.A.C., DJ D., Eric L.P., Fabrizio A., Glenn R., Ian M., Jarred O., Jean-Rémi D., Joey B., John B., John S., Jon R., Jose A.S., Liz, Mark B., Mark S., Michelle G., Mitchell W., Nick H., Noah B., Olaf W., Örjan K., Pablo L.R.P., Paul P., Peter C., Robert L., Robyn S., Rolf G., Ryan H., Sabrina J., Scott Ch., Scott C., Shacha B., Shawn B., Stephen M., Tom D. (missing anyone?).
New Features
Major add-on to the app’s functionality.
| Name – Description | ETA | Sta- tus |
Prereq- uisite |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | Partial Dropbox Support
Ability to upload exported PDF files to a Dropbox folder. |
8d | ||
| N2 | PDF Import and Write-over | 10d | ||
| N3 | Cut and Paste
Cut or copy drawing and paste them across pages. Allow multiple drawings on clipboards. Enable clipboard browsing. |
10d | ||
| N4 | AirPrint
Enable printing PDF directly from iPad for iOS 4.2+ |
2d | ||
| N5 | VGA-out – Ability to connect iPad to an LCD screen to project a portion of the page. | 5d | ||
| N6 | Image and Camera Support
Import image from photo library as a drawing object. Also allow taking picture from iPad 2 camera as image. Allow scaling and rotating images. |
7d | ||
| N7 | Evernote integration
Upload and sync exported PDFs and images with content in an Evernote folder. |
10d | ||
| N8 | Text Search
Enable searching for typed text. Integrate with SpotLight search. |
10d | ||
| N9 | Tagging
Allow tagging notebooks or individual pages with different tag types such as text or date/time. Enable search and browse tags for notebooks/pages. |
20d | ||
| N10 | MobileMe’s iDisk Integration | 10d | ||
| N11 | Box.net Integration | 10d | ||
| N12 | Full Dropbox Integration
Sync all notebooks and folders with Dropbox. |
10d | S1 | |
| N13 | Sync recordings
Sync audio notes with text notes to enable playback by selecting text notes where recordings take place. Also enable highlighting sync-ed text notes when recording is playing. This requires data model change and it will be another upgrade disaster like in version 2.0. To prevent this, need to do S1 first. |
10d | S1 | |
| N14 | Support Document Interchange Open export PDFs to other apps (GoodReader, iAnnotate) and allow other apps to open PDFs exported from Notes Plus. |
|||
| N15 | Export audio file to MP3 or M4A | |||
| N16 | Introduce layers for drawing | S1 | ||
| N17 | Group and lock drawing objects | |||
| N18 | Right to left, up / down writing Support writing styles for languages such as Arabic, Chinese, etc. |
7d | ||
| N19 | In-app Support
Have a in-app UI for support questions. This will connect to server to send support questions and receive answers. Also search for other people questions (knowledge based). It’s best if users can answer questions of others (in threads). |
5d | ||
| N20 | WebDAV Integration | ??? | ||
| N21 | AirPlay Support
Enable viewing in big screen with Apple TV. Better option than VGA for high-tech adopters. |
3d | ||
| N22 | TextExpander Support
TextExpander introduced an API for iOS (Google it). Integrate this API to extend the keyboard functionality. |
2d |
Improvements
Minor tweaks to improve the app’s usability.
| Name – Description | ETA | Sta- tus |
Prereq- uisite |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I6 | Left hand support (“hooked” style)
Arrange all interface components to support “hooked” style of left hand writing where palm lays on top from left. |
6d | ||
| I9 | Remember last closeup location when turn off “Long Press for Closeup” | 1h | ||
| I11 | If could not delete page because of permission problem, should alert users | 2h | ||
| I13 | Enable resize stroke selection
Currently only shapes and text are resizable. |
2h | ||
| I15 | Modify deletion gesture to follow Apple Newton (squiggle up and down) instead of Microsoft OneNote right now (squiggle back and forth) | 3d | ||
| I16 | Flag notebooks with recording in navigation view
Currently, in the notebook list on navigation view, users don’t know which notebook has recordings. Need to indicate that by a special icon. |
8h | ||
| I18 | Add custom keyboard buttons for date/time stamp
iOS allows adding custom buttons on top of the keyboard when it popup. These buttons can be something like “cursor next”, “cursor previous”, “insert date”, “insert time”, etc. |
2d | ||
| I21 | Save Quick Access “Pen & Settings”
Current “Pen & Settings” quick access popup only contains recent settings. Need to be able to save these. |
4d | ||
| I22 | Text-only export and email Ability to export text-only to text files and embed them directly in email. |
2d | ||
| I23 | Select/Delete/… popup button over palette. When selecting objects on the top, if the “Pen & Options” palette is shown, the popup buttons need to be on top of the palette. Or the palette can be docked instead of floating (new interface S4). |
2d | ||
| I25 | Move/Copy Target Starting Directory Change the starting directory when move/copy to the current directory. |
4h | ||
| I26 | Blackout current note when password is needed The current password screen doesn’t cover the whole page and this is a security problem. It should blank out the whole page so nothing is seen through. |
2d | ||
| I27 | Ability to change recording names | 4h | ||
| I28 | Highlighter Currently the way to do highlighting is to choose a stroke with low opacity (semi transparent). While it works, it’s not productive because users have to adjust stroke opacity each time (slow and inconsistent). Need a highlighter quick setup, adjustable (and saved for recall) highlighter function. Also the highlighting currently appear on top of the handwriting making the handwriting fuzzy. Have a smart detection to put highlighting strokes below handwriting (note: it could be confusing when introducing z-index/layers). |
1d | ||
| I29 | Eraser Settings UI Move eraser settings to “Pen Options”. Also provide quick eraser settings UI when touch and hold eraser icon (or some similar gesture). If this is inconsistent with touch and hold text icon (lock), could change text icon behavior. When this new quick settings UI is provided, include option to either end erasing for each touchUp or keeping the erasing mode until tap again. Change eraser tip settings UI to interactive dragging. Change eraser size settings to select from button instead of slider right now. |
3d | ||
| I30 | Custom Paper Background
Have a new UI to create/edit custom paper background with color, pattern (lined or grid), and images. Allow selecting an image from Photo app to use as paper background. After importing, allow resize, move and crop background image. Save background image to be use in future notebooks. Provide more built-in backgrounds such as top-half blank, top bottom grid or lined. Make grid size of grid paper background adjustable |
5d | ||
| I31 | Closeup UI Enhancement Add eraser, undo, highlighter, and quick settings on top of closeup box. Also have an option to turn off auto-scrolling. |
2d | ||
| I32 | Move Notebook Title Off Toolbar and Update UI
The page title on the top toolbar right now makes it too crowded. Have a heading section as part of the page (scrollable) with notebook and page title (editable). |
1d | ||
| I33 | Option to turn off auto-scrolling in closeup
Ever since the closeup box was resizable, it was used for more than just hand writing. Thus, it makes sense to turn off auto-scrolling. Better to be a button right on top of the closeup box. |
2d | ||
| I34 | Insert page order consistency
Currently, the navigation pane insert page AFTER and the toolbar insert page BEFORE. Need to change the toolbar to also insert page after current page. |
1h | ||
| I35 | Read-only per page level
Currently, read-only is applied to entire notebook. Read-only per individual pages can be useful in many cases. Note: be careful when implementing overriding mechanism. Page level read-only should override notebook level read-only. |
2d | ||
| I36 | Select shapes from list
Sometimes, detected shapes are not what users want. Then, allow select from a list of pre-defined shapes. Also consider small square checkboxes (for to-do list checkmarks) as pre-defined shapes. |
3d | ||
| I37 | Sort notebooks by creation date instead of updated time
This requires changes to database to add creation date for notebooks. Last time it was a disaster changing database model so maybe waiting for S1. |
1d | S1 | |
| I38 | Colored notebook names
It might be easier for users to quick scan through the notebook list of their names are in different colors. |
2d | ||
| I39 | Allow auto-save interval configurable
The app is default to auto-save every 120 seconds. Allow users to change this time interval. |
4h | ||
| I40 | Add arrows to ends of line objects
It is useful for users to have arrows instead of just lines. Introduce a check box UI to allow quickly setup arrow head at the end of lines. |
1d | ||
| I41 | Allow different paper background for different pages within a notebook
Currently a notebook has only one background. It’s useful to have different background for different pages within a notebook. Note: this could cause change in database model. |
1d | S1 | |
| I42 | Option to turn off page turning
Zooming out could turn page accidentally and this can become very annoying. Have an option to turn off page turning. |
1d | ||
| I43 | New built-in paper backgrounds
Dot-grid: like grid but with dots instead of lines. Engineering paper: like grid but have bold big square sections: http://www.usefulref.com/referencetopics/Inv_timeline/images/en/c/cd/Engineering-pad-simulation.gif. Top half blank; bottom half grid. Guitar music sheet: http://www.kollewin.com/EX/09-16-11/tab-sheet.gif. Isometric paper (just Google it). |
1d | ||
| I44 | Internal link to another notebook/page
When adding hyperlinks to an external web browser, internal links to another notebook or pages should be added as well. Of course this requires data model changes and maybe better off waiting until S1 is complete. |
2d | S1 | |
| I45 | Pausing recording to keep in one audio file
Currently only record and stop is allowed. Stop will create a new audio file. Maybe useful to introduce pausing which stops recording but doesn’t create another audio file. |
1d | ||
| I46 | Save audio file periodically.
The problem with recording for a long time is that the iPad could run out of memory (RAM, not disk space) and causes crashes. Should either save audio file periodically or stop and restart audio after a certain interval. The later solution is better. |
2d | ||
| I47 | Read-only at page level
Page’s read-only will override notebook’s read-only. |
2d | ||
| I48 | Allow specifying page range when exporting to PDFs
Something like: 1-3, 5, 8-12, … |
2d | ||
| I49 | Individual-page PDF export should print page name instead of page number.
It just makes sense. |
2h | ||
| I50 | Disable iOS screen (power) auto locks.
Other apps (GoodReader) can do it. |
1d | ||
| I51 | Allow audio files to be named | 2h |
Structural
Major design change to support other functionalities.
| Name – Description | ETA | Sta- tus |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Use SVG As Internal Structure for Document
The current Core Data use for saving documents has limitation, especially scalability. The more documents users have, the harder the app can save documents reliably; not to mention performance is also hit. This is because all documents are saved in one huge database file. A logical change would be to save each document in a separate file. The problem remains: in which format the document file needs to be saved. Proprietary document format is a big no-no for 2 reasons. First, version changes (backward compatibility) is a nightmare. Second, it prevents collaboration with other apps (e.g. web browsers). Since Notes Plus document is a vector-based graphic document, it is logical to save it as SVG (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Vector_Graphics) for 2 reasons: standard and powerful. Pros:
Cons: it takes a while to do (it has be done anyway). |
2m | |
| S2 | Eliminate inline zooming
Zooming is memory expensive in drawing apps, especially when the iPad hardware is limited. Unlike the Photo app, where images are cached, the drawing in Notes Plus couldn’t be (because constantly changing). Notes Plus provides not one but two zooming canvas: the inline canvas and the closeup box canvas. This creates performance problems such as lag while writing (the rendering couldn’t keep up with the change/refresh). Solution: Eliminate inline zooming; only allow zooming in closeup box. Maybe provide an option for inline zooming. Pros:
Cons:
|
1m | |
| S3 | UI Change: Re-introduce mode switching
Problem: The current UI mixing between selection/writing/zooming/navigating/shape-detection modes, while is efficient for expert users, is not very intuitive for beginners. It causes frustration and many users abandoned the app before trying to learn. Also, some people are just used to with the old way of UI, cannot adapt to the tablet way (Design for Toddlers). Solution: Re-introduce the application mode like in version 1.0.
This should be worked out more on detail when implementing because version 1.0 doesn’t have as many features as current version. Have a option to turn on/off intelligent mode – back to the mixing right now. Pros:
Cons: losing the uniqueness signature of the app right now. |
1m | |
| S4 | UI Change: two-page notebook metaphor
Problem: The current flip-up paper notebook metaphor is too limited for control buttons. Soon enough, buttons will make the top bar too crowded; nowhere else in the current metaphor can buttons appear logically. The current flip-up for page turning is less natural than flipping sideway to turn page, like iBook app. Introducing other screens such as web browser (for importing), photo library, comparing notes, etc. is impossible. Solution: having a two-page-open notebook like this: 
Pros:
Cons: Take a while to implement |
2m |
Bugs
Need to be squashed at no cost.
| Name – Description | ETA | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| B11 | Crash caused by pasting large amount of text (thus run out of the page). | 2d | |
| B14 | Selected page doesn’t highlight correctly in landscape mode. | 5h | |
| B15 | Update number of items in trash after emptying trash. | 2h | |
| B16 | Change to read-only doesn’t effect on current page. | 2h | |
| B17 | When erasing, refreshing the gray ghost view in the closeup box. | 1h | |
| B18 | While zoomed in, long press for closeup box shows the wrong the location (for gray area). | 2h | |
| B19 | Copying a page to a newly created notebook doesn’t work !?! | ??? | |
| B20 | Support for multigesture (thus disabling >= 4 touches) makes palm pad no longer work. Need fix | 1d | |
| B21 | After deleting the last note of the folder (no page is displayed in content then), recording won’t stop. Need to fix this and also display some alert when there is page in content. | 1d | |
| B22 | Lost text – save periodically. Users can open a text box and type for a long time. The current text box only commits when done typing. If something happens in the middle, all text will be lost. To remedy this problem, text should be saved periodically even though the text box is not yet committed. | 4h | |
| B23 | Resizing an object in and out quickly eventually throws off the object bounds (usually smaller than the object itself). | ??? | |
| B24 | Always check for bounds before using the object. This is the source of many crashes. | 2h | |
| B25 | After emptying the trash, the “up” button doesn’t work anymore. | 2h | |
| B26 | Long notebook name cover recording and playback button (so couldn’t record or playback). Plus, it doesn’t center align. | 4h | |
| B27 | After a multigesture to switch app, zoom broke!!! | ??? | |
| B28 | Quickly tap the next/previous page button, the app crash !?! | ??? | |
| B29 | In some cases, the closeup box resizes to minimum size and disables the resize buttons. Have to check for minimum size. | 4h | |
| B30 | When at the end of the page, in closeup box, the gray ghost area is off (vertically). | ??? | |
| B31 | Turn on “Add/remove page button” on toolbar causes the page title alignment problem. | 4h |
Nov 04, 2011 @ 15:56:14
Something odd with version 2.3.5 and OS 5.0. Text already written seems to partially vanish from the screen but when I switch to another app and then back to Notes+, the text is redrawn and restored correctly on the screen. Tried removing Notes+, restart iPad and re-install Notes+, but the problem persists.
Nov 04, 2011 @ 17:07:16
Hi Hammy,
This might be due to v2.3.5 not fully compatible with iOS 5. We’ve just submitted v2.3.6, which fixes a number of issues. It’s expected to go live on Nov 10th. Please kindly wait until you can get the update from the App Store and see if it works for you. Also, iOS 5 multitasking gestures might prevent the ink from coming out when you write. Try turning OFF that feature in iPad’s Settings > General. We hope to arrive at a better solution soon.
Kind regards,
Toan
Nov 06, 2011 @ 16:40:10
Hi Toan, as you said the multitasking gestures are also generating issues. In my case, i use the zoom area to write, this is not working ok because iPad recognize an iOS5 gesture, and i can´t write well. Please fix this problem allowing to use iOS5 gestures. The version 3 will be fully compatible with iOS 5; when will be the release and how much will it cost for the old users?
Thanks for your answers. Regards,
Andres.
Nov 07, 2011 @ 03:05:14
Hi Andres,
We haven’t found a solution yet because Apple’s very strict with apps changing hardware controls. We hope to arrive at a better solution soon. Version 3 will be a free upgrade (but handwriting recognition will come later as an in-app purchase). The first v3 beta will be released to beta testers on November 10th. We’ll announce more updates on http://notesplusapp.com/version/version-3/.
Kind regards,
Toan
Nov 04, 2011 @ 13:20:44
This Developments Progress page should be removed. The reason is that people look here to see how things are coming but it HAS NEVER CHANGED. If you are going to have this, then update it so we at least can see that there is progress. If I look at it the way it is, you guys have done not a damn thing as far as work goes. Who is actually doing your work. If I were still working and had a page like this and did not keep it up my boss would have my ass. Don’t tell me that you guys are just too busy, it takes only moments each day to go down the list and update it. Not much wonder that people get so upset at Notes +, they can see that nothing is happening. I expect to see V3 out by next spring at the earliest. And bug free perhaps a year later. Sorry but all of the others are passing you by.
Nov 04, 2011 @ 17:00:53
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the reminder. It’s outdated but it’s still there. I’ll talk to Viet about cleaning it up.
Kind regards,
Toan
Nov 05, 2011 @ 05:34:53
I know that your website say says that nov 11 is the right release date for version 3 but how acurrate is that? When do you think it will be released?
Nov 06, 2011 @ 13:36:51
Hi Andrew,
The release plan will change a little bit. Before, it was intended to have version 3 as a big splash so it needs to be perfect. However, we will probably just release version 3 (cut back some features, certainly it must keep and improve all existing features of v2) to remedy existing problems of version 2. Then we continue making more iterations for version 3 from there.
You should hear further updates on this in a next couple of days.
Regards,
-Duy
Nov 02, 2011 @ 01:50:51
Blah, blah….version 3 is your answer to your shitty app. You need to just release version 3 if it even exists. Otherwise Penultimate trumps you. Have you guys used it? The ink is awesome plus insert pictures is great. Anyway stop yappin and start developing, work 24 hours if you have to.
Nov 02, 2011 @ 01:53:50
Sorry for being a Pipi, just getting impatient
Nov 03, 2011 @ 16:01:58
I have also had to move on for now. This app was the bomb, but has been trumped by so many others due to such a long development time. It almost feels like control of the app has been lost and it’s all about bug patches now.
If Penultimate adds PDF support it’s over for this app.
For me the app to beat is Ghostwriter. If Notesplus can compete is yet to be seen.
Come on Notesplus…. Blow us away!
Nov 04, 2011 @ 04:02:35
Hi Pipi and V,
Sorry for keeping you guys waiting for version 3 so long. Before, it was intended to have version 3 as a big splash so it needs to be perfect. Now our strategy changes a bit. We hear our users totally. We will probably just release version 3 (cut back some features, certainly it must keep and improve all existing features of v2) to remedy existing problems of version 2. Then we can iterate version 3 from there.
You should hear a further update on this in a next couple of days.
Regards,
-Duy
Nov 01, 2011 @ 17:00:14
I was using the recent release for the first time, and I totally couldn’t write with it! I tried both the closeup box and without and the entire notebook is jiggling and bouncing back and forth and not accepting my ink on the screen. What’s going on? How do I stop this from happening? The notebook shouldn’t jiggle at all?
Thanks,
David
Nov 01, 2011 @ 19:05:56
If you have iOS 5, I had that problem as well until I switched off the new multitasking navigation in settings. Multitask navigation seems to allow you to switch between applications by swiping the screen left and right, or the top or bottom up or down, respectively, which apparently confuses notesplus.
Nov 02, 2011 @ 02:35:08
Hi David,
Did you rest your palm on the screen? If yes, it could be related to new multitasking gestures on iOS 5. This will interfere with your writing in Notes Plus as the iOS will take precedent to handle the gesture instead of letting the app handle it. For best experience, we recommend you to disable these gestures in the iPad Settings app by go to Settings –> General –> Turn OFF Multitasking Gestures setting.
Please let me know if this help to resolve your issue.
Regards,
-Duy
Nov 02, 2011 @ 15:23:52
This worked. It’s a shame to have to turn off multitouch functionality every time I use this app. Will you solve for this in version 3?
Nov 03, 2011 @ 03:26:30
Hi Duy,
What you say is true, by turning off Multitasking Gestures this problem is fixed. What people are not telling you is that this will happen no matter what app they are using, not just Notes +. They are not being fair to you guys by blaming Notes + for this. It happens with EVERY APP and is something that should be addressed by Apple. As far as the present version, it works very well for me. I have no idea why others are having such problems but then again I am not a heavy user. That may have something to do with it. It could be a memory usage problem. Anyway, waiting for V3.
Nov 01, 2011 @ 01:29:55
I thought this app would let me combine typing and drawing — so that, e.g., I could type some notes and then circle key points or put stars or checkmarks next to some items in a list. But every time I try to use my finger or stylus next to text, the gray text box appears and I’m asked whether I want to delete it. If I manage to make a check mark, it disappears.
Nov 01, 2011 @ 06:26:56
Hi Mary,
Notes Plus supports both typing and drawing that you can combine them together. However, we admit the current selection mechanism make it really hard to edit something overlapping. We will revise the selection mechanism to make it easier for writing over objects in version 3. For now, please use the closeup box to write over.
Please let me know if you still have questions. I’m happy to help.
Thanks,
-Duy
Nov 01, 2011 @ 04:49:57
Hi Bharat,
Would you send me a screenshot? To take a screenshot, press the Lock and Home buttons on your iPad simultaneously and check in your Photos.
Kind regards,
Toan
Nov 01, 2011 @ 06:36:17
Hi Drej,
We agree crashing issue is a top concern and we have been working to resolve it. It turned out to be a multi-faceted problem requiring more work (same thing with corrupted database concern). Good news is, we should have this fixed in our next update 2.3.6. We expect to submit this update in a couple of days or so. This is a serious issue that we want to address it as soon as possible.
We’ll keep you posted.
Regards,
-Duy
Nov 01, 2011 @ 17:15:15
Hi Toan,
I am using the last update and for what I use it for, it is great. I do have one comment to make though. Could you and the others doing the development please please be honest with all of us that are waiting for V3. You say that you are a bit behind schedule so Version 3 will be late. It was supposed to be released at the end of July and here it is the 1st of November. To me, that is now more than three months late which is a considerable amount of time. I realize you are trying to fix problems with present version. There comes a time I think where you must say that given that V3 is now so late that you suspend all work on everything except for getting V3 ready and out the door. I believe that if you do that you will lose more people than have already changed to different note taking apps. Most of the other apps have already come out with updates and so are beating you to the punch.
Please please please put ALL of your efforts into V3. You guys have a great product so don’t throw everything away just to fix minor problems when the future of Notes + depends on you.
Regards,
Joe
Nov 01, 2011 @ 18:10:39
Here’s one more request for a Droid app. I know the IOS is the focused platform now, but maybe moving the priority from long-term to short-term for the Droid version would be very appreciated. Thanks for the nice product, I am using it now on m iPad.
Nov 02, 2011 @ 02:29:05
We are always considering additional platforms for Notes Plus. Thanks for the feedback on Android devices. We want to be sure we develop specifically for each new platform, to ensure it is a great user experience on all devices. So, it’s taking a little bit longer, but the wait will be worth it
Best Wishes,
-Duy