Notes Plus

Ability to upload exported PDF files to a Dropbox folder.

Cut or copy drawing and paste them across pages. Allow multiple drawings on clipboards. Enable clipboard browsing.

Enable printing PDF directly from iPad for iOS 4.2+

Import image from photo library as a drawing object. Also allow taking picture from iPad 2 camera as image. Allow scaling and rotating images.

Upload and sync exported PDFs and images with content in an Evernote folder.

Enable searching for typed text. Integrate with SpotLight search.

Allow tagging notebooks or individual pages with different tag types such as text or date/time. Enable search and browse tags for notebooks/pages.

Sync all notebooks and folders with Dropbox.

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.

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).

http://www.webdav.org

Enable viewing in big screen with Apple TV. Better option than VGA for high-tech adopters.

TextExpander introduced an API for iOS (Google it). Integrate this API to extend the keyboard functionality.

Arrange all interface components to support “hooked” style of left hand writing where palm lays on top from left.

Currently only shapes and text are resizable.

Currently, in the notebook list on navigation view, users don’t know which notebook has recordings. Need to indicate that by a special icon.

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.

Current “Pen & Settings” quick access popup only contains recent settings. Need to be able to save these.

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It might be easier for users to quick scan through the notebook list of their names are in different colors.

The app is default to auto-save every 120 seconds. Allow users to change this time interval.

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.

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.

Zooming out could turn page accidentally and this can become very annoying. Have an option to turn off page turning.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Page’s read-only will override notebook’s read-only.

Something like: 1-3, 5, 8-12, …

It just makes sense.

Other apps (GoodReader) can do it.

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:

• Easy to backup/restore/sync individual document as flat file (thus: Dropbox, Box.net, iDisk, …)
• Easy to share Notes Plus documents with others (open in another iPad and edit).
• Export as HTML, can be view in web browsers and edit in tools that support SVG (Adobe Illustrator, Google Drawing, …)
• SVG standard representation for vector-based graphics makes the app more robust.

Cons: it takes a while to do (it has be done anyway).

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:

• Better performance – smooth writing.
• Cleaner UI – less confusing: once the pinch gesture is eliminated, the two-finger scroll gesture is also eliminated. Introducing back writing mode makes navigation more intuitive. Palm detection instead of palm pad. Etc, …
• Possibility of introducing textures on drawing to make the inking effect like Penultimate and Noteshelf

Cons:

• Less powerful.
• Less instantaneous. Many people like the inline zooming feature because it’s instantaneous

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.

• Navigating mode: zoom and scroll, no ink or selection!
• Writing mode: ink and palm detection, no zoom or scroll.
• Selection mode: tap to select, drag to define selection area, drag on selected objects to move/resize, scroll and zoom but no ink.
• Shape input mode: only recognize gesture for shapes, no handwriting.
• Text input mode: can be activated while in any other mode, end to fallback to previous mode.

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:

• Support more users.
• Intuitive for people who like intuitive but efficient for people who like efficient.

Cons: losing the uniqueness signature of the app right now.

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:

• More room for buttons and controls.
• Turning page sideway is more natural.
• Can put other screens (web browsers, photo library, …) aside for collaboration.
• Look better and more powerful, flexible.

Cons: Take a while to implement