#nvalt

I just published Save to nvALT, a Chrome extension for saving pages to nvALT, a note taking app for Mac OS X. Pages are saved as clean Markdown, without any fluff. Like Readability or Instapaper.

Download Save to nvALT from the Chrome Web Store.

How do I use Save to nvALT?

Click the Save to nvALT buttom in the Chrome toolbar to save the current page to nvALT.

Alternatively, you can select some text, right click and "Save note with selected text."

What's nvALT?

nvALT is a simple and fast note taking application. It's an updated version of Notational Velocity.

Save to nvALT is non-intrusive

Save to nvALT is designed to be as non-intrusive as possible. Unlike most Chrome extensions, it requires no special permissions to run:

This is made possible by a new Chrome extension setting that keeps Save to nvALT disabled until you click its button.

Open Source

Save to nvALT is open source and license under the MIT license. You can view the source code on GitHub.

Credits

Based on the original extension by David Halter

Icon design by Chris Griffith

Favicon design by nvALT authors

Page content extraction logic by node-read

Navigating Tags In nvALT

Brett Terpstra 是我个人十分敬佩的一位独立开发者，其独立开发完成的知名应用和效率小工具数不胜数，如：Marked 2，nvALT，Brett’s PopClip Extensions 和 SearchLink1 等。最最重要的是，Brett 不但码得一手好代码，写作能力也甚为突出，其主笔的独立博客 Brettterpstra.com 在业内受到广泛的关注与赞誉。

Workflows between iOS and OS X using text are common and integral to daily life. Whether it’s jotting down reminders, grocery lists, contact information, cool songs and movies or ideas, the ability to capture text easily on any device and organize and process on any device is critical.

Apps I’ve used for Note Taking:

iOS

Stock notes app, Evernote, Clear, OmniFocus, Vesper, Drafts & Byword.

OS X

Browser based (Evernote, Google Docs and Sheets & Google Keep), Desktop based (Evernote, Stickies, TextEdit, Word, Clear, OmniFocus & Byword)

Windows

Browser based (Evernote, Google Docs and Sheets & Google Keep), Desktop based (None)

I also capture quotes in Quotebook and recipes in Paprika.

There are countless other apps I’ve heard about, asked about and learned about (BBEdit, nvALT, 1Writer, Notesy, Notability, etc), but haven’t bought or tried yet.

I want to figure out my optimal workflow, and simplify down to that specific workflow, so that I don’t have to juggle a multitude of different apps.

Current uses: * Drafts: First entry of all text based notes when on iOS. * Evernote: long term notes, archive of recipes. Hardly ever use on iOS. * Clear: Very short term tasks. Entry on both iOS and OS X. * OmniFocus: Anything beyond very immediate tasks. Entry on both iOS and OS X. * Vesper: Not part of my current workflow; used sparingly. Beautiful app; the addition of an OS X app may bring me back. * Byword: Used to compose all blog posts. I use both OS X and iOS apps. * Google Keep: Used for non task based note taking on OS X (and Windows on my work machine) * Stickies: Hardly used anymore * Apple Notes app: Hardly used anymore * Microsoft Word: Used for composing documents; rarely used.

Summary

My workflows involving text continue to evolve. Due to my complicated setup (iOS and OS X for personal use, but Windows while at work) a diverse set of applications is an unfortunate necessity. If Google Keep develops a native iOS app (likely?), or if Clear develops a native Windows desktop app (unlikely), it will significantly simplify my text workflows.

- PopClip 的 nvALT 拓展，可复制任意地方的文字 http://pilotmoon.com/popclip/extensions/page/nvALT

- nvALT 的 BookMarkLet 工具 http://jots.mypopescu.com/post/8529405944/nvalt-bookmarklet 本地存档：[[nvalt://find/Taking%20some%20inspiration%20from%20the%20%28nvalt-bookmarklet%29/?SN=b61c84b1a021450db34439395dd29d3c&NV=LBbBaNDvQWuZV%2Ff5YLwFFA%3D%3D]]

- 利用 nvALT 进行时间管理的尝试 http://sebastianraschka.com/Articles/simplenote_gtd.html

- 相关的工具 nvremind，可以自动搜索文本，转化为提醒 http://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvremind/

I started using nvALT again instead of Simplenote for Mac. Why? Because of a tiny issue. When I copy a content with "--" from the web or from the command line into Simplenote for Mac the latter formats it as a long dash. And that is annoying because I copy howtos and command line commands into Simplenote and when I need to run those commands I simply copy/paste them into Terminal.

I recently run a rsync command for my backup and I noticed this issue. Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal (I entered -progress instead of --progress) but that is not my point. The point is that this formatting issue could cause a mess. And I don't like it when things become messy.

Having said this, Simplenote is still my favorite notes app and service. The iOS app? Just fantastic. Sync speed? Fast.

Happy 2014!

I've previously written about taking notes using Evernote. I also posted my cardinal rule for note taking which is "don't change your system". Changing the system fragments your notes and you'll never end up merging them together (despite your best intentions).

But I've broken that rule. I've changed from Evernote to using a combination of SimpleNote and Notational Velocity nvAlt to be precise.

So why the change? Well, it turns out nvAlt makes it so easy to find things that it is worth the change. I assert that there are two fundamentals things to a note taking system that are far more important than anything else:

It needs to be super-simple and super-quick to make a note

It needs to be super-simple and super-quick to find something.

Alas, Evernote doesn't do this for me. Perhaps it is the way I use it, perhaps it is the app. I've found Evernote adds a lot of value to notes, but finding them, well that's a different story. It isn't super-simple, it isn't super quick. That's really what I want. Formatting, value-add is secondary.

I thought initially that going back to plaintext would be too difficult. I mean where do I put stuff that isn't text? Turns out Google Drive or Dropbox is enough for that. As long as you can put meta-links to things in plaintext notes, you tend to be covered.