Note Studio

Testing, please ignore.

Seriously, I would like to thank Jeff for inviting me to write on his three blogs: Writing on Your Palm, Liberal Medium, and Raving Media. And my only guarantee is that one of us will be sorry. And what better way to start than to break the title, the purpose of this blog: I'm writing on my laptop, not PDA. However, the software I'm using would be the same: Note Studio for the PalmOS.

A reader on WOYP suggested this piece of software from dogMelon, and I haven't been disappointed. The interface is simple: it runs as a simple text editor, converting its own markup notation (such as asterisks for bolding and equal signs for italics) into typeset text. One button press and I can see the text as a web page.

Other features include numbered and bulleted lists are supported by adding a pound or the dash prefix to the text, respectively. Creating links internally is easy through using brackets. Referring to other pages is about 2 to 3 taps away: selecting the link-to-page option creates a selection window with all possible targets displayed. Simple headings, long horizontal lines and timestamps are a few keystrokes away. Linking to other entries is a breeze, enabling cross reference within a given book. A HotSync conduit is installed and keeps both desktop and PalmOS versions current. One marked difference between the desktop and PalmOS versions is that the desktop allows for linking to files, while the PalmOS does not. Sensitive information can be protected by encryption. On the PalmOS, users can export into MemoBook, while on the desktop, they can create an html or xml document.

One wonderful feature is that using markup requires little thought. Headings and outlines can only be triggered after a newline command. Since the bold, italics, and links must be created with two characters, and that both start and end characters must touch text, one can use them with impunity. One cannot underline, but in the convention in emphasis is that one underlines when one cannot use italics.

Note Studio doesn't export into or reads Microsoft Word or AportisDOC documents. It uses its own format, organized into books. Using a single book, Note Studio can create a set of html pages. Links to either sub-chapters or cross references between non-contiguous pages combine to form a Wiki. A wiki is typically used as a reference; it is the world wide web confined into one space. The wiki is densely linked internally, within the same internet namespace, and more so than the average webpage. The way I've described the wiki makes it sound more like a blog than anything, but presumably each node in the wiki network is data rich. The aim is to disburse information, not to propogate entertaining ephemera. However, if the repository of information were not on the same server, then I do not see how a wiki is any different from any other web page.

The program does not explicitly export single pages (I suppose, then, what would be the point if the purpose is to create a wiki), but one can quickly see the page in the default web browser by hitting F11 (and dump the source directly). The PalmOS version does let one export single pages to MemoBook. I don't use Note Studio to create wikis; it helps me organize my book notes, and I hope seminar notes. It can substitute for an outliner or as a journal.

I find that NoteStudio is a powerful program in its simplicity. The markup language integrates with text, and switching between editing and viewing modes is a breeze. Switching between landscape and portrait formats does not create problems on the Tapwave Zodiac.