Show HN: NoteUX – Fast and minimalist note-taking app | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: NoteUX – Fast and minimalist note-taking app

noteux.com

61 pointsifrosted71 comments

Reminds me Tot by IconFactory. https://blog.iconfactory.com/2020/02/meet-tot-your-tiny-text...

Yeah. Strikingly similar.

OTOH, this one’s had a new release in the last 2 years. I loved the idea of Tot and bought it, but it has its glitches and doesn't seem to be actively supported anymore.

I believe this one is limited to MAC OS only my idea was that it should be available almost every where regardless of which OS we are using. And i am also planning to launch a dedicated app on appstore as well as play store when i have some more time. If you want to be notified about when i launch next set of updates feel free to follow my product hunt launch here -> https://www.producthunt.com/posts/noteux

And any feedback given there would definitely be added fast :)

I like the idea! The different scratch pads are cool. But I'm always a bit worried with localStorage of losing my work, is that a fair concern?

If you're looking for feedback, you could consider:

- Host the javascript and fonts yourself, only downsides (privacy, slower) in using a CDN. Ko-fi, Google fonts, Google analytics, Cloudflare, Bootstrapcdn, Numoh -- are all these entities required for note taking?

- Excessive user analytics: Google Analytics is not configured for privacy. Also another Numoh Analytics, but that seems disabled at the moment?

- A pretty writing experience helps me stay in a flow. Nothing wrong with Arial 16px #000, but not inviting either. There is still a lot to win from a typography perspective.

- The saving to .txt is nice, but I'd want a plain text (or markdown) version, no html. Also would be nice if the filename was optimized (scratchpad + timestamp).

- Instead of all CSS inline, it might prevent the flash of a white-screen if the styling was saved/cached in css file, or the prefers-color-scheme tag.

- You've added an <h1> tag but styled it with a font-size smaller than your body text, this makes it lose it semantics (i.e. also no SEO/UX value).

> worried with localStorage of losing my work

Unfortunately localStorage is not guaranteed to be persistent, especially on Safari/Webkit.

> Starting in iOS 13.4 and Safari 13.1, LocalStorage will be cleared after 7 days of no user interaction on a site.

7-Day Cap on All Script-Writeable Storage - https://webkit.org/blog/10218/full-third-party-cookie-blocki...

This also affects sessionStorage and Indexed DB, which is commonly used by local-first software that runs in the browser.

> A Note On Web Applications Added to the Home Screen

> As mentioned, the seven-day cap on script-writable storage is gated on “after seven days of Safari use without user interaction on the site.” That is the case in Safari. Web applications added to the home screen are not part of Safari and thus have their own counter of days of use. Their days of use will match actual use of the web application which resets the timer. We do not expect the first-party in such a web application to have its website data deleted.

I'm glad to know that this isn't [entirely] destroying the concept of webpages acting in an app-like manner. At least this gives the developer and user some ability to give permission for actually persistent storage.

Thanks for your feedback, which font do you think would suit better? Also the point to launching noteux was not to compete with full fledge note taking apps but to quickly jot down something instead of thinking about which directory / note to create. I will keep on improving with the community's suggestions.

What I really miss right now is a chrome extension that replaces the new tab page with a note taking space.

I used to use an extension called papier that had a simple interface, just the right amount of configurability and a beautiful design (particularly good color schemes). The extension got removed because of its incompatibility with the new manifest V3.

The current alternatives are either too involved with too much configuration options (i.e. distractions) and not very attractive, minimalist designs.

With your app, you're almost there. If you can get the correct balance right, you could fill the gap in that niche.

Wow, I used to use Papier all the time. I sort of forgot about it when I migrated from Chrome to Firefox and didn't really find a good alternative, but man that plugin was legitimately a huge part of my life for a while. I'm sad to heard it's going away, it was an absolutely genius idea

As developers have to support themselves in some way, would you be willing to use a similar ad-supported extension? Or perhaps pay a small amount to support development more directly and go ad-free?

Back when I started using it I probably would have considered ads, but I'm not sure if I would turn them on

Nowadays? I would probably have chucked $5 or $10 towards the dev.

Oh yeah, it's one of those pieces of software that goes out of your way and just does its assigned job so well that you literally forget about it.

I remember switching to a new computer at work and noticing something was weirdly missing without being able to put my finger on it. It wasn't until one of those moment where I used to use the extension that I noticed it wasn't yet installed on this machine.

Papier is still available in Brave it seems.

I use a variation of this as a bookmarklet, perhaps you'll find it useful:

data:text/html,<html contenteditable>

You could probably set that as the URL of your home page to get the behavior you described.

I add a style="height:100%" in the HTML tag so that clicking anywhere puts focus on it for editing. You could add other styling and initial content as desired.

Love the simplicity of this

Oh wow that's cool! How do you use this since I presume the tab will forget everything once its closed? Just temporary notes?

Yeah, I operate it like I would a dry-erase board. Ctrl-S doesn't work unless you add some scripting, but I usually copy-paste it if I'm drafting a note, or close it without saving if it was meant like a sticky note. It's good as a longer-term clipboard or a place to privately note down something before deciding whether to keep it.

For notes that I've refined and want to hold on to, I tend to use a physical notebook. I enjoy the kinesthetic process of writing by hand so I still use that for more permanent notes.

I do too. I've been wondering if there's some short JavaScript I could add to retrieve text from local storage when loaded, and update local storage after every change. Not so it persists for months, but just so it survives a tab close or a browser restart.

EDIT: mm, localStorage API is disabled inside data URLs, understandably

There are local-first file based solutions (like classic TiddlyWiki) that could work for you,.. but at that point maybe you meant to open your favorite text editor or IDE.

I kind of like that this simple solution always opens a scratch buffer and I have to put it somewhere else to save it (never saved accidentally).

It also keeps the source formatting (or with ctrl-shift-V ignores it), which can be useful aside from the note taking itself.

Yeah it's what I use as a scratch buffer too. I'm just so used to being able to reopen a tab if I close it by mistake. Thanks for the info!

If you're looking to save yourself from accidental deletion, I tested the following, it adds a confirm dialog when closing the tab.

data:text/html,<div contenteditable style="height:100%"><script>addEventListener("beforeunload", (e) => {e.returnValue = "?";})</script>

I love that! It never occurred to me. So simple. Thank you!

Wow! That's really cool. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for your kind words, I am the founder here :) , give me feedback and i will most probably add them right away.

I will try to create a chrome-extention for NoteUX hopefully soon.

you can follow me or directly reach out to me on twitter too x.com/nabeelHQ

FYI Chrome Extension on the way, will publish the url soon as its published on the chrome store, thanks for your feedback.

I'm using Brisk Notes: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/brisknote-new-tab-n...

Your wish came true :)

I've made this a while ago for myself to take quick notes while browsing the web, so I'm publishing this in case anyone finds it useful:

> minimalistab is an extension for Chrome that replaces chrome://newtab with a blank WYSIWYG editor for taking notes.

https://github.com/hakaneskici/minimalistab

Here's the primary trick [1] behind the scenes that makes this possible:

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43179649

Chrome Extension for NoteUX is now live! Thanks for all of your support.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dhgibmcoiahciekchd...

This is a fairly shameless Tot clone, you should at least credit the Iconfactory. https://tot.rocks/

Yesterday, I had a simple need—I wanted a quick way to jot down thoughts without the hassle of creating new notes or organizing folders. Instead of searching for an existing solution, I built one myself. That's how NoteUX was born!

It’s a minimalist, distraction-free note-taking space with multiple scratch pads, so you can quickly type and switch between notes without any extra steps. No sign-ups, no clutter—just an instant writing experience.

Supports Fullscreen Mode, Dark Mode and Download notes.

What do you guys think?

Text editor is already invented but nice try.

>without the hassle of creating new notes or organizing folders

Have you missed this part?

Not the OP but I share the sentiment. Doesn't everyone have a default text editor with a Ctrl-N shortcut or equivalent to create an empty text file? That's what I do every time I need to create a quick note. Maybe I don't spend as much time in the browser as everyone else.

So to avoid the hassle of organising folders, you create an editor with only a single folder that has 8 files in it? I can replicate this in a normal text editor by simply using only one folder with 8 files in it. For advanced CLI users, an even simpler (and arguably better) solution to this problem exists:

  vim notes/"$(date -Iminutes)".txt      # author a new note
  vim notes/"$(ls notes | tac | sed 8q)" # edit the 8 most recent notes, starting from newest

I get your point and I agree.

Hi - thanks for your efforts. I have found myself using this quite a bit over the past few days - I really like the simplicity. Is there a shortcut key to switch to and from each note? To me this is the only feature missing..

I love tiny note taking solutions. My favorite app of all time is (was?) nvALT [1].

The simplest in-browser solution actually requires zero pages or apps, see this bookmarklet [2]. It opens a full-page text area. No saving, but immediate and does not need a network connection.

Alternatively, not as easy as a publicly available web page, but if you want to have a very fast and minimalist self-hosted note taking app (with fast search and the ability to attach files and download websites), check out my small project called Textpod [3].

[1]. https://brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt/ [2]. https://bookmarklet.one/bm/quick-note/ [3]. https://github.com/freetonik/textpod

I was able to use nv (nvALT was a fork) before the development stopped and people slowly figured out it stopped. The website is still up https://notational.net and the last binary is still up for download. It worked for a crazy long time as it was. I am not sure but iirc there were some "stability" patches, in the original nv, or not. Then nvALT also stopped and then Brett started on something else and that kinda took a lot of time, really a long time (might have been released now but not sure). That is when I lost track of that lineage of note apps - the nvX - - the ones I started on. That was the reason my next was Simplenote and I stuck with it for really long.

After leaving Simplenote I could never really find a successor. Kept jumping from one app to another - UpNote (very electron), FS Notes (very unstable; come across a bug every other day that it's tiring), then Bear (might move to it, maybe), Joplin (no sadly) etc and what not. Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud. I could never find another simple note taking app. I wish Automattic took privacy seriously and kept the development of Simplenote afresh and maybe charged for it.

Maybe I am not supposed to find that one note taking app for me. Maybe it doesn't exist. That makes sense. I think it's about notes and not the note apps? Keep the notes and apps are a-changin'.

I just downloaded nvALT on Sonoma (14.3), and it runs, but looks a bit funky. The styling of some elements is slightly broken, but does not seem to affect the functionality. I haven't tested all the features though.

>Now I just try to use something that lets me keep notes in a folder and use it but then iOS becomes a mess unless I use iCloud

I didn't quite understand: do you want an app that syncs to iOS but not via iCloud?

I would rather prefer an app which gives me an option to sync via a service of my choice (at least some well established ones) e.g. Dropbox, Netxcloud, maybe for someone it could be even Google Drive, or their own sync if they have e2ee. etc.

> syncs to iOS

It just an OS so I would put it as "is available on OS"

> but not via iCloud

But the sync options are not limited to iCloud.

Semi-related: is there a modern equivalent of Notational Velocity? I used to love it. Similar to this app, there was a focus on speed. But Notational Velocity (and NValt) also had great search built-in

The OG drill book (Unix Power Tools) had a tip for quick note taking - redirect to /dev/null. For the past 25 years I pretty much always have a terminal window open with a shell redirecting to /dev/null so I can copy and paste or type quickly. I suppose if you wanted to save it you could redirect to a file instead of /dev/null but I always treat it as a buffer that will eventually go away.

Are you just saying here that you open a shell, redirect cat's output to /dev/null, and then use the terminal buffer for notes? I can't quite parse out from your comment what you mean as a workflow; I checked out my copy of Unix Power Tools and didn't see anything clarifying what you mean in either Chapter 43 "Redirecting Input and Output" or flicking through section IV "Basic Editing".

If you have a few minutes and could clarify, I'd appreciate it. I love a good *nix workflow.

Yes that's it: "cat > /dev/null". Or you can even skip running cat and just "> /dev/null". You exit by typing ctrl-d which sends an EOF (and then sends all the output to /dev/null!).

cat > ~/anyrandomfile also works if you want a persistant connection / want storage to save things

I am not sure if the noteux.com works in the same way.

I am also not sure but is there a way to create persistant terminal connections as each is going to /dev/null but its persistant and you can connect to any of it?

maybe using zellij / tmux

So I just tried and we can use this with zellij sessions as well , which is pretty nice and has a really really nice ui/ux

I found it! Section 48.3 "A Scratchpad on Your Screen" from the first edition.

https://web.deu.edu.tr/doc/oreily/unix/upt/ch48_03.htm

I love minimal note tools, what’s your approach to syncing across devices without adding too much bloat?

For now it's completely local as there is no account registration, but once i introduce account registrations then yes we are introduce the sync mechanism for every one. b.t.w Chrome extension is on the way waiting to be listed by the chrome store team.

starts typing random keysmash in macos safari

twenty characters in, safari crashes

minimalist indeed

This opened up incredibly fast. Great job.

Thank you :)

The market is flooded with developers which could make one worried about earning a living with such competition, but most of them are making note taking apps like this so if you just walk a few steps up the hanging fruit beyond the low hanging ones you're back in a no competition zone.

I must not hear about this, otherwise... its another place I have to look for that phone numer I wrote down last week. Where was it. Maybe on Notion? Or still in my Drafts? Perhaps Obsidian, Apple Notes, Telegram/Whatsapp, UpNote, noteux......

Been looking for a note taking app powered by local storage that supports images that works in iFrames.

Would be great if it can also support links

https://reframe.canine.sh/czhu12

I would consider this a website, not an app (misleading title).

For an app (on Android), I like "Notepad" by Braden Farmer (I just search the creator's name to find it). It has no unnecessary permissions.

We have plans to launch noteux apps both on ios and android its in the works, its going to be available on chrome store soon :)

Looks good, but I'd never trust anything like this I cannot self host.

Built-in will always win for tools like that => Notes.app

Last time I checked, Notes.app couldn't even export notes in formats other than PDF.

Considering it's likely the most used note keeping app there is, that isn't much of a blocker for an awful lot of people.

There are some open source tools, e.g. https://github.com/storizzi/notes-exporter I've used another tool in the past (cannot remember the name), and it worked ok.

I personally cannot trust Apple to store data, so I only use Apple Notes for throw-away notes like shopping lists.

I've been looking for something simple that I can use cross platform (I don't care about mobile, so just across macOS and Linux really). So far I found nb, which is nice, but it tried to do to much and locating notes isn't great. I've also tried Bear, which is macOS only, but it also doesn't organize notes in a great way in my opinion.

Is there anything simple, which doesn't require you to be an organizational genius already? Notes.app is sort of okay, but no cross platform.

This doesn’t seem to work for me in Firefox on iPhone SE 3. After I hit start typing here, the screen just goes blank and nothing appears when I type anything.

Please tap again on the screen and then start typing.

I have a similar endeavor here: https://www.ephemeranote.com/

What do you think?

The UI made me think it's for drawn notes.

If notes are kept in the localStorage, they won't persist for long on the iOS. Remote backup is, regrettably, a must.

How do you manage storage ?

data: text/html, <html contenteditable>

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