Noteshelf.

This app is one of my primary go-to apps.

Please understand, I am getting no compensation for this post. No free sample to try, no perk. I’m writing this blog because on many occasions I am asked, how are you doing this? or what app are you using to do that?

I cannot simply tell them which app I’m using without explaining how they work and why I’m using them. So here goes…

Again, if you know of an app you want to share with me, please do!

So, Noteshelf.

This is the little app that could – and can, and still does.

Earlier I stated some points that apps have to deliver on:

  1. Deliver consistently.
  2. Work well.
  3. Play well with others.
  4. Stay current.
  5. Let me be the author/creator and have my identity.
  6. As much as possible, coordinate and link to my desktop.
  7. Do not let me down.
  8. Communicate well with others.

This app does this and more – it is so intuitive it’s freaky sometimes. The user interface is wonderful. The ease of use is wonderful.

What’s not to like? Well, some may have a list:

  1. No search within the app. I haven’t needed it.
  2. No handwriting recognition. No need for that, too (although it may have that by now…).

What it does is let me record, draw, type, sketch, import images, mark them up, and create a document. Specifically, notebooks (hence the name Noteshelf, I suppose).

The couple of things I wish it did, but doesn’t?

  1. Import video. Not needed much, but as you can send out the “pages” to others, doing so with a video imbedded would be GREAT. If an image is good, why not a video, right?
  2. Work in layers on a page. As you note and draw and type and import and highlight and mark up, you will at times wish you could do so on layers. Maybe it’s coming…
  3. Alternative page sizes. The app has pages that are essentially 8 1/2 X 11 portrait and I wish it could do larger format sheets. It does landscape now, but still could use oversized sheets (type D, E, E1, etc.)

That’s about it. It pretty much does everything else.

What’s so great about it?

Of the items referenced above, item 5 – let me be the author and creator – is a game changer. What I do in Noteshelf is on my letterhead. Mine. Not some by-line created in Noteshelf, mine.

Noteshelf lets me create and share with my identity – and share with everyone at the same time with no additional formatting, titling, etc. It’s like I’m working on my letterhead all the time because if I want to I AM – and you can, too. This is simply great!

While out in the field, in the office, on a plane, on a construction site, where ever – you are working if you want to. On your letterhead, title, or border, you can send out to any and everyone you want to – instantly.

Have job site observations? Send them out on the site. Client meeting notes? Send them to your client while you’re still across the table from them.

There almost no end to what it can do in your mobile device – pending my wish list, of course.

Need to share something you did in another app? Do it it the other app, take an image of it, and upload it into Noteshelf. You can mark it up, erase, type over, highlight, and format as needed to share with others. The point of this is to share.

Share knowledge, direction, instruction, and clarity of ideas in your design process. Noteshelf scores in doing this.

Make your work yours.
Make your process yours.
Then share it.

You’ll find this is a daily app.