This Week's Sponsor:

Kolide

Ensure that if a device isn’t secure it can’t access your apps.  It’s Device Trust for Okta.


Notational Velocity with Fullscren Mode, Horizontal Layout, Menubar Icon

Notational Velocity is one of my favorites apps for the Mac: it’s a minimal and focused writing application that enables you to entirely navigate between notes using the keyboard, it integrates with Simplenote and can store its plain text files anywhere on your computer - Dropbox folder included. It autosaves notes so that you don’t have to worry about losing anything. Also, you just have to press Enter to create a new note. It’s simple and powerful at the same time. It’s free and open source.

Its open-source nature gave birth to a plethora of “forks”, alternative versions of the software with custom modifications and features. Maybe you remember Steven Frank’s excellent Markdown fork. Today’s mod comes from Elastic Threads: it’s the Notational Velocity you’re used to, only with horizontal layout and fullscreen mode enabled.

Admittedly, the horizontal view was “inspired” by the iPad, but it was necessary for bringing fullscreen mode to Notational. If you’re used to sidebars and keyboard navigation, you’ll feel right at home with this version: use up and down to navigate on the left, check out the note in the right panel. I like Notational’s default view, but I like this better. It feels more Mac-like and it’s absolutely great on the iMac. I look forward to testing this on the MacBook as well. You can switch between default and horizontal views with CMD + 1, and hide the notes list with CMD + Shift + C.

Why would you want to hide the notes list? For the fullscreen mode: if you’ve always loved Writeroom’s focused writing environment but can’t leave Notational, this is a dream come true. It’s just a white background and text. Do I need to say more?

Elastic Thread’s fork of Notational Velocity also contains a menubar mode that lets you show an icon in the menubar, and optionally hide the one in the Dock. I’m not a big fan of menubar-only apps, so I’m gonna pass on this. Everything else is just Notational Velocity, and works just like you expect. Read the author’s post about the fork here, and go download.

Unlock More with Club MacStories

Founded in 2015, Club MacStories has delivered exclusive content every week for over six years.

In that time, members have enjoyed nearly 400 weekly and monthly newsletters packed with more of your favorite MacStories writing as well as Club-only podcasts, eBooks, discounts on apps, icons, and services. Join today, and you’ll get everything new that we publish every week, plus access to our entire archive of back issues and downloadable perks.

The Club expanded in 2021 with Club MacStories+ and Club Premier. Club MacStories+ members enjoy even more exclusive stories, a vibrant Discord community, a rotating roster of app discounts, and more. And, with Club Premier, you get everything we offer at every Club level plus an extended, ad-free version of our podcast AppStories that is delivered early each week in high-bitrate audio.

Choose the Club plan that’s right for you:

  • Club MacStories: Weekly and monthly newsletters via email and the web that are brimming with app collections, tips, automation workflows, longform writing, a Club-only podcast, periodic giveaways, and more;
  • Club MacStories+: Everything that Club MacStories offers, plus exclusive content like Federico’s Automation Academy and John’s Macintosh Desktop Experience, a powerful web app for searching and exploring over 6 years of content and creating custom RSS feeds of Club content, an active Discord community, and a rotating collection of discounts, and more;
  • Club Premier: Everything in from our other plans and AppStories+, an extended version of our flagship podcast that’s delivered early, ad-free, and in high-bitrate audio.