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.


Nebulous Notes 6.1 Gets MultiMarkdown Previews, Full Folder Sync

Nebulous Notes

Nebulous Notes

Nebulous Notes is, in my opinion, the most powerful iOS text editor the App Store has seen so far. Here’s what I wrote last August:

Combining Nebulous’ support for text substitution and cursor position macros has enabled me to achieve a powerful workflow when it comes to writing in Markdown. For instance, I can select words I want to turn into inline links, and have the app automatically wrap them between square brackets, and paste the contents of my clipboard (the link) to the right. To copy Markdown-ready links, I use my own bookmarklet. Or if I want to create a list, I can hit a button that inserts an asterisk and a space. Or again, if I need to create a text file with a format that OmniOutliner recognizes correctly, I can indent items with Nebulous’ $tab and $cursor macros.

I posted a follow-up in October showing the macros I use for faster Markdown editing, and then I noted in a separate post that Nebulous’s preview feature could use some work:

Nebulous Notes‘ own preview generator is far from ideal. You can use your custom CSS to make it prettier, but it still won’t handle footnotes (formatted as once suggested by John Gruber, though Markdown doesn’t officially support them) and the image isn’t centered.

Nebulous Notes 6.1, released today, brings a number of improvements focused on previews and sync with Dropbox. First and foremost, the app now comes with proper MultiMarkdown previews that render footnotes correctly: while images still won’t be resized and centered on screen (this, for me, is an issue on the iPhone’s smaller screen), this new version is undoubtedly a big step forward for those who rely on MultiMarkdown for their daily writing. With the addition of Avenir (in both regular and Next variations), Nebulous Notes previews are now MMD-ready and nice to look at.

The other noteworthy addition is full folder sync for Dropbox. It used to be that, per Nebulous’ own “syncing” mechanism, each text file would have to be manually refreshed to get the latest changes; in 6.1, an entire folder can be synced by tapping the refresh icon in the bottom toolbar. Nebulous Notes is still far from Byword’s no-manual-interaction-required sync, but the change is welcome.

There are other minor improvements and new features in Nebulous Notes 6.1. The iPhone app now has two new one-button toggles to lock the orientation and hide the macro bar; there are new $rline and $lline macros to jump to the end or start of a line; and last, you can now tag files with #hashtags, which I guess can come in handy if you want to search for specific groups of files in that way (I don’t).

Nebulous Notes still needs a complete overhaul in terms of search and sync (and an in-app browser for research purposes would be useful), but version 6.1 is a solid, much-needed update. You can get it now from the App Store.

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.