I've been on a streak of buying new apps. I got an iTunes gift card for father's day and I have put it to good use. One of the things I do most on my iPad is text editing. I already talked about how I use the Logitech Ultrathin keyboard for my writing. The other major ingredient (aside from the iPad itself) is the app you use to get the words down on the page.
I mentioned in that post I used Byword. I've now added Nebulous Notes to my toolbox of text editors. It has more features, but doesn't look quite a pretty as Byword does. Maybe I am just more used to the Byword interface, but I prefer it slightly. Either one is a great option. They both have dropbox syncing so I am switch between them at will and it is seamless. All my files are synced up with both. The main reason I needed another app is that Byword does not do offline file savings. It has to have a dropbox connection to work. Nebulous Notes allows you to save local drafts, which is huge for me. My iPad doesn't have 3g/4g.
The other major change is my workflow is the use of markdown syntax. I'm actually not sure how I ever blogged not using markdown. It is so simple, but such a great tool. I love writing everything in plain text files using markdown. From there I can export it to html and post. It has turned my Blogsy app into a mere posting tool instead of a writing tool, and I am okay with that. There are a couple html things I have to do that I haven't quite figured out how to get done in markdown. It isn't a weakness of markdown syntax, but rather an inefficiency of how I do some formatting.
I was amazed by how many iOS text editors that are out there. It was a tough choice to go with Nebulous Notes. I wish I could try a few more of them out. Even though each app is relatively cheap, it can add up if you are buying multiples. They all do essentially the same thing, they just have a few different features sets and interface quirks. I need to just be happy with that I've got. Brett Terpstra posted an extremely useful iOS text editor comparisson tool that helped immensely with my search.
Filed Under: Apple, Blogsy, Byword, Dropbox, iOS, Nebulous Notes, Technology, text editor