4537 Notational Velocity is an application that stores and retrieves notes. It is an attempt to loosen the mental blockages to recording information and to scrape away the tartar of convention that handicaps its retrieval. The solution is by nature nonconformist.

Unique Characteristics

• Modeless Operation


• Searching for notes is not a separate action; rather, it is the primary interface.


• Incremental Search


• Searching encompasses all notes' content and occurs instantly with each key pressed.


• Transparent Database Encryption


• All content is compressed and encrypted (enabled optionally) before it is recorded to disk.


• Mouseless Interaction


• Notational Velocity's window was designed for keyboard input above all else, and thus has no buttons.


• Data Instead of Documents


• There is no manual "saving" in Notational Velocity; all modifications take effect immediately.

Notational Velocity is Open Source

The source code to Notational Velocity is distributed under a modified BSD license and is currently hosted on github.

Contributors and collaborators are welcome!
To start working with the source, first install git. Then run:

git clone git://github.com/scrod/nv.git

How It Works

The same area is used both for creating notes and searching. I.e., in the process of entering the title for a new note, related notes appear below, letting users file information there if they choose. Likewise, if a search reveals nothing, one need simply press return to create a note with the appropriate title.

If a note's title starts with the search term(s), that title will be "auto-completed". This selects the note and consequently displays it. Correspondingly, selecting a note places its title in the search area (De-selecting the note restores the search terms).

To create a new note, just type its title and press return. Edit the note as needed in the bottom pane.
To view or edit an existing note, type one or more words contained in its body or title. Reveal a note's content by using the up/down arrow keys to select it.

To make good use of NV, try to maintain one detail/fact/item per note. Notational Velocity's strength, note-filtering, is diminished when only a few notes contain most of the content in the database.

Example (note the brevity and specificity of the body):
Title: How to cook with cornsalt
Body: Buy box of Arm & Hammer raw cornsalt. Sprinkle on poultry before broiling.

Notational Velocity can search thousands of notes at once and works best when information is distributed.

New in version 2.0 3:
• Completely and expertly localized into French by David Bosman
• Fixed a sync bug: newly-created notes would remain if the deletion occurred too soon
• Unsynchronized changes are detected and handled more reliably upon quitting
• Properly handles receiving corrupt JSON data
• File extensions (for separate-files storage) are always hidden upon saving
• Copy/paste now works with the Dvorak - Qwerty CMD keyboard layout
• Fixed an issue which could sometimes prevent tabs from being inserted
• Soft-tabbed-editing is no longer required for syncing, but spaces are still used on upload
• Additional state is preserved between launches, and the search/title field is always selected

New in version 2.02:
• Fully integrated and robust Simplenote synchronization
• New look, with visual indication of searching/creating and a clear button
• Re-added note-body previews from version 1.x and made them optional
• Creation and modification dates are always kept in sync when using separate files
• Better synchronization with WriteRoom/SimpleText.ws via SimpleText for Mac
• Automatic text replacement option added for Snow Leopard
• Changed the behavior of the application shortcut key to both show and hide
• Column resizing is more natural
• Tab key default behavior is more intuitive
• Command-Left/Right move between title/body fields when cursor is at the start/end
• New icon by Colin Cody
• Mac OS X 10.3 Panther is no longer supported
• Fixed a number of bugs

Important note: The database format used by 2.01 is incompatible with 2.0. A copy of the old database file will be moved aside for those who wish to downgrade.

New in version 2.0:

Notable Changes From 1.x2009/9/11

• Option to maintain/synchronize notes as text files for Spotlight and/or text editor access


• More robust and space-efficient database with encrypted, compressed write-ahead logging


• On-demand mounting of disk images and servers when loading the database


• Optional AES encryption with variable-strength key derivation


• Styled text editor supports font-independent formatting, an alternative to "rich text"


• Partial word-by-word or full-phrase searching


• Highlighting of found words


• Multiple-note selections and sorting by different criteria


• Support for input methods and unicode searching


• Basic support for editing structured text and code


• Per-note undo histories


• Importing of additional file types, including the Mac OS X Stickies database


• "Paste clipboard as new note" command grabs the current web context


• URL and email address recognition


• Universal binary

For more information, visit:
http://notational.net/

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