Simple Notes That Sync, Minus the Stink

Import Update: Simplenote has requested that users disable this until they work out some issues. I think I know what the problem is, but in the mean time go into Lingon and disable the lauchd item by unchecking the check box that says “Enabled.”
Import Update 2: If you set this up before 10/9/09, it’s crucial that you make the changes outlined in the Lingon portion of Step 3.
Update 3: This walk-though has become kind of irrelevant, as Notational Velocity now has built-in support for syncing with Simplenote. Regardless, I’m leaving it here in case it’s still helpful to someone.

So I use Evernote for college notes/documents and hording random thoughts and PDFs away in a nice taggable, syncable, searchable database.  What Evernote does really well is syncing and organizing, but it’s not the kind of application I want to use for casual day-to-day notes.  For that, I just need something that’s as simple as possible.  Evernote is especially fussy on the iPhone, and while I appreciate its power, there’s too much that gets in my way when I’m just trying to jot something down while on the go.  So I set out to figure out how to get a minimalist notes setup that syncs seamlessly between my Macs and my iPhone.

My Wants & Solutions

• Wanted: A minimal notes application for the Mac that manages multiple notes and stores them as individual text files, allowing seamless integration with Finder and Spotlight.
• Solution: Notational Velocity (via Minimal Mac)

• Wanted: A simple notes application for the iPhone that loads quickly, has search, and requires as little fuss as possible.
• Solution: Simplenote (via Gruber)

• Wanted: A way to sync the two over the internet.
• Solution: SimplenoteSync (via Simplenote Extras)

Setup

Okay, to be fair the setup process for this does indeed stink. Once you get it setup, however, the stink will become stank, a stink of the past.

Warning: Back up your files before and after doing any of this.  If you already have Simplenote notes and/or locally saved notes, they could be accidently cleared out by this process.  You should also keep a scheduled backup of your notes once syncing is setup in case something gets messed up during the syncing process.

Requirements: Leopard or Snow Leopard, and $2.

1.  Install Simplenote ($1.99) on your iPhone.

• Use the app to setup your Simplenote online account (Note: In my experience SimpleNoteSync doesn’t work with email addresses that contain plus signs, so if you’re like me and you usually use the feature of Gmail that allows you to use email addresses like yourname+simplenote@yourdomain.com, you’ll have to just use your regular email addy for this).
• Get accustomed to the interface:
  • The first line of each note is your title.  When creating a note, type the title and hit return twice to start type your note.  It’s 0% fuss and 100% awesome.

2.  Install Notational Velocity on your Mac.

• Go into Preferences > Notes, chose to store your files as plain text files, and chose a folder to store your notes in.  I’m using a folder inside of my Dropbox folder.  That way I only have to setup syncing on my always-on iMac, but changes still sync to-and-from my MacBook Air.
• (optional) Replace the app’s ugly icon with one of these Moleskine icons.
• Get accustomed to the interface:
  • Example: typing “Test” in the search box and hitting enter creates a new note with the title “Test”

3.  Setup SimplenoteSync

• If you haven’t already, install Xcode from the “Optional Installs” folder on your OS X install disc.
• Install Crypt::SSLeay by pasting typing the following command in Terminal, hitting return, and following the setup process:
  

  sudo perl -MCPAN -e “install Crypt::SSLeay”

• Download SimplenoteSync and place it somewhere where you won’t delete it.  My copy’s in a folder called “Scripts” in my home directory.
• Create a file called “.simplenotesyncrc” in the root of your home directory with your Simplenote login email on the first line, your Simplenote password on the second line, and the directory you wish to store your notes in on the third line (Note: This file will be hidden from Finder once created).  I created mine with Smultron and it looks like this:
  
• Create a launchd configuration file to run SimplenoteSync automatically.  I did this using a super easy GUI app called Lingon (made by the same guy as Smultron).  Mine is setup to run “perl -w /Users/billy/Scripts/SimplenoteSync/SimplenoteSync.pl” at startup, every 5 minutes, and every time something changes in my notes folder.  This means changes made on my Mac are synced to Simplenote immediately, and changes made on my iPhone are synced to my Mac every 5 minutes Important Update: Please don’t set set the script to run anytime your notes folder is updated. This has been known to cause major issues that put unnecessary stress on Simplenote’s servers. My setup for it in Lingon looks like this:
  
• After that, all you have to do is logout.  When you log back in, everything should just work by itself in the background.  To turn off the syncing, just just use Lingon to disable the launchd thingamajig that you created.

If this all works out well for you, I highly suggest heading over to the SimplenoteSync website, hitting that PayPal button on the right, and donating a few bucks.

As an optional bonus, I saved my TaskPaper to-do list as a .txt file in my synced notes folder, and now my TaskPaper tasks are accessible and editable on my iPhone.

Enjoy.