Agenda app for Mac OS and iOS

General Chat
1

Hey all,

Has anyone used Agenda for the Mac and iPhone?

It won an Apple design award last year, and generally looks like a very nice UI.

I’ve been looking for a note app to replace Apple Notes, which is just a bleurgh experience.

I tried Bear, but really didn’t get what all the fuss was about, and I’m not one for tags.

I’ve looked at Notion, and I’ve seen how some people can make it look amazing, and part of me wants to give it a try.

But it’s massively overkill for basic note taking (plus the mobile apps are pretty rubbish).

I’m trying Agenda out now, but wondered if anyone else has been using it?

Edit - I also really like their subscription model which I haven’t seen before.

Firstly, the free version will likely suit most people.

But you can pay £24 (I think), and receive a number of “premium features”, plus any other premium features which are released in the next 12 months.

After that, you get to keep all the features you’ve been using (including those premium ones), and you only pay again when a new premium feature is released that you want.

In something as trivial as a note app, it would have to be a killer feature for you to pay again!

The only “premium feature” that would benefit me right now is dark mode.

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Don’t have any experience of that Nick, but I find OneNote, Wunderlist and a sheet of paper work well enough for me. R-

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3

Had a quick look but I use Notes app for storing items of information I want to keep and refer to later.

Does Agenda have folders? Or am I expected to remember that I ‘noted’ my new passport number on the 3rd February 2016? And how secure is it?

Update: OK it has categories. But date driven notes aren’t something I’m likely to need.

FYI - I too didn’t see the fuss about Bear either, also, why does everything have to be Markdown? I don’t want to learn a new syntax just to bold and italic text!

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4

I looked at it but I take a lot of ad-hoc notes and it seemed to work better around calendar items.

For work notes I use OneNote which works well for me now I’ve played with it a bit. I have a notebook for each client, and I add a new page for each meeting or session I want to have notes for. I have them ordered most recent at the top so it’s all logical.

For personal stuff I use Evernote which I still love, from shopping lists to making notes about household bills and accounts to drafting social media posts, it’ all in there.

I might check out Agenda again at some point.

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5

You can currently have 2 levels of folders.

The top level (category), and then folders (projects) within that - Seems fairly standard there.

The date/calendar side of things seems to be flexible - Useful for when you want it, but you can also ignore it when you don’t need it. One thing I like is that if I edit a note, it doesn’t change the date to today’s date - It keeps the original date.

I like the look of it, but I’m not big on tags. Seemed more fiddly than it needed to be.

I tried OneNote and thought it was very good for quite a rigid organisational structure. It didn’t feel that friendly to quickly jot little things down in though.

Never truly got on board the Evernote bandwagon - Seems to have suffered from being the market leader for so long these days.

Mobile apps always seemed to lag behind!

6

Have you looked at Google Keep?

It’s very simplistic, but I use it all the time for quick notes, lists etc etc.

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I’m not a huge lover of Google software - It’s hard to know what they’ll “keep” around (sorry for the terrible Monday morning pun).

Plus I’d like something that can be robust when it needs to be, look good on iPhone and Mac, but have the ability to quickly jot a phone number or email address down when needed.

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I used Google Keep for a while but it’s not been updated in ages and I’m very wary of Google dumping it (see also, Google Reader, Google+)…

Evernote was good but is far to feature bloated and focused on ‘business/enterprise’ use these days.

For text only - Simplenote is fab.

But despite the fact I can’t use the iOS Share tab to send something to a folder, I am still sticking with Apple Notes app. Best of a poor bunch!

9

I come back to it because it’s no frills and does the job.

But man… It’s the least enjoyable thing to use, and I find I get lazy with organisation because it’s so… meh!

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10

That’s pretty much how I’d describe Google Keep :laughing:. I’ve been using it for half a decade now.

Try it. You might just find it suits your needs.

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11

Haha, maybe one day when my trust is re built! :joy:

12

I’m a big user of Agenda. Works really well around calendar events and recording meetings. I don’t think I’d put it in the same category as Bear etc.

My use case is setting up agendas, assigning tasks, recording minutes before processing and sharing. Tasks I take from Agenda into Drafts -> Things.

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Drafts as in, Drafts 5?

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I’ve tried it. It’s pretty useful, especially being able to link back to calendar events like meetings. But the majority of my notes are just short snippets - new wifi code at work, quick screen grab of a particular set of settings etc - so I’m happy just using Apple Notes for those.

Never really got on with Bear. I like it as an idea, but I don’t need or want Markdown. I’d rather my notes retain any formatting in a rich-text way.

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15

Sounds very similar to my experience.

I bet I’ll try Agenda, buy the premium, stick with it for a while and then Apple revamp Notes to make it nice to use…

But Notes really is an unenjoyable app to open!

16

I’m just using the free version, and that’s more than enough for my needs. Honestly, I can’t really see myself using it long term, as the work I do doesn’t really require something like that. If I had frequent meetings that I had to refer back to, then I think it would be invaluable.

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17

I hear this sort of comment a lot (Google have only themselves to blame) but, when it comes to G Suite products at least, Google don’t just get rid of products which companies are paying for and using daily.

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18

Companies are paying for Google Keep? Interesting. Didn’t think that was part of Googles business model.

19

Companies pay for G Suite (I have it at my current job and also my previous one) and Keep is part of the package.

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Everyday a school day. Didn’t realise Keep was in the Suite. Cheers.