Agenda - a new approach to note taking and task management

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

An overview of a functional application that combines a note-booker, a task manager and a calendar.

Agenda won the Apple Design Awards last year. See the Winners of 2018 Apple Design Awards. It not only looks good, but also has a set of interesting features. You can set a deadline for any note, link it to a calendar event, or create an event right from the app.

Organizing notes

The elements are structured in the same way as in the Things task manager: they are organized by projects, which are grouped into categories. If this arrangement makes it difficult to read, then imagine that these are two levels of folders in standard notes.

Categories and projects are displayed on the left panel, which opens when you move the corresponding edge of the screen. In addition, there are three buttons on top:

• On the Agenda - agenda. Pressing it displays a tape of notes that have a date set.
• Today displays notes for today.
• Search All - search by notes.

Saved searches are displayed below.

Create a note

Each element has a title and content. A circle is drawn in front of the name - a checkbox. By clicking on it, a menu is displayed: delete an entry from the agenda, pin it at the top, or mark the case as completed.

A note is created by clicking on the plus sign in the upper right corner. Then you need to choose in which project to create it. Notes can be collapsed by double-tapping the title or pinching your fingers, as if you were zooming out. They also unfold with a double tap on the name or by spreading the fingers.

If a due date is set, then it is indicated in the upper right corner of the note. Clicking on the gear icon in the lower right corner will open the menu. From it, you can collapse a note, export to a different format (RTF, Markdown, HTML, TXT) and immediately create a link to a document, move the entry, print, share, add a Siri command, delete.

You can link from one note to another.

Any file can be attached to the recording. Click on the gear and select Attach File. This can be done through the submenu, calling it by double-clicking in an empty space of the note. Likewise, you can add an image saved on the device or take a photo.

Formatting

When editing a note, an additional keyboard appears above the main keyboard. There are five types to choose from, which are switched by clicking on the leftmost icon. You can add a heading and subheading, change the font to bold and italic, create a link, list, tag, and specify the person to whom this note refers.

Since the formatting is based on Markdown markup, you don't have to resort to an additional keyboard, but you can enter characters manually.

Right panel

Above is a calendar icon with the date selected for display, and below - events for that day. If you want to display notes not only for the current time, click the icon and select a date or period from the list. If you press your finger on the date and swipe, you can select a specific period.

Similar notes are displayed below.

At the bottom of the panel there is access to Agenda settings and community, where you can get help and ask questions.

Tags:

The list of tags is displayed only on the additional keyboard when editing. These items can be found through search. You can also save your search query.

If you enter the due tag and specify the name of the day (tomorrow) or the day of the week (friday) in brackets, they will be replaced with a specific date.

Price

The app is available for iOS and macOS for free. But to get access to premium features, you need to pay for an annual subscription.

These features include:

• viewing the inserted image in full size;
• choosing a calendar;
• automatic switching to dark mode;
• choice of accent color;
• pinning a note;
• creating calendar events;
• saving the search query;
• copying and exporting in Markdown and HTML format;
• removing watermarks in a document when exporting to PDF and printing.

The price of an annual subscription for the version for iOS is $ 11.99, for iOS and macOS - $ 29.99.