FiveNotes 3.0: a big upgrade to our tiny app
FiveNotes was firstly launched in 2017. Since then, there has been a few minor updates. I had assumed that the app works great as it was. It just worked and had many users.
For the last few years, I gained more experience in note-taking apps. Especially by making SideNotes, which has been designed as an app for many notes. I've decided to implement some of its features in FiveNotes. I've also made more improvements specific to FiveNotes, to make it even better for quick, handy notes.
That way FiveNotes 3 has been created and this is a huge upgrade. Here you'll read about new features and... one more thing.
What is FiveNotes, anyway?
FiveNotes is a tiny note-taking app. It provides exactly 5 notes. Why 5? Because it's a nice number. It's enough to make a few different notes and enough not to make them mess. It motivates the user to keep their notes clean. It lives in menubar. It has a small, handy window.
So, what's new?
Everything! It's hard to decide what to start with. Maybe user interface. That's the most noticeable thing.
User Interface
The User Interface has been re-designed from the ground up. It's new, shiny, beautiful. And thanks to themes, it can be adjusted to everyone's preferences.

iCloud & Mobile App
Now, FiveNotes saves notes in iCloud, so you can see them on all your computers. And not only computers. We've made another app - FiveNotes Mobile. It works on iPhones and iPads. It's not exactly the same app, but it shares most of FiveNotes features (markdown-based text formatting, themes, backups, etc.)
Automatic Backups
There are two groups of people: those who make backups and those who will make backups. I like this joke. It's funny, because it's true. FiveNotes does automatic backups for you. If you accidentally delete important information, you can restore your notes.
Improved Markdown, Tasks and Colors
New FiveNotes offers more Markdown syntax. And it can be customized by themes! You don't have to know all that Markdown syntax. There is an Aa button in the bottom left corner that shows all the options.
But that's not all, now FiveNotes allows you to make simple task lists. You can add a task by pressing ⌘T. Or by writing [ ]
. It will be rendered as a checkbox that you click when you're done. Or press ⌘.. That shortcut changes the state of a checkbox in the current line.
And colors. That's especially useful for developers and designers. Sometimes you need to write down a color in #rrggbb
format, for example: #47b433
. FiveNotes will display it as a color circle. When you click it, its #rrggbb
representation will be copied to your pasteboard.
Integrations: Apple Shortcuts, Apple Script and URL-based API
I believe that apps must "talk" to each other. Thanks to Apple Shortcuts, its easy for everyone. And FiveNotes offers a few actions to read and to set text.
And, of course, there is also old, good Apple Script and URL-based API.
And many more!
There are also many more improvements like: detaching the app window from menubar, pinning and unpinning it, share extension, switching notes by swipe gesture, changing font family and size, searching, etc.
You can read the full release notes here.
One more thing...
I almost forgot! I have mentioned themes. There are themes available on FiveNotes website and we'll be adding more of them. But that's not all: we've made a new, free app just to edit themes. It's called ThemeEdit. For now, it allows you to create and edit FiveNotes themes. Soon, we're going to make an update that will allow you to create also SideNotes themes.
You can get ThemeEdit here.
Price
The price of FiveNotes is $7.99 and it's one-time purchase. However, until the end of July 2024, we've discounted it to $5.99. FiveNotes mobile costs $3.99 ($2.99 until the end of July 2024.)
Get FiveNotes 3
You can find all the information about FiveNotes and download a 30 day trial on its website: www.apptorium.com/fivenotes.