I am trying out a new layout for my reviews so tell me what
you guys think!
Introduction
When it came to writing longer pieces of works on my phone,
I found there were very few places I could turn to. There were mock Microsoft
Word applications and a bunch of ‘writer’ apps that I felt fell short for what
I needed. The apps were too clunky, too laggy, and not efficient. Not to
mention, half of them lacked a proper way to link to synchronize to cloud storage.
When I saw Jotterpad by 2 App Studio, it immediately caught my eye due to its
simplicity and file architecture. It looked really clean and efficient. There
were tons of features under the hood, but the exoskeleton had enough
information for me to like it.
The Interface
Once I started using the app, I began to really like the
interface. I love using night mode and was glad that they had one to begin with
since a lot of apps lack it. The contrast between black and white was great and
it looks very material. The FAB icon creates a new document and swiping from
the left to the right lets me seamlessly switch from my local files to my
Dropbox files, and it also lets me edit my typography. The folder architecture
interface that Jotterpad offers really drew me to the app as well. What’s the
point in having a great app if you can barely navigate it at all? It appears to
be very clean and it is very fast to use. Navigating my 20+ Dropbox Folders and
then navigating to my files is extremely simple. The app overall is smooth and
has a layout that is completely uncluttered.
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| Real easy to use layout |
Features
I mentioned Night Mode, but that is not the only cool and
useful feature that they have. 2 App Studio have also implemented research, grammar
and spell check. I seldom use these features due to the type of writing that I
do in the app, which is never school or research based, but it is nice to know
that they are available to me. The typography layouts are something that I
really like since I tend to write lyrics and poems as well as reviews for
products in this app. Typography layouts have arbitrary font settings, but the
app lets you increase and decrease the font size.
The best part of this application for me though is that they
have Dropbox integration. I love using Dropbox and the fact that I can write on
my phone and then it will be backed to my Dropbox reassures me that I am in
good hands. In addition to the Dropbox feature, I recently synchronized a
Bluetooth keyboard to my phone to do some note taking for class and was happily
greet with the fact that Jotterpad has integrated keyboard shortcuts as well.
Everyone’s favorite CTRL + C and CTRL + V are useable and effective in this
app. CTRL + S also works which is great for quick saving while I write my
reviews.
Jotterpad also implemented a small edit bar that is
presented as an overlay for the users. This bar effectively adds some quick
edit items for the user such as an asterisk or ellipses. For those quick edits,
it has left and right arrows that move the cursor one letter in either
direction.
Premium Features
Now, I am not a big fan of the pay gate that some developers
put in front of you in order to unlock necessary features for a wonderful
experience. Thankfully, Jotterpad is not like that, and their app is very
useable without the premium features. I was surprised to see that their premium
features cost so much in total (I believe $5.00 or something in that price range) and I
was a little skeptical to buy it because I didn’t think I would need the extra
features. The main two that stuck out to me during my decision making was that
I could export my writings in a docx format into my Dropbox, meaning that I
could literally copy and paste my contents into my blog for quick posting. This
was a big deal to me, and made me ultimately buy the app, but the other feature
that made go buy premium was that I was able to customize the typographies to
get a one of a kind layout. I really enjoyed this and felt that although it was
an aesthetic feature, it really made the app feel personal to me and it makes
me want to use it more. Lastly, the app saves "Snapshots" of your writings which are basically various save states of the piece. This way, if you liked the way something was written before, you can go back to that version. I have never needed this feature before, so I can't say for certain that if you loaded up an older save state, that you would lose every other save state from that one to the present, but it is still a pleasant feature to have
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| The ability to export into DOCX is a blessing |
Overall
The app is great. If this article did not explain that
concept well enough, than please go check the application out for yourself. It
is not meant to be a Google Docs replacement in my opinion, just like it isn’t
a Notes or Evernote replacement. It meant for substantial writing. That is not
to say that it cannot be used for making a grocery list, or taking notes in
class, but I find that there are other apps that could be much more efficient
in their usage.
Check out Jotterpad here
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