Review: Notational Velocity

Notational Velocity is a new notepad application for Mac OS X. I don’t mean notepad as in the Notepad.exe text editor in Windows, but the multi-page note-taking db-like application that used to be included with Mac OS 9 and its ancestors.

In summary, it’s a great program if you want to (a) keep notes/info/passwords/urls (b) securely (c ) in a simple multi-page freeform text database.he notepad is streamlined, simple, and completely keyboard-accessible to simplify its operations. which usually means finding, creating, and editing notes.

Here’s the main Notational Velocity window:

In this screenshot you see the search bar, list of matching notes (currently everything, since there’s no query) and the note view. That’s all you get in this app, and for me that’s all I need. No notes hierarchy, no browsing, no complicated text editing toolbars and rulers.

Here’s what happens when I type cmd-L to switch to the query field and type mysql:

Since the app does live querying, by typing mysql all of the matching notes are listed, and the first matching note is selected and displayed in the note view. As you can see I’ve kept all of my MySQL account info in an easily-findable note.

Disclaimer No, these really aren’t the usernames and passwords for MySQL on my server and laptop. If you post your own review with MySQL usernames and passwords, probably its a good idea to come up with fake ones like these.

One problem with storing confidential information on your computer (let alone posting it in a blog entry) is keeping it secure. Fortunately this app provides the option to encrypt your notepad db using AES-256 in cipher-block chaining mode. Just turn on note encryption in the Notes -> Security sub-tab in the preferences window and all of your notes will be virtually impossible to hack:

Overall Notational Velocity provides a great way to store your notes / thoughts / passwords / urls / any other text you come across and want to keep (1) forever and (2) securely.

Ah did I mention it’s also open-source ?

Kudos to “scrod” for a fine fine product.