xPad: No-Frills Note Management

Posted by John Baker on 02/14/07 in Home & Personal, Office, Applications

The simple yet very effective notepad application xPad has been around for quite a while, but even so it’s kept its status as one of those hidden Mac gems which you fall in love with once you find it.

If you take a look at any of the popular Mac shareware sites, you’ll find tons of notebook and note management software out there, ranging from ultra-simple to meticulously-detailed. This daunting variety is a good thing, because different people like different levels of simplicity or complexity. The thing that’s different about xPad is that it’s a happy medium that nearly everyone could get some use out of.

xPad user interface (updated)

Upon first use, the interface is deceptively sparse. All you’re given is a blank white space and an insertion cursor to begin your writing. Digging a little deeper, you’ll find that xPad has all the features of a standard text editor, but it’s also more than that - it’s a notes manager. Just pop out the side drawer to get a list of all your documents, organized by name, date of creation, and customizable categories.

Deeper still, xPad automatically saves your notes after a defined period of time and automatically on exit, and it can export all your notes to your iPod as well. You could use xPad to store all those snippets of information that we all collect day by day, and it’s a very useful as a note-taking application for students as well.

There are two main downsides to xPad. The first is that it doesn’t have a built-in search feature, but with titles and categories, you shouldn’t get too lost. The second is that though xPad is currently stable at version 1.1, developer Garrett Murray has halted development on the software indefinitely. The good that comes out of this is that xPad, once $9.99, is now freeware.

All in all, xPad is a neat little application that can help you get a little more organized without blowing your mind with endless features. Download xPad here, and use the open registration information on that site to unlock the full version for free.

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11 Comment(s)

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Ziv Kitaro said on

February 14th, 2007 at 9:26 pm

I was one of those who actually payed for xpad and I did enjoyed it for a time.
When the developer decided to give the app for free I was a bit annoyed - but what can you do?

Anyways, I moved to Notae - it costly but with tags, search and great and easy UI it became my favorite note taking app.

erichd said on

February 14th, 2007 at 10:42 pm

Man, I bet MacZot (and Garrett) wishes you had written about this app a few months ago….

I use it as a great replacement for Stickies, but for more extensive notes (and research), I use the suite of Software from DEVON. Say, why not feature a “notepad showdown” between DEVONnotes (or DEVONthink), Notae, KIT, Mori, xPad, and whatever others are out there?

Oh, and while Garret won’t develop it further, he ha said that he’ll release the soure code - soon this needs to re-filed with other first-rate open-source apps like Democracy and Vienna.

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alej744 said on

February 14th, 2007 at 10:57 pm

This is one of my favorite apps for the Mac. So glad it became freeware.

fcodc said on

February 14th, 2007 at 11:08 pm

This one’s good, but I prefer Sidenote just because of its simplicity and ability to hide on the edge of your screen until summoned.

Rennervater said on

February 14th, 2007 at 11:08 pm

looks similar to mail.app (the old design)

John Baker said on

February 14th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

@erichd

I actually am planning a “showdown” for all the various note apps I can find out there, or at least as many as I can stand to install. There are TONS of these things… Anyway, look for that roundup here sometime in the near future, editors willing.

Yardsale said on

February 15th, 2007 at 6:40 am

I enjoy using it. I had to choose between this and VoodooPad, but I didn’t want to pay for VoodooPad so xPad is working out pretty nice so far…

Honza said on

February 15th, 2007 at 8:25 am

Well you can use Spotlight for text files searching right?

RocketScience said on

February 15th, 2007 at 10:55 am

This reminds me (again) of my endless search for a usable “To Do” application.

I’ve tried about 10-12 tools for the Mac, but haven’t found something that enables me to enter a task, assign it to a category or project, and give it a priority - and then view a list of all tasks sorted by priority or category. A simple app, but I haven’t found anything that can fulfill these needs. Backpack is great, but has no priority or sorting features, which are vital.

It would be great to see an overview of all the apps out there in this area!

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Yohannes Wijaya said on

February 16th, 2007 at 4:14 pm

in case you guys miss it,here is an article on the developer why it becomes free: http://maniacalrage.net/past/2007/1/4/you_might_remember_a_post/

@fcodc: i second u.

@RocketScience: try my bookmarks here(who knows you might find the one u looking 4):

http://ma.gnolia.com/people/macnatic/tags/gtd

http://ma.gnolia.com/people/macnatic/tags/todo

some might overlap. Cheers!

John Baker said on

February 19th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

@RocketScience

I know it isn’t specifically designed for the purpose you need, but I’m sure Yojimbo would work using the tagging system to tag “priority:high” or “priority:low” on certain actions. Just a thought.