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proNotes Tips and Tricks

Other than doing what proNotes does best, keep your information organized and help you find it quickly, proNotes does some cool things you may not know about.

Use Snapshots and URL Snapshots

proNotes allows you to store the current main window state (i.e. a selected category, title, note, search text, etc.) as a Snapshot. Once the Snapshot is saved in the Snapshot Bar or Snapshot Menu you can switch to that window state with one click. I use Snapshots to quickly access notes with important phone numbers or attachments I access frequently. URL Snapshots are just like bookmarks in your browser. Click on an URL Snapshot and you'll go to your web page in your default browser. Create a Snaphsot by pressing the "+" sign to the right of the Snapshot bar or select "Add a Snapshot…" from the "Snapshots" menu.

A demonstration of this can be found in this video on the proNotes home page.

Create a New Note from Text in Another Document

If you have text in your clipboard (i.e. you copied text from another document) you can create a new proNote with that text included. Just select "New Note from Clipboard" from the file menu or from the menu that pops up when you right-click on the proNotes icon in the dock.

Create a New Note from a Rich Text Document

You can take the content of a rich text file (i.e. TextEdit) and create a new proNote out of it or add the content to the current note. Just select "File -> Import -> Rich Text Files"

Use Search Prefixes to Find Notes Even Faster

Search prefixes let you search for a particular piece of data. Just start your search string with a prefix and proNotes knows you're looking for something specific. It makes proNotes fast search even faster (I should know, I have over 2,100 notes and it's still fast). All the search prefixes are listed in the Search pane of the Preferences panel. Some are even editable. The default set of search prefixes are:
" - category & title
] - To-Dos
[ - Attachments
' - All
mYYYY-MM-DD (i.e. m2012-04-27) - note modification date
cYYYY-MM-DD (i.e. c2012-05-23) - note creation date
isEncrypted - encrypted notes
isFlagged - flagged notes

Use Multiple Windows

proNotes was designed with Apple's single-window interface in mind but there are times when you need to have multiple windows open. When I need to take notes or transcribe a document I like to have the note window open as large as I can without anything else getting in the way. It's also useful when I'm reading a large note. With proNotes you can double-click on any note or click the "Windows" toolbar button to open a note in it's own window. You can also tell proNotes to open new notes it's own window by setting the General preference "Open New Notes in:". This is how proNotes 1.x worked and many users liked the behavior.

A demonstration of this can be found in this video on the proNotes home page.

Collapse the Header

To give you even more room to view your note, collapse the header. Click on the triangle button in the header or select "View->Collapse Header".

Encrypt your Passwords and Important Documents

proNotes uses AES-256 bit encryption. Encrypted notes don't even show up unless the main window is unlocked. If someone tried to open an encrypted proNotes document all they would get was scrambled bits. The same goes for any attachments you encrypt. In fact, you can have a non-encrypted note with encrypted attachments. To give you one more level of security, those encrypted attachments can only be opened in proNotes.

A demonstration of this can be found in this video on the proNotes home page.

Create Note Templates

Keep a note with note text, attachments and to-dos as a template and duplicate it whenever you need a copy. Let's say you need to gather a standard set of information every time you put a new customer into proNotes. Just create a note as a template with headings for the information you need. Then, anytime you need a copy just duplicate it. Create a snapshot of the template (or templates) and go right to them even faster. To duplicate a note choose "Duplicate" from the "File" menu and you have a new form with attachments and/or to-dos ready to be updated.

Flag Important Notes

Let's say you click on a category and title and see 10 notes. Which one is most important? If you want to distinguish an important note from the rest you can flag it. Flagging does three things: first, flagged notes show with a yellow highlight in the details table. Your eye goes right to it. Secondly, they show a little black flag in the header. Lastly, they can be found by the search prefix "isFlagged". I use flagged notes all the time. Try them out.

Highlight Text

If you have important text in your note you can highlight it just by selecting the text and choosing "Text Highlight" from either the Action button, the note contextual menu or "Format->Text".

Embed Pictures in your Notes, Modify them and QuickLook them

You can drag files, like a pdf, jpg or png file, right into your note pane. Once embedded you can resize it, open it or QuickLook it without leaving the pane (you might not know that even though the picture appears in the note window the actual file is located in your attachment view). Just click on the picture and a popover window comes up. You can take all the actions right there. If you drop a non-picture file, like a Word document, proNotes will embed a the file's icon. Again, the actual attachment is in the attachment view. It makes accessing particular attachments very easy.

A demonstration of this can be found in this video on the proNotes home page.

Use a Time Stamp in your Notes

Click the "Stamp" toolbar button to insert a time and date stamp in your note.

A demonstration of this can be found in this video on the proNotes home page.