To create and edit plain text notes, that easily synchronize between an Android mobile phone and a Windows computer, a good solution can be found in using the Simplenote web app together with the AndroNoter Android app. Both Simplenote and AndroNoter are free, and together provide a lightweight and user-friendly method to write and edit notes anywhere, while being either online or offline, without any extra effort after setup.
More details are discussed below on Simplenote, AndroNoter, and how they work together.
Simplenote
Simplenote is for writing, editing and synchronizing plain text notes. Access Simplenote from anywhere through the Simplenote website. Here are the basic features of Simplenote:
- Access notes everywhere, since notes are stored online.
- Keep notes organized with tags, and search or filter notes by tag.
- There are no limits on the number of notes allowed, or on the amount of storage space per account.
- All synchronization is encrypted.
- Simplenote auto saves all notes.
- The free version allows access to 10 backup versions of each note, while the premium version allows 30 backups of each note.
Simplenote runs in your browser and is not a desktop application, so its focus is on online usage. Writing and editing notes offline on a Windows computer can be done through these Simplenote clients from other developers:
- ResophNotes: A Simplenote client for Windows.
- Notes for Windows: Notes focuses on organizing plain text notes that are saved automatically.
If using the Google Chrome browser, you can go to “Tools > Create Application Shortcut” and you can get Simplenote running in its own dedicated browser window.
AndroNoter
AndroNoter is an Android client for Simplenote, that lets you write and edit plain text notes on your Android phone, and syncs all changes with your online Simplenote account. So, updates synced from your Android phone will instantly be accessible from your computer, or anywhere else that you can access your Simplenote account. Here are the basic features of AndroNoter:
- Edit all notes while offline, and all changes will be updated to your Simplenote account on the next sync.
- View notes while offline.
- Delete notes while offline, and all changes will be updated to your Simplenote account on the next sync.
- Search for notes using the search tool (filtering notes by tags is not supported in AndroNoter yet, but your Simplenote tags are preserved).
- Email a note easily, as AndroNoter can copy any note text to an email draft, then you can send when ready using the Gmail account on your Android phone.
- Choose when to sync with your online Simplenote account, either automatically “on startup” or “manually”. AndroNoter will also sync when you save a note, if you are online.
- Use AndroNoter for free and without ads. Requires Android 2.1 or higher.
AndroNoter is available free from the Android Market.
Simplenote with AndroNoter
To use AndroNoter together with Simplenote, you will need to enter you Simplenote account details in AndroNoter, under “Simplenote Credentials”. In AndroNoter options, you may also choose to sync “manually” or “on startup”. Syncing “on startup” is recommended to make sure everything stays up to date.
It doesn’t matter if notes were created using Simplenote or AndroNoter, as all notes can be edited with either app, regardless of which app was used to create them.
When you create or edit notes in Simplenote, your notes are automatically saved without doing anything. All synchronization between AndroNoter and Simplenote is done by AndroNoter. But your Simplenote screen will not show these changes from synchronizing until you refresh your Simplenote window by pressing F5, or by right-clicking inside the browser window and selecting “reload”.
When you create or edit notes in AndroNoter, your notes are notes are not automatically saved. You need to press “save and sync” to save the note on your phone and to synchronize the data with your Simplenote account. So, any changes in your notes made on your Android phone will show up in your online Simplenote account.
Simplenote vs Evernote
In most cases, Simplenote should take up much less system memory than Evernote. If you are using both Simplenote and Evernote, you can confirm this by viewing the Evernote memory usage in Windows Task Manager, and if using Google Chrome, by viewing the Simplenote memory usage in Chrome’s Task Manager (Tools > Task Manager) which shows the memory usage of each browser tab.
Simplenote is for plain text notes only. So if you really need the added functions of Evernote, like web clipping, saving images, different fonts and formats in notes, then Simplenote does not provide that.
As of now, Evernote on Android does not allow offline access to notes, and you cannot edit note text that was not created on your Android phone. That is, for note text that was not created on your Android phone, you can add more text to those notes, but you cannot change the existing text.
Simplenote Free & AndroNoter | Evernote Free | |
Plain Text Notes | Yes | Yes |
Formatted Text Notes | No – plain text only | Yes |
Multimedia in Notes | No | Yes |
Number of Notes | Unlimited | Unlimited number of notes; limited to 40MB/month upload |
Offline Android Phone Note Access | Yes | No |
Edit Notes On Android | Yes – all notes can be edited | Yes – only notes created in the Android phone app |