2.0.1
2015-05-09
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Hi all,
It’s been a VERY long time since ThinkBook updates. I’ve continued to work on it throughout but haven’t put it all together in a release till now.
Let’s have a look at what’s happened since the last update:
- The look of iOS has changed dramatically. Gone are all the things that looked like things, now everything looks flatter. ThinkBook 1 was definitely old-school! so I’ve totally re-jigged the user interface. It looks cleaner, flatter, it looks like it belongs in the new iOS. You’ve probably already seen the screenshots, if you haven’t, prepared to be pleasantly … shocked.
- The iPhone has changed. The old iPhone wasn’t well suited to an app like ThinkBook. It was too small, too slow, and what’s more (and this was my fault), the way ThinkBook was laid out made it even MORE difficult to fit it into an iPhone. The tools on the left took up too much screen, the iPhone is a lot taller than it is wide. The history bar at the top would have only fit a couple of entries on the iPhone. Now, with the 5 series iPhones, and the iPhone 6+ it’s a very different ball game. So I’ve made ThinkBook a universal app. The toolbar is moved to the bottom, and the history bar is now a menu. It’s a much more intuitive interface, did you know you could bookmark entries in the old navigation bar? no? most people didn’t. Now there’s a ‘bookmark’ button next to each entry, you won’t miss it.
- Cloud services. When ThinkBook first came out it was lauded because it had built-in Dropbox support! Now iOS provides apps with the document picker, it lets you connect to any service that provides an app extension, DropBox, iCloud Drive, box.net, Google Drive, whatever. So the old Dropbox integration has been replaced with the document picker. The downside to this is that we are at the mercy of the extension providers and they are a little hit and miss. Unless you need to change I recommend sticking to Dropbox, or iCloud Drive, but the interface is nicer on Dropbox.
So here are some more things that I’ve added for this update, they are available as in-app purchases:
- iCloud transfers. Use iCloud to update your notes between devices.
- More notebook covers, there are now two default ones, and you can buy ten more.
- Dark themes, there are three default themes, they have light backgrounds like the old ones, and you can buy three more with dark backgrounds.
There are also a LOT of other little improvements all over the place.
Thank you for reading this far, I hope you like your new ThinkBook!
1.4.2
2013-09-04
Bug fix for new operating system versions.
1.4.1
2013-05-11
Just a small change in this version.
There was a bug with the previous version where in iOS 5, if the password screen was shown while the device (iPad) was in landscape mode, then the main view would be corrupted and the app had to be re-started.
This version is a fix for that bug. As it's hot on the heels of the previous version I'll include the release notes for that one below.
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Added locking of pages and notebooks. From the app-wide option menu you can set a passcode. Then, from the options menu of a page or notebook you can lock it from opening.
If you forget your passcode you can reset it as long as you can import a file into ThinkBook through iTunes file sharing.
• Connect the iPad to your computer.
• iTunes should open automatically, but if it doesn't open iTunes.
• In the side bar, click on Devices > (your device). If you don't see the sidebar you can go into the 'View' menu and select 'Show Sidebar'.
• Click on the "Apps" tab.
• Scroll down from the "Sync Apps" section to the "File Sharing" section.
• Click on "ThinkBook".
• Drop the unlock file into the "ThinkBook" section. The unlock file is any file named 'unlock.txt'.
• Open ThinkBook and when it detects the unlock file it will reset your passcode.
1.4.0
2013-05-07
Added locking of pages and notebooks. From the app-wide option menu you can set a passcode. Then, from the options menu of a page or notebook you can lock it from opening.
*** Please note that we've just discovered a bug where on iOS 5 devices, if the unlock screen is shown while in landscape mode the VIEW goes bad. If you restart ThinkBook through the multi-tasking pane it will go back to normal ***
If you forget your passcode you can reset it as long as you can import a file into ThinkBook through iTunes file sharing.
• Connect the iPad to your computer.
• iTunes should open automatically, but if it doesn't open iTunes.
• In the side bar, click on Devices > (your device). If you don't see the sidebar you can go into the 'View' menu and select 'Show Sidebar'.
• Click on the "Apps" tab.
• Scroll down from the "Sync Apps" section to the "File Sharing" section.
• Click on "ThinkBook".
• Drop the unlock file into the "ThinkBook" section. The unlock file is any file named 'unlock.txt'.
• Open ThinkBook and when it detects the unlock file it will reset your passcode.
1.3.10
2013-03-22
Hi all, it's been a while since updates but this one is a big one. It took a while to re-jig ThinkBook's innards to do what we wanted and from now on things will be happening faster.
There are a lot of little changes and tons of bug fixes but the most important things are:
- ThinkBook now supports the import of documents and multimedia files. You can add screenshots, documents, photos, video and audio to ThinkBook notebooks and pages. Not only to make the notes better, but also as a way to manage content from lots of different apps in the one place. All of this media are held in the one note type, we call it an Attachment note.
- Attachments can be imported through iTunes file sharing by dragging them into the ThinkBook area.
- They can be imported from other apps on the iPad using their 'Open in ...' functionality, simply select 'ThinkBook' as the destination.
- Images can be imported from the system clipboard, for example, when looking at photos in the photo app you can long-tap one, select 'copy' then open ThinkBook. ThinkBook will automatically create an attachment with the photo. Multiple photos can be imported from the Photos app by pressing 'edit', selecting a lot of them, then pressing the 'Share' button on the top-left.
- Once an attachment has been imported in can be opened in ThinkBook by tapping its thumbnail. As with all ThinkBook notes you can change the text describing the attachment by tapping on it.
- Attachments can hold most of the documents an iPad can handle, images, word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video, audio and PDFs.
- Attachments can be moved and copied just like any other note. If you do a backup, attachments are also backed up. If you do a text export they are NOT so we don't recommend doing text exports and imports of notes containing attachments. Although ThinkBook backup files still have the extension '.tbb' they are now zip files. If you need to get to your backup data without using ThinkBook just change the extension to '.zip' and decompress the file. Inside you will find your attachments and a '.xml' file containing your notes.
- Attachment functionality has bought with it a whole bunch of options:
- Clipboard images can be imported automatically, never, or ThinkBook can ask before importing.
- Attachments can be imported into the home page, the slider or the current view.
- Document and Image backup can be enabled or disabled individually.
As well as Attachments this update also has some other nice changes:
- Themes have been updated. Thom has simplified the look of themes a LOT. He's got back a lot of the whitespace at the top of the page and flattened some interface elements, like the slider.
- New theme! 'Earth wind and fire' is much more colorful than the previous themes and Thom's got some nice effects happening like a home button that stays lit while the user is on the home page.
- Notes now always have SOMETHING in the place where todos have their checkbox, notebooks, pages and attachments show a little dot there so that indentation is much easier to follow in complicated documents.
1.2.4
2012-06-04
Hi all, we have a really nice looking update for you today!
- Retina graphics.
- New icon.
- Fixed issue where finders weren't showing WHERE a found note came from.
We hope you all really enjoy the update.
1.1.0
2012-05-10
Hi all, sorry for the long delay between updates. Thinks will be happening quicker for ThinkBook from now on.
No retina for this update but we plan on having retina graphics for the next one.
This update:
Fixed issue where when creating a new note the slider would move above the current note.
Fixed issue where holding down a button on the slider menu would bring up the options of the underlying entry.
Fixed issue where text imports would fail if international characters or smart quotes were a part of the text.
Fixed crashing issue with question finders.
Fixed a crashing bug when inserting a new item into an empty list that has had items removed from it.
1.0.6
2011-05-30
Hi all,
Lots of changes for you this time, I know you will all welcome the ability to email from within the app!
We've also fixed a lot of bugs that got in under our radar. Sorry about those, we tested it, the beta testers tested it, everything seemed fine. Unfortunately there were some bugs that new users would encounter almost straight away but people who already had lots of data in ThinkBook wouldn't. My apologies.
Some people have requested a GTD style 'Inbox', it's actually already quite easy to set one up. Just create a new page or notebook, call it 'Inbox', then tap on it. When the 'Inbox' entry appears in the navigation bar, swipe it left to make it a bookmark. Now whenever you want to go to your inbox just tap on it, to go back to where before just tap on the first entry in the history area of the navigation bar. It will always show the last place you visited.
Have a look at our support site (shown above and also in the tutorial window in the app) for more tips and to chat with other ThinkBook users. Lots of interesting things being talked about and I do my best to let everyone know what's happening.
Anyway, enough blabbering from me. Here are the changes:
- Email support, double tap a note to bring up its options menu then select 'email this note'. Notes are emailed as plain text.
- All note option menus now have the option to delete a note, no longer need to swipe into the slider.
- As well as double-tapping, a long tap can now also be used to bring up the options for a note.
- In the slider menu, moved the delete option to the top.
- Swiping right on an entry in the history area of the navigation bar now removes it.
- Lowercase 'X' can now also be used to mark todos as done in text imports.
- The slider can be double-tapped to delete all notes stored in it.
- If the user attempts to move a note into the slider from the left of the screen ThinkBook informs the user that moves should be moved in to the slider form the right.
- No longer crashing when selecting an empty notebook/page at the top of the current display then adding a new note.
- Keyboard is no longer reset when a cell changes size. So numeric keyboard won't go away any more, caps-lock stays put and international keyboards requiring multiple key presses for the one character will all work properly now.
- Autocorrect works the iOS standard way now (instead of the wrong way ...).
- Main text area is no longer resized incorrectly if ThinkBook is linked to DropBox while the iPad is in landscape mode and laying down.
- Fixed bug where ThinkBook would sometimes not allow editing or entering of new notes and had to be re-started.
- Fixed location of the 'A:' label in questions when questions were being displayed in a finder.
- The graphical tutorial has been updated to show deletion in the front page.