Simplenote Note-Taking App Adds Focus Mode, Spellchecker, Option To Opt Out Of Analytics

The Simplenote desktop apps were updated recently with focus mode, a spell checker, new option to opt out of analytics, and more.

Simplenote is a note-taking application with optional Markdown support. There are applications for desktops (Linux, Windows and macOS), iOS and Android, and there's also a web client. The Simplenote applications are free and open source software, but the server is not (though there's no cost in using it to sync notes).

Originally created by Simperium back in 2008, Simplenote is developed by Automattic, the company behind Wordpress.com, Akismet, etc., since 2013.

Simplenote features include:

Notes version history: recover older versions of your notes
Quickly find notes using the built-in instant search and by using tags
Collaborate with other users or create public links for your notes
Optional Markdown support
Note view customization: modify the note display (comfy, condensed or expanded), change the line length, zoom, etc.
Light and dark themes
Supports exporting notes
Cross-platform applications
Free to use and open source apps

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The latest Simplenote desktop applications for macOS, Linux and Windows include a new Focus Mode feature, which should make it easier to have a distraction-free writing experience.

The Focus Mode option can be found in the View menu (or you can simply click the Toggle Sidebar button), and when enabled, it hides the sidebar, extending the note editor to the full width of the window.

For better readability in the new Focus Mode, a new Line Length option was introduced (in the View menu), which lets you set the line length to narrow or full. The screenshot above has the line length option set to narrow, which is default. Here's the line length set to full:

The Windows and Linux Electron application has received even more changes, like a spell checker that's enabled by default, but can be disabled from the Edit menu. What's more, users can now opt out of analytics sharing - to do this, go to File -> Preferences and disable Share analytics.

Also, with the 1.2.0 release, there are Simplenote RPM and AppImage binaries, including for 32bit, and 32bit DEBs (previously there were only 64bit DEBs and generic binaries).

Other changes in the latest Simplenote for Windows and Linux:

Exported note files are now dated to reflect the last modified date of the note
Modification dates are now updated when you add or remove tags
“Font Size” is now called “Zoom", and it's available in the View menu

Download Simplenote

There are DEB and TAR binaries for download on its website, but the application GitHub repository page also has RPM and AppImage binaries (and the source code) for the latest version. There's a Simplenote snap package available as well.

To use Simplenote you can either use a wordpress.com account, or create a Simplenote account (which requires entering an email address, but it doesn't require confirmation).