nValt does not retain Text Formatting when Syncing with Simplenote

[stevebarrauda]

Simplenote and the note application nvAlt have a problem synchronizing, it seems.

If one is running nvAlt on a Mac, but Simplenote on a iPad or iPhone, when nValt syncs with Simplenote, the file updated to synchronize erases all Formatted text, such as Bold, Italic, etc. marks. This is with the latest versions of nvAlt, as well as the very latest Version 2.2b (111).

Hopefully, there is something easy to address in this problem.

Thank you, SB

[juranta]

Note apps that somehow sync with nvALT (Simplenote, Notesy, etc) work primarily with plain text files. Also nvALT (Notational Velocity) uses plain text files at least when the notes are exploded as a plain text database. Plain text files don't have formatting such as bold, italic, etc. nvALT (Notational Velocity) somehow stores the formatting information inside its "Notes & Settings" database, not in those plain text files. Did the formatting stay on nvALT's end earlier even if you modified it in Simplenote? I'd imagine if it did, it wasn't very reliable since Simplenote doesn't know which words are bold, etc.

I don't even try to use formatting like that in nvALT, I use Markdown syntax for bold, italic, etc. For instance, italic is italic. nvALT has lots of Markdown functionality built into it.

[stevebarrauda]

Text Formatting used to stay with nValt version 2.1 (74) when sync'd with Simplenote.

[juranta]

nvALT has been updated to use newer Simperium API since then. http://brettterpstra.com/2013/03/24/nvalt-2-point-2-beta-104/

I don't know enough about internals to know if there's anything to do about it..

[stevebarrauda]

In all fairness, I also emailed Simplenote a few times, but received no response from them.

[stevebarrauda]

I see how one uses Markdown, but in nvALT you only see the Markdown, and not the Bold or Italic.

My point is to see the Bold and Italic IN nvALT. I don't mind seeing or not seeing it in Simplenote on my iDevice, but having it backwards erase to nvALT on sync, isn't cool. Considering it worked fine with nvALT 2.1, but not the latest....

[juranta]

nvALT has a preview view of Markdown files. There are many tools to view or transform Markdown files to other formats, such as Brett's Marked 2, and many others. In my view, nvALT (Notational Velocity) should be viewed as a plain text editor, not as a rich text editor. I guess the rich tech functionality is legacy from Notational Velocity. I personally just would not use those formattings with notes in nvALT, at least if I was syncing with other applications or editing then with other editors. I don't know how nvALT tries to handle the formattings when the files are edited from outside as plain text files, but it can't be very reliable. For example, if you have a text file in Simplenote or in the "exploded" text database format in other editor, then copy text with an italic part in it to ten different places, when nvALT receives back the plain text file, it would have no idea which part was copied and which was written with no intent of formatting. Sorry, but my opinion is that it's best to use nvALT only for plain text (Markdown) notes, at least if you're syncing or editing the notes in other programs. If you really need "wysiwyg" type of notes, and sync too, maybe something like Evernote or even Apple's native Notes is a better option.

[jeff-h]

It's not really correct to say rich text formatting isn't reliable inside nvALT, at least if you choose "Rich text format files" in the nvALT preferences > storage. The formatting is saved in the .rtf document just like if you edited the file with TextEdit.

Sadly, it seems 2.2b (111) when used with SimpleNote loses the formatting when syncing with SimpleNote.

See https://github.com/ttscoff/nv/issues/261 for more on this issue.