It seems like I can't walk down the hall in my house without tripping over note-taking apps. It's the first thing that new programmers tackle when they decide to make an actual program, and as such there are thousands of options available when looking for a note taking app.

It's a bit harsh to say so, but the honest truth is that the vast majority of note-taking apps out there are utter crap. Most don't even do a reasonable job of differentiating themselves from what comes preinstalled on your computer. The Mac app Notational Velocity, on the other hand, is very useful.

A couple of caveats here: Notational Velocity is for people that need to take notes on their computer, but don't require access to them on a mobile device. It's not web based, doesn't sync with the cloud, and doesn't have a companion iPhone app.

Notational Velocity also isn't for people that need a complicated categorization or tagging structure to organize their notes. Simplicity and speed are what NV is all about.

If I haven't turned you off, there's a good chance that you'll find a lot to like in Notational Velocity. The app is cleverly designed to make adding and finding notes incredibly quick. The app has a single search field at the top of the app's window that allows you to search for content, or instantly add a new note simply by pressing Enter. Searching filters down your list of notes based on content and title with title taking precedence, and the filtering happens instantaneously even with thousands of notes stored in the app.

The app's makers suggest using Notational Velocity to create many very specific (and therefore shorter) notes instead of a few long-form ones. That allows you to more quickly find what you are looking for later on.

Here's hoping that cloud syncing and an iPhone version are just around the corner.

[via Daring Fireball]