Apple iOS
An app that makes organising easy.
This app combines notes, calendars, and reminders. Agenda notes can contain pretty much anything, and you can organise notes by category, project, dates or tags.
There are two versions of Agenda: a free version that you can use forever and the Premium iteration, which for a one-off $54.99 unlocks features such as project archiving, creating smart overviews from search criteria, copying text as Markdown/HTML, and editing Calendar events. The free version is good but Premium, which also covers your Mac, is better.
Agenda uses a three-panel layout. The left sidebar contains On The Agenda – a bird’s-eye view of your most important notes – as well as a Today view, a Search link, and direct links to your projects. You can create different categories for different kinds of projects. The right sidebar shows the calendar, links to recently edited notes, and notes that are related to the one you’re currently looking at. The left and right sidebars can be summoned or dismissed with a single swipe. And you can use your Apple Pencil on supported iPads for handwriting recognition, to select text or other items, and to interact with the interface.
The editor in Agenda is a stylebased text editor that enables you to format text and add tags, links, tables, lists, and check boxes. Tables are new to version 12 and in the Mac app support inline styles; on the iPad you’re limited to basic formatting.
The editor looks minimal but if you tap on the gear icon in a note you’ll get the copy, move, share, and save as template options. The Copy As feature enables you to copy your notes in Markdown or HTML format to preserve your formatting and links. Similarly, the ‘+’ button on the formatting toolbar gives you options for attaching files, adding tags, setting dates and reminders, importing photos, or using the iOS document scanner. You don’t get the same extensive formatting options that you would find in the likes of Evernote, but you do get multiple heading styles, code blocks, lists, and check boxes. It’s easy to assign notes to a particular date or time, and if you tap on calendar items in the sidebar you can quickly add a new note, reschedule the event, or edit the event details without having to open Calendar itself.
Agenda also gives you the ability to link to things from your notes. You can create Agenda Links, which enable you to add shortcuts to existing Agenda notes, and you can attach external files. Attached files are synced between your different devices via iCloud or Dropbox and you can change how they display on a per-note basis.
If you’re currently mixing and matching notes, as well as to-do, reminder and project apps, or you just need to stay on top of all kinds of stuff, Agenda is a powerful way to stay organised.
A great mix of note-taking and scheduling.