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Catch Notes (for iPad)

The free note-taking and syncing app Catch Notes for iPad gives collaborative note-takers some neat features, but a one of its signature features isn't for everybody.

September 28, 2012

People taking notes on an iPad largely fall into two camps: those who want to write with their finger or stylus, and those who prefer typing. I'm in the latter group, preferring services that can house my neatly typed notes, while also syncing them wirelessly to my smartphone and computer (or a Web app). I also value a good search tool because I don't want to ever dig through hundreds or thousands of notes to find what I need. Catch Notes meets most of my requirements and adds a few novel twists on the note-taking and –syncing app concept. Catch lets you type text, make checklists, record audio files, and snap photos or upload images of anything you want to remember, just as does. And like Evernote, it has a Web app, as well as dedicated apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android.

Catch's signature feature is collaboration. In particular, Catch has a neat commenting thread below notes where collaborators can hold discussions. Whether you appreciate Catch's other signature feature—inline hashtags as tags, explained in more detail below—may largely be a matter of preference, and to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. But Catch is a good option among free note-taking and note-syncing services, particularly when your notes are collaborative.

Catch Notes' Design and Price
Catch for iPad is straightforward, uncomplicated, and fairly minimalistic. The iPhone and Android apps look significantly dressed up in comparison. Paired down settings and options keep the app clean and clutter-free, but also strip away the playfulness and creativity you'll find in the iPhone and Android versions.

Catch's main competitor, Evernote, has faced criticism from some users for feature bloat (although we at PCMag disagree, finding Evernote's options and customization helpful and quite restrained). Nevertheless, I can see the logic behind designing Catch to be even more reserved. Like Evernote, the app itself is free, as is an account, but users can pay $4.99 per month or $44.99 per year to upgrade to a Pro account for a few extra perks.

A free Catch account gives you five spaces for private or shared notebooks (or "spaces") and the ability to add 70MB per month of new content. A Pro account lets you have 50 spaces, 1GB of new content uploaded per month, and the ability to attach office documents to your notes.

Set Up and Sign In
The Catch iPad app is a very simple to use. After downloading the free app and launching it, new users have three choices for registering an account: 1) sign into your Catch account or set one up with an email address and password, 2) log in using your Google ID, or 3) log in using your Facebook account.

Catch starts you off with a sample note that contains information about how to create notes, organize them, and sync them. It's also nice to see this dummy note appear where one would otherwise face a dauntingly blank canvas.

Features
Much like Evernote, Catch supports notes as text, audio, and image files. Catch also has a checklist note type in case you want to use the app for your to-do lists, which I like better than Evernote's checklist feature (checklists in Evernote are available as paragraph formatting styles within notes, rather than a type of note).

When you start a new note, you can record an audio memo or take a picture on the spot to upload, or just type your text using the virtual keyboard.

Since its early days, Catch has added spaces, or folders, which makes organizing your notes much better than it used to be. The app still uses it original and unique tagging system, though. In Catch, you create tags by typing a hashtag (#) before any word right in your note. The words then appear as if they are hyperlinks, indicating that they're now tags. I can see how some users will find this concept simple because you never have to add tags as a secondary step. Tags are always at your fingertips while you're writing notes. The problem is you can't reference, then and there which tags you've used in the past. My problem is that this system too easily allows for inconsistencies that don't occur when you can select tags from a pre-made list. For example, in Catch, I might write into one note the tag "#iPadApps" and in other places use the more general "#MobileApp" or "#MobileApps." As a , seeing inconsistently written tags like these would drive me batty.

If you like Catch's unique tagging system, you'll probably also like its search box, which lets you look for hashtags on notes, or filter notes by other criteria, like favorite notes marked with a star or those that you've shared with collaborators.

Catch's collaborative take on notes really isn't like any other note-taking system I've seen. Basic collaboration takes the form of emailing notes to others, and that's nothing new. Every note in Catch has a comments thread at the bottom. I like that the user as well as the collaborators can discuss a note's content without anyone messing up the contents of the note itself. Imagine it in action in a business setting. Perhaps you're taking notes while traveling with colleagues or while at a conference. One person can make a note quickly while in a conference session and post it to her colleagues, and others read it, ask follow up questions, or simply add her two cents, all in the comments. Comments always stay with the note, too, so everything syncs to all your devices.

Catch All or Catch None?
The Catch iPad app is a solid choice for note-takers who prefer typing to handwriting, and especially those who want to add more collaboration to their note-taking. A clean design, good core functionality, and unique features make it an interesting option. But if you're a stickler for consistency, as I am, you might find the hashtag-as-tagging feature not to your taste. For note-taking and syncing, Evernote is probably still your best option, largely because it integrates with so many other services. If all you need is an app to take notes, however, we have reviewed a number of note-taking apps for the iPad (which don't necessary provide any syncing), our Editors' Choice being .

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