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Introducing Enhanced Notes

Our developers have been working diligently behind the scenes for months now and we’re happy to finally announce the release of the project they’ve been working on. So, without further ado, please allow us the privilege of introducing to you Enhanced Notes! We can practically hear you all squealing with delight! Enhanced Notes is the newest feature of our app that totally transforms your experience of notetaking in the Olive Tree App. One of the best parts about this announcement is that many of our users have been requesting these additions for years. Let’s look at how these new features can help take your notes to the next level!

While Enhanced Notes is a paid feature, we’re offering users the ability to try it out with a FREE 3-day trial! Once you’ve tried it out and decide that you can’t live without them, then you can purchase Enhanced Notes for only $19.99. Plus, this one-time purchase will give you Enhanced Notes forever.

A previous blog post on Notes in the Olive Tree Bible App will show you everything you need to know about how notetaking is currently set up in our app. Our aim for Enhanced Notes was to take those basic notetaking capabilities and completely expand and enhance them. Here’s a list of customizable options we have added for your notetaking.

Word-level Formatting

  • Bold
  • Italics
  • Underscore
  • Strikethrough

Ordered Lists with Enhanced Notes

Not only can you apply styles to the words in your notes with Enhanced Notes, but you can also arrange your ideas through the use of ordered lists. This is perfect for outlining passages in Scripture or simply providing some structure to your thoughts as you jot them down. Plus, outlining is a proven way to increase your retention of the subject matter. You can outline up to five levels deep following a 1. – i. – a. pattern.

If outlining isn’t your thing, then you can still provide structure to your notes with bulleted lists. We’ve provided three bulleted characters to help organize your big ideas.

You can even use Enhanced Notes to help outline passages in Hebrew or Greek!

No matter which ordered list you prefer, the important point to remember is that you can format in a way that works for you.

Preset Styles

If you really want to utilize the notetaking capabilities of the Olive Tree App, then we’ve added some preset styling attributes you can quickly apply to entire paragraphs. You can access the preset styles by tapping the paragraph icon on the tool bar.

This feature works well for those who want to add more content to their notes while still maintaining a professional appearance. Each preset style can be applied one paragraph at a time. Hitting enter after a title, heading, or subheading will begin a new paragraph with the body preset style.

Checklist Formatting

One of the details you’ll love in Enhanced Notes is the ability to make checklists. I think we’d all admit there’s something satisfying about making a list and crossing items off after completing them. Now, with Enhanced Notes, you can make prayer lists or lists of questions you may have about the text or ideas to investigate further. And you can mark them off once you’ve completed them!

For those of us who like the satisfaction of crossing items off a list, you can check off the item in the open circle and then add the strikethrough formatting!

Superscript and Subscript

The addition of superscript and subscript allows you to add footnotes or references in an unobtrusive way. Just tap the icon and start typing!

Getting Started with Enhanced Notes

How can you get started with Enhanced Notes? It’s easy! All you have to do is follow the in-app prompt that will show up when you attempt to edit a note. You can see the prompt above the toolbar in the image below.

Tapping on the prompt will open a popup window with a brief explanation of the features included in Enhanced Notes. You can either select to try it out for with a 3-day trial or purchase the lifetime use of Enhanced Notes for the one-time charge.

Start Customizing Your Notetaking with Enhanced Notes!

Now that we’ve shown you how you can use Enhanced Notes, why don’t you give it a try yourself! You can start the free 3-day trial in the app by following the prompt when you edit a note. Or if you’ve been patiently waiting for these additions and know that you can’t live without them, then go directly to our store and purchase Enhanced Notes for the one-time charge of $19.99.

GET ENHANCED NOTES

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37 Comments

  1. William Reply

    Sounds great, but I don’t see any prompt to try the feature out or purchase it when I open an existing note or create a new one in either the Windows desktop app or the mobile app on my Samsung Android phone. What am I missing?

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi William! We’re grateful for your interest! You’ll need to download the latest update to our app (7.14), which should be available shortly in your respective device store. Once you download the update then you can try the free trial by editing a note in the app. Please reach out to our Support team if you encounter any difficulties.

  2. Doug Brook Reply

    Hi – just to make sure, it will not effect my existing notes if I try out the new features, then decide not to upgrade?
    Thank you!

    Doug

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Doug! Great to hear from you. You’re existing notes will remain securely stored on our servers. Any new notes you create with the trial or any enhanced formatting you apply from the trial to your old notes will remain after the trial has ended, even if you don’t decide to upgrade. You’ll just lose access to the enhanced formatting features after the trial has ended. We hope you enjoy the new capabilities!

  3. William Reply

    Good enhancements, but they should have been there all along as these are basic to notetaking apps of all flavors. Should not be an additional charge to use what is table stakes anywhere else.

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi William! Thank you for sharing your thoughts! We’ll still be allowing our users to access our existing note-taking features free of charge. So, you’ll still be able to store an unlimited number of notes and sync them across all your devices for free. While we pride ourselves on being able to offer our app and other additional resources for free, the enhanced notes capabilities and other paid resources help support our efforts to see more people engaged in studying God’s Word.

    • Keith Reply

      I agree with William. It’s taken Olive Tree over 20 years to add a feature that is in most apps that have a notes feature. I’ve never seen it be an additional charge in any other app. Fortunately, the cost isn’t prohibitive.

      My question: Since the Mac version of the app hasn’t received the updates that the other platforms have, is it available on the Mac? If not, what would happen to notes formatted on an iPad and viewed on a Mac?

      Thanks

  4. C Green Reply

    Are the enhanced notes downloadable, and will they retain their formatting?
    C

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hello C! In order to start the free trial, you’ll need to download the most recent version of the app. Once that has been downloaded and installed, you can access the free trial by creating a note in the Study Center and then editing it. The notes you create using the enhanced features will be retained once the trial has expired.

  5. Prof Stephen L Cook Reply

    Just purchased. This is great. Thank you!!!❤️
    Two feature requests for the future. (1) I’d love to be able to share notes with my students and even download them. The Olive Tree website says this is a work in progress. (2). In the old notes you could use live urls. This was very useful. Could u restore the live web link functionality? I use them to access images and documents (e.g. stored in Evernote or Dropbox). Relatedly I’d love to be able to add links in notes to a page or image or map in a specific Olive Tree resource. Accordance allows this. Thanks for considering these thoughts!

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Dr. Cook! We’re glad you’re pleased with Enhanced Notes! In regards to question (1), you can share, save, or print your notes through your specific device. By tapping on the three dots (…) in the upper right hand corner of the notes tab you’ll see the options currently available. Regarding question (2), you should be able to add live URLs to your notes. We’ve added this to our bug list, so you can expect an update to come out once our developers have fixed the bug. Also, we’ve added the request to link to specific resources from the notes to the list of capabilities we’ll consider adding in the future. Thank you for your suggestion!

  6. Claude Reply

    Parts of my notes I like to use red letters and & also I like to highlight some lines. Is this in the future works?

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Claude! We’ve added the capability to change the font color and add highlighting to the list of features we may consider adding in the future. Thank you for your enquiry and suggestion!

  7. Sally Reply

    I feel like it is Christmas in September! I have been waiting a long time for this. I can’t wait to try it out.
    Considering what other platforms charge for subscriptions, I think the one-time charge is very reasonable.

    Thank you very much!

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Sally! We’re so pleased to hear your excitement about Enhanced Notes and glad that you see the charge as reasonable. We agree! Blessings to you!

  8. Tony Hayling Reply

    If I purchase the enhanced notes function will I be able to use it on all my Apple devices – Mac, iPad and iPhone for the single subscription price?

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Tony! We’ve added this feature similar to how any other resource works in our app. Once you purchase Enhanced Notes for the one-time price, this will be included in your account forever. So, as long as you have the latest version of the app installed on your devices and are logged in, then you’ll have access to Enhanced Notes. Let us know if we can help set you up with Enhanced Notes!

    • Alan Weaver Reply

      You mention that you can make prayer lists, but I am curious as to how. Does the list have to be attached to a Bible passage note? Can you make stand alone notes not attached to a Bible text?

  9. Mike Reply

    This is a nice feature and I am glad that the people that have been waiting for it so long finally have it. For those of us that don’t really need it, is there any way to remove the formatting buttons from the note editor? It’s kind of annoying on the desktop app, but it’s problematic on the phone app because it takes up so much screen real estate for a disabled function. (I have a small phone.) It would be really great if those of us who don’t want the feature don’t have to see it there taking up space that would otherwise have text in it. Thanks!

  10. Todd Reply

    Does the app already have ability to properly annotate and use pencil technology? To me that is what enhanced notetaking also is; a lot of these features already come included in many other applications. Just saying.

    • Kevin Reply

      i completely agree. i have been waiting years to be able to add handwritten notes and draw or write freely on the pages.

      • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

        Hi Kevin and Todd! Unfortunately, Enhanced Notes doesn’t support handwritten notes. That may be a capability we add sometime in the future, but for now you’ll have to use the formatting options our app supports. If there’s any way we can help you utilize the options in our app, then please reach out to our outstanding Support team. They’d be glad to assist you in any way.

  11. Tony Reply

    Very disappointed in the advanced notes. I have had to send in three videos of how even the in paid version is making typing impossible.

    I cannot take notes at all.
    Words jump around.
    Some times I can only type one letter and the cursor ends up at the end of the line.
    The keyboard will do things I am not asking for like want to change the icon of the note.

    When will I get my app back?

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Tony! We’re sorry for the difficulties you’ve been experiencing with the release of Enhanced Notes. There are always bugs to work out after the release of a new feature, especially when we release all platforms at the same time. Please know that our developers are working hard at fixing the bugs as they come in and thank you for letting us know the problems you have been experiencing. If there’s anything we can help you with in the meantime, then please feel free to reach out to our Support team at support@olivetree.com.

  13. Simon Reply

    Enhanced notes makes it impossible to type in landscape mode on a mobile (Android) as the formatting tool bar takes up too much space, can no longer see what I’m typing. There is lots of blank space which could be utilised or make the formatting bar collapseable.

    And if you haven’t purchased it shouldn’t show at all.

    Also not happy with changes to how the regular notes function works. Can only copy one word at a time when previously could select sentences.
    Deleting now requires two clicks of delete to initiate first character delete. Why?
    Seems to have been deliberate changes to frustrate users into purchasing.

    Have been a user for about 10 years, will start looking for a new app now.

  14. Dougvnnkme6 Reply

    My kids gifted me a very expensive apple pencil for my Ipad – but sadly it does not work with my most used app “OliveTree” – is there any plans to levearage the power of input devices that support note taking. Im a one finger typist and would love to write on my ipad with the pencil to capture notes.

    • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

      Hi Doug! We’ve received a number of similar thoughts from our users. Just to let you know, we’re keeping some notes about this and will perhaps add it in a future update. Blessings to you!

    • Derek Reply

      Hi Doug, I also like to take notes with my Apple Pencil. If you go into your iPad settings then to”Apple Pencil” and turn on “Scribble”, it allows you to handwrite in any text input area and it automatically converts it to typed font. For example, this message was written with the Apple Pencil. I’ve been able to use this feature to use the Apple Pencil to take notes in the app. It takes some getting used to, but could be an option until they add and update to allow for handwriting. Hope this helps.

    • T. B. Reply

      I agree with you and prefer to see my own handwriting and dont have time to check for transitiinal errors from scribble to print.

      I was about to send the following text but i saw this comment. Good to know someone else agrees.

      Will you ever add the option to free hand write. I prefer writing my notes over typing because i can write as revelation comes and circle and highlights free hand like the kindle app. But freehand like The Pencil Bible. Its plain with little to no options but it is huge because they understand note takers who want to use their bible in church and take notes without having to carry a notepad.

      They also have larger margins and spacing between verses.
      I get so much revelation while writing in that bible with my ipen.

    • Margaret Reply

      With iPad and Pencil, I write in notes using the native Apple Scribble technology. Of course, Olive Tree Bible Study app does turn handwritten into text. However, It’s very nice not to have to type by doing this! Apple Scribble must be allowed in Settings>Apple Pencil on iPad.

  15. Jesse Reply

    Nice feature, but feels like a bit of a smack in the face putting a paywall behind it; I would’ve thought it would be included in a free update, especially when I’ve invested a lot in the app for many years. Also annoying that you can’t get rid of it, I’ve emailed support asking how to do this. Hope Olive Tree responds to this (even if it’s just having the option to disable the feature), as I have loved this app for many years. Thanks, Jesse

    • Jesse Reply

      Update: Olive Tree support were really helpful and gave me the option of disabling this feature, so will definitely continue using the app as it was. Thanks Olive Tree

      • Brad Hoffman Post Author Reply

        Thanks for the update, Jesse! We’re glad you found our Support team helpful. Have a blessed day!

  16. Simon Reply

    I don’t understand why this not just a free, inclusive update to the app.
    Which is already great by the way!
    I am not I see the $20 value for something that’s pretty standard in many other apps

  17. Kathryn Arnold Reply

    Are Notes backed-up only to your server or can they be backed-up to my storage device? If local back-up, is the file in a format that allows me to read the backed-up notes?

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