Forget SimpleNote And IA Writer, This Is The Writing App I’ve Sworn By For 10 Years

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

Writing is part of me. I’ve been writing since I was 11 years old — nearly three decades at this point. I started with a pen and paper in the 1990s, then switched to a PC in the early 2000s, and eventually found myself writing short novels on my Nokia 3250 XpressMusic using a T9 keypad. Since then, I’ve been writing on my smartphones non-stop, whether it’s fiction, college thesis, tech articles, ideas, thoughts, or anything else, really.

When I switched from Symbian to Android in the early 2010s, the first app I went looking for in the Android Market was a good writing app. I didn’t want anything fancy: simple text support (italics and bold were extras) and a way to synchronize my files with my computer. That was it.

I went through app after app, never liking any, until JotterPad landed in 2014 with Markdown support and a dozen other tempting features. I gave it a try, and I’ve been a JotterPad user ever since. It’s one of the first apps I install on any new Android phone, iPhone, Mac, or Chromebook. It’s my writing app; it’s where my creative mind feels the most at ease. I just open it, and my brain goes into “the zone.” For 10 years now, I’ve been through version after version of JotterPad, bought the original app, loathed the Pro Cloud $3.33 monthly subscription model the devs switched to, tried other alternatives, and then came back running to JotterPad. This is why.

You’ll take JotterPad’s dictionary and thesaurus out of my dead cold hands

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

I could cite a million reasons why JotterPad still wins my heart every day, but the single absolute reason is its built-in dictionary and thesaurus. (There’s a rhyming tool, too, if you write poetry.) I’m not a native English speaker, and as much as I’d like to think that my English is super solid and my vocabulary comprehensive, there are still times when words elude me. Or when I get stuck using the same verb or adjective over and over again when better ones exist but don’t come to my mind.

It baffles me that no other writing app offers this basic but essential feature.

JotterPad’s dictionary and thesaurus are a tap away at any time while I’m writing. I just tap the “A” button on the top right and can easily verify if I’m using a word in the right context or get a million synonyms to pick from. I don’t have to leave the comfort of my writing canvas and get distracted by web pages, online searches, or notifications. I remain locked in, in my mental writing mode, and still get the help I need. It baffles me that no other writing app has this feature (at least among the many dozens I’ve tried).

Yes, JotterPad should better organize the synonyms based on the original word’s meaning; seeing “dismiss,” “detonate,” “bonfire,” and “blast” as synonyms for “fire” in the same list is quite wild. But honestly, the chaos sort of works for me. My eyes roam through the list and land on a few words, some appropriate for my context, some completely incongruous. It’s those wildcards that get my creativity running, though. They’ll trigger a thought to add later, an image or a scene that would’ve never materialized had I not seen that exact random word. Any writer would tell you that free ideas like these don’t come often.

I want to stay in control of my own files

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

JotterPad offers two ways to save my files: local and cloud-sync (Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive). I love this: My words remain under my control, either on my phone or on my own cloud storage account. This is one of the reasons I never took to SimpleNote, even though I know a lot of people swear by it.

Over the years, I’ve switched between these two file-saving methods, often using a second app to synchronize my local files with my Synology NAS or some other cloud service, but I was always and will always be in possession of my own files. I don’t want to lose years of documents and writing to some temporary service or glitch. No, my files live where I want them to and JotterPad is just a way to access them and write in them.

Better yet, JotterPad uses the simple .txt file format (and also supports .md, .fountain, and .fdx). No proprietary files or formats here. On my Mac, for example, I often gravitate between using the official JotterPad app or quickly opening my .txt files in Apple’s TextEdit. I love that simplicity.

I can save my words locally or store them on my own cloud account in a .txt format I can read with any other app.

However, the minor niggle I now have is that my favorite syncing method — Google Drive — is about to be shuffled due to Google changing the way apps can access folders in Drive for better privacy. JotterPad offers a workaround (which is more than I can say for iA Writer that’s left the Play Store), but it requires that I let it save files as in-app data on my Drive. That would mean losing direct access to my files and just using Drive as my online cloud for JotterPad, the same as my WhatsApp backups and phone backups, for example. Not ideal for me, so I may switch back to Dropbox or OneDrive for saving and syncing my writing across devices.

A million more features make me love JotterPad

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

So, I’ve mentioned multiple platform compatibility, format support including Markdown, the built-in dictionary and thesaurus, and different file saving and syncing methods, but there’s still more to love about this app.

The writing interface is so simple and so conducive to writing. With no unnecessary buttons or menus, my mind can just focus on writing and zone in, forgetting every other distraction. I also love the view-only mode. Not many writing apps offer that, and sometimes, I just don’t want to mess with my document, I only want to re-read it to make sure things are fine.

JotterPad also has a typewriter mode that puts the focus on a small part of the screen, greying out the rest. I don’t use it often, but it’s handy in some situations. Plus, even in .txt documents, the app offers headings, bold, italics, and other formatting options that it applies using Markdown’s formatting language.

The app works offline, obviously. I’ve written a million words on flights and trains, disconnected from the world. There’s the necessary undo and redo functionality, which comes in handy when I’m snoozing with my phone in my hand and start touching the display and adding letters in random places. JotterPad also has a find button to quickly look for a specific word or structure in my document, which is perfect when I want to see how often I’m repeating a pattern or if I want to change the name or description of a character in fiction, for example. Plus, the app has a word counter, character counter and more stats, all excellent for my ego when I go on a writing spree.

Delving in further, there are different export formats (PDF, Word, Markdown, HTML), a YAML interface for writing code, an automatic outline generator, a citation manager if you’re writing something that requires references, and a publishing feature that sends a document to WordPress, Tumblr, or Ghost. On top of all of that, there are plugins for music composition, code writing and editing, image embeds, footnotes, mindmaps, chemistry equations, screenplays, and more.

Shortcomings, but not dealbreakers

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

JotterPad isn’t perfect, and one of its greatest letdowns is that it supposedly supports versioning for documents, but I never got this to really work for me. On its face, this could be the most useful feature the app has, but for some reason, I just get random saved history from a few documents, but not all. Instead, I rely on Google Drive to retrieve a past version if I mess up my files.

JotterPad’s versioning history would be perfect… if it worked properly.

I also dislike how I can’t change the font type or size or the line height and width inside my documents. For some reason, that setting is universal across all documents and can be found under the Me tab. So, if I want to make the text larger, I have to quit my document, change the font, and then come back. Baffling decision.

I’d also love it if the app added support for NAS syncing. Just allow me to pick my network storage folder inside JotterPad instead of resorting to other tricks to sync my files with my personal document vault. That’d be perfect and would save me from relying on third-party cloud providers.

This is the app for writers, bar none

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

I could go on and on about JotterPad, but the reality is that this is an app made for writers, first and foremost. Whether it’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or screenplays, the app just works. It can also do the job for code and reports, though that is not its strong suit.

I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words in JotterPad and will continue to do so as long as the app exists.

Look, if you just want to write lists and short notes, there are a million other apps out there. Try Notion, Obsidian, SimpleNote, Evernote, or even Google Keep. But if you want to write — actually string together thousands and thousands of words together — then there is no other app like it. Yes, it all comes at a cost because the free version is limited, but I’ve been gladly renewing my yearly subscription for several years now (though I usually wait for a discount to do so). If my money keeps this excellent service running, then it’s money well spent.

At the end of the day, all I can say is I’ve written many 70,000+ word stories in JotterPad and will continue to do so as long as the app exists. And if it ever ceases to work, I’ll be one homeless writer aimlessly erring in the Play Store and App Store wilderness, looking for any app that can fill 10% of JotterPad’s shoes. I doubt that exists.