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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/867
126 MacDirectory
PROFILE
CIRCUS PONIES > NOTEBOOK AND SO MUCH MORE
Headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif.,
Circus Ponies was founded in 2003 to
create useful applications for users around
the globe. More specifically, the company
has been working with OS X technologies
since 1989 — on the NeXT system that
was the precursor to OS X. As one may
guess, Circus Ponies has a great deal of
experience with crafting Mac apps.
With respect to its product, NoteBook is
clearly the company's flagship offering. In
fact, the NoteBook won the product of the
year award from
NeXTWORLD Magazine
in 1992.
About NoteBook
NoteBook simply allows users to get
organized on a Mac computer. Prior to
NoteBook, there simply was no good way
to organize small bits of information like
Web clippings and notes you make to
yourself. Consequently, the NoteBook
application was created to specifically
address this problem.
"If I'm working on a project, I have some
notes, e-mails, a spreadsheet etc – and I
would like to keep these items together
and organized. I could create a folder in
the Finder, and at that point everything
would be in one place, but it would not be
organized," explains Jayson Adams of
Circus Ponies. "With NoteBook, you store
everything in one or more NoteBooks,
which look like paper notebooks with
pages and tabs -- a familiar way to
organize information."
Moreover, whenever you need to find a
specific piece of information, the Multidex
at the back of every NoteBook makes it
simple to find any info through a simple
search - such as a name, a number, a date
and so on. Additionally, you can share
your Notebooks by turning them into PDFs
or Web sites.
"NoteBook is the perfect application for
organizing clips, research, and other
important information needed for
filmmaking. I can attach humongous video
files and images of locations, casting
sessions, and all my research into one
Notebook. And with the 'export to web'
feature I can share it all with anyone. I
absolutely love it!" Rick McCallum, the
producer of
Star Wars, was quoted on the
company Web site.
The company is continually working to
improve upon this product. For instance,
in September 2008, the company shipped
version 3.0 of NoteBook, which added
sketching, handwriting recognition, sticky
notes and flags, and easy PDF annotation -
- among other features.
"NoteBook is the most popular note
organizer for the Mac, and with 3.0 we've
made it even better," says Adams. "Now
Mac users don't have to spend hundreds
of dollars on separate outlining, diagram-
ming, and to-do list programs — NoteBook
does it all, at a fraction of the price."
Circus Ponies offers a 30-day test drive of
the latest version of NoteBook so users can
see for themselves how they can better
organize their lives.
To download this product, you require Mac
OS X v 10.4.11 or later, PowerPC G3 or
higher or an Intel Core Solo or Duo
processor, and at least 256 MB RAM.
Company Support
With respect to support, the company
offers a multitude of resources online for
consumers. Along with thorough e-mail
based support, the company also boasts
of an interactive forum, a FAQ section,
helpful online manual, discussion groups
and other sources of information.
All in all, Circus Ponies is a cutting edge
company that will only continue to
develop useful software in the future. See