NICK COLLINGRIDGE  I know that it's fashionable to knock Chronos, and I also know from bitter experience that in the past most of that criticism has been justified. However I have to say that SOHO Notes is an immense improvement on their previous products.

I have been searching for a notes application to replace my much-loved copy of NotePad Deluxe (not Intel native and has some problems with SL) for a while now, and of all of them out there (and there are quite a few) SOHO Notes is the best by quite a long way. The UI is excellent, the feature set is extremely comprehensive, it's fast, and best of all the app itself is very stable.

I have had minor problems; FlashNote quits on occasion and an issue with form notes which are encrypted losing their data, but other than that it really is excellent. It's not perfect (I've got a long list of suggestions!) but it is better than any other notes app at present that I have looked at.

Just for the record - this version does not use OpenBase but Apple's CoreData, which is fast and stable. Also there is a lot of detailed info on their blog as to why the iPhone app, NoteLife, is not out yet, and it really doesn't look like it's Chronos' fault but down to Apple's cumbersome review process. Take a look at http://www.chronosnet.com/blog/index.html.   
(Version 8.08)

DAVE BROCK  I really love what SOHO Notes looks like, what I don't understand is how the company can put in so much time and effort making a really nice GUI, but seemingly can't hire one decent programmer to make sure that oh I don't know, the program doesn't constantly break down, fall apart, and go approximately 20 times slower then anything else I have ever used for the same purpose. Devonthink which is industrial looking ugly, screams in comparison to this thing with a much larger load of documents. Eagle Filer is a close second, Together is starting to go the same route as SOHO notes, it keeps adding bling while failing to fix some fundamental problems and Yohimbo is doing I don't know what. First app update in what like 3 years is very unimpressive. BBedit is the shiznit but aside from that one app I haven't the foggiest idea what BareBones thinks its doing.

For me right now Devonthink which is both kind of ugly and confusing, is leading the heavyweight best in class pack, with Eagle Filer which has some of the ugliest icons ever seen by man on any platform is a close second. Why is it that nobody can seem to make a good looking program that works reliably?   
(Version 8.0)

PMFINE  I used this product for years as well as Sticky Brain before and when it worked it was great. However, once I had a db corruption problem and needed help, outside of my own expertise, the company never responded. Not in private email or on their forums as they prefer.

Good products still need the backend support for when even a consultant (me) can not get around a problem and this company failed terribly at that task.

I decided that I could no longer invest my time and data and my client's data to a company that offered me no help at all on those very rare occasions it was needed.

I moved on to EverNote, a free solution that is not perfect but adds wonderful cross platform support to my iPhone too.

Even the best product is not worth using if you can not get any help when you need it.

-Peter  
(Version 7.0.3)

BOBZOZUS  I must concur with those who find SOHO Notes slow, buggy, and expensive. I particularly do not like the fact that SOHO notes requires one to create notes using the SOHO notes data base format. Particularly a problem in that the format of this data base changes during each- expensive- upgrade. And, for those of us still using Tiger- the newest version of SOHO notes does not even apply!

So, I am glad to report that I switched- to the excellent - and reasonably priced- Eagle Filer. It is a data based manager which keeps files in their own data format. It is constantly updated (three times in the last few months alone)- with no upgrade fee! It has powerful and accurate search, tagging and spotlight integration. I could go on- just check it out at: or . You will not be sorry that you did!

P.S. I am in no way connected with Eaglefiler, nor receive any financial compensation from the developers of this program. I have just been a long term user of Chronos software programs- Organizer, SOHO notes, even Consultant- and have always been disappointed by the wide chasm between what the developers promise- and what the programs deliver. Their unreliability, and high upgrade costs. Sorry, but after feeling had for the last ten years- I finally have broken free! It feels good....  
(Version 7.0.2)

PHOTOGENEC  A Testing Experience

I am somehow inclined to regularly download and test the latest version of SOHO Notes. It doesn't take much to move me to action: an html announcement from Chronos, a mea culpa email about SOHO technical support, the introduction of NoteLife. I constantly venture over to MacUpdate to check out the star ratings of the product. Would the rating still be two and a half stars out of five? At version 8.09, most of the v8 release bugs should have been eradicated.

Alas no. Two and a half stars it was. And holding. More negative chatter. I would not let this negativity dissuade me.

So this morning, I once again navigated to the Chronos site and re-downloaded v8.09 of SOHO Notes. I convinced myself that I was going to stick it out this time; I was going to help Chronos as a self-described Macintosh evangelist. Sort of an Apple software medic.

I decided my first Notes writing assignment would be to create a Crash Record. I thought this might be insightful for me (perhaps looking for patterns in my own work would be helpful to Chronos too). I fired up a new blank pages document, titled it SOHO Notes Crash Report, added a three column, multi-row table, then closed the note. And SOHO crashed.

Being a dedicated Chronos supporter, I dutifully copied out the SOHO details from the error report with the expectation of copying this into my very first crash report table entry. I reloaded Notes, opened my SOHO Notes Crash Report document, and, using a Notes shortcut, entered today's date in the second row's first cell. But that date refused to stay in the cell - preferring to paste itself in the third cell of the first row - The title row. I deleted the recalcitrant pasting and tried again. No success. For some reason, the date wanted to cuddle up inside the first row's third cell. In addition, the top two rows' cells resized themselves into a crazy quilt of disordered formatting. Thank goodness for Command Z.

Being a highly dedicated Chronos supporter, I thought "Okay, operator error, I'll fix this." So, like a football referee, I decided to jump into the middle of six misshapen table cells to sort them out. And then SOHO Notes crashed.

Being a fanatically dedicated Chronos supporter, I did what I always so. I removed the product and all shreds of it's tenancy from my MacBook Pro and dragged these to my trash bin. Unfortunately, SOHO Notes seems to be more at home there then in my applications folder. Kudos, as always, to Apple for making the elimination of non-performing software so dreadfully easy.

So. . . being the frightfully dedicated Chronos supporter, I fully expect to yet again download the next version of Notes - be it v8.10, 8.11, 10.11, or 20.11 - and check it out. I have faith in the company that one day in the not too distant future - as long as aluminum is still readily available, Chronos will provide the Mac community with a blessedly bug-free SOHO Notes.

After all, I am a dedicated Chronos supporter.  
(Version 8.09)

DEHARTZELL  I bought this program for the feature of syncing to iPhone with NOTELIFE App that you could be bought from the App store. I have been waiting since Sept 18th for this to become available. Everytime I inquire to Chronos about availability I get a rude reply that Apple is holding things up. I Chronos is the problem. The notes application works ok but so do lots of others.  
(Version 8.05)

MACD  No wonder the software is bug ridden and support is slow - that's what happens when you redo everything from the scratch. Personally, I think they shouldn't have been releasing software at this stage - with too many bugs which just had to be caught on the development stage, given a proper testing.

But anyways, the thing is out there in the wild, and though it lacks features (for example, comparing to yojimbo, it can't open a PDF in Preview, which is kinda almost a show-stopper for me, but oh well), a bit on the slow side, I would like to give it a try (esp. taking in account the upcoming iphone client).

Support is definitely swamped with reports, that's why even emergency tickets take days to get processed. Well.. it's still their fault, but at least they have the proper support with progress tracking and stuff! Compare with Yojimbo, or Evernote! I think it will still take a couple of months until things calm down, but the potential is here, features are here, and company is listening to the users (they fixed at least 2 tickets I have filed them).

However, a word of warning - if you need perfection, Soho Notes 8 is not the product for you just yet. Wait till 8.1 or something - and it will probably feed your needs aplenty.

I have tried Yojimbo (actually switched from this barely developed POS, and they won't EVER have iPhone client), and tried Evernote - but for the price (if you are a paid user), the software is underdeveloped, lacks features, has clunky interface (both desktop and iphone versions) and their way of thinking how things should work just isn't for me.

So, I want to believe Soho Notes will get rid of most of its annoying bugs, adds the only feature I need very badly (opening PDF in external viewer) - and we'll have a winner.  
(Version 8.02)

TANKKNIGHT  I used to love Notes & Organizer, but after PhoneValet updated Openbase to 11 I had to uninstall SOHO. I asked Chronos, but they said it was Openbase fault that it did not work with SOHO. I thought this version would work as the update notes said it does, but no go. It just hangs saying "Opening Database...". I tried all variations of uninstalling/installing, including the database, restarting and even uninstalling PhoneValet. I will wait and see if version 8 will work. I have started using Devonthink and if it works out (looking pretty interesting) I may move on from Chronos products.

I still recommend Notes & Organizer ... When they work.  
(Version 7.0.8)

MAREKJANCI  Warning about the installation of the 7.03 update. It may place the new files at the root level of your disk. Do a backup first before upgrading.  
(Version 7.0.3)

BLUEBIRD  J.B. , I see you're one of those numbers guys too. You've got to be in dreamland if you think you could trust your valuable data to this program with all it bugs left and right.  
(Version 7.0.2)