MarginNote 4

Academic wise, the new version is 100% cool, but it is also 100% more complex than the old version. If you are willing to learn this app, I am sure it will greatly facilitate your work/study (with mind-map / dictation / document review etc.) ‘WILLING TO LEARN’ means wasting hours to understand & adjust features to work in your way. Like setting highlighters / fonts / Notes/ Cards/ keyboard short cuts. It literally took me the whole day to understand the new features and how to use. By the way, the tutorials they provided are not very useful. You still need time to configure the app to the way you like, especially if you have previously used a MN 3. A lot of things changed. Good thing is the highlighting function on MN4 works better than the MN3, and they finally provided more options for mind-map structures. I compare MN4 with Goodnotes and Notability, I think it is more compatible for Mac users rather than iPad. If you use Mac to study, then it is a good option for you. For MN3 user, the sync function works well. All your old notes integrated to MN4. I used iCloud to backup all the notes, so the transferring works well for me between the 2 apps.

As an app to help me annotate academic texts, MN4 works fine. But given that I have spent money for a MAX subscription to enable seamless syncing with iOS devices, I say meh. The only way to get this to function is if I exit one app, go to the other devices and open it. Then rinse and repeat. Definitely not as advertised on the box. It’s a shame, because the poor customer service and failed delivery of basic sync function lets an otherwise fab app seriously down.

THE APP IS GREAT. IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED A MARGINNOTE PRODUCT ITS A MUST BUY. But at the same time, this new version has a bunch of changes made for the sake of making changes. The pdf viewer is now on the left side, the file system feels completely different, the formating of displays has been shifted in some areas (to the detriment of working space at times). Overall I regret making the upgrade. I haven't seen any benefits from the new app, and the changes have only left the app more buggy and less user friendly. I feel like i've been the victim of a cash grab, to be honest. DO NOT WASTE MONEY UPGRADING.

And now with a more typical iOS UI. Hopefully they write a proper Windows app next. Margin Note is on v4 and is still exclusive to Apple platforms.

Please don’t believe the fearmongering, it’s truly a next step in MarginNote’s history. Also, I suggest you buying stuff from the author so that they can continue developing the system, which is literally the best system for reading that exists.

It’s a brand new app — as one would expect when £/$/€ Upgrades! Users still have MN3 installed, so, keep using it until trained on MN4. There are more YT/Other ‘How To’ videos Online each week. There’s a HUGE user guide on the website for your leisurely usage. D/L the User Guide to your favoured PDF app, & go learn it all, hmm. A brand new app is going to have bugs/kinks to iron out — chill! I believe if you put effort in to training you’ll soon love the new app. If you wonder about VFM: MN3 was around many years; it’s worth it. My thanks to the human being(s) who brought this to my tech pad! I look forward to integrating this fab app in to my insane workflow. With kindest regards from my multiverse to all MN’ers! Good evening, now, where’s the Coffee?

This app has too many bugs to use.

Long time MN3 user. Took the update option to MN4. It’s like a completely different application. Where are my maps? I’ve just spent - wasted - 20 minutes going through bafflingly-named menus trying to find it. Nope, nowhere to be found, but I think they may still be in there somewhere. I have no idea what’s going on in this application any more. It’s certainly no use for academic reading and note-taking, which MN3 was good for. This is just utter confusion. It’s like the authors decided to reinvent everything, including terminology, and just not bother explaining any of it. Run away! Stick with version 3, which at least made sense. This version is a terrible misstep.

It's a PDF reviewer with novel features, an offline OCR device for the documents, allowing extracts - the extracts are then organised as cards, modelled on the Cloze model, and are the core components of the capable mind-mapping aspect. It is trying to do a lot.

It took me a day or two to understand this new version of Marginnote, but it's the most useful app I've found to date of really getting to the heart of documents when studying them. The extend feature is so usefor making contextual notes - works really well on both mac and ipad, and the fold feature allows for non relevant sections of the pdf to be hidden to focus on the core aspects.