Lognote 6.3: Text colors, day separators and Obsidian

Lognote 6.3.0 adds text colors, optional day separators in the Classic layout, sorting by the last edit, and a connection to Obsidian vaults. It also improves photo capture, copying notes between groups, and the handling of unfinished drafts.

The iOS and macOS updates have been submitted to Apple for review. They will become available in the App Store after approval. Here is what changes and where to find the new options.

Color individual words and passages

You can now give selected text its own color directly in the editor. Use it to distinguish a deadline, highlight an important result, or make a short action item easier to find in a longer note.

Select the words or passage you want to change, then tap the color circle in the selection menu. Choose gray, red, orange, green, blue or purple. Choose Default to return the selected text to the normal text color.

Text color also works alongside note priorities. If the whole note has a colored priority background, Lognote adjusts the displayed text color for readability against that background. You can mark a specific passage without losing it inside the note's existing color.

Text colors are also included in exports that support them, so the emphasis you add in Lognote can travel with the note.

Separate days in the Classic layout

A continuous list is useful for short groups. For a work log, study notes or a daily journal, a date heading can make it easier to see where one day ends and the next begins.

On iPhone and iPad, open Settings → Note layout, select Classic, and use Separate days automatically. Choose Grouped by day to show bold, centered date headings between days. Continuous list keeps the existing layout.

You can make a different choice for an individual group. Open the group's menu, choose Display, and change the same setting there. A group can follow the global setting or keep its own choice. For example, your work log can use day headings while a reference collection stays continuous.

The settings now show illustrated choices and a preview of the result. They also use less space, and the group settings indicate whether a value comes from the global settings or applies specifically to that group.

Put the latest edits first

The new Recently edited option sorts notes by when they were last changed. Open a group's sort menu and select it alongside the existing newest-first and oldest-first options.

After you edit and save an older note, it moves to the top of the list. Its original note date stays the same. This is useful for ongoing meeting notes, checklists or ideas that you return to over several days: you can find the note you were just working on without changing its timestamp.

Use a photo's original date and location

An imported photo may have been taken hours, days or years before you add it to Lognote. Version 6.3 lets you use the photo's available capture information for the note.

Open the attached photo's preview and its information menu. Depending on the metadata available, you can choose Use photo date, Use photo location, or Use photo details to apply both. The menu shows the available date and location before you use them.

For a regular photo log, you can automate this under Settings → Input Bar → Use photo details. Select Automatically, then choose whether to use Date & time, Location, or both. These choices are also available in each group's Display settings, where a group can follow the global rule or use its own.

Automatic import uses the information available in the photo and leaves values you have already set manually unchanged. Photos without usable capture metadata cannot supply a missing date or location.

Read and edit Obsidian notes in Lognote

Open Settings → Connectors → Connect vault to choose an Obsidian vault available on your device. You can then choose the folder you want to work with and read or edit its Markdown notes from Lognote.

This gives you another way to work with the notes already in your vault. The Markdown files remain in that vault, along with their links and properties. Connected folders can also be used as a destination for new notes.

Vault folder access is set up separately on each device. If you use the same vault on your iPhone and Mac, make it available on both and connect it on each device. Changes between devices continue to use your vault's existing sync service.

The connection shows whether changes have been saved in the vault or are still waiting to be written. If a note has also changed in Obsidian, Lognote keeps both versions for you to review. Disconnecting a vault leaves its files in place.

Copy notes to another group

You can now copy a single note, or several selected notes, to another group together with their attachments.

For one note, open its action menu and choose Copy to group…. For several notes, select them and find the same action in the selection toolbar's additional actions. Then choose the destination group.

The originals stay in their current group. Each copy is independent, so you can edit it without changing the original note. This is useful when a meeting note belongs in both a project log and a reference group, or when you want to reuse a note as a starting point elsewhere.

A revised camera on iPhone and iPad

The built-in camera keeps Full screen as its default and adds 4:3, 1:1 and 16:9 formats. Choose the format near the shutter button; the preview shows the crop that will be saved. Lognote remembers your choice for the next capture.

The camera switch is now at the top right. Flash and format controls sit closer to the shutter, making the controls you use while taking a photo easier to reach.

The camera preview now runs at up to 60 fps on supported cameras. Support depends on the device and camera, and Lognote falls back when the requested frame rate is unavailable. The format choice controls the shape of the photo; it does not itself increase photo resolution.

Audio handling has also been revised for music playing in the background. The camera prepares its microphone when a video is started instead of during an ordinary photo session, reducing unnecessary changes to the audio session around still photos.

More reliable writing and drafts

Automatic lists work again in the input field. Start a bullet list with - , or a numbered list with 1. , and continue writing. Pressing Return after a numbered item adds the next number. Typing --> also converts it to → automatically.

Draft handling has been strengthened in two places. If you begin a new note and then edit an existing one, the unfinished new note is kept separately. Work in the expanded editor is saved as a draft while you write, providing better protection against losing text when switching editors or notes.

Other fixes around the app

The update also fixes issues with QuickType suggestions, timestamp syncing and saving voice memos. Layouts have been adjusted to work better with larger text sizes.

Exports retain text colors where the format supports them. HTML handling has been tightened, and image counts in backups have been corrected.