I’m kicking around some ideas about how to automate the transfer, based on some kind of keyword at the start of the line. The basic idea would be something that runs periodically, checking for td or [a] or whatever, and throwing the line into the OmniFocus’s inbox so I can pretty it up later on. AppleScript here I come…

I setup one shortcut that gives me the month, day, year and time. This method also works on the iPhone if you use SimpleNote in conjunction with Text Expander iPhone edition.

http://simplenote.squarespace.com/news/2010/8/24/briefly-our-big-update.html?lastPage=true#comment9508851

Thanks for your comments and suggestions!

When I tag action items with [A], I don’t actually type that out. I use TextExpander to do that for me with the shortcut dA.

Now I’m tapping my fingers waiting for NV to sync tags with SimpleNotes.

https://simple-note.appspot.com/

The recent update to Simplenote on the web app, API, (and iPhone app) adds tags, yet another way to mark items as “Todo”. You could also use tagging to set @contexts, but typing these out inline with the note still seems faster.

Hint for Windows users: try Resophnotes. It’s a free client for Simplenote that syncs seamlessly (incl through a proxy) to the SN server. They add some key capabilities to Simplenotes when running it on your desktop:
- Can optionally store each note as a .txt file. RN synchronizes both ways seamlessly, and even automatically imports new .txt files created by other Windows apps!
- Can drag & drop URLs from your Firefox address bar into a note (web URLs and file:///C:/ links are clickable!)
- (new) can create a simple wiki. Words surrounded by [single square brackets], automatically turn into clickable links, taking you to a note with that title or creating a new note if it doesn’t exist.
- Supports Markdown view through Ctrl-M accelerator, bringing up a dialog that shows your note parsed with simple formatting. This dialog can stay up as you surf through various notes

RN doesn’t support tagging (but this was just added yesterday, and they’ll probably catch up soon).

I also recommend viewing the Simplenotes web view through the Firefox sidebar, with an additional Greasemonkey script:

http://lab.mightydream.com/simplenote-restyled/

The author says that the Simplenote web site now uses most elements of the script, but I still think it works better (resizing) with the added script active.

P.S. I’m not the author of either of these, just excited about all that RN allows you to do on a Windows machine.

Then, for sorting I have a few options depending on which way the mood strikes me: Smart folders in finder that search the NV repository of notes, or Together for more complex sorting and classification.

I usually write down ideas in Notational Velocity, and continue them in Together, when the editor in NV is no longer enough.

Currently I am struggling a bit with how to choose what goes into Omnifocus and what goes into NV, though.