Now that the Amplenote Changelog is available for consult, we have paid a bit less attention to posting product updates, but there have been a couple upgrades in the last week that really deserve more attention than a passing screenshot in the changelog.

The headliner? It opens a portal into Amplenote's advanced task features (vs Todoist or vs TickTick), which are sometimes, fairly, labeled "extremely powerful," but "with a steep learning curve." In our defense, it's not exactly easy to teach users that it's possible to designate dependent tasks, precluded tasks, and "waiting on this other thing" connections.

So, this quarter, we deployed our best idea to straighten out the learning curve:

link/

It's pretty flat, alright! In shape. In visceral payoff... and in marketing impact. Let's try again, but more frickin EPIC:

Now, everything to know about Amplenote resides right here:

open_in_new

The one, weird character that will drive any man wild

The forward slash menu is an especially noteworthy development for our mobile-first users. Nowhere is it more difficult to discover how to evoke the best note- and task-connecting features. Since so many of our users come from an ADHD background, we need to deliver powerful features, and we need to do it without asking users to read the manual. 😫

Now, most any feature among our 260 cataloged, is only a few keystrokes away.

Exciting stuff, to be sure, but consider sticking around to the end to get a rundown of the five most popular Amplenote plugins from the past 12 months, to celebrate the Amplenote plugin marketplace now on the cusp of triple-digits, and with new features still added every month (footnote: the best plugin feature added this month) 📈

link/ Headliner: Slash menu

The slash menu is the feature that most apps start with. We tossed aside that playbook, and kicked off Amplenote development by adding cross-note task lists, 2-way calendar sync, and other, largely unprecedented, task features for 5 years. Now, the door to our deep feature catalog swings wide open, and here's a partial list of the functionality you can tap into:

link1. Context-aware suggestions

Depending on whether you're in a paragraph, table, bullet, task, etc, the suggestions you receive will be sorted to prioritize the options most relevant to the place you are editing.

open_in_new In a note

open_in_new In a task

open_in_new In a bullet/event

If you have ideas for a slash command that you expected to be available, but isn't? Leave a comment and we will probably implement it.

link2. Available in every mode

Whether you are journaling like Mike Vardy in Jots, or refining and organizing in Notes, or organizing ideas in Tasks, or drag-and-dropping your schedule in Calendar... slash menu puts the most relevant options front-and-center in any context.

While your browse the options, learning what Amplenote can do, you can also learn the shortcut hotkey for your favorite operations. If it's something you want to do often, there is usually a single keystroke to do it.

link3. AI autocomplete for any thought

Do you find yourself expecting that the AI should be able to finish your thought? Plugins, specifically the Ample AI plugin, as well as the new and popular Ample Copilot, are ready to make it possible:

open_in_new

Of course, iPhone users are also going to start to see AI-suggested text natively within the app. One imagines that all operating systems will provide global writing suggestions available across most apps by the end of 2025. But, plugins can help you customize the types of automatic completions that are produced.

link4. Find applicable plugins based on your needs

When you call up use slash menu for a command that isn't available among Amplenote's hundreds of built-in features, we will soon show you what available plugins could fulfill your hopes & dreams. Click through the plugin suggestions to see the ratings for different plugins (you did hear that plugins are now rate-able??) and pick which one suits you best.

A round-up of the most popular plugins from the past 12 months is provided below.

link🗄️ Co-Headliner: Automatically sync notes to your local file system

It's here! While this one hadn't quite climbed to the top of our user request boards, it was definitely top-of-mind among the many users whose life depends on their notes & tasks being available through any sort of unlikely calamity. While Amplenote has never had a data loss issue of its entire history, we understand that it's much harder to evaluate "could a company ever lose my data?" than it is to just see a real-time synced directory with all your notes, images, and attachments backed up to your own computer. And, if you back up to a cloud-synced folder, backed up to your own cloud (with cross-note links, and other note metadata, preserved).

Here is the help page with the full story on setting up auto-sync to a directory.

The tl;dr is that, within the Amplenote Desktop app, you click the "Amplenote Desktop" menu, then click "Settings" and choose a folder:

open_in_new

Choose a folder, choose whether to back up Vault Notes

Besides "peace of mind," some other benefits of having your note content backed up locally:

If you have managed to index a directory of files so they can be queried by an LLM, drop a line in the comments and regale us with how you pulled it off, and what benefits you enjoyed as reward?

link🏎️ Co-Co-Headliner: Quick Global Task Capture on Desktop (Imminent)

Technically, Amplenote already allows global task capture. But, at the moment, you have to download Amplecap and use the byzantine hotkey allowed by the browser. In the coming days, you'll see Amplenote Desktop introduce a new entrant to the "Settings" menu:

open_in_new

Choose your preferred OS-wide shortcut key to capture to Amplenote

And after choosing your preferred key combination, you can conjure up a focused task capture menu in a single keystroke:

open_in_new

Fast idea capture, including one-keystroke control over what note/project the task belongs in

Of course, this is Amplenote we're writing in, so any of your selected task text can have screenshots, videos, plugins, tweets, etc pasted into it, to relate the task's intent in the richest possible form.

open_in_new

Work is currently in the "polish and testing" phase, so it is likely to be live in the app the end of next week (March 21). 🍿

link📣 Sharing and publishing advances

Any plugin can now control not only in-note content, but also, content that shows when you publish a note. That means plugins can now render Youtube videos in a note, published or not:

For the users who have considered using Amplenote as a blogging platform: you now have embeddable Youtube and other content, to go with Rich Footnotes and near-instant load times. If you sync the desktop app to a directory, you can install Astro and have it serve the directory of markdown files associated with your blogging account. Potentially filtering only those notes that certain tags.

We also enlarged the "Background Image" area in published notes, to allow much more image to show on large breakpoints, for greater flexibility in creating feeling in published notes.

link😅 The user favorite: Emoji arrows

open_in_new

There's a video of it if you care enough to click through the picture

Happiness as measured in -(mouse reaches). Still trying to figure out how to restore some of the aliases that the previous version of Emoji Mart seemed to have available that the later version does not automatically incorporate.

link🏔️ More from the recent changelogs

Various percentage upgrades to quality of life. 😊

linkAdd block type to selection menu

open_in_new

For people who are new, or who just don't want to remember how to change formatting: when you select text, you can now use a menu to change it to a different type of block.

linkAdd table menu

open_in_new

Easier access to any table option -- sans toolbar, for a user whose cursor is inside a table.

linkShow recent non-note selections

open_in_new

On mobile's quick nav, you will see options you picked elevate higher in the list as they are chosen more often. This has always been the case for notes, but now it works for modes and plugins.

linkLighten up UI

We tidied up the appearance of the Peek Viewer and the note tabs. The tabs are now less "heavy," part of the general "app de-cluttering" that we have been pursuing over the past year.

open_in_new

Vs before.

linkText at the beginning of a word will retain bold or link

Prior to this past quarter (and in most other apps), if you create a link, then move your cursor to the front of the link and start to type, you will have annoyingly unstyled text. The workaround that most users learn to suffer through is adding text after the first character, then moving back later on to delete the first character. No thanks! Now:

open_in_new

linkAllow plugins to be rated

Now, when you leave a comment on a plugin you have installed, you can also leave a 1-5 star rating to help future users decide whether to spend their time on this particular plugin.

open_in_new

linkAdd !limit to set a maximum number of recurrence instances

When you have a task that has been set to repeat, the !limit or /limit can now let you specify how many times the task should occur.

link📄 Furthermore

link🔦 Plugins Spotlight: Q1 2025

Amplenote’s plugin ecosystem continues to grow, offering users innovative ways to supercharge their note-taking, task management, and productivity. We will quick review the top 5 standout plugins released from the past year, and what makes each one interesting or useful.

link5. Gemini AI

Published: 4 months ago. Installs: 200+.

Gemini AI is a cutting-edge plugin that brings the power of AI to Amplenote users for free. By utilizing the Gemini API, this plugin offers advanced AI capabilities, including natural language processing and content generation.

link4. Amplenote Mindmap

Published: 8 months ago. Installs: Almost 1,000. Votes: About 10

Amplenote Mindmap is a visualization plugin that transforms your markdown notes into interactive mind maps. It’s perfect for users who prefer a visual approach to organizing their thoughts and ideas.

link3. Task Manager Pro

Published: 8 months ago. Installs: 400. Votes: About 10

Task Manager Pro is a robust task management plugin that helps users stay organized and track their progress within Amplenote. It’s inspired by the Progress Bar plugin but offers even more functionality.

link2. Dynamic Templater

Published: 5 months ago. Installs: 300+. Votes: About 15.

Dynamic Templater is a plugin that takes Amplenote templates to the next level. It allows users to create flexible, dynamic templates that adapt to different contexts, making it ideal for recurring tasks and projects.

link1. Ample Copilot

Published: 3 months ago. Installs: 300+. Votes: About 15.

Ample Copilot is a game-changing AI plugin that integrates a chat interface and natural language search into Amplenote. It’s designed to help users navigate their notes, answer questions, and even proofread documents with ease. Benefits:

linkHonorable mention

"Honorable mention" for hottest new plugin goes to Amplefocus (Work Cycles) which has continued to improve bit-by-bit every year, and is an excellent tool for those inclined toward Pomodoro-like ideas to stay on task.

link🔮 What's next?

Tasks that are high on the agenda include "Completed Task Stats," "Professional Task AI," and whichever features are highest on our Supporter Voting and Public Voting boards. Thanks for your continued support helping us build a powerful, collaborative tool for picking the most important tasks and getting them done. 💪