Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac

Used Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac?

Editors’ Review

Download.com staffOctober 3, 2025

Circus Ponies Notebook for Mac is a versatile system to help you organize and keep track of your notes for work and personal projects. You can keep different notebooks for separate projects, and you can choose to start your notebook completely from scratch or with an appropriate category list in place.

Pros

Templates: When you start a new notebook, you can choose from several different templates that will make organizing your ideas and information that much easier. Options are organized into categories like General, Professional, Education, and Project, and specific templates exist for anything from writing a book or novel to preparing for a trial.

Tabs and contents: Navigation through your notebooks is streamlined with the inclusion of an active table of contents and labeled tabs down the side. You can click on any tab or item in the table of contents to go straight to that location, making it easy to find a specific piece of information in a large and complex document.

Cons

Free trial setup: Just to start a free trial for the app, you have to leave the app and go to the program's Web site to enter your name and email address. The trial lasts 30 days, after which time the program costs $49.99 to purchase in full.

Bottom Line

Circus Ponies Notebook for Mac offers a lot of convenient features to help you stay organized and on top of your day-to-day responsibilities. It runs smoothly, and the ample free trial makes it worth trying out to see if it's a good option for you.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac 4.0.2 (742).

What’s new in version 4.0.4

Worked around an El Capitan window redraw bug that occurred while dragging outline items.
Fixed a long-standing bug where searches using the Find strip would sometimes hang.
Fixed a crasher that occurred when opening a Notebook that referenced a missing font.

Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac

Used Circus Ponies NoteBook for Mac?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: November 6, 2015

Latest update: October 3, 2025

Version: 4.0.4

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Mac

Operating System: Mac OS X

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 23,504

Downloads Last Week: 0

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Last Updated

User Reviews

4.2/5

81 User Votes

Potential. True digital notebook experience. Quirky.
RailfamMay 29, 2013
Pros
Really like a notebook Other apps don't let you: -draw on your notes -import and annotate pdfs -create to do lists -use post its and flags -tag lines in your notes -have active searches for todo across your notes
Cons
No iPhone version Quirky and not intuitive at times.
Summary
This app has a lot of potential as it offers the true experience of an electronic notebook that no one else has. Not evernote or others. See my pros. The problem is that it is quirky. You have to dedicate some time and patience to learning it before you love it. Still no iPhone app, which makes me question if the company has the funding to create it. Just doesn't make any sense to not have an iPhone app. This is the reason I gave it a 3. It would higher with an iPhone app.
Too little, too late
summerstormpicturesApril 25, 2013
Pros
It looks pretty. I wish other applications looked this good or used things like sticky flags and notes and so on.
Cons
Simply no longer relevant, as so many have in so many words indicated. Too many promised features never delivered and never consistent or stable enough to use as a tool for real work.
Summary
This once had promise and seemed "inspired" but now it feels like an idea that has seen its day and is trying to be relevant. Something has to do more than look pretty. It has to actually work consistently and be improved regularly. I paid for this a few years back and was so disappointed when more than once I lost time and work. I spent more time organizing than working in the best of times. In the worst of times, long hours cutting and pasting as I rescued what remained into an application that actually worked. To be perfectly honest, I was secretly hoping the company would be bought by a group that could actually deliver stability behind a once inspiring front-end. This never happened and when I saw this "update" come through today, and while I had long moved on, I took a look. It was uncomfortable to see this wounded animal stuck in the mud flailing about, still living. Someone please shoot it and put it out of its misery.
So great in so many ways... and yet fatally flawed.
TruestoriesprojectJuly 3, 2012
Pros
Very powerful way to collect, organize, find bits of any kind of media. Great for note-taking and outlining. Auto-glossary is really cool. Easy to find stuff hidden in fat notebooks.
Cons
A big one: formatting of text is a nightmare. This is, bar none, the worst interface for setting styles and the like. This should be easy and intuitive but after years hoping it would be improved, it never has. Also, I've had to pay for upgrades that seemed to be nothing more than compatibility upgrades with minimal new features. Clean up the app and make formatting easy and it will be worth the money (I shouldn't have to search around multiple windows and menus to do a couple of quick things.)
Summary
Showed promise... but never really kept up or improved. Disappointed former user.
Annoying nags to upgrade, not way to shut off.
drewvanNovember 27, 2011
Pros
Nice comprehensive note-taking application.
Cons
Every time I launch the program it asks me to buy a new upgrade (I already paid for the one I have) and gives me no way to shut off the annoying nag messages. I will NEVER pay this company for another product.
Summary
Not worth the continual pestering to send them more money. Now I'm very sorry I ever paid them anything in the first place.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Nov 27, 2011<p/>Forgot to mention that the search function is hit and miss (mostly miss). Searching on a single page often erroneously misses the term you are searching for. A global search usually finds only results in the index and not the actual page the term should be found on.
Awesome, but unreliable (nor updated regularly)
TXCiclistaNovember 10, 2011
Pros
Amazing feature set. Multidex is awesome. Generally speaking, what they offer is incredible.
Cons
Doesn't work reliably. Sometimes the year "1111" is indexed as "1." There are times when notebook becomes completely unresponsive. Other times, locks ability of mouse to click on background objects if you're editing a cell. But the biggest problem...
Summary
... they released 3.0 in DECEMBER 2008! They are now on 3.1!!! 3 years and they've managed an incremental upgrade. Either rested on their (buggy) laurels, or no longer actively supporting it. Not worth the cost to buy into software that may not be in development anymore. No thanks.
Good format but costly for what it delivers
SasslassieJuly 29, 2011
Pros
Nice format, notebooks are great.
Cons
Sharp learning curve and almost useless to me without ipad integration. Costly upgrades. Will be looking for another program
Summary
Was very excited when I got this application, but it ha NOT lived up to its hype!
Great program
newriterMay 21, 2011
Pros
This software is not new; I have been using it for several years. It can ouput to several formats. Great for students, teachers and other professionals that need to collect information and organize it in one place.
Cons
Few. I am highly challenged to find flaws in this software.
Summary
Great program; once you try it, you will use it in many incredible ways
Frustrating
mail841March 17, 2011
Pros
Ambitious undertaking which I would like if it behaved according to the manual, or even if it just behaved consistently. I appreciated the clear uninstall instructions.
Cons
The basic notebook structure is limiting. It has a good clipping service, but you have to have a page prepared and empty enough to receive the clipped item. The pages have a layer structure which acts inconsistently (as far as I could tell).
Summary
I dumped it after a frustrating 10-12 hours. I switched to Yojimbo, and I was up and running in 1 hour.
Very useful application with many uses
linvacdaFebruary 19, 2011
Pros
Notebook is a very powerful and useful application that will appear to many users and for many different reasons. For taking notes it's a very useful application that allows you to include a multitude of inserts.
Cons
The greatest con at this time is the cost of the companion iPad/iPhone application. If the price of the iPad app could be lowered to a reasonable price then Notebook would be a very great app to own for both.
Summary
Circus Ponies has done a great job creating an application that works great for students who are taking notes or writing letters or making todo list. While there are more powerful word processors Notebook will be your number one note taking application, on your computer, in the classroom.
Great product if you want buggy, unstable software
CLUSERJanuary 31, 2011
Pros
Would be an awesome product - if it worked...
Cons
Too many to mention but the headllines are: Buggy, Unstable, Waste of Your Time and Money.
Summary
I was attracted to the Notebook format and I read several rave reviews. I've been testing the software now for several weeks and I have to say that I am completely disappointed. The problem is that the software is buggy and unstable - it's like bad beta software - it frequently crashes / closes itself, losing unsaved work and generally interrupting my workflow - which kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think?! In my opinion, Notebook is not fit for general release and certainly should not be a commercial product. I simply don't understand how it receives those rave reviews (although many relate to an older version), nor do I understand how it could be 'award winning' and I'm also mystified at how Apple can endorse (ie advertise and sell) this shoddy product. I do not work for any competitor - I am simply a busy, self-employed consultant working on multiple projects and with a busy family life - I'm just looking for some reliable software that can help me tame the flood of info, tasks etc. I've been looking at a number of other products - none of which offer the great package and UI that Notebook promises. Unfortunately, it simply does not deliver on those promises. Save yourself a bunch of stress and disappointment and find another product.

Developer’s Description

By Circus Ponies Software

The electronic notebook that helps you take great notes, manage any project, and stay organized.