Box launches Mac and Windows versions of its Notes app and refreshes it on the web

Publicly traded cloud file syncing and sharing software company Box is announcing today a revamped version of the desktop web version of its Box Notes collaboration-friendly note-taking app, along with a brand new native desktop version of the app for Mac and Windows.

This amounts to the biggest update to Box Notes since it was introduced in 2013.

It comes as Dropbox has been advancing its Paper note-taking app. Meanwhile, Google offers Google Keep for simple note taking, as well as Google Docs for word processing, and for those functions Microsoft has OneNote and, of course, Word. Last year, Salesforce acquired Quip, a startup that offers an app through which people can collaborate on mobile-friendly documents and spreadsheets.

Of course, this won’t be Box’s first foray into real desktop apps, as opposed to being limited to a browser tab. For years, Box Sync has been available for Mac and Windows. But Quip brought its app to the desktop, and Box is doing that now for Box Notes, with the help of the open-source Electron software.

The web app, for its part, now supports 19 keyboard shortcuts, and a new sidebar gives users a quicker way to start new notes, as well as immediate access to recently edited notes and starred notes.

Box will make it possible for people to use the desktop version of Box Notes while offline later this year, according to a statement.