Solid, thoughtful, lots of potential
Little things that I already love:
Customizable “tool belt” (extra row of buttons above the keyboard which you can order as you please). Some tool belt buttons allow long-tap to reveal more options, which is very smooth and well-implemented.
So many ways to navigate a document: tool belt buttons to focus in/out and to “Go to…” any project/tag/search; gestures to focus in/out or trigger the “Go to…” window; and a tappable breadcrumb trail that appears when focused in.
Everything that should be tappable and draggable seems to be tappable and draggable. The search feature offers advanced syntax, and searches can be saved. The Command bar offers many functions and can be searched. There are good styling options, including for due status, progress, and priority.
Give it a try! (And search the Command bar for support options if needed!)
A good TaskPaper app for iOS
The app also is maintained. I reported a bug and got a quick response, which matters a lot for this kind of tool.
Simple, useful, fairly priced for me.
Has potential
Main one I'm experiencing is having to enter every task twice, because when I hit "enter" the app adds a double letter to first word of line. Eg "Read" becomes "Rread" unless I either backspace to it or shake/undo, then I'm left with the first letter and when I finish it the second time and hit enter, it works.
Have to do this for every line. Weird and funny bug, but unless you are zen enough to accept ~every line prominently featuring an apparent typo, it makes entry too inefficient for use.
Look forward to trying if/when functional! But wait till then to pay the very high price, unless you want to support creator out of generosity; it's currently worth $0.
Response from developer
Hi, this is the first report of the double first letter bug, so thank you! I've not seen that myself through my daily use of the app, nor in the automated testing that runs on each code change of the app. I narrowed it down to an issue with Autocorrect on iOS 26 (but not iOS 18) and so it will be resolved in 1.2. In future, you may want to reach out through the in-app Support options (search Command Palette to find them). Thanks!
PaperTrail is the TaskPaper client I didn’t know I needed.
The UI is beautiful on phone and strikes the right balance of customization without being overwhelming (I love Obsidian and use it daily, but if you know, you know). Everything feels intentional. The long-press tooltips on the extended keyboard icons are something I’ve never seen in another app – genuinely clever and I hope it catches on. The built-in guide note and starter templates are a nice touch for newcomers who want to tinker without starting from zero.
Bonus: it opens .md files natively, so I can take notes in my Obsidian vault and swap over to PaperTrail when I want to project plan.
A few things that would take this from great to daily driver:
The toolbelt concept is solid, but some items (like hide keyboard) aren’t movable, so I end up scrolling back and forth on the extended keyboard. On mobile, dismissing the keyboard feels clunky. Something like single-tap to drop into view mode and double-tap to edit could be more intuitive.
Search: the guide mentions pull-down-from-top to search, but I couldn’t get that gesture to work on iPhone 17 Pro.
Completed/strikethrough items get hard to read in bulk. Would love an option to dim them and apply font color (or maybe pulling from the priority color palette to stay on-theme).
Templates are great for onboarding, but they could do more. Adding some advanced search query examples at the bottom would make them useful for experienced TaskPaper users too, not just beginners.
Minor stuff. The core experience is excellent and clearly built by someone who actually uses TaskPaper.
Response from developer
Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad the thought put into the app resonates with you and I hope it continues to make your life easier. The app supports the iOS-standard long-swipe-down to dismiss keyboard, and since 1.1 there's a tool button to dismiss the keyboard which you can position anywhere you like on the tool belt. 1.1 also brought the ability to select multiple lines and work on all contained items (like mark them all as @done). Swipe down to search was removed so I'll revisit that or worse case remove the mention from the guide. Please reach out through the app Support option (search command palette to find it) with more info on the dim/color suggestion and I'll implement it. Thanks for using PaperTrail!
Has potential
Main one I'm experiencing is having to enter every task twice, because when I hit "enter" the app adds a double letter to first word of line. Eg "Read" becomes "Rread" unless I either backspace to it or shake/undo, then I'm left with the first letter and when I finish it the second time and hit enter, it works.
Have to do this for every line. Weird and funny bug, but unless you are zen enough to accept ~every line prominently featuring an apparent typo, it makes entry too inefficient for use.
Look forward to trying if/when functional! But wait till then to pay the very high price, unless you want to support creator out of generosity; it's currently worth $0.
Response from developer
Hi, this is the first report of the double first letter bug, so thank you! I've not seen that myself through my daily use of the app, nor in the automated testing that runs on each code change of the app. I narrowed it down to an issue with Autocorrect on iOS 26 (but not iOS 18) and so it will be resolved in 1.2. In future, you may want to reach out through the in-app Support options (search Command Palette to find them). Thanks!
