How to Edit Text Files from Within the Dropbox Web Interface

I use Notational Velocity on my home computer to edit text files. Until recently, I used the Simplenote web app—synchronizing with both NV and Dropbox—to edit text files on other desktop computers, along with the SimpleNote iPhone app. However, I found SN to be too slow, probably because I have too many text files that contain more than a few sentences. (Plus, SimpleNote-Dropbox synchronization resulted in many duplicate notes. Although the SN team is supportive, I still have some notes that have something like eight copies.)

I moved to Notesy for Dropbox on the iPhone but couldn’t find a satisfying solution to work on a different desktop computer if I wanted to edit a text file. (There is a web app called TextDrop but I’m not in love with the interface.) Fortunately, there’s a javascript extension for Chrome (or Firefox if you have Greasemonkey installed) that will allow you to access “edit” from the dropdown menu for text files in the Dropbox web interface. Unlike SimpleNote, this solution does not allow for search within the text of notes; the best one can do is a browser search for words or characters within a title. However, it’s a useful hack if you know which note you need to edit and you don’t want to do it on your iPhone.