As I code and test, I like to keep ongoing notes in text format. Normally, I add these to my workspace and remove them from build phases to ensure they don’t ship with my app. With playgrounds, I just discovered an entirely new approach and thought I’d share that with you.

In the File Navigator, select the Resources folder and type Command-N (File > New > File). Xcode automatically creates a new text file for you, places it into the Resources folder and opens a text field for you to edit its name.

The notes file is bundled into the playground, so it travels with it, keeping my journal in-place for easy reference.

As I just discovered this, I didn’t get a chance to put this tip into the playgrounds book. I’m hoping once I figure out how to revise the book, it will be in the next version.

And about that…

People are mostly buying not borrowing the book and I’m timid about putting out a completely new version knowing they’d have to re-purchase to get the update.

What do you think about just emailing me when (if?) I put out a second version if you’ve already bought the first? There aren’t that many people who have bought this thing so far, so it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

I’d also love to hear what people have to say about switching over to iBooks instead. The KDP exclusivity clause prevents this with the Playgrounds book for 90 days but I could for any other titles. And iBooks does have auto-update.

Of course, given the sales numbers, it might not be a brilliant idea to try to go it alone for this kind of niche book except for a pure passion project like the Playgrounds book.

What do you think?