First, create a Simplenote account if you don’t have one.
In NV, under Preferences > Notes > Synchronization, click “Synchronize with Simplenote:” and enter your Simplenote login and password. You will be prompted to add any existing notes, and from then on your notes will remain in sync across any computers running NV and iPhones running Simplenote.
No! Absolutely not. Several copies of Notational Velocity configured for Simplenote will keep each other in sync completely on their own.
In fact, Dropbox should never be used with Simplenote except under controlled circumstances (see the next question).
You cannot sync the same notes folder using both Simplenote and Dropbox. If you absolutely insist on using Dropbox, then only one copy of Notational Velocity should have its notes folder in Dropbox. So you must tell Notational Velocity on the other Macs to store notes in a different folder (e.g.,
~/Library/Application Support/ or
~/Documents/), and configure them with the same Simplenote account.
Local changes are pushed within 7 to 30 seconds, and NV will always upload any unsynchronized notes before quitting, in case you finish sooner than that.
If database encryption is enabled under Preferences > Notes > Security, then your notes will be encrypted on disk. However, they will still be sent to Simplenote without encryption. (And obviously Notational Velocity will always use SSL regardless.)
The Simplenote iPhone app removes tab characters when it downloads notes. So to preserve some semblance of indentation Notational Velocity will “de-tab” notes (i.e., replace tabs with spaces) when syncing them. Using a fixed-width font such as Monaco or Menlo and enabling “Soft tabs” will make editing these notes easier.
Tags cannot be synchronized with Simplenote until NV is updated to use Simplenote’s newer syncing APIs.