And which would you say is best?
I'm a long time notability user, but with my new iPad Pro and Pencil, I'm wondering if i should try OneNote?
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iPad Pro Pencil input - what note taking app to use
- Thread starter judahde
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And which would you say is best?
I'm a long time notability user, but with my new iPad Pro and Pencil, I'm wondering if i should try OneNote?
GoodNotes is on top of my list too:
http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/06/the-b...notes-with-apple-pencil-ipad-pro/#more-426507
http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/06/the-b...notes-with-apple-pencil-ipad-pro/#more-426507
You can convert using the OCR on the desktop version of One Note (part of the office suite) not the free windows 10 version. I have my hotmail account liked to my ipad and to my work office apps. Youll be able to see your "personal notebook" and you can use ocr on the notes you select. Works pretty good.
One note is awesome to use especially if you use the MS office suite. You can also draw shapes and one note on the ipad will convert it to a perfect circle, square, triangle etc.
Hard choice, pros and cons for both. As of today (4/8/16) both are excellent. Today's update for OneNote greatly improves the support for Apple Pencil. By disabling the "Draw with touch" feature (under the little hand/stylus icon in the Draw mode), only the Pencil will mark on the page. Stray marks will not appear when you touch the screen with your hand or finger. For this particular feature, OneNote caught up with Notability with today's update.
OneNote plays well in Microsoft's ecosystem - syncs with OneDrive, for example. Notability syncs with iCloud, but also saves to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box or WebDAV.
OneNote appears to have myriads of features, many I have not tried. It works well, but there are a few minor friction points. One example - when you cut-and-paste a handwritten selection to move it down the page, there is a bit of a delay.
Notability, on the other hand, seems to be very quick and nimble. Cut-move-paste works much more quickly. It has a smaller footprint - its update file is 66MB, compared to 260 MB for the OneNote update file. Huge difference.
Notability has an active developer who seems to be active in the education community. There are several page or "paper" templates you can download for different types of note taking. See the Ginger Labs website. Microsoft appears to be actively supporting OneNote as well.
For an active note-taker, both are good. Note-taking has finally reached critical mass with availability of the Apple Pencil. I've been an active iPad user for a couple of years, but have had my new iPad Pro (9.7") and Pencil for only a week or so. I'm going to switch back and forth between Notability and OneNote for a while - delaying a decision.
Others suggest Goodnotes - guess I'll have to try that, too. We have great choices now.
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After today's update, onenote works well, but I still prefer notability. I like how you can easily insert picture, or just a small grid to draw an XYZ axis on, in notability.
My only real gripe is the inability to extend the page inside of a note. I started doing all of my math homework in notability and printing it out. Often times, when working through a set of problems, I give myself a chunk of space and then move onto the next problem. Issue is coming back to a skipped problem. What if I need more space or I have to much space? There's no easy way to delete empty space from the note. I've talked to the developers about it you may give me a generic "will look into it "type of response.
In that case OneNote is a great choice as it treats each page as an infinite canvas - you can't run out of space. There are pros and cons to each method, but I think it's nice to have that freedom for note taking because you often can't see in advance where you are going.
My only gripe with OneNote on the iPad is that there is still a bit too much lag in writing. Goodnotes is much smoother and more natural.
My only gripe with OneNote on the iPad is that there is still a bit too much lag in writing. Goodnotes is much smoother and more natural.
As per usual see my ridiculous list of note taking apps and my thoughts on them over here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/app-for-strictly-taking-notes.1950982/#post-22474535
TLDR: I prefer Notability but Goodnotes is really good too. Notability currently wins for having continuous scrolling, instant sync with my iPhone and OS X apps and instant/automatic backup to PDF on Dropbox.
[doublepost=1460215897][/doublepost]
I just treat it similar to paper. You don't have the ability to "insert" space in-between problems on paper either. These days my problems are all largish... I just scroll down and start the next problem after the page break. That way I can always insert another page between problems.
But if your problems are smallish and you're trying to do multiple on the same page... well... gotta leave some space like you need to on real paper.
You can also always "lasso" everything and just move it down... Notability's "lasso" is awesome... I use it constantly during class to re-arrange notes while I'm taking them.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/app-for-strictly-taking-notes.1950982/#post-22474535
TLDR: I prefer Notability but Goodnotes is really good too. Notability currently wins for having continuous scrolling, instant sync with my iPhone and OS X apps and instant/automatic backup to PDF on Dropbox.
[doublepost=1460215897][/doublepost]
I just treat it similar to paper. You don't have the ability to "insert" space in-between problems on paper either. These days my problems are all largish... I just scroll down and start the next problem after the page break. That way I can always insert another page between problems.
But if your problems are smallish and you're trying to do multiple on the same page... well... gotta leave some space like you need to on real paper.
You can also always "lasso" everything and just move it down... Notability's "lasso" is awesome... I use it constantly during class to re-arrange notes while I'm taking them.
You may also want to look at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ng-on-the-9-7-ipad-pro.1966690/#post-22782819.
I have been using NotesPlus for some time (pre-Apple Pencil). I think it's more advanced than many others. It has great handwriting enhancement! But it has not been updated in quite a while, including no Apple Pencil support. I don't really get it: with the iPad Pro there should be a larger market for note taking apps than ever, this doesn't seem to be the time to give up on development.
The thing is: all of the apps that created "fake" handwriting with the old styluses (using things like the speed of the stylus to control the thickness of the line, etc.) are not in a good position to deal with the Pencil.
The Pencil completely negates the need for any fakery... and with the Pencil, any "processing" of the input takes _time_ which leads to lag. Notability and Goodnotes do VERY minimal processing... essentially just perfectly translating the pressure and position of the Pencil into markings which is why they are so good.
I switched from Noteshelf to Goodnotes for the vector ink + its Mac app and iCloud syncing. The writing experience has been good so far. I really like that it keeps you on the lines. The iCloud syncing definitely needs improving, though :/ Not a good first impression on that front.
i love the recent notability update - it completely separates finger from pencil touching, meaning it's impossible to have crappy palm rejection or accidental finger input. all finger touching can be assigned to scroll/nav only. wonderful.
Still don't know the difference between GoodNotes and Notability. I've got GoodNotes and wondering if I should switch to Notability, since I only see people using Notability.. It may be better? I don't know.
i find they're both just another tool. they'll both do similar tasks, but in their own way.
i personally use notability as its a good old fashioned honest note pad.
i find goodnotes more indepth and suited to markups and sketch overs.
i personally use notability as its a good old fashioned honest note pad.
i find goodnotes more indepth and suited to markups and sketch overs.
I'm trying a few, including OneNote. I use a PC at the office and a Mac at home, so having the capability to see the notes on either machine (and my IPP) is a big plus for my workflow.
From all the comments it seems I should switch to Notability. I have been using NotesPlus pre-Apple Pencil, but it seems the development of the App has stopped, including no Apple Pencil support. Too bad, I really like it. But without Apple Pencil support and sync to Mac App, it's just loosing out.
Long-time Notability user, who downloaded the Notes Plus to check out the handwriting recognition feature (which appears to work quite well, IF I concentrate on keeping my handwriting neater (i.e.) write slower)...
Some thoughts about the two:
Notability PROs >>
A1) The interface is clean and intuitive to use [subjective opinion];
A2) Fully updated to support the Apple Pencil and all the new iOS multitasking features;
A3) Audio-recording, and the management/editing thereof, is well done;
>> In particular, the greying out of the underlying text, dependent on the audio-scrub. Since the audio is synced with the text/writing, you can quickly scrub along in the audio, to get to the part of the recording where you were writing down what you need to hear the audio about.
>> Individual audio-note "sections" can be retrieved from the back-up location, allowing for those sections to be sent/exported, as it were.
A4) With the companion app on the Mac, the iCloud sync works well, and allows effective sharing across all iOS/OSX devices;
A5) Multiple back-up options [Dropbox; Google Drive; Box; WebDAV], and back-up 'format' options;
A6) Integrates well with other apps/sources >> easy to get PDFs etc. into Notability; Easy to share/export them out;
A7) Nice set of "media" that can be easily added to the note [stickies; shapes; web-clip; photos etc.]
Notability CONs >>
B1) There are not as many features (which is why the interface is cleaner) >> but the basics are certainly there;
B2) Organisation of the notes, whilst adequate, can be improved;
B3) A bit lacking in 'interaction' features
>> Would be greater if it could have a two-finger swipe for 'undo' [similar to Procreate'] etc;
B4) Only allows for 3 'Favourites' i.r.o. typing/font settings >> wish more could be added
>> Related to B4, I wish they would introduce a 'Favourites' for colour/thickness etc. for writing with the Pencil
B6) Using the zoom-box across multiple pages, especially when wanting to jump from one page into another, and continue writing there, is sometimes a bit buggy(?)
>> i.e. There is a serious elastic that can get stretched between where you are scrolling to, and the small-text box that the "zoom-box" will write into... Sometimes will scroll from page x, and try and write on page z, only to get rudely yanked back to page x;
>> Depending on the position of the "zoom-box" [which is a nice feature for lefty's like me], the small-text box sometimes disappears below the "zoom-box", which requires some funky jump-arounds to get to where you need everything to be >> doesn't happen that often, but often enough to be noticeable.
Notes Plus PROs >>
C1) Plenty of features >> but see D4
>> Scratching through a word to erase it >> nice! [take note, Notability!]
>> circling word/section for auto-select >> nice!
C2) Built-in browser that can be swiped over to, is a nice-touch, especially with the built-in "clipper", that allows you to quickly grab anything off the browser-screen, and have that automatically imported into your note;
C3) Writing to Text works quite well, at least it does in my experience!
>> You can convert individual sections to text OR do a once-off of the entire page
>> You will need to work on your penmanship, and it would probably help if you wrote most in the "zoom-box" mode, to be able to get things neater [however, see D5];
C4) 'Invisible' scroll-bars is nice!
>> As is the "long-touch" in the margin to pull up the page-contents view;
C5) Nice "additional features toolbar" on the keyboard (date/time/tab/bullet icon/cursors);
C6) Nice "floating text/styles toolbar" that can be left visible, to quickly access different font/colour settings for text
>> Ditto, the floating "ink" styles option, to allow to quickly select different inking styles.
Notes Plus CONs >>
D1) Hasn't been updated yet to support the Apple Pencil OR iOS multitasking features (no Split-View, only Slide-over)
>> It also doesn't appear to have been updated for the iPP 12'9"(?) >> stretched keyboard
D2) Limited back-up options: Dropbox only
D3) Audi-recording, whilst ok, is not as feature-rich as in Notability.
>> There is no direct-sync between the audio and text, so (unlike in Notability), you cannot easily work out what writing/text is associated with which section of the audio. A hack will involve you jotting down the 'audio-"time"' at points in your notes >> i.e. if you've been recording for 45 seconds (which can be seen as a timer is presented when you are recording), then quickly jot down "45s" at the point where you might want to listen to what was being said about that topic. Later, when playing the audio back, you can scrub to more-or-less 45 seconds into the recording, to hear what was being said there...
>> Secondly, whereas it is useful to have the audio-recordings all presented under a "audio" section in the 'file-manager', this is not as useful to me, since the audio on its own, is less important than seeing it in the context of the note(s) that was being taken at the time.
>> That said - having the audio stored separately, does allow you to export them individually from within the app, which - in certain scenarios - can be very useful.
D4) Interface is a bit messy [subjective opinion]
>> some of the icons are hidden away, requiring scrolling through to find
>> AFAIK, these can be re-arranged though, so this is not necessarily a bad-thing AND, keep in mind that I am used to Notability – pretty sure long-time Notes Plus users can whizz around inside of it, quickly getting to what they need
>> That said, after several hours of use, still battling to work out how to arrange them!!
D5) The "zoom-box" writing mode is not done as well as in Notability, imo.
>> Again, might just be since I'm not used to it, but I struggle with the following:
** The auto-advance box/feature, it all-too-often sees my text being rewritten over an earlier section of the text (it works ok if you are "writing a word 'into' the grey-advance section", but if the word happens to end just before the grey section, and you try and start a new word in it, it often jumps back (or elsewhere) to what was written before, and overwrites in that area;
** The "next-line/paragraph" button all-too-often/always(?) takes me one line down, but NOT to the beginning of the line - it kind of just drops down below where I was, unlike the "typewriter" action that I expect, where it drops lower AND takes you all the way left, to the 'start' of a new line.
_______________________
In light of the above, personally I wish Notability could incorporate some of the key features of Notes Plus (hello writing-to-text conversion) >> but that's probably since I'm so used to Notability... Both are good apps, and each having certain features that the other lacks, is the key reason to why we have CHOICE in the app store! Choice is good!
But suffice it to say, each of them are very good in there own way - especially considering that Notes Plus is hopefully due an upgrade soon, which will remove several of the CONs from my list, almost instantly!
That said, hopefully this comparison will make it a bit easier for people to decide, since the choice between the two appears to hinge on the key features and what is more important to you: Audio-syncing to notes = Notability; Writing to text = Notes Plus!
Some thoughts about the two:
Notability PROs >>
A1) The interface is clean and intuitive to use [subjective opinion];
A2) Fully updated to support the Apple Pencil and all the new iOS multitasking features;
A3) Audio-recording, and the management/editing thereof, is well done;
>> In particular, the greying out of the underlying text, dependent on the audio-scrub. Since the audio is synced with the text/writing, you can quickly scrub along in the audio, to get to the part of the recording where you were writing down what you need to hear the audio about.
>> Individual audio-note "sections" can be retrieved from the back-up location, allowing for those sections to be sent/exported, as it were.
A4) With the companion app on the Mac, the iCloud sync works well, and allows effective sharing across all iOS/OSX devices;
A5) Multiple back-up options [Dropbox; Google Drive; Box; WebDAV], and back-up 'format' options;
A6) Integrates well with other apps/sources >> easy to get PDFs etc. into Notability; Easy to share/export them out;
A7) Nice set of "media" that can be easily added to the note [stickies; shapes; web-clip; photos etc.]
Notability CONs >>
B1) There are not as many features (which is why the interface is cleaner) >> but the basics are certainly there;
B2) Organisation of the notes, whilst adequate, can be improved;
B3) A bit lacking in 'interaction' features
>> Would be greater if it could have a two-finger swipe for 'undo' [similar to Procreate'] etc;
B4) Only allows for 3 'Favourites' i.r.o. typing/font settings >> wish more could be added
>> Related to B4, I wish they would introduce a 'Favourites' for colour/thickness etc. for writing with the Pencil
B6) Using the zoom-box across multiple pages, especially when wanting to jump from one page into another, and continue writing there, is sometimes a bit buggy(?)
>> i.e. There is a serious elastic that can get stretched between where you are scrolling to, and the small-text box that the "zoom-box" will write into... Sometimes will scroll from page x, and try and write on page z, only to get rudely yanked back to page x;
>> Depending on the position of the "zoom-box" [which is a nice feature for lefty's like me], the small-text box sometimes disappears below the "zoom-box", which requires some funky jump-arounds to get to where you need everything to be >> doesn't happen that often, but often enough to be noticeable.
Notes Plus PROs >>
C1) Plenty of features >> but see D4
>> Scratching through a word to erase it >> nice! [take note, Notability!]
>> circling word/section for auto-select >> nice!
C2) Built-in browser that can be swiped over to, is a nice-touch, especially with the built-in "clipper", that allows you to quickly grab anything off the browser-screen, and have that automatically imported into your note;
C3) Writing to Text works quite well, at least it does in my experience!
>> You can convert individual sections to text OR do a once-off of the entire page
>> You will need to work on your penmanship, and it would probably help if you wrote most in the "zoom-box" mode, to be able to get things neater [however, see D5];
C4) 'Invisible' scroll-bars is nice!
>> As is the "long-touch" in the margin to pull up the page-contents view;
C5) Nice "additional features toolbar" on the keyboard (date/time/tab/bullet icon/cursors);
C6) Nice "floating text/styles toolbar" that can be left visible, to quickly access different font/colour settings for text
>> Ditto, the floating "ink" styles option, to allow to quickly select different inking styles.
Notes Plus CONs >>
D1) Hasn't been updated yet to support the Apple Pencil OR iOS multitasking features (no Split-View, only Slide-over)
>> It also doesn't appear to have been updated for the iPP 12'9"(?) >> stretched keyboard
D2) Limited back-up options: Dropbox only
D3) Audi-recording, whilst ok, is not as feature-rich as in Notability.
>> There is no direct-sync between the audio and text, so (unlike in Notability), you cannot easily work out what writing/text is associated with which section of the audio. A hack will involve you jotting down the 'audio-"time"' at points in your notes >> i.e. if you've been recording for 45 seconds (which can be seen as a timer is presented when you are recording), then quickly jot down "45s" at the point where you might want to listen to what was being said about that topic. Later, when playing the audio back, you can scrub to more-or-less 45 seconds into the recording, to hear what was being said there...
>> Secondly, whereas it is useful to have the audio-recordings all presented under a "audio" section in the 'file-manager', this is not as useful to me, since the audio on its own, is less important than seeing it in the context of the note(s) that was being taken at the time.
>> That said - having the audio stored separately, does allow you to export them individually from within the app, which - in certain scenarios - can be very useful.
D4) Interface is a bit messy [subjective opinion]
>> some of the icons are hidden away, requiring scrolling through to find
>> AFAIK, these can be re-arranged though, so this is not necessarily a bad-thing AND, keep in mind that I am used to Notability – pretty sure long-time Notes Plus users can whizz around inside of it, quickly getting to what they need
>> That said, after several hours of use, still battling to work out how to arrange them!!
D5) The "zoom-box" writing mode is not done as well as in Notability, imo.
>> Again, might just be since I'm not used to it, but I struggle with the following:
** The auto-advance box/feature, it all-too-often sees my text being rewritten over an earlier section of the text (it works ok if you are "writing a word 'into' the grey-advance section", but if the word happens to end just before the grey section, and you try and start a new word in it, it often jumps back (or elsewhere) to what was written before, and overwrites in that area;
** The "next-line/paragraph" button all-too-often/always(?) takes me one line down, but NOT to the beginning of the line - it kind of just drops down below where I was, unlike the "typewriter" action that I expect, where it drops lower AND takes you all the way left, to the 'start' of a new line.
_______________________
In light of the above, personally I wish Notability could incorporate some of the key features of Notes Plus (hello writing-to-text conversion) >> but that's probably since I'm so used to Notability... Both are good apps, and each having certain features that the other lacks, is the key reason to why we have CHOICE in the app store! Choice is good!
But suffice it to say, each of them are very good in there own way - especially considering that Notes Plus is hopefully due an upgrade soon, which will remove several of the CONs from my list, almost instantly!
That said, hopefully this comparison will make it a bit easier for people to decide, since the choice between the two appears to hinge on the key features and what is more important to you: Audio-syncing to notes = Notability; Writing to text = Notes Plus!
I have been using Goodnotes and OneNote for years, with Goodnotes being my preference for handwriting quality. Last night I finally got curious enough to buy Notability as well because it gets consistently good praise. I must have gotten in just before the update was pushed to the store because I was not super impressed with the inking with the Pencil - it was good but too much lag. This morning I woke up and there was an update noting improved Pencil support. And as noted here already - this is a big improvement. Lag is entirely gone now and Notability is now on par with or possibly even slightly better than Goodnotes in terms of inking speed and quality. My only grumble is that I don't like the spacing options for the paper templates - one is too small the other too big. Goodnotes (and OneNote) have an option that splits the difference and is perfect.
Overall I don't know that there is enough here to get me to move from Goodnotes - the interfaces and capabilities are extremely similar - which is a good thing - they are both simple and intuitive. Too many apps get caught up in adding features every update that add bugs, clutter, and complication.
If you like Notability but want the writing to text, try Goodnotes. Very similar apps, but Goodnotes adds the writing conversion, and it sounds like it works pretty much as described in Notes Plus.
Overall I don't know that there is enough here to get me to move from Goodnotes - the interfaces and capabilities are extremely similar - which is a good thing - they are both simple and intuitive. Too many apps get caught up in adding features every update that add bugs, clutter, and complication.
If you like Notability but want the writing to text, try Goodnotes. Very similar apps, but Goodnotes adds the writing conversion, and it sounds like it works pretty much as described in Notes Plus.