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Taking Notes With The Magic Trackpad

M

miguelatv

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 21, 2011
1
0
Hi, I use my macbook pro to take notes in school, it's perfect for almost any class, but obviously when it comes to scientific classes it lacks of functionality.

I was thinking on buying an iPad and a good stylus to finally replace all my notebooks. (There is a perfect app for that: Notes Plus. I tried it and totally recommends it).
I still thinking on buying my iPad, but now I'm considering an other option. What if I buy the magic trackpad and a stylus...
So supposing It will work I need an app for that. I don't want/need to convert the handwriting to a digital writing font. What I need is an app like notes plus http://notesplusapp.com/.
So these are my questions:

-Does the magic trackpad work fine with a Stylus?
-Is there an app for OSX 10.6.7 that allows me to do what notes plus do?

Thank You.
 
Hi there,

I'm also interested in this very topic. Have you found the holy grail for note taking with the magic trackpad? Do you also need to take notes on pdfs? if so, how have you solved it all together?

thanks
 
Well instead of a magic trackpad you could go for a tablet such as Wacom Bamboo tablets.

It works quite well to write notes with it.

As for programs to write with, you can use InkBook, or Curio.
Of those two I prefer Curio, though when writing notes with a tablet or any kind of notes I mostly use Evernote. Only problem is that I have to use it with Paralell or some other software to be able to use windows programs. Since writing ink-notes currently only works on windows with Evernote, while on mac it is only possible to read the notes.

Also I believe Curio is similar to Note Plus.
 
Kroner said:
Well instead of a magic trackpad you could go for a tablet such as Wacom Bamboo tablets.

It works quite well to write notes with it.

As for programs to write with, you can use InkBook, or Curio.
Of those two I prefer Curio, though when writing notes with a tablet or any kind of notes I mostly use Evernote. Only problem is that I have to use it with Paralell or some other software to be able to use windows programs. Since writing ink-notes currently only works on windows with Evernote, while on mac it is only possible to read the notes.

Also I believe Curio is similar to Note Plus.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for taking the time, you are rising very interesting points here. Do you actively use that Wacom tablet or a similar one for taking notes while in class? if so, could you elaborate a little more on your workflow? do you also annotate lecture notes on pdfs?

I'm considering getting myself one smartpen for note taking because that looks a little less geeky, and of course it is less bulky (I'm afraid about what others may think when I pull out my Mac and the Wacom tablet while they use pen and paper).

Writting on paper and scanning them when I get home does not seem to work for me. I currently have a ScanSnap scanner, but it is a bit of a hassle to go thorugh my notes... either a smartpen or a tablet looks more attractive... at the risk of overgeeking it all together... :confused:

I wonder why on earth Evernote has not added ink note to the Mac version while Evernote for windows features it since 2008 at least... this and the lack of one other feature that I loved back when I used the windows version of Evernote -folder import-, is giving me a hard time when migrating from Windows to Mac.

I have not heard of Curio before. I may take a look at it... I don't think it can be as good as MindManager, but I don't mind giving it a shot once I figure out which way to go (tablet, smartpen, etc)...

Thanks again,
 
marc.garcia said:
Thanks a lot for taking the time, you are rising very interesting points here. Do you actively use that Wacom tablet or a similar one for taking notes while in class? if so, could you elaborate a little more on your workflow? do you also annotate lecture notes on pdfs?

I'm considering getting myself one smartpen for note taking because that looks a little less geeky, and of course it is less bulky (I'm afraid about what others may think when I pull out my Mac and the Wacom tablet while they use pen and paper).

Writting on paper and scanning them when I get home does not seem to work for me. I currently have a ScanSnap scanner, but it is a bit of a hassle to go thorugh my notes... either a smartpen or a tablet looks more attractive... at the risk of overgeeking it all together... :confused:

I wonder why on earth Evernote has not added ink note to the Mac version while Evernote for windows features it since 2008 at least... this and the lack of one other feature that I loved back when I used the windows version of Evernote -folder import-, is giving me a hard time when migrating from Windows to Mac.

I have not heard of Curio before. I may take a look at it... I don't think it can be as good as MindManager, but I don't mind giving it a shot once I figure out which way to go (tablet, smartpen, etc)...

Thanks again,
Click to expand...

I use the Wacom Bamboo tablet to write notes and solve problems while at home, or studying alone. However I haven´t brought it with me to class and write notes with it yet, since as you said it would feel a bit weird. Although if it becomes to much of a hassle to scan my papers, I might as well just ignore it and write notes with it at class as well. :p

Thinking about it, I think I will just use it either way. I only got 1 class that would require it next semester, and it doesn´t take more space if I use it in front of me, instead at the side of my MBA.

It works quite fine to write with it. At the start it didn´t go so well, since I couldn´t directly look at what I was writing. I couldn´t look at the screen and tablet at the same time. After a little while, it became quite easy and natural to write with it.

I haven´t annotated alot of pdf files, the times that I needed to do that I used skitch. Although if you want to annotate a multi paged pdf file, then perhaps another program would be better, I know Curio supports it, although perhaps there are better programs for that.

I was also thinking about smartpen, and if you want to be a little bit more discreet that might be the way to go :p
I am curious how well using a smartpen works, since I haven´t found any place to test one.

Wondering why Evernote haven´t added ink-notes for Mac after all this time as well =/

I am still trying Curio out, so I am still not familiar with it. You can get a 15 day trial, and extend it by 60 days. Although if you do decide to buy it, I believe it might be better to take advantage of the 60 days extended trial and hope a upgrade comes out for it by that time. Since the upgrading license seems to be a bit expensive, and the new version seems to come out sometime in 2012.
Another thing is that the basic version doesn´t support ink-notes.
 
Last edited:
thundersteele said:
This is a bit older, but I found a nice app that lets you use the built in trackpad as drawing pad:

http://tenonedesign.com/inklet.php

Not sure how well it works and how useful this is, since I don't have a stylus. Maybe someone can try it out? Has a free trial.
Click to expand...
I've seen some videos and it looks pretty interesting. Unfortunately, I don't own a stylus either, and it looks like not all the stylus are compatible...

For instance, I tested it with a Wacom stylus and I can't report any success. with that stylus you could possibly sketch but handwriting sucks.

Anybody out there willing to give it a try with a Pogo Sketch?

Thanks
 
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