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iPad Pro Using Pencil with OneNote - latest update

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Original poster
Oct 27, 2013
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Has anyone else noticed that palm rejection while using the Pencil in OneNote on the iPad Pro is now MUCH better? After today's OneNote update (v 15.21, 4/8/2016), the Apple Pencil works very well in OneNote with no stray marks at the bottom of the page where you typically rest your palm.

Microsoft's description of the update states: "Apple Pencil: Write Right: We've sharpened our Pencils to support the iPad 9.7" iPad Pro."

Does this mean that there is a new palm rejection feature added to OneNote, or is this an inherent capability of the Pencil functionality on the iPad Pro? I'm asking because this has implications for other apps. If this palm-rejection feature is built in to Pencil functionality, then other apps that support Pencil might also have palm rejection.

BTW, I'm really liking OneNote for taking notes ...

... But I'm also trying Notability, which also works well. The organizational features are a bit different - will need to get used to that. Notability seems quicker, with less "footprint" in the iPad and iPhone. Update file size for OneNote is 276 MB, while the file size for Notability is only 66 MB. Huge difference. Doing a cut-and-paste move of a handwritten selection in Notability is much faster than with OneNote. Both apps support slide-over and split screen. I never noticed any unintended marks on the page with Notability - apparently the palm rejection works. Again, is this a feature of the app of a feature of Pencil functionality?

Edited to Add: to ensure this works correctly in OneNote, you may need to de-select the "Draw with touch" option. This is found under a little hand/stylus icon on the far right while you are in the Draw mode. When "Draw with touch is disabled, only the Pencil will make marks on the page. You can touch or scroll the screen with your finger or hand at will and no stray marks will appear.
 
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Just tested it out after seeing your post - It is so much better with the palm rejection. I use OneNote so much at work and that's a huge improvement for me so i dont have to go back and keep erasing the small dots on the screen.
 
OneNote has always had palm rejection in the Windows environment - I have a Surface Book and it's been there since Day 1.

It sounds like they've brought that functionality over to Apple hardware. Good news!
 
I've got all of those, and recently switched to "Goodnote". It isn't overly complex, and it just works.
 
I installed it today and thought I noticed the same thing - no stray marks in my testing and no random page movements as I was getting before. I really hope they improve the inking engine soon though. It's very accurate, but it still has too much lag compared to Goodnotes.
 
OneNote is pretty close to my all time most favorite app (at very least, in the top 3)!!

I've never noticed the issues others have been reporting since the introduction of Ink capabilities (and I use it a good average of 5 hours a day, taking notes or referencing notes), but glad to hear it's improved!
 
(From original poster) Make sure you have the "Draw with touch" option disabled while in the Draw mode. See edit to post #1.
 
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SurFaceMac said:
OneNote has always had palm rejection in the Windows environment - I have a Surface Book and it's been there since Day 1.

It sounds like they've brought that functionality over to Apple hardware. Good news!
Click to expand...

I currently have both the 12.9 iPad Pro and the 9.7 iPad Pro, and also have a Surface Pro 4. The big iPad Pro actually had the palm rejection already but the little one didn't until they updated the app yesterday. I had been wondering why I was getting little dots and lines on the mini iPad Pro but not the big one until I saw the update note, then updated and it worked great.

I had also noticed I couldn't scroll the page while inking before on the 9.7. Now it works great. FYI, the inking on the iPads is overall a better experience than the Surfaces, the latency is much better. Although I would never trade in my Surface Pro 4 for an iPad Pro, can't give up my file system, desktop OneNote app which is better, and real multitasking. But iPad has replaced my SP4 as go-to for note taking. SP4 for annotating. I still cannot figure out if I can on the iPad and I cannot download PowerPoint files posted on the web for my school, it opens them in the Safari browser.
 
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Tried OneNote, and didn't like it for note taking as much as I like Notability.
 
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iregret said:
I'm the same, except with notability.
Click to expand...

Nhwhazup said:
Me as well. I really like Notability n
Click to expand...

Zari said:
Tried OneNote, and didn't like it for note taking as much as I like Notability.
Click to expand...

Question for those using Notability - I've been playing with it for a while, and while it mentions Pencil support, there seems to be a significant latency when writing. Do you notice this at all with the  Pencil?
 
Latency seems to be one of those things that either bothers you or it doesn't. For me, I have to have near none for it to make for a passable paper replacement experience. My Surface Pro was good because it had relatively low latency, but it had a lot of other issues, including significant ink offset from the tip.
 
Zari said:
Tried OneNote, and didn't like it for note taking as much as I like Notability.
Click to expand...

Apps are definitely something that is a personal taste - I am just the opposite of you. Have both and only use OneNote. Having choices is good!
 
Interesting. Weird, some reason there's a slight enough delay with Notability that it throws me off. Many other apps I'm playing with seem perfect in that regard. Do like Notability quite a bit though.
 
I have tried and have many note taking apps, before the iPP, I tried many apps and styluses to try to find one that worked well. Absolutely nothing compares to the Apple Pencil including the surface pen.

With all that said, the only two apps I really use anymore are Notability and OneNote. For shared notebooks and such OneNote is nice, however it doesn't print well at all. Even if you import a pdf and mark it up when you go to print it ends up all screwed up with OneNote. However, if you import into Notabilty mark up and then print it prints it back page for page the way the original PDFs was.

For me marking up PDFs worksheets or PDFs print outs of power point slides and having the ability to re-print with my notes is very important to me. For that reason it seems that I use Notability a bit more. Notability also stays in sync through iCloud and syncs to Dropbox flawlessly, so my notes are on all my iOS and OS X devices.
 
zhenya said:
I've had both a SP1 and a couple of SP3's. The latter are a huge improvement, but still a huge offset made all the more noticeable once you've used the Apple Pencil.
Click to expand...
There is no offset in the sp3.
 
rowspaxe said:
There is no offset in the sp3.
Click to expand...

Uh, ok. I've owned two different examples of them. They both have offset. Better than the SP1, but there is still offset, which becomes especially apparent once you've used the Pencil for a while
 
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