What's it like taking notes with the Pencil?

[Booji]

I'm just looking for one good reason to upgrade from my Air 2. It's not a case of the money, I just like the latest shiny stuff, but I always need that internal justification that my new purchase will make my life better.

I take a lot of notes, and one thing that I can't do in meetings is work with a keyboard. It is way to distracting for the audience, and taking notes on my iPhone Plus looks just too much like I'm posting on FB and not paying attention.

Taking notes with the Pencil on an iPad would not look offensive. If I could make good use of Pencil and Evernote to jot my thoughts down in meetings, that would be my justification!

So, who has used the Pencil for note taking, and how good is the experience?

 

[npolly0212]

I'm just looking for one good reason to upgrade from my Air 2. It's not a case of the money, I just like the latest shiny stuff, but I always need that internal justification that my new purchase will make my life better.

I take a lot of notes, and one thing that I can't do in meetings is work with a keyboard. It is way to distracting for the audience, and taking notes on my iPhone Plus looks just too much like I'm posting on FB and not paying attention.

Taking notes with the Pencil on an iPad would not look offensive. If I could make good use of Pencil and Evernote to jot my thoughts down in meetings, that would be my justification!

So, who has used the Pencil for note taking, and how good is the experience?

I use it for note taking daily in class. Honestly all the other teachers and students in my classes have all been impressed by it. Writes neat enough, like pencil on paper and it just looks so good. Able to rest your hand on the screen while writing notes or drawing (big deal since you can't with most other stylus'). The main reason I purchased this was for note taking and whatnot and it was well worth every penny spent on it

 

[BobbyJet]

I use it for note taking daily in class. Honestly all the other teachers and students in my classes have all been impressed by it. Writes neat enough, like pencil on paper and it just looks so good. Able to rest your hand on the screen while writing notes or drawing (big deal since you can't with most other stylus'). The main reason I purchased this was for note taking and whatnot and it was well worth every penny spent on it

I love to take notes on my iPP, i specifically got it bc of that option, knowing that i would be using it all the time. I do and it is even better than i had hoped. I used a friends surface 3 for a moment to try out the pencil. I was like writing with a soggy hot dog in comparison. I gave him my IPP and pencil to try, he was blown away by the difference and immediately regretted his purchased of SP3.

 

[sjleworthy]

theres a few threads on note taking with the pencil, search them out

but yes, for me personally the Pencil with Notability is awesome for quickly scribbling notes. i do it all day long!!

 

[Abazigal]

Just got my pencil, and am trying it out now. The writing experience on PDF expert and Notability is awesome, like writing with smooth ink pen. Oddly less so on the default notes app. Can't explain why. Just feels more "scratchy".

 

[Cascades42]

Another voice in the "it's great" category. I spent all morning annotating PDFs and taking notes in class and then in personal study. It's great and honestly much more convenient than having to have pieces of paper, and notebooks, and printouts, and a pencil case. Plus being able to see two screens - the one I'm writing on and the one I'm taking notes/referencing is really useful.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

With Notes Plus it's awesome. I have been waiting for this tech to reach this level for so many years.

 

[infantrytrophy]

I just received the iPad Pro 9.7 and Pencil last week and have been testing note-taking with OneNote and Notability. Both work well - fast, no lag. I haven't decided which one will be the primary note-taking app yet. Probably OneNote, since the same app can be used on the Mac. Notability is still an option, though, since you can use Dropbox to store, backup and sync to my Mac. Apple's Notes app also works with Pencil, but there is no capability to organize the notes.

The Pencil is impressive. I wonder why it has taken Apple this long to offer it. Note-taking on the iPad seems like it would be a core function. I'm pleased so far.

 

[sjleworthy]

With Notes Plus it's awesome. I have been waiting for this tech to reach this level for so many years.

completely agreed. and its good to see different people praising up different apps too!

i've been so eager over the years with lesser ipads and lesser styluses trying to achieve my paperless office. it was pretty good, but always a faff and it wasnt an instant gratifying experience.
Now with the Pro and the Pencil my traditional drawing pads and note pads are no more. The experience of doodling and super fast note taking/dictation on the Pro is so fluid and second nature to me now. I'd be devastated to go back to paper and pen.

 

[oftheheavens]

I don't know really, cause for me my chicken scratch is so bad I would need to retype my notes soon after being taken to remember what they actually meant. It seems I can type faster than handwrite these days any how. I have found that the extra money spent for the ipp just for the use of the apple key board is worth it. basically 250 dollars for the ability to buy and use their keyboard but it works so well system wide and consume no power that I have noticed and for that it was worth it. If i wanted a good bluetooth keyboard/case I am sure it would have been around 150-200 anyways. The pencil though, I think is going back to best buy on friday

 

[silverblack]

My experience of taking notes on iPP is better than pen and paper. You need a good app though, and I highly recommend Goodnotes. I purchased both the iOS and Mac version, and it syncs everything between all my iPads and Macs flawlessly. I could also just move the old files to another folder on My Mac for archives, leaving them in the native .goodnote format.

 

[zhenya]

I've been using every stylus available for years, I'm on my second Surface Pro all in the quest to find a reasonable paper replacement. The Apple Pencil is the first one that delivers. It's so close to a real pen and pencil experience it's almost uncanny. It is, however, somewhat app dependent. Notes is great, but limited. My favorite is Goodnotes because I do mostly writing in ink, but it's extremely limited otherwise.

 

[harrypham]

Which is better between Notability and Goodnotes?
I just tried Notability, but I don't like it because I can not erase partly.

 

[barkomatic]

Is anyone successfully using a note taking app with good handwriting recognition? Converting handwriting to text would be great to eliminate retyping.

 

[sjleworthy]

there is no 'better' per se, it's what suits you best. for me, i find Notability second to none.

 

[thelead]

one thing to take to consideration is if you are in a quiet environment, the noise that it makes can be annoying. I have recently tried integrating it into my work flow and it's working out okay. I'm not sure the 12.9 iPad Pro is the best for being discreet though...

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

Is anyone successfully using a note taking app with good handwriting recognition? Converting handwriting to text would be great to eliminate retyping.

Notes Plus. You can install Myscript Stylus to have it in my app though.

 

[AppleFan360]

I use the Apple Pencil and Notability for taking notes at work. It's wonderful, its fast and the palm rejection is awesome. I always get comments in the meetings I attend.

One word of warning however. You mention that typing on a keyboard can be distracting. Sometimes the click of the Apple Pencil on the screen can be a bit loud. When taking notes, its a good idea to try not to press too hard.

There is your internal justification. Just do it. You will love it!

 

[oftheheavens]

Notes Plus. You can install Myscript Stylus to have it in my app though.

can you elaborate a little bit because write to text would make me keep the pencil instead of returning it? I understand notes plus is an app but how do you install my script? Is it a feature inside of notes plus because I haven't explored that app yet?

 

[Capt T]

Another vote for the pencil. I use goodnotes. I like the organization in it, as well as being able to use different paper types within the same notebook.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

can you elaborate a little bit because write to text would make me keep the pencil instead of returning it? I understand notes plus is an app but how do you install my script? Is it a feature inside of notes plus because I haven't explored that app yet?

It's a handwriting keyboard. You install it just like any keyboard extension.

 

[oftheheavens]

It's a handwriting keyboard. You install it just like any keyboard extension.

awesome, thanks! wouldn't that limit your palm and writing space by making your write on just a kb size area?

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

awesome, thanks! wouldn't that limit your palm and writing space by making your write on just a kb size area?

Yes it does. But it works very well because you can use gestures to scroll back in your writing and make very quick corrections.

Notes Plus uses the same Myscript engine for the full document page expect that it converts the handwriting only when you ask it too.

 

[Bricks44]

Taking notes with a pencil is old school. Just grab a notepad and a #2 pencil and you're all set.

 

[jlczl]

I absolutely love using the pencil on my iPad Pro 12.9. There is simply nothing like it and this is coming from a Galaxy Note user from the very beginning. With the split screen it is amazing how you can use Notability together with any other research type app (pdf etc.)that you might need and at the same time be recording the lecture you may be taking notes about. As a review process when I go back and look at my notes I can play the audio and it tracks where I was taking notes at that specific time on that document. It's absolutely great so if you do any note taking at all there's no reason why you should not jump on this now.