iPAD FOR NOTE TAKING AT WORK
Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 9:42PM If you have been reading the blog, you know that I purchased a new iPad (3rd generation) when it first became available. I sold my iPad (1st generation) to a friend of Alicia's. One of the problems I had with the 1st Gen iPad was that for 3G, only AT&T was available. I purchased that 1st Gen with AT&T capability but soon learned that in my small town I could not get an account. Even if I lied and got an account, service was very poor here. So I was never able to use the iPad other than via WiFi.
With the iPad 2, Verizon was also made a carrier, and their service works well here. I didn't buy the iPad 2 and decided to wait for the 3rd Genration, called just iPad. My iPad does have Verizon capability as well as WiFi. This is what I have been waiting for in order to use it at work for Note Taking. I needed a way to get the notes out of the iPad while at work, so that I can forward them, etc. Our networks are so locked down and there is no WiFi available that I can pick up from my office.
Since getting the new iPad, I have been trying out multiple apps for Note Taking. These include: Note Taker HD, Penultimate, Notability, 7notesHD Prem, Notebook, and Noteshelf. I had a few of these on my iPad 1 and had played with them, but I had never used them at work to actually take notes.
Initially, I had Note Taker HD, Penultimate, Notability, and 7notesHD Prem. After playing around with them, I decided to use Note Taker HD. I used a stylus to take notes, and sometimes used the keyboard. It's layout and menuing system, etc. just seemed more understandable and intuitive to me. I used it at work for a few days, and then I felt it was missing some things: search capabilities and making to-dos. I went on the App store and looked around and found Circus Ponies Notebook would solve those problems. Notebook would search, but only if the notes were typed. If I wrote them, the search would not find them. Notebook also had an easy way to track To-Dos and would keep track of the start and completion dates. Notebook was the most expensive of these Apps, costing $29.99.
I used Notebook all last week taking notes with the on-screen keyboard. I can type pretty fast with just a few of my fingers! After taking all these notes, I wanted to email a few of them to my boss, and this is where I ran into a BIG problem with this App--I couldn't email the notes! If I can't get the notes out of the iPad, it really defeats what I want to be able to do. The other thing I wanted to be able to do after having taken notes this week was to include pdf documents in my notes. Again, Notebook couldn't do this (at least not easily). In Notebook, I would have to sync up to iTunes in order to get a pdf into my notes. That's too hard and something I want to be able to do more easily. Note Taker HD and Notability allow me to import pdfs right into them from email attachments, and that's the ease that I am looking for in an App.
So I was once again looking for the "perfect app" for taking notes. I did some more playing with Note Taker HD and Notability, and decided on Notability. Notability will allow me to search, assuming I have entered the text using the keyboard. It is also a very clean interface. I have copied all of the notes I have taken so far into it, which gave me a good chance to play with it. So far, I am liking what I see.
Today, when I was re-typing all my notes into Notability, I was using my new Zagg Folio, which is a folio-like case that includes a Bluetooth keyboard. I like the real keyboard much better than the onscreen keyboard. I had ordered the Folio before I even had the iPad, and it was just delivered today. Check out the Folio using the link above-it's a very neat concept in a small package.
Next week I will use the new Zagg Folio and Notability to take notes and see how it works.
~Dave
;)
