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Best note taking app for iPad

astanciu

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I am a bit late with this reply, probably, but Penultimate can, indeed, change the paper style page by page (i.e. one page graph, next lined, etc.) It also has a lot of downloadable paper designs.
 

zipur

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You all realize that this is a never ending post. New apps come out every few weeks. I've tried everything posted for the last six months and I always come back to good reader for my needs cloud access, PDF reading and PDF updates. It reads everything and works with everything.
Today I tried this new app paper by 53 for drawing it is absolutely Beautiful! -See picture- with very nice ink.
So there are a few ways to cut his topic.
1. Drawing/Art
2. Note/reference work.
3. Quick doodler To-do notes
Funny thing is that I've come full circle using Notes+, DosAS, CloudOn, Penultimate, Bambo and others. And now I am back to just the default built-in notes because with iCloud my notes are automatically added to my desktop, iPad and iPhone. Then for school and work Goodreader does the job.
so maybe this thread needs to be broken into Drawing vs Work Type notes because I don't think there will ever be a perfect one does it all quickly and effortously.
 

Tuttle

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astanciu said:
I am a bit late with this reply, probably, but Penultimate can, indeed, change the paper style page by page (i.e. one page graph, next lined, etc.) It also has a lot of downloadable paper designs.

Well, after seeing your posting I downloaded Penultimate and I really have to agree: at least for my purposes, it now seems to be the best. The handwritten annotation tools are better than Good Reader and iAnnotate and probably as good as Neu.Annotate. It handles large pdf files better than Good Reader and Neu.Annotate, the latter crashing on large files. Paging takes forever on Good Reader if the file is very large. The drawing tools are better on Good Reader, but typing is better in Penultimate.

Bottom Line: Penultimate for me. (But if it is only the penultimate, it leaves me wondering what the ultimate might be!)
 
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Tuttle

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Tuttle said:
Well, after seeing your posting I downloaded Penultimate and I really have to agree: at least for my purposes, it now seems to be the best. The handwritten annotation tools are better than Good Reader and iAnnotate and probably as good as Neu.Annotate. It handles large pdf files better than Good Reader and Neu.Annotate, the latter crashing on large files. Paging takes forever on Good Reader if the file is very large. The drawing tools are better on Good Reader, but typing is better in Penultimate.

Bottom Line: Penultimate for me. (But if it is only the penultimate, it leaves me wondering what the ultimate might be!)



Well, Duh! Total brain freeze. What I was critiquing was Notability, not Penultamate. So, for me, maybe Notability is the ultimate!!
 

zipur

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Tuttle said:
Well, Duh! Total brain freeze. What I was critiquing was Notability, not Penultamate. So, for me, maybe Notability is the ultimate!!

I am confused. Penultimate can not read PDF files, good reader works with everything. notability is slow to open. So what exactly do you like?

Just for the record the best ink bar none is Paper53!.
 
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Tuttle

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zipur said:
I am confused. Penultimate can not read PDF files, good reader works with everything. notability is slow to open. So what exactly do you like?

Just for the record the best ink bar none is Paper53!.

Guess I should have used the word "evaluate." It is Notability that works great on large pdf files. Sorry for the confusion.
 

zipur

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Tuttle said:
Guess I should have used the word "evaluate." It is Notability that works great on large pdf files. Sorry for the confusion.

The reason I ask is that since the latest update my large PDF 1100 pages+ cause the app to crash if I scroll to fast. I use Notabilty all the time. Do you notice any issues?
 

Kgiff

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You might try eNotebook. It can write on DOC, PPT, and PDF files. The app uses a Reader/Writer mode to keep the downloaded files clean and reusable and the handwritten notes in a separate folder.
 

skallal

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Okay I'm going to go off the beaten path and make a shameless plug for iThoughtsHD. If you're a hierarchical thinker like me, linear your notes don't cut it. That's where mind mapping comes in. Think of it as an outline visual style. I took notes with in an IT meeting the other day. Okay it really does need a keyboard, and it's not for handwritten notes. I was using a Bluetooth keyboard at the time. But I find mind mapping very useful in real life work situations.
 

Tuttle

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zipur said:
The reason I ask is that since the latest update my large PDF 1100 pages+ cause the app to crash if I scroll to fast. I use Notabilty all the time. Do you notice any issues?

I haven't had crashing problems with Notability, but I don't think I have tried to work with files as large as yours. The largest has been maybe 500 to maybe seven ir eight hundred pages. But no problems, and even the largest seem to open fairly fast.
 

qvp

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Can someone who's followed this thread sum it up? thanks
 

Tuttle

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qvp said:
Can someone who's followed this thread sum it up? thanks

Well, I'm not sure that is possible---for a very good reason: there are a number of different categories of needs. For instance, some folks are primarily interested in handwriting, others in typing, and still others in handwriting recognition, voice dictation, and annotation of pdf files. So, sorry to say, you just gotta' at least scan the whole thread!
 

zipur

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That may not be fair, this post is huge! Oh sorry I mean I agree please scan the previous post and then determine what you are looking for. Download and try some free versions and use it for awhile. See how it fits.
The thing is these apps hop over each other with each update.
So there will never be a King just an app you are comfortable with.
 

milkmilklemonade

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Remarks was recently updated, and probably has the best and most fluid writing experience I've tried.

That includes noteshelf, note taker hd, notes plus, penultimate, noteability, etc.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

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