uPad App for Handwritten Notes?

[AznVamp]

Anyone have any opinions on this? I know a lot of people like Note Taker HD, but I haven't really seen any reviews on uPad besides the small excerpts in the App Store.

I have used the Lite version, but I'd like someone who has used it for a while to tell me what they think about the way it stores notes and organizes them.

I would really like to know:
1. How good is the functionality?
2. How does it compare to Note Taker HD (or any other handwritten note taking app)?


Any info would be great! Thanks!

 

[Nth78]

I have tried upad, notetaker, and notes plus and I like upad the best. I find it's auto advance method much better than the other two. It just feels more natural. I would rank notes plus second. It's auto advance doesn't feel as natural as upad but better than notetaker hd's (I could never get the hang of notetaker). I also like the palm rest on upad much better than the other two. Erasing was difficult on notes plus. Much easier on upad and note taker hd. The developer of notes plus is working on converting handwriting to text so that will be cool. But as of now I would rank them:

1. Upad
2. Notes plus
3. Note taker hd


Hope this helps

 

[mkitchen]

I've only tried the UPad trial and although i think some things are great like the zoom to write and being able to zoom in. The fact that it lags when zooming a lot and there are plenty of reviews in the app store that warn about crashes make me leery of it. It does run slow and i can see it crashing...

 

[ThePhotog]

Looks like Upad has been crashing with the iPad2 FYI might want to wait on this one.

 

[Matt1226]

I love penultimate. It is a great app for what you are looking for. I purchased this app and use it on a daily basis.

 

[chowdown]

Penultimate doesn't zoom, its palm-protection doesn't always work and you can't use it in landscape mode. Also, it sometimes doesn't put down any ink at all when it's supposed to.

I much prefer NTHD to NP. If you want to do high-speed handwriting printing (non -cursive aka not "running-writing") NP can't handle it nearly as well as NTHD; it misinterprets fast repeated strokes as some command rather than as letters or parts of letters.

 

[lilstarz1226]

I had a quick question. I have UPad Lite right now, and I can only email the first 10 pages, if I buy the full version, can I email the entire pdf file or is it still 10 pages?

Thanks !

 

[simonpfrank]

So far I have only tested Notes Plus and UPad. I thought Notesplus was the one for me but seem to be using Upad more and more.

I liked the features in Notesplus (recording, shape recognition and its auto advance seem better than uPad because of speed but...

Upad allows annotation on PDF's and images which is great for correcting documents
I found that shape recognition on Notesplus didn't always work and actually got in the way
You can open pdfs in upad from mail - exchanging stuff is vital for me
I found it easy to take notes using the zoom mode (despite it's slow autoadvance) so naturally have stuck with it.
Critical for me being an Ipad 1 owner was ability to send to VGA so you can collaborate with other people instead of flip charts and it's perfect for making a presentation and annotating on the slides as you go.

Still some annoying things but not annoying enough to change yet, it has crashed on me when reviewing a 115 page document, but all annotations were saved and it remembered my last page (the page navigator is really good).

In answer to the last question UPad full will do 50 pages.

I am going to look at the others but right now Upad works for me.

 

[stonew76]

New iPad App: DocAS will be best one for Handwriting notes

New iPad App: DocAS – Docs organizer, Handwriting, Note Taker will be best one. It provided great handwriting experience with amazing ink and pen strokes. It is an All-In-One App.
★★ Document Reader ★★
★★ PDF Annotate ★★
★★ Drag-and-Drop document management ★★
★★ Handwriting ★★
★★ Note Taker ★★
★★ PDF Export ★★
★★ Printing ★★
Major 1.1 enhancement release will bring more surprise.

 

[The Alternative]

I love penultimate. It is a great app for what you are looking for. I purchased this app and use it on a daily basis.

+1 for Penultimate

Someone else posted that... "Penultimate doesn't zoom, its palm-protection doesn't always work and you can't use it in landscape mode. Also, it sometimes doesn't put down any ink at all when it's supposed to."

But, I've never really needed a zoom feature (can't really think of a reason that even matters in a handwriting app), have never had a single instance of palm-protection failure, works great in landscape mode, and I have had no ink issues. I use Penultimate every day in a real business setting and have yet to be disappointed.

 

[AznVamp]

Okay, so far I've bought both uPad and NoteTakerHD. At first I bought NoteTakerHD for a while, then finally decided to buy uPad since I liked the smoothing of the handwriting.

Overall, uPad makes my handwriting look really good compared to NoteTakerHD.

A few things bother me in uPad, and hopefully they'll be fixed later on.
1) When you use the "Magnify input mode" for writing it greys out the screen; when I exit and reopen that input mode, it starts you allll the way at the top. Very annoying if you're far down the page.

2) You can't move text around like you can in Note Taker HD. So if my instructor decides to edit his/her notes, I'd have to erase or write tiny next to what I wrote. In NT HD, I can select and move my work easily.


Overall, I still like uPad more. Mainly because it's simple and your handwriting looks TONS better on uPad than any other app I've used.

 

[jnoslop]

UPad for Handwritten Notes

Upad is by far my favorite note taker. It's fast, intuitive and has a handy palm rest. You can organize your notes in heirarchical folders. A great feature is you can save a .pdf document in upad, then mark it up, annotate, highlight, whatever you want. Then print or email the annotated document. You can even annotate photos! At work we send clients detailed instruction letters. In one particular situation we were having a difficult time getting the client to respond to all our instructions. I took the letter and circled and highlighted critical points. Then i used another color to priortize our requests. Voila! The much needed information begain to pour in. I believe it was due to the colorful display I created with Upad!

 

[jnoslop]

Okay, so far I've bought both uPad and NoteTakerHD. At first I bought NoteTakerHD for a while, then finally decided to buy uPad since I liked the smoothing of the handwriting.

Overall, uPad makes my handwriting look really good compared to NoteTakerHD.

A few things bother me in uPad, and hopefully they'll be fixed later on.
1) When you use the "Magnify input mode" for writing it greys out the screen; when I exit and reopen that input mode, it starts you allll the way at the top. Very annoying if you're far down the page.

2) You can't move text around like you can in Note Taker HD. So if my instructor decides to edit his/her notes, I'd have to erase or write tiny next to what I wrote. In NT HD, I can select and move my work easily.

Overall, I still like uPad more. Mainly because it's simple and your handwriting looks TONS better on uPad than any other app I've used.

I agree, handwriting looks better on upad. Hopefully the other issues you raise will be addressed in future updates. Have you tried emailing the developers?

 

[Yarrenbool]

.

For the absolute simplest with no extras it has to be Bamboo (free with a small number of notebooks).

Does nothing but handwritten notes. No shapes, no typing, nothing extra. And this only in portrait mode.

However, one huge plus, it seems to have an automatic built-in wrist-rest. Resting your wrist on the lower part of the screen usually does not register any marks.

As the free version is very usable it's worth trying it out. I did end up paying the in-app purchase of extra notebooks but shouldn't have as when I need more than Bamboo offers for free I use Upad or Note Taker.

.

 

[emiliep]

iJot is also worth a look. It's a funny way of writing but once you get used to it, the experience is smoother than most note taker.
The idea is that the screen scroll as you write so that the line seems infinite. It's hard to explain actually, the video and their web site describes it better.