Source
r/iPadPro•
Gaary

Looking for best note taking app for my needs

I want to use my iPad for notes at work. I’d like to be able to make my own templates along with having the app (or at least some other way) of being able to export my writing into text. Sometimes I need to put the text into a webpage and sometimes I need to put it in a word document.

To clarify what I mean by template I’d like to set up pages with all of the information I need so that I can make sure I go over everything that I need to while also being able to export that to my final report so I’m not just retyping everything I wrote down.

Do any of the note taking apps export to off where I could send them to my computer and just copy and paste? And which apps would handle my needs for templates the best?

I have a 11” pro and a windows 10 pc.

Posted Feb 22, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

510
fightshade•

Nebo turns handwriting into text and is exportable in lots of formats.

7
GaaryOP•

Can I export it to pdf and then just select the text and copy/paste into whatever I need though? I feel like it’s a silly question but I’ve watched a bunch of videos on the different apps and none show this.

3
thisbyagain•

Yes, you can export out of Nebo and then paste into other docs.

(Also you should look at Mazec. It’s an alternative onscreen keyboard that lets you hand write into any app. I’ve been leaving my Bluetooth keyboard at home and just writing by hand all day with it.)

1
antmit•

Goodnotes 5 for me. Handwriting recognition and scarily accurate.

3
JrDeveloper1212.9" 3rd Gen iPad Pro•

I can say that GoodNotes 5 is great. It does allow you to import your own templates and even have multiple templates in one notebook and even change the orientation. It has the ability to convert your handwriting to text and even search through your handwriting

2
GaaryOP•

Isn’t the text conversion of GoodNotes just within the app? Maybe I’m confusing it with another but it poked like I’d only be able to copy the converted text to the clipboard but not be able to use it as easily to put into my reports. My reports won’t often be done on the iPad so if I’m understanding correctly I’d have to convert text, paste into word/notes/email and then I’d copy and paste into my reports on pc?

1
topcraic•

I use both Notability and GoodNotes 5

Both have their pro’s and cons so I’ll list them.

#Notability

######Pros

  • Writing looks fantastic
  • Vertical scrolling makes it easy to fill the entire page
  • Great for drawing graphs, lines straighten out when you hold them
  • Built-in Sound Recorder - you can record the entire class while you take notes. It pairs what you write with the recording, so if you need clarification on something you’ve written down, you just touch the sentence and it plays the audio at that specific point. It’s fucking dope.

######Cons

  • Bad for annotating big documents. There’s no way to see an outline of a PDF and jump between chapters / pages / sections. You have to manually scroll until you find the page you’re looking for.
  • No break between pages. It’s hard to tell when you’re moving from one page to another, so if you are writing or drawing, you may be crossing into the second page without realizing. If you need to print or export the document, it will look weird.
  • Highlighting doesn’t snap to a straight line
  • Bad organization. I like to have a folder for each class, and then sub folders of “notes”, “assignments”, etc. I cant do that. I can create “dividers” for each class, but I can only have one “subject” name among all of them. If I have a “notes” subject within my Econ 1700 divider, then I can’t have a “notes” subject within my Arabic divider. I have to name it something else. It’s frustrating.

#GoodNotes 5

######Pros

  • Writing looks fantastic too
  • Excellent organization. You can have folder, sub folders, etc just like a file manager. There’s also a thing called “Notebooks” were you basically create a notebook for a specific subject. It works like a physical notebook, and it even has a cover with a title you can write on for the thumbnail.
  • Great at handling PDFs and large documents. There’s an outline / table of contents so you can jump back and forth between different parts of the document.
  • Annotating and highlighting documents is great. The hilighter snaps to a line so it all looks neat, and you can use any color.
  • Thumbnail view of pages in a document. If you’re looking for something you hilighted in red, you can see a thumbnail overview of the entire document that makes it easy to find things you hilighted in certain colors.
  • Mulitiple note-taking templates. You can have normal narrow- or wide-ruled notepaper for writing or note-taking, but there’s also other options like “cornel note-taking” and even different types of planners for organizing things. There aren’t as many color options for the paper (only white and cream-ish), but it’s not something that useful anyway.

######Cons

  • No voice-recording option. If they had this feature, I would completely switch from Notability to GoodNotes.
  • Only horizontal scrolling. It’s not very comfortable to write at the bottom of a page, so sometimes I find myself only using up the top 4/5 of each page. It’s just not an efficient use of space. Not a huge issue tough.
  • Underlining is very slightly easier on Notability because you can draw a line and have it snap to a vertical line just by holding the end briefly. To draw a perfectly straight line on GoodNotes, you have to tap the “shapes” button and then you can draw linearly. It only takes a split second, so it’s only a very very minor inconvenience.

Overall, they’re both great. I use them 50/50, but I prefer to use GoodNotes 5. If GoodNotes 5 had a voice recorder, I would use it 100% of the time. On the other hand, Notability would have to fix a lot of issues for me to only use them. They need better organization, better handling of PDFs, better hilighting, etc. GoodNotes is a pleasure to use, and adding the voice recording would just make me like them so much more. Notability is frustrating, and I only use them because of the voice recording.

2
Maydayparade77•

GoodNotes 5 does have vertical scrolling. It is in the settings.

1
halukartan•

Im using Notability for taking notes during meetings and im more than satisfied with its handwriting recognition and converting it to text... I saw a few mistakes after convertion where I couldnt “decode” my own hand writing :) After conversion Notability delivers the text in an editable format with two option; copy and mail. you can choose whichever you want... the only missing part for me, sometimes you need tabbed sub-headings. Even if i try to give the same space (like the tab key on the keyboard) Notability aligns all the sub-headings with the main heading, title, etc after conversion... I format them after converting to text... besides that issue, it is great for me so far...

1
Sygnul•

I’m dabbling with notability for note taking, but I’m always reverting back to the standard notes app. Something about it keeps drawing me back.

1