Best way to take notes...and how does iCloud fit in now

[Shadnic]

Thinking about replacing my travel / note-taking laptop with an iPad2 soon, and I have a question about note taking apps.

I ultimately would love to have an app that would let me type, draw, and then sync/back-up to something like google docs, dropbox, or now icloud??

Something like pages, quickoffice, or documents to go seems great for documents and such, but as far as I can tell I can't draw on any of those. The main reason I'd like to be able to do this is because I take mostly science classes and sometimes it's necessary to draw a diagram, equation, or something along those lines.

I started looking for more specialized note apps but there were so many :/

Smartnote, notemaster, note taker HD, evernote, etc etc. All of them would either let me type and sync, or type and draw but not sync the way I wanted. Now that iCloud is coming out, how will this change? Is there any app already out there that can do what I'm looking for?

Thanks!!

EDIT: Looking back over these apps, note taker HD and smartnote both do what I want pretty satisfactorily. They don't sync to google necessarily, but as far as having my ipad be a big digital notebook, I'd be happy with either one of those. Still, any suggestions are welcome

 

[zpithika]

Thinking about replacing my travel / note-taking laptop with an iPad2 soon, and I have a question about note taking apps.

I ultimately would love to have an app that would let me type, draw, and then sync/back-up to something like google docs, dropbox, or now icloud??

Something like pages, quickoffice, or documents to go seems great for documents and such, but as far as I can tell I can't draw on any of those. The main reason I'd like to be able to do this is because I take mostly science classes and sometimes it's necessary to draw a diagram, equation, or something along those lines.

I started looking for more specialized note apps but there were so many :/

Smartnote, notemaster, note taker HD, evernote, etc etc. All of them would either let me type and sync, or type and draw but not sync the way I wanted. Now that iCloud is coming out, how will this change? Is there any app already out there that can do what I'm looking for?

Thanks!!

EDIT: Looking back over these apps, note taker HD and smartnote both do what I want pretty satisfactorily. They don't sync to google necessarily, but as far as having my ipad be a big digital notebook, I'd be happy with either one of those. Still, any suggestions are welcome

Yea note taker hd is good as well as UPAD. I just use the UPAD free for now but the paid version has what u are looking for I believe. And even the free version would probably work okay. For example the free version saves your notes as pictures and then through the dropbox app on the iPad you can upload those notes/pictures to dropbox. Also UPAD allows for PDF uploading to the app itself so that u can take notes in the PDF. I haven't tried this feature yet but as far as seeing, viewing, and taking notes on the included PDFs, it seems to work pretty well. I hope this helps.


Sent from my iPad 2 using Tapatalk

 

[zpithika]

Yea Note Taker HD seems to be pretty good for what you are looking for. Also, the paid version of UPAD. I use the free version currently and even that could probably work. For example, take whatever notes you want, then when you save/export the notes, they save as a png picture file. so they go to your pictures applicatiion. Then through the dropbox app on the ipad you can upload the notes to later be accessed on another device, computer. And if you dont want to use dropbox, once icloud starts, if you set up your account for photo stream, once the notes are saved to your pictures applications, they will be available on your other devices. So thats just an option. Personally, I am going to continue using UPAD for my notetaking, and Pages for all my document creation. anyways, i hope this helped.

 

[Alli]

Don't forget something simple like Evernote, which does everything you're looking for.

 

[applefanboi]

Thanks for posting this. One of the main reasons I want an iPad is for notetaking in lectures. I've used my iPhone a bit, but sometimes I'm not comfortable with the small form factor for a permanent replacement for pen/paper.

I hate lugging around my notebook, and the battery life on it is dwindling, so it sometimes doesn't last long though for a full lecture. I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on this thread and others that may be similar.

 

[Shadnic]

Don't forget something simple like Evernote, which does everything you're looking for.

Can evernote really? I was reading it and I didn't see anything about being able to write/draw on it with your fingers. That would be another great simple solution if so.

 

[Alli]

Hrmm...maybe they removed that? Or maybe I've used it on so many platforms now I'm confused.

 

[AStranger]

Hrmm...maybe they removed that? Or maybe I've used it on so many platforms now I'm confused.

As far as I know, Evernote never offered free form drawing.

I can't remember the app name, but there was an app that did this and then would upload the image file of the note to Evernote though.

 

[Rocktapus]

i just graduated from college and got the iPad from the last semester. i bought the first iPod touch because of all the freaking .pdf articles i had to read. i HATED reading them on a computer screen, and didn't like the idea of printing out 50+ page articles.

for reading .pdfs, i've always gone with Good Reader.

as for note taking...i used to take alot of notes using Penultimate + boxwave stylus. [don't get a cheap stylus!]...but it definitely wasn't as fast as paper and pencil. its faster than using your finger to write though.

i mainly got the iPad for the creativity apps to help with my art, and as a social media tool...not necessarily for school. i DO prefer the ipad over a laptop because of its portability. it's so damn light and fits into your bag perfectly. [not to mention the annoying charging cable that comes with most laptops that adds to the bulk and weight]

 

[impaler]

The good news about notetaking and syncing is that Apple is opening up sync APIs to developers. As Steve Jobs said in the June keynote about their view on iCloud being only a hard disk in the sky, he said, "We think it's way more than this". Meaning creative developers will come up with amazing solutions that will hopefully store and sync data with iCloud. I'm sure any APIs will use up part of your free 5GB of space, but for notes, it's negligible and won't take up much room.

 

[pjtiern]

Word processing with I Pad?

I may become a recording secretary for an organization and will have to take meeting minutes. I am not sure wifi will always be available. I have looked at Pages and read thoughts in the posts in this thread. I have access to an Apple wireless keyboard to make typing easier. Your recommendations are appreciated. I am trying to avoid paying for an app if it will not work as well as others. Thanks in advance.

 

[itsalexaye]

Don't forget something simple like Evernote, which does everything you're looking for.

evernote is my favorite! Can use it on almost every device imaginable! And if there isnt an app for that device you can just use evernote.com.

Use it for all my classes.