iPad vs Macbook for note taking

[toby08]

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I feel like there is a tendency to word vomit when you you're typing vs. writing them out. However, I understand the problem with writing is that you'll always worry that you will miss something.

Has anyone tried Livescribe? It's physical pen, but you write on special paper that lets you convert all of your notes to PDF. The pen also record the lecture as you write so that when you review the notes later you can hear what the lecturer was saying at the same time. Fun fact - you can draw a piano keyboard on your notepad, then use your pen to play the notes.

For people who don't like flipping through typed notes on their computer, why not just print them out?

 

[dgsilvervid]

This maybe has been brought up before but this semester in my physiology classes I started using my iPad more with a stylus to draw things, and then using text type box to type things directly onto the power point slides using an app called Notes+ or NotesPlus I forget how it is named in the app store but it really changed the way I study and now I don't have to carry around any notebooks and have unlimited paper its sweet, plus it backs up directly to your dropbox account if you want to make one. It honestly is the best change I have made to my studying habits in all 4 yrs of undergrad. I used it for every class this semester and loved it. The only thing you have to remember is ... charge your iPad!

 

[circulus vitios]

"therefore" = three circles in a triangular pattern (someone randomly taught me that...I don't know the logic behind that one).

It's mathematical shorthand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therefore_sign

 

[t5Nitro]

Laptop:Anyting that DOESN'T require drawing.
-Biology
-English
-History

You can still easily take notes for these classes with a bluetooth keyboard.

Has anyone tried Livescribe?

For people who don't like flipping through typed notes on their computer, why not just print them out?

I own one. It is pretty nice for chem courses.

 

[doorner]

The iPad coupled with a few very capable apps, a good stylus and keyboard is pretty superior right now, I think.

What apps do you consider essential or helpful?

 

[ur2l8]

MacBook Air

 

[t5Nitro]

What apps do you consider essential or helpful?

Evernote, notability/goodreader/iannotate, dropbox, to name a few.

 

[MedPR]

MacBook Air

👍

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[sieg5]

Anyone use cursive up in this b?

It seems the general consensus is Macbook or pencil and paper but my question is this: iPad can connect to a keyboard through bluetooth and you can still draw on it and do things you can't with a Macbook so what are some of the pros that Macbook has over iPad in terms of note taking that overtake this or are we simply choosing Macbook because that's what we own and not what we want?

 

[Dires]

I heard typing on an Air is miserable if you have large hands, like I 🙂naughty🙂.

 

[t5Nitro]

Anyone use cursive up in this b?

It seems the general consensus is Macbook or pencil and paper but my question is this: iPad can connect to a keyboard through bluetooth and you can still draw on it and do things you can't with a Macbook so what are some of the pros that Macbook has over iPad in terms of note taking that overtake this or are we simply choosing Macbook because that's what we own and not what we want?

My laptop is essentially a desktop now.

 

[MedPR]

I heard typing on an Air is miserable if you have large hands, like I 🙂naughty🙂.

Don't they have full size keyboards?

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[Hau5MD]

Don't they have full size keyboards?

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the 13 inch model do. though the 11 inch model has shrunken keys.

as for the ipad/macbook for note taking, i'd probably pick the ipad with a stylus for drawing along with a bluetooth keyboard for typing.

 

[sieg5]

My hands are rather large and I still prefer the shrunken keys, you get used to them and they're way more efficient.

 

[MedPR]

My hands are rather large and I still prefer the shrunken keys, you get used to them and they're way more efficient.

I got used to it on my netbook, then I started using a full size keyboard again and felt much better.

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[doorner]

The new release of iAnnotate for ipad can open up microsoft office files as well as pdfs. You can easily insert pages for notes (typed or written/diagrammed). Looks like that'd work really well with a stylus and a bluetooth keyboard, plus dropbox. Think I'll be doing something to that effect once school starts.

 

[Dires]

My hands are rather large and I still prefer the shrunken keys, you get used to them and they're way more efficient.

I'm going to go to best buy and check it out.

 

[Aspirantes MD]

I made the transition from paper and pen to MacBook Pro this year. I used Evernote for note taking and I absolutely love it. If I'm in a position where the professor draws a diagram or something I can't just type, I've found that I can just quickly Google it and paste it into Evernote. I also snip websites to supplement my notes on topics too. Not to mention Evernote can sync to your phone, so when I don't have my laptop with me, I can whip out my phone and study my notes on there.

 

[deleted303591]

I am a former computer repair technician.

I use either an iPad or a traditional pencil and paper arrangement. I never use my MacBook Pro for notes (I am also an engineering student).

For the iPad I use:

1. Pogo Connect stylus (~$80)

2. PDFpen, which syncs my PDFs with dropbox

3. Lifeproof Nuud Case (~$120), which keeps the iPad secure. It also gives the iPad a nice bezel.

4. http://Printablepaper.net, for blank template paper that I put in to PDF.

I only use the iPad when they are teaching off of Powerpoints/PDF. I add notes directly to the Powerpoints/PDFs (uploaded to Dropbox), which is more efficient.

When using the pencil/paper method (when the class is predominantly "copy stuff off of the board"), I tend to scan my notes in to PDF to review on my iPad via Dropbox.

 

[TipToad]

For the people who use stylus + iPad. Is your handwriting pretty much the same, or is it a bit less smooth?

 

[Josh7]

I am a former computer repair technician.

I use either an iPad or a traditional pencil and paper arrangement. I never use my MacBook Pro for notes (I am also an engineering student).

For the iPad I use:

1. Pogo Connect stylus (~$80)

2. PDFpen, which syncs my PDFs with dropbox

3. Lifeproof Nuud Case (~$120), which keeps the iPad secure. It also gives the iPad a nice bezel.

4. http://Printablepaper.net, for blank template paper that I put in to PDF.

I only use the iPad when they are teaching off of Powerpoints/PDF. I add notes directly to the Powerpoints/PDFs (uploaded to Dropbox), which is more efficient.

When using the pencil/paper method (when the class is predominantly "copy stuff off of the board"), I tend to scan my notes in to PDF to review on my iPad via Dropbox.

What exactly is your justification for buying a $120 case? That's silly yo

 

[MedPR]

I am a former computer repair technician.

I use either an iPad or a traditional pencil and paper arrangement. I never use my MacBook Pro for notes (I am also an engineering student).

For the iPad I use:

1. Pogo Connect stylus (~$80)

2. PDFpen, which syncs my PDFs with dropbox

3. Lifeproof Nuud Case (~$120), which keeps the iPad secure. It also gives the iPad a nice bezel.

4. http://Printablepaper.net, for blank template paper that I put in to PDF.

I only use the iPad when they are teaching off of Powerpoints/PDF. I add notes directly to the Powerpoints/PDFs (uploaded to Dropbox), which is more efficient.

When using the pencil/paper method (when the class is predominantly "copy stuff off of the board"), I tend to scan my notes in to PDF to review on my iPad via Dropbox.

Interesting. When you write with the stylus does the tablet/app then convert it into a computer font automatically?

Also, can you rest your hand on the ipad when writing with a stylus?

 

[pre med 2014]

Interesting. When you write with the stylus does the tablet/app then convert it into a computer font automatically?

I wonder if he uses the stylus not for writing words but for drawing out cell structures, pathways, and things like this.

I guess you could do both. It just seems like it would be really hard to write small with a stylus. Unless they have made advances in the technology since I got my Wacom tablet 7 years ago.

The tablet is smaller than the computer screen which is why it's hard there, but still. Writing words with a stylus on any screen tends to be difficult, I feel like the way the iPad screen is made it would be hard to write on

 

[deleted303591]

For the people who use stylus + iPad. Is your handwriting pretty much the same, or is it a bit less smooth?

I use both iAnnotate and PDFpen as apps on my iPad. The iAnnotate app allows me to zoom in and out so writing is not a hassle regardless of how big I write.

The quality of handwriting varies from stylus to stylus. I actually have bad handwriting and it improves with my Pogo Connect stylus versus writing with a pencil. Using the Pogo Connect stylus is like writing with a marker, either on paper or a white erase board. So, I would say my handwriting is more smooth.

You do have to practice when writing with an iPad, finding the right app for you, the right thickness for ink (that is ideal for responsiveness for the stylus and the iPad), etc.

 

[deleted303591]

What exactly is your justification for buying a $120 case? That's silly yo

I broke my iPad 2 with my old case, because the material that it was made out of was flexible, and not rigid.

I picked up the iPad 2 by the case, and the case flexed (with enough force) to hit the edge of a stone table, cracking the screen, with a hairline crack.

Fortunately I had a protection plan on it, covering accidental damage. I was actually able to upgrade from an iPad 2 to an iPad 3 with my protection plan.

The bezel on the nuud case is a good hand rest so that your palm does not end up on the screen when writing. I do not use apps that block out using the screen as a place to rest your palm. I do not think there are enough of them out there and I do not think the technology is refined yet, so I have not bothered trying them out. The Pogo Connect is a pen with a large circumference, so it also makes it easier to rest my palm on the bezel of the nuud case.

In addition, the bezel protects the screen from the type of accident I listed above. It is also rugged enough to where I do not have to worry about it being in my backpack with other heavy items.

 

[Josh7]

I broke my iPad 2 with my old case, because the material that it was made out of was flexible, and not rigid.

I picked up the iPad 2 by the case, and the case flexed (with enough force) to hit the edge of a stone table, cracking the screen, with a hairline crack.

Fortunately I had a protection plan on it, covering accidental damage. I was actually able to upgrade from an iPad 2 to an iPad 3 with my protection plan.

The bezel on the nuud case is a good hand rest so that your palm does not end up on the screen when writing. I do not use apps that block out using the screen as a place to rest your palm. I do not think there are enough of them out there and I do not think the technology is refined yet, so I have not bothered trying them out. The Pogo Connect is a pen with a large circumference, so it also makes it easier to rest my palm on the bezel of the nuud case.

In addition, the bezel protects the screen from the type of accident I listed above. It is also rugged enough to where I do not have to worry about it being in my backpack with other heavy items.

Interesting, that does sound like a good justification

 

[deleted303591]

Interesting. When you write with the stylus does the tablet/app then convert it into a computer font automatically?

Also, can you rest your hand on the ipad when writing with a stylus?

No. My handwriting is not converted automatically in to text. The iPad's processor probably is not powerful enough to convert the type of writing I am doing anyways (part math and part regular notes).

If you wanted to convert your handwriting in to text, I recommend this program, InftyReader. It converts handwriting, math formulas, and regular text in to text that can be read on your computer (or your iPad, if you loaded the processed/completed document on there) using OCR (optical character recognition). I actually use this program to convert scanned (usually books I scanned) engineering, scientific, and mathematical textbooks for people with print disabilities via a project called Bookshare. The documents can even be converted in to MathML and XML in addition to regular text. However, I do not use this for my notes. I would not imagine it to be time consuming, though.

You can download a 15-day trial, but you can bypass the trial by installing the software on a Windows VM-Ware image, and then taking a snapshot. After 15 days, revert back to the old snapshot.

It also requires that you convert the document to .TIFF image format or similar prior to processing the document (at least in order to do it efficiently). For example, to convert a PDF in to .TIFF images (a lossless file format), use a Virtual Image Printer Driver. After you install it, "Print" the document, and select the "Virtual Image Printer Driver" as your "Printer".

Likewise, if you wanted to convert a PowerPoint to PDF you would do the same, except you would use a program called PDFCreator.http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

As for resting the hand on the iPad-there are programs out there that allow you to rest your hand on the iPad without it effecting your writing. But, the App has to be programmed to do this, and the thresholds vary from App to App. There are only a handful of Apps that do this, and I do not think the technology is refined yet, but I could be wrong.

With my Lifeproof nuud case and the Pogo Connect pen, I do not need an app that allows me to rest my hand on the iPad's screen. The bezel on the Lifeproof case is thick and wide enough to rest my hand/arm on it, so it is really not a problem.

 

[t5Nitro]

I just picked up a wacom stylus. It's nice as well.

I'm curious if anybody as ever used Omnioutliner to take notes with?

 

[McDreamy123]

I have the iPad Pro 12.7' and Apple Pencil and love it!! Download notability and you can import any PowerPoint or pdf and annotate it however you like. Also, nice to have it on iPhone too when traveling to look at notes. I recommend getting the Logitech keyboard with it that also acts as hard case. For me I messed with both the smaller and larger ipad but quickly decided I would primarily be using it for annotating notes---making anki--often with split screen view the extra real estate is a must have for me.

I literally never use my MacBook Pro anymore. And sorry but inserting text boxes to pdf on laptops are a joke compared to being able to ann0tate with a stylus as good as Apple Pencil. Not to mention drawing out pathways/enzymes/structures etc. Can't really do that with laptop

 

[21Rush12]

@McDreamy123 this thread is four years old (but I agree, Apple Pencil is so cool)


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[McDreamy123]

@McDreamy123 this thread is four years old (but I agree, Apple Pencil is so cool)


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Lmao my bad. Idk why it appeared at top of my feed