Handwritten notes, another reason to purchase an iPad?

As I mentioned in the last two posts, I purchased a cheap stylus at the weekend, mainly so I could explore the potential of drawing apps on the iPad. Whilst I was researching which stylus to buy, I happened across another blog post about an app called Notes Plus which was reduced in price for the day to 59p. Week, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I proceeded to purchase said app and had a quick play. I was reasonably impressed and though I would give it a proper work-out during the week as i has a couple of meeting coming up.

Notes Plus, the best handwritten notes app?



I'm not sure whether its the best hand-written note app or not as its the only one
I've used but I have to say, after a couple of days of using it, it really is a fantastic app. You can write using your finger or as I do, a stylus. The app doesn't convert your writing to text, it just saves your handwriting on screen. You can hold to zoom to bring up an enlarged writing surface and can then navigate right or down within the area. You can draw around text to highlight and then move or delete, you can draw shapes, lines. You can even record audio notes within a document. When you have finished, you get a choice to export to Photos (as a JPEG or PNG, not sure which) or iTunes as a PDF. The app also proclaims to have upload support for Google Docs, although I never got it to work and claims Dropbox support is coming soon.


An example of a note taken in a briefing on the new (UK) govt White Paper on education.

If you make lots of handwritten notes (like I do) and you don't want them converted to text but you also don't want to lose them, then Notes Plus is a superb app to add to your collection. I was sceptical at first, I had a couple of Palms and a Windows Mobile phone and loved the handwriting recognition but didn't think I would like writing on the iPad (too big) and didn't think I would want a load of handwritten notes clogging up to storage but I was wrong. I have used in a all my meeting this week and I think I would be lost without it now. This app is very versatile and turns the iPad into a very capable note pad and is really useful for jotting down ideas, planning and general note taking. It is also very slick and is a great example of what an IOS app should be like and why IOS still leads the way in user experience.

Bottom line? Buy it, you will not be disappointed.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad