I am tired of using legal pad for all my notes for work and want to give my iPadPro a try. Im am too unorganized to keep up with all the paper and file them for different customers. I am in sales so I see a couple customers a day take notes

What apps are y'all using for note taking? From there is it easily syncable to a PC or outlook? Any recommendations to make this transition easier?

Plan on using a pencil. I saw apps like Notability, Evernote and Onenote. Any of these worth using or is there something better?

I'm a huge fan of GoodNotes 5. It is set up for hand writing and has the best export feature I have found to date. You actually can save to cloud back up directly like google drive. Huge number of paper types and templates out there for it. For handwriting stuff it is how I got into the Apple world in the first place. Friend had it in college and I tried and then bought an iPad literally just for note taking and never looked back. It is also a great pdf markup tool.

For pure typing Notes is fine for daily stuff I think. It has a writing function but it is trash. I am not 100% sold on the organization of it though. I am a files based thinker. And you can only really have one layer of file organization that I can tell. Smart tags is not how my brain works.

For long form notes I use Obsidian. It's a Markup based editor and I use that for my no joke school and learning note level of work.

HTH a little bit.

I'd suggest taking some time to think about how you structure your notes today. If you're a linear, hierarchical note thinker, you'll likely hate Obsidian.

Eliminatus said:

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I'm a huge fan of GoodNotes 5. It is set up for hand writing and has the best export feature I have found to date. You actually can save to cloud back up directly like google drive. Huge number of paper types and templates out there for it. For handwriting stuff it is how I got into the Apple world in the first place. Friend had it in college and I tried and then bought an iPad literally just for note taking and never looked back. It is also a great pdf markup tool.

For pure typing Notes is fine for daily stuff I think. It has a writing function but it is trash. I am not 100% sold on the organization of it though. I am a files based thinker. And you can only really have one layer of file organization that I can tell. Smart tags is not how my brain works.

For long form notes I use Obsidian. It's a Markup based editor and I use that for my no joke school and learning note level of work.

HTH a little bit.

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Geez, it's kinda weird reading something I would've sworn I wrote, though I'm just now getting into Obsidian.

I use GoodNotes for the most part, and if it's something terribly important (or is formula intensive, I'm an engineer), it goes into Obsidian. I do like OneNote, and if you have a Microsoft Office 365 account, the sync up between the iPad and the computer is really good. Plus the ink to equation function's pretty slick as well. My main problem is that my company screwed up the Microsoft credentials thing somehow, and I can't get my iPad to sign into my account for OneNote, so I just use GoodNotes exclusively anymore.

Maximus_Meridius said:

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Eliminatus said:

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I'm a huge fan of GoodNotes 5. It is set up for hand writing and has the best export feature I have found to date. You actually can save to cloud back up directly like google drive. Huge number of paper types and templates out there for it. For handwriting stuff it is how I got into the Apple world in the first place. Friend had it in college and I tried and then bought an iPad literally just for note taking and never looked back. It is also a great pdf markup tool.

For pure typing Notes is fine for daily stuff I think. It has a writing function but it is trash. I am not 100% sold on the organization of it though. I am a files based thinker. And you can only really have one layer of file organization that I can tell. Smart tags is not how my brain works.

For long form notes I use Obsidian. It's a Markup based editor and I use that for my no joke school and learning note level of work.

HTH a little bit.

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Geez, it's kinda weird reading something I would've sworn I wrote, though I'm just now getting into Obsidian.

I use GoodNotes for the most part, and if it's something terribly important (or is formula intensive, I'm an engineer), it goes into Obsidian. I do like OneNote, and if you have a Microsoft Office 365 account, the sync up between the iPad and the computer is really good. Plus the ink to equation function's pretty slick as well. My main problem is that my company screwed up the Microsoft credentials thing somehow, and I can't get my iPad to sign into my account for OneNote, so I just use GoodNotes exclusively anymore.

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THIS.

I actually had some threads years ago asking the same question as OP. I had two criteria.

• I need to OWN my own notes. To include full offline access. OneNote is out for that reason alone.
• Anything I create, I need to print. So export to pdf was also a make or break for me. I actually hate infinite space. I am not disciplined enough to use it correctly and it becomes a mess for me.
  

Obsidian won out for me over Notion or Craft because of that owning part. Obsidian is stored on the hard drive of your choice and that is the primary. You CAN upload to cloud if you wish but what you make is yours on your machine first.

And G MARTIN 87: Not really true. Obsidian does have the ability to use that mesh network thingie for organization but it is completely optional to use. I am extremely hierarchical myself and just use the normal file system way of keeping everything. Works just fine. Some of my stuff is embedded like 8 layers deep. Just like I like it! It is not an either/or decision.

I just use the basic Notes app in iOS. i can organize things into folders, password protect, and encrypt it in my icloud. im just taking simple handwritten notes with an apple pencil, but its more than enough for my needs. I know of some who do a similar setup using Pages and that gives more freedom with the files themselves.

Another vite for obsidian, though the learning curve can be a bit steep. I like that it's so flexible you can take notes how it makes sense for you to do and then link them in multiple ways (back links, tags, YAML metadata, etc.) I'm ADHD and extremely non-linear or hierarchical and it still works for me.

I am mostly looking for an app to write notes with the Apple Pencil and convert it to text after. From there be able to upload and organize into files or outlook. I have about 100 customers. So to be able to write notes from meetings with the pencil. When I get home upload them to my pc A assign to each customer.

I doubt it will be exact uploading but keeping track of my paper meeting notes is a pain the ass. So having it online and dropped into a customer file. Having a running note for each customer may be adventageous. Notability seems to have the organization if I can figure out how to upload and organize. Going to try the suggestions given.

Obsidian seems Good but it seems to automatically convert text. Maybe I will be able to learn the functionality of it and make it easier. I am not sure yet. Organizing and formatting the text while writing on the fly is not perfect I still have a lot to learn. Actually using the Apple Pencil now to write this post.it is pretty nice for using an iPad.

You can export notes to pdf on Evernote.

I love the idea of using OneNote simply because I have a 365 account but we are currently using Evernote Teams via work.

If OneNote took their Task capabilities one step further and gave you a way to have centralized task management within OneNote it would be the killer Note/Task app for me. I actually like some of the quirky **** they do with tag icons because you can immediately generate a view with everything tagged in your instance.

What they need to do is build To Do inside of OneNote so you can have a cohesive Task management solution. It kind of pisses me off that they haven't done this because it's so damn obvious. Basically, it's what Evernote has done with their recent overhaul it's just that Evernote doesn't sync well with MS.

Yes, you can put a task in OneNote and link it back to To Do or Outlook Tasks but give me the ability to have OneNote as the source for Task management and if I want to save them out to children apps (To Do and/or Outlook), then I can.

I agree. They definitely can do a better job. I do like the MS products but recently made the full jump to the Apple ecosystem so for personal use I have embraced that dark side.

And the other main winning point for Obsidian for me is why it beats Evernote.

It's free with no restrictions. Period. Full functionality and no limit on devices. Evernote has a limit on both for their free plan. The two devices only was the main killer. I actively use four.

I use Things3 for my to do list and I like the simple layout of it. MS To Do though is also great though and the one MS product I actually think is better than Apple counterparts.

I use GoodNotes for work and personal notes on my iPad. Searchable handwriting is a must for me and OneNote doesn't do handwriting recognition on any iOS device.

Another advantage of goodnotes is it's a one-time purchase vs. monthly subscription.

Another one is Notability. Easy to use, PDF and even cloud backup.

Also you can take video, audio recording's within the notes

I use Goodnotes. I can't say I'm a huge fan of it, but it works for the most part. I'll take notes in a meeting, then sit down at my (Mac) desktop and everything will be there.

However, it can be quirky. The other night, for some reason, it stopped taking input. I don't know why. After a few minutes, I hit something with the Pencil and it was up again.

So far I have liked Notability. Being able to write a full page hand written is nice for my work. Having to select the text to convert after isnt ideal.

Obsidian seems to have the most features, but it converts text too fast. I wish I could just write hand written notes and have it format to text after. Maybe this is possible and I haven't figured it out yet.

Southpaw 07 said:

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I use GoodNotes for work and personal notes on my iPad. Searchable handwriting is a must for me and OneNote doesn't do handwriting recognition on any iOS device.

Another advantage of goodnotes is it's a one-time purchase vs. monthly subscription.

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Oh man, totally forgot about that feature. Yes that is very nice, and it works VERY well, even for my sloppy cursive.

If you are willing to consider another device consider a reMarkable 2. Its just a writing tablet, that's it which is what I love about it. I can leave the computer and phone in the other room and have a phone call or write notes prepping for a meeting or during one without bings and dings and rings. It comes with desktop and mobile apps it syncs to, can sync to their cloud or others like Google Drive, One Drive and one other I forget the name of, all pages are PDF and you can email docs from the device. You can also load PDF on it.

I'm a fractional Controller with a lot of clients so I have folders for each client, another level of folders for those clients with multiple businesses, then one or more notepads in each of those folders. I can go from one client talking about their financials to the next client talking about theirs with no paper and I can write on the PDF I loaded so if there are things I need to make changes to after the meeting it's written right on the page that needs changing.

It's the best device I've ever used for note taking.

I have been eyeing the **** out of a reMarkable 2 for some time now. Looks amazing but I am having that same problem as so many others it appears like. That damn cost. Though everyone that has one seems to love it.

If I had nothing I would have snatched it up already but I DO have an iPad already which makes it really hard for me to justify the expense.

Though I did just see recently they have a money back try out period….

A) I'm not sure about the data access stuff - I don't use it for law.

B) I've become a fan of Moleskine's smart notebook.

It's definitely still a beta product - and it's a pain to organize - and the Lamy/Neo version may be better for far less money - but it does a decent job of converting my handwriting to text, and a very good job of capturing the images of my writing. (Having the paper back up to refer to is something I like).

Anything really vital, is still paper and pen only, but I am a bit paranoid.

Ideally, I'd probably set up some kind of binder with Neo paper, and have my PA transcribe the notes/organize them.

TNotes - very clean, free, no ads

I liked Bear quite a bit, and then discovered the copy and paste from Gmail was trash

Redstone said:

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TNotes - very clean, free, no ads

I liked Bear quite a bit, and then discovered the copy and paste from Gmail was trash

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Gmail is utter trash all around and any way you look at it.

I will be switching our company away from it ASAP.

+1 for Notability. It's the app that retired my physical Moleskines. Searchable native handwritten notes is the must have feature. I downloaded Goodnotes on release and wasn't overly impressed but perhaps I need to look again.

As for the remarkable, I've seen and used one in person and it's a fantastic device but until they get a good multi-platform syncing app and searchable handwritten notes without conversion I will hold off.