For consulting work, my optimal paper Notebook set up consists of:
- a paper Notebook
- stickies
- small coloured stickes used as flexible tabs for the Notebook
- 2 or 3 pens (different colours, at least red and blue or black)
- 1, 2 or 3 text markers (at least 1, which usually suffices)
- relevant clippings for the subject I am working on (+paperclips...)
A sticky can be moved across pages and therefore also across sections. Ditto for coloured stickies.
To make things clear from the start: none of the Notebook-type apps that I have looked at can actually fully replace my paper Notebook set up. I have actualy tried over 25 apps that support notetaking, whiteboarding or similar activities, and I have looked at dozens more.
Do you want to type or write or both?
I have tried writing with the excellent Griffin stylus that I use (all the cheap ones were useless unfortunately) but I am no good at that, so Notetaking apps that don't support typing are not for me. Beware, there are many of those...
You really need some sort of syncing and/or backup facility and just via iTunes is not good enough
Ideally, the perfect multimedia Notebook on the iPad can pick up a Note from Evernote, Dropbox, Box.net or Googledocs and save there as well. Quite a lot of the apps are relying on iTunes syncing alone. Beware! Omicronnotes for example is very promising in terms of functionality and UI, but the lack of support for Dropbox and/or Evernote makes it a no go for me (for the time being, but there response to my request is not a good sign).
For my daily practise, I need some sort of freehand drawing facility. From my experience with iPad apps so far, it is easiest if the drawings are actually objects that can be combined and manipulated (move, resize, delete). I f drawings are not objects, you will need an eraser. Many notetakingaps do not support free hand drawing.
Overall, Whitenote, Sundry notes, Omicronnotes and Notify are promising, and in terms of functionality, Smartnote is as well. The latter may well have the most functionality, but I find it so awkward to use, that in fact I don't use it at all, although I have tried several times.
Of the ones mentioned, Whitenote is the Notetaking app that I actually use all the time. I combine Whitenote with iAnnotate (for marking text in pdf's) and Whiteboard HD. The boards from Whiteboard HD are actually used as large stickies, that I can wriite and draw on. It also lets you resize a picture to something really small, whereas in Whitenote and Omicronnotes for instance, you just can't get beyond a fairly large size picture.
About all the Notetaking apps that promote a "clutterfree" environment, usually meaning that you can only type and that's it: I use Evernote and Fastever XL for that, no need for a seperate app for that limited functionality.
Manuscript and Notebooks deserve a special mention. I actually started using manuscript for my writing project. It's focus on writing a manuscript is appealing and initially worked quite well. However, you cannot categorize the indexcards and there are no hierarchy levels, which makes it unsuitable to my (non-fiction) project with a tremendous amount of materials to keep close in an organized fashion. It may work well, when you are writing a novel.
I switched to Evernote, which is so far the leading app for organizing your notes and other writings, and you can type in it as well... Notebooks however, does have some advantages for pure writing. I find the hierarchy levels appealing (I solve this in Evernote with 1 hierarchy level (folders), tags and naming conventions. The possibility to import from iWork or Office can also be appealing to some.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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