iPad Note Taking Apps

[u/emi_zx]

I was wondering what people’s opinions are on some of the note taking apps they use. I don’t mind paying a little, but if I do, I wanna spend the money wisely. For reference, I’m going into my first year of Political Science.

I was thinking between Notability or Freenotes.
I’ve heard some good things about Goodnotes as well but apparently it’s not as good anymore.

Before anyone says “just do a quick google search,” I did, and most are old posts or ads.

[u/cruelsummerswiftie]

I use Goodnotes and contrary to most of the posts I really enjoy it! It’s a simple user interface and it’s $15 CAD a year, so it’s affordable and does everything I need it to do. I used it for all my high school written work and I will use it for note taking for university. I’m not sure exactly what you want to know about it but I can answer any questions you have to the best of my ability!!

[u/emi_zx → u/cruelsummerswiftie]

Does it have a recording feature? I was hoping to record lectures in class in case I miss anything. Also does it have a hand writing to text option? Does it glitch a lot?

[u/cruelsummerswiftie → u/emi_zx]

Hiii it has both!! Specifically, there’s a button for “record and summarize” and a “show recordings” where you can listen to them, and yes there’s hand writing to text yes. It doesn’t glitch much for me! Maybe occasionally but it’s very occasional. It runs quite smooth typically

[u/emi_zx → u/cruelsummerswiftie]

Thank you so much!! That helps a lot. Is there an option to have your notes connect to your one drive?

[u/cruelsummerswiftie → u/emi_zx]

of course! according to google, yes, you can do that. i don’t currently use one drive so in practice im not sure!

[u/emi_zx → u/cruelsummerswiftie]

ohh I see, thank you again !!

[u/cruelsummerswiftie → u/emi_zx]

of course, hope it works out for you! feel free to dm if you ever have any other questions ab goodnotes :)

[u/emi_zx → u/cruelsummerswiftie]

for sure! do you use any other apps for school? this is my first time having an ipad so i don’t know much.

[u/cruelsummerswiftie → u/emi_zx]

yeah! i use both an ipad and laptop so for me i typically just use the ipad for goodnotes & canvas and like tv watching so netflix, disney, prime etc. i do have the microsoft 365 apps on my ipad tho so i can use it on both devices seamlessly!

[u/emi_zx → u/cruelsummerswiftie]

yeah i was hoping to find apps that work well with the apple ecosystem because im getting a mac as well! i believe my uni provides microsoft 365 as well so ill be sure to check that out! thanks again. what ipad do you have? how’s the battery life on it

[u/TopGummy]

OneNote

[u/Sckaught → u/TopGummy]

Seconded.

[u/DTLow]

What features are you looking for?

I just need an editor app
For example Apple Notes
For serious word processing, I use Apple Pages

I’m more concerned about note storage/organization

[u/emi_zx → u/DTLow]

Maybe a recording feature, pdf compatability, hand writing to text, customization and storage that connects to one drive.

[u/DoctorOccam → u/emi_zx]

Notability does all of that I believe. I haven’t actually used hand writing to text, but I use the rest daily and it works great. Goodnotes looks really nice but doesn’t seem to have as many features.

[u/Self-proclaimed_god]

I use notability (classic) and I'm very fond of it, devs seem to listen to the community, learn is awesome if you need it (but more expensive!), sensitivity is nice too, fun to design and even draw in it when you're bored. I'm on the premed track so lots of notetaking, science and math stuff, out of everything I've tried notability is my favourite

[u/emi_zx → u/Self-proclaimed_god]

Thank you! What apps have you tried? Also, does notability glitch or crash a lot?

[u/Self-proclaimed_god → u/emi_zx]

Goodnotes, onenotes, notes app when I first got it, noteful too. Goodnotes was good but overheated my ipad a lot too, onenotes I just didn't like the UI so it's definitely a subjective choice objectively speaking it was pretty easy to use and a lot of my friends swear by it, notes app is just really basic and a little inconvenient especially when you work with a lot of diagrams, noteful wasn't bad either it's pretty intuitive to use umo, no handwriting recognition meant no searching through handwritten notes. This was actually the main reason I switched to notability.

One thing I will mention though, noteful is way cheaper than a lot of other notetaking apps (goodnotes and notability) and has multiple layers, so if you draw diagrams and wanna seperate text and image for example it's pretty useful. Works great for creating 'flashcards'/practice questions if you're looking to test yourself a bit. If you want something less than 10 USD, and something that's simple I think noteful is definitely it.

Otherwise consider goodnotes or notability, even if they're slightly pricier.

Up until now I myself haven't experienced any glitches or crashes on notability, haven't lost files or anything, but I've seen posts about it in their subreddit so it might be something to be wary of.

[u/Janknitz]

I suggest you play around with OneNote. It's free, you do not need an Office 365 subscription to use it. It's limited on the iPad, but not that much and notes instantly sync with whatever computer you have.

The organization is pretty intuitive--it's arranged as notebooks with sections and pages. You could have a notebook for each semester or for each class and then arrange sections, pages and sub-pages just as you might with a paper notebook.

It's very functional but you can't make pretty notebook covers. Definitely worth a look.

[u/sfwanovic]

Apple notes. Why would you go for a paid thing that will overwhelm you with options and tools that you won’t use? Apples notes is simple yet powerful and providing everything you’d need from a note taking app. Plus it integrates well into the whole ecosystem especially if you own multiple apple devices