All iPads Can you recommend an iPad for me? Note-taking in Excel

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I'm looking to buy an iPad for my job (personal trainer at a gym), where I frequently make notes.

To date, I've printed a programme card and made hand-written notes on printed paper for every session. So as you can imagine, not only do I got through a lot of paper, but it mostly gets wasted as I retype all this data onto my Mac! Speaking of which, I do already own a 14" MacBook Pro, but it's not practical to carry it around and make notes during a session.

Almost all my data is stored in Excel, and this is also where I design and print my programmes.

I'm looking to progress from this by purchasing an iPad that I can take to sessions. I already have an Apple Pencil USB-C (an impulse purchase, it was only £60), so my goal is to use this to 'scribble' numbers and text into my Excel documents on an iPad.

So I have two questions...

1) Can you actually make handwritten notes in Excel that get converted to normal data? (i.e. if I handwrote a number in a cell, would it then turn into normal data?)

2) Are there any drawbacks to considering the entry-level iPad over the Air? It's a lot cheaper.

(I have considered the Mini, but I think it's overpriced)

Many thanks in advance

 

[gupe]

...So I have two questions...

1) Can you actually make handwritten notes in Excel that get converted to normal data? (i.e. if I handwrote a number in a cell, would it then turn into normal data?)

2) Are there any drawbacks to considering the entry-level iPad over the Air? It's a lot cheaper.

(I have considered the Mini, but I think it's overpriced)

Many thanks in advance ....

1. I just downloaded the latest version of Excel on my iPad Mini 7. It appears like Microsoft has a suite of stylus focused features. There is both a 'ink pen' that allows for notes to be written on top of the sheet, then a 'ink to text pen' that will do it's best to shove what you write with the pen into the cell you started writing in.

2. Probably not if this is your only use case for it. The base iPad should serve you well enough.

I will say - considering the act of writing using a stylus may become part of your everyday work flow, you may want to try out a base iPad+Pencil combo vs iPad Air/Mini/Pro+pencil.

The base model iPads have continued to use non-laminated display - which, in my opinion, hampers the writing experience - to the point where I would not consider the base model iPad. I would rather get a used laminated display device than a new base model iPad.

 

[1BadManVan]

Plenty of people use an Apple Pencil happily on a base model iPad. Some people just like the nitpick the non laminated display, but honestly for note taking it’s really not a big deal. I would definitely recommend going with the base model for note taking, you definitely don’t need anything more powerful for your use case. If you’re buying direct from apple, they have a no questions asked return policy if you do decide you want to step up to a different model in 2 weeks