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All iPads Notability or GoodNotes 5?
- Thread starter HALE101
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I’ve been using Notability for the last year or so and have really enjoyed my experience with it. Really like that i can sync and access my notes between. iPhone, iPad and Mac. You are also able to have multiple notes up at the same time which makes reviewing class/work notes a lot easier.
I have heard a lot of good things about GoodNotes as well.
I have heard a lot of good things about GoodNotes as well.
It may not be a big factor for you, but GoodNotes is now a universal app, so if you buy the Mac version you get iOS/iPadOS for free, and vice versa.
Thanks much for the heads-up. When I last checked they didn’t have a current Mac app, so this is great news.
Notability for me. The big selling point for me is the ability to audibly record a meeting and to be then able to play it back and see what I was writing with the pencil at the time (invaluable for the "what the &$#% did I just write there?" moments....
It's not even a comparison to me. Notablity's ability to record and it being able to sync it up with what you write/type blows goodnotes out of the water. It's absolutely excellent for lectures and meetings.
I owe much of my /GOOD/ undergrad gpa to notability! lol
I owe much of my /GOOD/ undergrad gpa to notability! lol
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Really? This is the first time I am learning about this. It’s awesome that it is. I’m going to go download it right now.
Definitely Notability. It certainly feels superior to GoodNotes 5 when you use it for a while.
Notability is an app that would be worth it at triple the price...easily. Just fantastic. And nothing I’ve used on the Ipad comes close to the feeling of natural ink flow when using the Pencil. No annoying autocorrect algorithms to my writing that Apples own apps do and mess up my handwriting. The audio, text handling, sync features, constant updates and feature improvements.
Bottom line, its just a plain joy to use and makes me smile at the brilliant software it is. Nothing against GoodNotes, as I have friends that swear by it. But once I got Notablitiy, I know it would be the endall for all my note-taking and annotating needs.
Bottom line, its just a plain joy to use and makes me smile at the brilliant software it is. Nothing against GoodNotes, as I have friends that swear by it. But once I got Notablitiy, I know it would be the endall for all my note-taking and annotating needs.
Here another vote for Notability - I have both as well, but I end up using Notability 95% of the time. The handwriting to text feature is also great, and as previously mentioned, recording while writing is awesome (and is great if you are working on several projects / topics at the same time!).
I have both. I first started with GoodNotes and then I introduced Notability into my workflow.
I do not use the the audio recording option as this is kind of merky anyway. You should always ask for permission to record someone like that.
That being said I use GoodNotes when I need notes in a traditional notebook format. For example I had some training and it was quite useful to take my notes there. Highlighting is a bit better in GoodNotes. In Notability the color is rather pale and you need to repeat it few times. In GoodNotes it stands out more.
GoodNotes is my preferable choice when it comes to using templates. I find it easier to copy and paste pages in GoodNotes than in Notability. Also Notability has rather annoying bug. As part of my research I like to send articles to note taking app (like goodnotes or notability). Well quite often this fails and I end up with like 30 - 40 empty pages that I have to delete one by one. It once happened with 100 pages PDF file. I was so happy (read my sarcasm). GoodNotes is more reliable in this case and it offers better overview where I can select multiple pages and delete them.
Also once you pay for GoodNotes you get all features. For Notability you will still have to pay for additional stuff. For example OCR.
I use Notability when I want to do brainstorming as sometimes I feel restricted in GoodNotes due to the pure notebook layout. I like the free canvas and the fact that I can write wherever I want. It is useful sometimes. I am rather weird and like to gather all of my thoughts at glance (the full screen on the device) and would put my thoughts in different colors all around the page. This helps me to gather my thoughts as I have rather good visual memory. For this Notability is definitely better.
I do not use the the audio recording option as this is kind of merky anyway. You should always ask for permission to record someone like that.
That being said I use GoodNotes when I need notes in a traditional notebook format. For example I had some training and it was quite useful to take my notes there. Highlighting is a bit better in GoodNotes. In Notability the color is rather pale and you need to repeat it few times. In GoodNotes it stands out more.
GoodNotes is my preferable choice when it comes to using templates. I find it easier to copy and paste pages in GoodNotes than in Notability. Also Notability has rather annoying bug. As part of my research I like to send articles to note taking app (like goodnotes or notability). Well quite often this fails and I end up with like 30 - 40 empty pages that I have to delete one by one. It once happened with 100 pages PDF file. I was so happy (read my sarcasm). GoodNotes is more reliable in this case and it offers better overview where I can select multiple pages and delete them.
Also once you pay for GoodNotes you get all features. For Notability you will still have to pay for additional stuff. For example OCR.
I use Notability when I want to do brainstorming as sometimes I feel restricted in GoodNotes due to the pure notebook layout. I like the free canvas and the fact that I can write wherever I want. It is useful sometimes. I am rather weird and like to gather all of my thoughts at glance (the full screen on the device) and would put my thoughts in different colors all around the page. This helps me to gather my thoughts as I have rather good visual memory. For this Notability is definitely better.
Notability here. Just feels so much closer to paper and pen for me. The ability to record audio from class while I write has really helped as well. Same for meeting notes. Biggest reason why I stay with notability is the feel of the writing - so much more realistic for me. This is a must especially when brainstorming. Love the backup to OneDrive as pdf.
I absolutely love OneNote - I use it for work and personal notes. But the Apple Pencil feel in it is not as good as either Good Notes or Notability for me - but I use OneNote a LOT - all throughout the day to record meetings, work logs, and it's my personal notebook.
OneNote with Notability's Apple Pencil feel would be perfection.
I absolutely love OneNote - I use it for work and personal notes. But the Apple Pencil feel in it is not as good as either Good Notes or Notability for me - but I use OneNote a LOT - all throughout the day to record meetings, work logs, and it's my personal notebook.
OneNote with Notability's Apple Pencil feel would be perfection.
I kind of agree. I love OneNote but for typing, not for Apple pencil usage. I feel like OneNote has more lag when it comes to the pencil compared to GoodNotes and Notability and plus the UI does not fit IMO. Too many options. That being said I do use OneNote for meeting reports, brainstorming, team organization and coordination as I share things with my team a lot.
I use Goodnotes and Notability for brainstorming stuff that need polishing before being moved to OneNote for sharing with the team.
Another vote here for Notability. I use it for graduate school, and one of the main reasons I got it was because of the audio record feature which I used when I used to attend classes on-campus (pre-pandemic). Even now that classes are all online, I still enjoy using it tremendously.
i bought both for my engineering undergrad courses, notability allows a vertical flow, meaning you continue your notes up and down, which is much preferred when you have these calculus physics equations that spans 2 pages long. while goodnotes has the traditional book layout where continuation is side to side like a regular sketch book. at least thats the case since i last used it.
I use Notability more for typing etc but when it comes to me taking notes using the apple pencil, I tend to go with GoodNotes but by reading a lot of these comments I may have to give notability a shot with that as well.
humble brag...
haha i fixed it ; )
That being said, i wouldn't use notability for big pdf files like... 300+page textbooks and stuff. For those, i use PDF expert.
I tried using PDF Expert on a not very big PDF and it lost all the notes I made in the document so I haven’t used it since. I don’t remember what the document was, I just remember that I lost a considerable set of notes. Heck, I think it wouldn’t even display all the printed pages. Whatever the problem was, it was a fiasco. I should probably try it again, I see a lot of great reviews, but once burned, I’m very wary of trying it again.
yeah honestly, with iOS13, both of these apps are kinda glitchy now. I've lost a ton of recordings and corrupted a few notes since upgrading to iOS13. It's always the sig kill 0x8badf00d crash for a ton of apps on my Air 2 - even with a clean install. These crashes of course all go away with an ipad pro 2018 or even a regular ipad with the same 2gb RAM.
I am thinking of taking my 2011 iPad 2 with iOS 8.4 into meetings now