taking notes using a graphic table

Hi everybody

my question is similar to apontnac's, in this thread, although I'm interested in optimizing note-taking, rather than in handwriting recognition.

Currently I write my notes using pencil and paper, and scan them when I'm happy enough about them.

Taking them directly in electronic format would save me a step and perhaps also spare some trees, on the long run.
I realize that a tablet pc is probably the best choice, because it provides the closest experience to actually writing on paper, I guess (never tried one).

I'm not sure I can afford a tablet pc right now, so I'm considering a graphic tablet or similar devices. A graphic tablet would make note-taking a bit weird, because what I'm writing does not appear under the pen tip but on the pc screen. However a friend of mine says one gets used to it relatively fast.

I've got hold of a wacom tablet once, and did some experimenting.
My impression is that the software coming with the tablet is too "drawing-oriented", and not particularly adapted to taking notes. When writing "fast" (not exceedingly fast, though), I noticed that some "strokes" were lost, like when a pen is running out of ink. I had the tablet just for an afternoon, so I perhaps was not able to find the correct setup for writing, after all.

So I'm asking a few question to people using graphic tablets for taking notes, if any.

Would you really recommend using a graphic tablet for taking notes? Any drawback?

What kind of software do you use?

Have you managed to find handwriting-optimized settings?

Is there a software allowing you to write like on subsequent pages of a notebook, or do you have to save each sheet singularly?

What's the best fileformat for saving your notes? I'd say pdf, for sharing purposes, but I'm afraid one should buy some expensive adobe software for that.

As I said I'm not particularly interested in handwriting recognition. This is partly because I think my handwriting is pretty much unrecognizable, and partly to the fact that I'd write many equations. For some reason I assume that handwriting recognition does not really recognize math and would try to recognize it as text, generating a mess. Perhaps I'm wrong abut this. It's an interesting problem, though.

A final set of questions about a different device. I have found many "digital notepad" gadgets online (stuff like this), but not much information about them. They appear to be specifically devised for note taking, and seem to have interesting features. However, they dangerously look like lemons to me.

I like the fact that one is actually writing on paper (so much for saving trees...). On the other hand it is not clear to me how to accomplish something that is done relatively easily with a graphic tablet, i.e. deleting something you have jotted down and you do not really like.
Also, I am under the impression that, at least in some models, the pen works with some "electronic ink" which is apparently different from common ink, so that one has to buy ink refills as well.

Has any of you any experience with this kind of gadgets? Do they work for you?

Thanks a lot for any advice

F

 

Not sure I can help you on WHICH tablet to get, but if you have Microsoft OneNote (Comes as part of Office 2007 Student) it's pretty much perfect for writing your notes. A friend of mine has a tablet and uses onenote to keep all his class notes well organized.

 

Thanks for replying, Anomaly10.
I'm not sure of what you mean by tablet here. Do you mean a tablet pc or
a graphic tablet hooked to a laptop?

Anyway your point is about software, right?
You say that OneNote seems to be a good software for taking notes. Duly noted! I'll give it another try as soon as I get hold of a graphic tablet.

I had OneNote on my old laptop, it came for free in the software bundle.
I remember uninstalling it because it looked useless. I'm almost sure I have
re-installed it during my experiments with my friend's graphic tablet.
However, I do not recall a particularly striking performance.
Might be because I had only a few hours for experimenting, and I tried
a lot of software in the process.

Thanks again

F

PS Do you by chance know whether OneNote has a native format for recording notes?
I mean: does one need OneNote for reading your OneNote notes? Or is it possible to
save them in an easily shared formad, such as pdf?

 

I use a Tablet PC, so I can't comment on how it is to write on a tablet and look somewhere else to view what I write But I also think that you will get used to it, artists are also able to draw this way. Still a tablet PC would be the better choice, especially because you don't have to carry a notebook and tablet around with you, only a Tablet PC.

Regarding note taking software. OneNote is the standard note taking software. It's quite senseless to use if you can't write with the pen.
The problem with OneNote is that it has a few annoying bugs and creates awful print-outs and thus you can't share your notes easily. You'll have to print or convert it to PDF files, whereas, as already said, it will look awful.
You can chose between different paper sizes. A normal sheet of paper with customizable sizes or an endless page. If you take the pages with a fixed size then navigating is a bit awkward. If you take the endless page and print it out then it cuts the notes at some page breaks and it's difficult to keep the proper width. Just try it, write a few pages, and you'll see what I mean.

If you want to share your notes with others who don't have OneNote you could take a look at Windows Journal. It's similar to OneNote, has less organizational features but produces better print outs.

And last but not least you can keep everything as PDF from the beginning on and use a PDF annotating program like Bluebeam PDF Revu (they have student discounts (30USD)). That's the program I use at the moment. This way I can keep everything in the common PDF format and it also gives me more features and has less bugs than One Note.

Just visit TabletPCReview.com, there you will find more about note taking software.


Handwriting recognition:
You said you want to write something mathematical. Well, then you don't have to care about handwriting recognition, because it does not recognize mathematical equations, greek alphabet or other mathematical expressions in flow text.

 

I'm sure you're right. It's just a budget problem for me.
Probably the next laptop I'll buy will be a tablet. But since I've bought
mine just a few months ago, I think some time will pass before I'll buy
the next one.

I agree again. That's the reason I uninstalled it in the first place.

I have to say I am not surprised to hear about bugs in OneNote.

This is definitely interesting. I'll look into that.

Yes, I imagined that. That's why I was not particularly interested in
handwriting recognition. What I'd like to have is some system for writing and
organizing my notes efficiently. This means better quality (and less time)
as compared to scanning paper notes. Also an efficient storage system.
The product you suggest above seems interesting.

Thanks a lot

F