Notes app with good Evernote integration

[white_wolf 4]

Recently I have started using iPad for my studies. Evernote don't support handwritten notes so I am looking to buy a note-taking app from Apple store. The most famous ones are Notability and Goodnotes. Can someone tell which provides better integration with Evernote or is there any other good app? Evernote is still my primary notes taking app due to its cross platform support.

[DTLow 5,749]

I use the Notability app with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

No Evernote integration but I use the IOS share menu to send the document to Evernote
I use .pdf format; plus .note format if there's audio
The original note remains in Notability.  I delete them eventually.

[white_wolf 4]

6 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I use the Notability app with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

No Evernote integration but I use the IOS share menu to send the document to Evernote
I use .pdf format; plus .note format if there's audio
The original note remains in Notability.  I delete them eventually.

How is goodnotes? Since it's cheaper than notability.

[DTLow 5,749]

54 minutes ago, white_wolf said:

How is goodnotes? Since it's cheaper than notability.

Sorry, I'm not a GoodNotes user. 

Point for Notability - Audio playback is sync'd to the note contents

It's a one time expense; I wouldn't be too concerned about the cost.

This review might help

 

[white_wolf 4]

12 hours ago, DTLow said:

Sorry, I'm not a GoodNotes user. 

Point for Notability - Audio playback is sync'd to the note contents

It's a one time expense; I wouldn't be too concerned about the cost.

This review might help

 

Thanks, I watched the video. Audio sync of notability is not  required for me. Liked few points about Goodnotes like erasing small portions only, highlighting is better, shape drawing is better. But doesn't provide vertical scrolling and there is no news on GoodNotes 5 yet.

[stocky2605 402]

Note Shelf 2 - esp. the auto Evernote sync is nice

[PinkElephant 9,003]

Goodnotes 5 (started with GN4, and upgraded early this year).

No EN sync available, but I like the design, the handling and the very good search in the handwritten notes.

It is possible to send pages (pick some of them and put them in one file) as pdf to EN to file it there.

From my experience when picking an app, it is worth testing the preselected top 3 (even if it means paying) and find the one that you like. All the tests and stuff in YouTube / blogs will not tell you whether you really like it or not. And it is better to stick with one app, than hopping from one to the other. Switching apps will end in a maze of „with which app did I take this note / lesson / content / .... ? “. Hint: If you pick one of the front runners, you have a good chance it will still be there in 3, 5 or even 10 years.

I have decided to go with EN and Goodnotes, and this is it. Others have decided for other products, for good reason as well. Just go and find out.

[dudeman313 21]

Depends on what I am doing.

If I am handwriting notes:  Notability. 

if I want to convert handwriting to text: Nebo

if I am mostly drawing or sketching: Paper 53

[miletran168 0]

Iphone 7plus of me is broken.:(.

[Sayre Ambrosio 525]

On 11/3/2018 at 12:06 PM, white_wolf said:

Recently I have started using iPad for my studies. Evernote don't support handwritten notes so I am looking to buy a note-taking app from Apple store. The most famous ones are Notability and Goodnotes. Can someone tell which provides better integration with Evernote or is there any other good app? Evernote is still my primary notes taking app due to its cross platform support.

If you are looking for something cheap since it's just going to end up in Evernote anyway, try Apple Notes. I have purchased Notability, GoodNotes, and a few others and end up right back in Apple Notes for stuff that I write out longhand. 

[dgadoury 2]

QQ on this thread - I see that Notiability -> PDF as an option to get it into Evernote.  Isn't it true that Evernote doesn't index handwriting in PDF documents, thus making it less than ideal?  Thanks!

[DTLow 5,749]

45 minutes ago, dgadoury said:

Isn't it true that Evernote doesn't index handwriting in PDF documents

Good  point.  Evernote has an OCR function, but for handwriting it only runs on images

A work-around is to store your handwritten notes as images instead of pdf

[BrightHomesRE 31]

Thanks for the OCR reminder @DTLow  

I am on a search for a digital journal.  GoodNotes is my choice at the moment.

[DTLow 5,749]

9 hours ago, SVHOODS said:

I am on a search for a digital journal.  GoodNotes is my choice at the moment.

My daily journal is stored as Evernote notes.  

It's mostly typed using the Evernote editor, with imports/links for various sources

I can see using GoodNotes for handwritten parts,  imported into Evernote

[PinkElephant 9,003]

For me, it is still GoodNotes 5.

The notes stay in there as long as they are „work in progress“, export to EN when closed and of future use. 

GN5 has a strong handwriting recognition and offers a search function (if needed) in all notebooks for text. Text can be selected and converted into computer text as well, which works incredibly well with my ***** handwriting.

The pdfs exported into EN are fully searchable as well (if this feature is enabled on export), the handwritten text will be found. Just takes 2 steps on my iPad , first search the note with the pdf, open it, then search for the text inside of the pdf. The handwritten match(es) found will be highlighted.

One-time-purchase, good support, new features added permanently. Syncs only into iCloud, this works well over i-devices. Backups can be done to other Cloud-Services as well.

[BrightHomesRE 31]

18 hours ago, DTLow said:

My daily journal is stored as Evernote notes.  

It's mostly typed using the Evernote editor, with imports/links for various sources

I can see using GoodNotes for handwritten parts,  imported into Evernote

My task list and 'life' is in Evernote.  I like the handwritten note when in a meeting and have been using Rocketbook then snapping everything into EN.  My goal is to be paperless.  

And my summer projects are cleaning up my EN after nearly a decade of use.

[BrightHomesRE 31]

11 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

For me, it is still GoodNotes 5.

The notes stay in there as long as they are „work in progress“, export to EN when closed and of future use. 

GN5 has a strong handwriting recognition and offers a search function (if needed) in all notebooks for text. Text can be selected and converted into computer text as well, which works incredibly well with my ***** handwriting.

The pdfs exported into EN are fully searchable as well (if this feature is enabled on export), the handwritten text will be found. Just takes 2 steps on my iPad , first search the note with the pdf, open it, then search for the text inside of the pdf. The handwritten match(es) found will be highlighted.

One-time-purchase, good support, new features added permanently. Syncs only into iCloud, this works well over i-devices. Backups can be done to other Cloud-Services as well.

Thanks @PinkElephant for your plug on GN5.  I am using v4 and was wondering about the differences.  I will check it out this weekend.

[PinkElephant 9,003]

It’s worth it. A tool for conversion is included. Both versions can be used in parallel.

[possertive 5]

Bought goodnotes 5.

I'm hoping EN will move into the hand taken notes arena too.

Though at the moment, it might be a good thing that there're 2 separate app so I can use one for work and keep the other for personal stuffs.

[DTLow 5,749]

19 minutes ago, possertive said:

I'm hoping EN will move into the hand taken notes arena too.

Evernote purchased the Penultimate app, and implemented a sketch/handwriting feature

I use the Notability app.  I'm satisfied using  external handwriting apps.    
I store the documents in Evernote as note attachments

[Pictor 5]

On 7/1/2019 at 9:03 PM, dgadoury said:

QQ on this thread - I see that Notiability -> PDF as an option to get it into Evernote.  Isn't it true that Evernote doesn't index handwriting in PDF documents, thus making it less than ideal?  Thanks!

Yes, I’ve read the same, so it’s paramount to use PNGs instead.

I still have to find an app that syncs to Evernote and that DOES NOT block the note Evernote dose as “view only”. Really a pity.

 Also it would be really important to allow editing the images from this app; by only “sharing” a sketch to Evernote is going to always create a new note, rather than editing the existing one. It’s also a not sustainable pity

[Pictor 5]

On 3/22/2019 at 7:12 PM, Sayre Ambrosio said:

If you are looking for something cheap since it's just going to end up in Evernote anyway, try Apple Notes. I have purchased Notability, GoodNotes, and a few others and end up right back in Apple Notes for stuff that I write out longhand. 

I’ve got to a point where all those handwritten images in Apple Notes take a big portion of my iPad space….

 And when the space finishes, Apple Notes doesn’t tell you anything, lets you keep editing… until it just crashes when trying to save and loses all the changes done! ( I’ve lost almost 1 hour of drawings and notes, when this happens; and it’s gaining more and more as the free disk space diminishes).

 It’s all synced to iCloud…. but it’s useless because it doesn’t spare space on the device. 1TB on cloud but not in my device makes the additional space useless because it SYNCS instead of BACKUPping or OFFLOADING (keep only on Cloud, download in demand).

 Also, there’s no way to keep the Apple Notes over OneDrive, that would support off-load; only iCloud is supported.

 Otherwise Apple Notes would be the easiest, faster loading, most stable and bug free app of Al the other options.

 

 So frustrating…

[PinkElephant 9,003]

Probably you should take another approach at managing the iPad memory. This of course depends on the available total space.

Keep always 10 GB available, and drop whatever app you can spare. You can move them off device, while keeping the data on the iCloud.

When updating iOS to the next full release, you need more space. Unwrapping the update and running it uses up to 15GB.

No idea with Apple Notes. EN allows to decide specifically which notes or notebooks to save on device, the rest is kept in the cloud, with basic data available for all notes. The relation between full size and „only basic data on device“ is 100:1, roughly.