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please anyone suggest a new note-taking app?


Tonmaii

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After a few hours of
"terrible user-friendliness, no place to lay my hand while writing in the zoombox, slow response from stylus(jot script), occasionally jumpy & unresponsive stylus(rarely happen in older verion, zoom box warped to top of the pages."

I just can't take this anymore.

Would anyone kindly suggest another or few apps for note-taking? I think this is the best response to the situation that, until now..

"we have a few-to-zero support from penultimate stuffs. 
We still have no response or promise to rollback or fix the current disaster.
I can't tolerate using this new-update anymore."

I even wonder if they read the forum anymore.

 

So far, i'm using "Goodnotes" bought for 4.99$. It's very good so far, the user interface is easy, very responsive and accurate with jot script stylus. It wrothes all the bucks i paid.
 

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I downloaded Noteshelf. It's OK. It doesn't have auto-scroll, which was one of my favourite Penultimate features, and my handwriting doesn't seem quite as legible as it was in Penultimate 5. It does, however, have Evernote integration (for a fee).

 

Overall, I don't like it as much as Penultimate 5, but I like it a heck of a lot more than Penultimate 6.0. I plan to give it a try over the next few days.

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GoodNotes is perfect: workshop seamlessly with The evernote jot script, has smooth handleiding beter that penultimate, page thumbnails, Good writing magnifying box, experts to many other programmes. Also exports to Evernote. This is how penultimate should have been And ot bloes penultimate waar.

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I used to use noteshelf before but its response to jot script was kinda poor. There was a split second delay from time to time, resulting in skipping a stroke or two occasionally, must a resource managing problem. It was quite annoying so i moved to penultimates since it had perfect response to jot script stylus and it was connected to evernote. (Not anymore, duh)

I've just known that now noteshelf has evernote integration. Must be a new update, i might give it a try.

Atm im enjoying using goodnotes. It handles my jot script almost perfectly. My high strokes like t, l, h are skipped occasionally when i write fast. Bare in mind that it can probably be my hand positioning. (I doubt it though)

I've just known from @olaf1965 that it can export to evernote, so atm it's the best note-taking app for me. If anyone can spare 5$, i suggest you give it a try.

____

Penultimates may say their staffs are working really hard to fix the app, but it is not an excuse for poor customer relationship. Without any official response, the customers' frustration is a real pain and can be a major cause for leaving long-term customers.

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I downloaded Noteshelf. It's OK. It doesn't have auto-scroll, which was one of my favourite Penultimate features, and my handwriting doesn't seem quite as legible as it was in Penultimate 5. It does, however, have Evernote integration (for a fee).

 

Overall, I don't like it as much as Penultimate 5, but I like it a heck of a lot more than Penultimate 6.0. I plan to give it a try over the next few days.

Would appreciate your follow-up on this as I, and apparently hundreds (thousands?) are in a similar boat and would appreciate hearing if Noteshelf (and other apps with direct Evernote sync capabilities) is a viable substitute to the abomination that is Penultimate 6. Thanks.

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GoodNotes is perfect: workshop seamlessly with The evernote jot script, has smooth handleiding beter that penultimate, page thumbnails, Good writing magnifying box, experts to many other programmes. Also exports to Evernote. This is how penultimate should have been And ot bloes penultimate waar.

 

Is the GoodNotes export to Evernote direct (as it is with Noteshelf) or are there intermediate steps required? Is there a fee for such integration (as Noteshelf charges)?

 

Thanks.

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Notability works -- it's always been my second choice after Penultimate 5. Yeah, it doesn't have EXPLICIT Evernote integration, but you can "Open in..." Evernote and the result is a PDF note. One extra tap to choose Evernote from the app list, and another to choose your Evernote notebook isn't bad.

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Notability works -- it's always been my second choice after Penultimate 5. Yeah, it doesn't have EXPLICIT Evernote integration, but you can "Open in..." Evernote and the result is a PDF note. One extra tap to choose Evernote from the app list, and another to choose your Evernote notebook isn't bad.

 

Notability has that horrible split-screen zoom, though, doesn't it?

 

I've only looked through screen shots and videos of the various apps on the market, and the only one I've seen that does zoom “properly” (i.e. full-screen) seems to be Bamboo paper. The lack of a distinct and separate writing area is a large part of what made me choose Penultimate all those years ago, and I'd hate to go back to that.

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GoodNotes is perfect: workshop seamlessly with The evernote jot script, has smooth handleiding beter that penultimate, page thumbnails, Good writing magnifying box, experts to many other programmes. Also exports to Evernote. This is how penultimate should have been And ot bloes penultimate waar.

 

Is the GoodNotes export to Evernote direct (as it is with Noteshelf) or are there intermediate steps required? Is there a fee for such integration (as Noteshelf charges)?

 

Thanks.

 

It exports the notes as a pdf file attached to a note in Evernote. There is no syncing unfortunately.

 

 

Notability works -- it's always been my second choice after Penultimate 5. Yeah, it doesn't have EXPLICIT Evernote integration, but you can "Open in..." Evernote and the result is a PDF note. One extra tap to choose Evernote from the app list, and another to choose your Evernote notebook isn't bad.

 

Notability has that horrible split-screen zoom, though, doesn't it?

 

I've only looked through screen shots and videos of the various apps on the market, and the only one I've seen that does zoom “properly” (i.e. full-screen) seems to be Bamboo paper. The lack of a distinct and separate writing area is a large part of what made me choose Penultimate all those years ago, and I'd hate to go back to that.

 

Goodnotes has both zooming options though; zoombox, and full-screen zoom like penultimate.

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Notability has that horrible split-screen zoom, though, doesn't it?

 

 

 

 

I've only looked through screen shots and videos of the various apps on the market, and the only one I've seen that does zoom “properly” (i.e. full-screen) seems to be Bamboo paper. The lack of a distinct and separate writing area is a large part of what made me choose Penultimate all those years ago, and I'd hate to go back to that.

 

Goodnotes has both zooming options though; zoombox, and full-screen zoom like penultimate.

 

 

Ooh! Good to know. I don't know if I just didn't notice it or if they were focusing on zoombox because it looks fancier, but I'll definitely give that one a second look. It seemed very neat otherwise.

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I tried Note Taker HD for a while, didn't like the interface.  Too complicated.

Purchased Noteshelf after this debacle, but didn't like the zoom box.  Also, seemed like there was much less writing real estate available.. so I couldn't fit as much writing per page.

 

Before using Penultimate, I was using Bamboo Paper.  So far, that's the best alternative for me.. most comparable to the proper Penultimate experience.  If I hadn't been able to roll back Penultimate, I'd be using Bamboo Paper now.  Nevertheless, I'm keeping it available in the wings in case Evernote doesn't address the issues with Penultimate v6 in the longterm.

 

Although, I may try Goodnotes and see how that turns out too.

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Notability works -- it's always been my second choice after Penultimate 5. Yeah, it doesn't have EXPLICIT Evernote integration, but you can "Open in..." Evernote and the result is a PDF note. One extra tap to choose Evernote from the app list, and another to choose your Evernote notebook isn't bad.

 

Notability has that horrible split-screen zoom, though, doesn't it?

 

I've only looked through screen shots and videos of the various apps on the market, and the only one I've seen that does zoom “properly” (i.e. full-screen) seems to be Bamboo paper. The lack of a distinct and separate writing area is a large part of what made me choose Penultimate all those years ago, and I'd hate to go back to that.

 

Yeah, notability has the split-screen zoom, which jumps to the next section when you write into the margin area. So does Noteshelf, for that matter. I don't know of anything else on the market that had Penultimate's full screen zoom plus drift -- which is why I kept coming back to Penultimate. But now, Penultimate doesn't have it either... *shrugs* second-best will have to do...

 

 

Notability works -- it's always been my second choice after Penultimate 5. Yeah, it doesn't have EXPLICIT Evernote integration, but you can "Open in..." Evernote and the result is a PDF note. One extra tap to choose Evernote from the app list, and another to choose your Evernote notebook isn't bad.

 

Notability has that horrible split-screen zoom, though, doesn't it?

 

I've only looked through screen shots and videos of the various apps on the market, and the only one I've seen that does zoom “properly” (i.e. full-screen) seems to be Bamboo paper. The lack of a distinct and separate writing area is a large part of what made me choose Penultimate all those years ago, and I'd hate to go back to that.

 

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I used bamboo too, but best f sketches not writing ur notes, it s a bit poor. But much better than penultimate now.

Remind us f the good old fashion book that we use to love f choosing penultimate

I hv tried UPAD, it s a good app, lots of paper option, handrest... Writing just like u r in paper.

But too bad the developer is out of service now.

The lite version cant export to PDF but u can save it in the evernote.

So far good enough. Too bad cant do much

Perhaps PENULTIMATE CAN JUST BUY & DEVELOP MORE on this app

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I ended up getting Notes Plus after hours of frustration with what has to be the worst update to any app ever released. It is so bad I can't imagine how it could have possibly passed the beta phase. At $9.99 (Cdn prices) Notes Plus is the most expensive app I have ever purchased, but have to say, one of the best. I used to feel that the old version of Penulitmate was nearly perfect, but Notes Plus is head and shoulders above even the old Pen. Would recommend it for anyone who spends a lot of time writing on an iPad. Works well with my Adonit Jot Scipt.

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I downloaded Noteshelf. It's OK. It doesn't have auto-scroll, which was one of my favourite Penultimate features, and my handwriting doesn't seem quite as legible as it was in Penultimate 5. It does, however, have Evernote integration (for a fee).

 

Overall, I don't like it as much as Penultimate 5, but I like it a heck of a lot more than Penultimate 6.0. I plan to give it a try over the next few days.

Would appreciate your follow-up on this as I, and apparently hundreds (thousands?) are in a similar boat and would appreciate hearing if Noteshelf (and other apps with direct Evernote sync capabilities) is a viable substitute to the abomination that is Penultimate 6. Thanks.

 

 

After a day's use, I've decided Noteshelf isn't for me. Lots of nice features, but I don't like the zoomed writing implementation and the handwriting quality is poor.

 

Downloaded GoodNotes last night, which seems like a better fit. There are some interface problems I don't like -- creating a notebook requires several steps, and deleting one involves the use of iOS 8 text-only buttons that are too close together. But overall it's a clean, relatively uncomplicated app.

 

The zoomed text input isn't as good as Penultimate 5, but better than Noteshelf and Penultimate 6 -- it has the best replacement for the Drift feature that I've yet seen. One feature I quite like is the shape-drawing tool, which allows you to draw straight-sided polygons with ease. My handwriting looks cleaner in GoodNotes than it did in Noteshelf, a major advantage.

 

As far as I can tell, GoodNotes doesn't have proper Evernote integration, but you can export notebooks to Evernote with a few taps. I still prefer Penultimate 5, but this works well enough.

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Thanks for the suggestion of Notability. Bought it and will try it out until Penultimate is in a usable form again. I'm afraid that Penultimate is a lost cause since they seem to think the Evernote integration trumps the features that most of us bought it for- we liked Notebooks with Pages- that simple!!! So far I like the level of drawing detail with Notability- actually much better than Penultimate.

Kept trying more features in Notability...maybe I should think Evernote for ruining Penultimate, starting to think I like the other options better. The clock is ticking on Penultimate...act fast to make it look like notebooks with pages, tell us you understand that you screwed up (right now it feels like you are blaming the users/customer, and make it a product I can trust as a core part of my business process.

11.23 Update:

I've tried a few more note taking apps ( would have happily spent that $10-15 to keep old Penultimate) and have settled on Goodnotes. So far it's even better then Penultimate 5.3...the only thing I liked better about 5.3 was it's thumbnail view of pages. Goodnotes seems to strike that just right balance between simplicity and options. I really like the PDF sync with Dropbox.

Any suggestions for the best way to import Penultimate files into it? Currently all my Penultimate 5.3 files are synced as .pen files to my Dropbox.

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I switched to Noteshelf:

 

Pros:

  • keeps the notebook UI
  • decent Jot Script support
  • lots of pens etc.
  • you can add typed text to notes
  • looks like they have responsive developers / support
  • Evernote upload (in-app purchase)

Cons:

  • no drift but the zoom writing feature is not bad
  • I have found some issues with papers not rendering properly

 

As for the Jot Script I have actually found that I could turn the palm rejection completely off.  With Penultimate there was always issues with my palm still causing artifacts etc.  With Noteshelf I have not had a single issue so far.

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Thanks for all the tips. I hope Evernote take note of how their improvements have created a flood of people into alternative apps.

 

I'm a professional brand consultant to large multinationals and the first thing any company needs to understand is that they DON'T own their brand... they own their product. The brand and it's equity only exist in their customer's heads... so ignore what they think and want at your peril.

 

Nice move Evernote... way to trash a great brand.

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Loving Bamboo - writing and drawing. Better for note taking than paper53. Syncs w Evernote or Dropbox. Writing is seamless without wrist interference. Every stylus I have works. Only pdf export to Evernote. Sharing works as well in a variety of formats. Until Peniltimate gets back to where it was cant and wont be using it. Deleted from all devices and can't get old version to reinstall from iTunes. Moving on. Was almost back to paper and pen.....also bought Bamboo tools cause they were available and reasonably priced. Notes will look better and have some fun while writing or doodling. Evernote really screwed up this version. Very disappointed in update and frankly lack of response over the past few days. Including a lack of apology or we're working on it.

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I switched to Noteshelf:

 

Pros:

  • keeps the notebook UI
  • decent Jot Script support
  • lots of pens etc.
  • you can add typed text to notes
  • looks like they have responsive developers / support
  • Evernote upload (in-app purchase)

Cons:

  • no drift but the zoom writing feature is not bad
  • I have found some issues with papers not rendering properly

 

As for the Jot Script I have actually found that I could turn the palm rejection completely off.  With Penultimate there was always issues with my palm still causing artifacts etc.  With Noteshelf I have not had a single issue so far.

 

+1 on Noteshelf here.

 

The palm-rejection just works. Pages are pages. I had terrible, slow, off-aim 'inking' on Penultimate – on a brand new iPad Air 2(!) – in Noteshelf, I can even recognise my own handwriting again, plus it is *fast*! And it syncs beautifully with Evernote.

 

I can't grasp that Evernote makes such a misaligned app, when Evernote itself shines.

 

Cheers,

Massimo

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After a few hours of

"terrible user-friendliness, no place to lay my hand while writing in the zoombox, slow response from stylus(jot script), occasionally jumpy & unresponsive stylus(rarely happen in older verion, zoom box warped to top of the pages."

I just can't take this anymore.

Would anyone kindly suggest another or few apps for note-taking? I think this is the best response to the situation that, until now..

"we have a few-to-zero support from penultimate stuffs. 

We still have no response or promise to rollback or fix the current disaster.

I can't tolerate using this new-update anymore."

I even wonder if they read the forum anymore.

 

So far, i'm using "Goodnotes" bought for 4.99$. It's very good so far, the user interface is easy, very responsive and accurate with jot script stylus. It wrothes all the bucks i paid.

 

Absolutely agree, who is the ass hole that accepted this ***** update. Should be fired on the spot, disruptive, time waster idiot ****************** *********** *********

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Much of my afternoon was dedicated to reading reviews and trying different note taking apps. I've settle on GoodNotes. It was easy to learn, has more features than Penultimate did and I can write quickly line after line. The first I went to was Notability. Apparently they just did an update that users don't like, much like Penultimate. 

 

GoodNotes. Highly recommended by someone dedicated to writing notes, not typing.

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I find that I'm liking Noteshelf more and more. Its Evernote integration is as good as Penultimate's was, and I like the fact that the notes go into Evernote as images (one per page) not as PDFs. The split-screen zoom is not quite as smooth as Notability's, but they have this thing of landscape input nailed, dudes! The really irritating thing about old Penultimate for me was how poorly it handled landscape, and I really prefer landscape. New Penultimate per the FAQs won't handle landscape at all, and it doesn't sound like that's on their to-do list either. So I'm off to Noteshelf land and not looking back. Maybe I can sweet talk their developers into full page zoom and auto drift. I stand a better chance there than of getting decent landscape support in Penultimate.

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Switching to "Notability". Automatically backs up a pdf to my Dropbox. I also made a beautiful drawing in "Sketches" yesterday and cut/pasted it into a Notability note very easily. It may take two programs to get all of the features I enjoyed in Penultimate. Some of my final product may actually improve thanks to this loss?  The ability to lasso and then enlarge/shrink in Notability is awesome. Always wished Penultimate would add something like that.  

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Out of respect to Evernote, a few months ago, I started a message board where alternatives to Evernote could be discussed and discussed NOT on Evernote's message board.  I do not use Penultimate.  But if Penultimate users would like a place to freely discuss options, I will set up a segment on my board for this.  It's not a board to trash talk Evernote...just a board to discuss alternatives.  PM me, if interested. 

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I've been taking alternative notetaking apps for a spin this week as well. Looking for something that works with a stylus.

I think Bamboo is great for sketching (infinite zoom is terrific) but not as good for writing lines of text (no split screen zoom to write lines of text), and I prefer the adonit to the wacom stylus (though I haven't tried the new pixelpoint-esque Wacom one). Evernote integration is okay but you have to push your notebooks to it rather than it syncing.

Noteshelf might be good enough, but I don't find it as good as Penultimate was (the digital ink/handwriting rendering isn't as good for me nor is the zoom to write, and it's harder for me to make as good use of the page as I did in penultimate). Automatic Evernote syncing costs an extra $2 in-app purchase but that's okay. 

Notes Plus (a $2 paid app) is the winner for me; the writing/ink rendering is better than Penultimate's was, works equally well in landscape and portrait, has infinite zoom, the split screen to write is like Noteshelf but I find a little more reliable. Sketches don't look as good here as Bamboo, but still better than they did in Penultimate. You still have to push to sync to Evernote (and pdf only) but automatic syncing with Dropbox or Google Drive is there. 

MyScript Smart Note is interesting; $2 in-app purchase gives Evernote integration, and it does handwriting recognition fairly well (searchable text and writing-to-text conversion). Has an interesting automatic scroll when writing, but not as good as Penultimate's one was. The handwriting engine is not the prettiest and my notes don't look good here though, and that's a deal breaker for me.

If you've got $2 to spare, I'd recommend giving Notes Plus a go—no one's mentioned it yet.

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I've been taking alternative notetaking apps for a spin this week as well. Looking for something that works with a stylus.

I think Bamboo is great for sketching (infinite zoom is terrific) but not as good for writing lines of text (no split screen zoom to write lines of text), and I prefer the adonit to the wacom stylus (though I haven't tried the new pixelpoint-esque Wacom one). Evernote integration is okay but you have to push your notebooks to it rather than it syncing.

Noteshelf might be good enough, but I don't find it as good as Penultimate was (the digital ink/handwriting rendering isn't as good for me nor is the zoom to write, and it's harder for me to make as good use of the page as I did in penultimate). Automatic Evernote syncing costs an extra $2 in-app purchase but that's okay. 

Notes Plus (a $2 paid app) is the winner for me; the writing/ink rendering is better than Penultimate's was, works equally well in landscape and portrait, has infinite zoom, the split screen to write is like Noteshelf but I find a little more reliable. Sketches don't look as good here as Bamboo, but still better than they did in Penultimate. You still have to push to sync to Evernote (and pdf only) but automatic syncing with Dropbox or Google Drive is there. 

MyScript Smart Note is interesting; $2 in-app purchase gives Evernote integration, and it does handwriting recognition fairly well (searchable text and writing-to-text conversion). Has an interesting automatic scroll when writing, but not as good as Penultimate's one was. The handwriting engine is not the prettiest and my notes don't look good here though, and that's a deal breaker for me.

If you've got $2 to spare, I'd recommend giving Notes Plus a go—no one's mentioned it yet.

 

Just tried Inkredible and downloading Notes Plus. Very impressive.

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I've been experimenting with MagicalPad & thinking of swtiching over once my Penultimate V5.3 becomes completely unuseable.  MagicalPad seems pretty feature heavy right at the beginning, which feels a little overwhelming.  One of the nice things about Pen. was that you just started writing.  Anyone here use MagicalPad?

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After the Penultimate-F***-Up I first moved to Bamboo Paper. It's cool, very much like Penultimate. Bit then I got Notes Plus and after a few days now using it: I am actually glad that Penultimate made me to look for something even better!

So thanks ;-)

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I hv been trying UPAD ever since the new version of penultimate ruined it....

So far it s the best free app.

- handwritting as smooth as u write on ur paper.

- palm rejection

- zoom screen match ur speed

- pages to pages

- can mix ur own ink color

- hv pen & higlighter

- good for sketch & writting

But too bad can only push as pics (for free version) to evernote dropbox, and only up to 5 notepad

You cant pay for full version as i think they go bankcrupt

So far it work just find f me, as long as you keep push it to evernote/dropbox

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When I am sketching and writing the editing process really benefits from being able to clip and move things on the page. Note Shelf and Notes Plus do not have tools that make this easily accomplished. Full page zoom is also critical to working in this fashion. I am settling on Notability because it has the most powerful editing tools of any of the possibilities I have seen for my day to day work. If I need to do a more artistic sketch I will open up something like "Sketches" or Bamboo to create that drawing and then cut and paste it into my Notebook.

My notebooks will be automatically backed up in PDF to Dropbox instead of to Evernote but since Evernote has opened my eyes to the fact that I really should not trust my work to anyone's proprietary formats I think this is a better option anyway. I still can't believe they changed all the line weights in my original sketchbook as part of their "upgrade".

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I finally gave up on Penultimate after over two years of love-hate and deleted the app. I am very happy with Notes Plus, and it has a fairly simple PDF-to-Evernote export. I use Notes Plus for both personal notetaking and drawing during lectures. I've used it for the past year and a half or so.

 

Perry

 

After a few hours of
"terrible user-friendliness, no place to lay my hand while writing in the zoombox, slow response from stylus(jot script), occasionally jumpy & unresponsive stylus(rarely happen in older verion, zoom box warped to top of the pages."

I just can't take this anymore.

Would anyone kindly suggest another or few apps for note-taking? I think this is the best response to the situation that, until now..
 

 

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Noteshelf has EVEN BETTER Evernote integration than either old or new Penultimate. Why? Because I can CHOOSE which of my notebooks I'd like to sync to Evernote automatically. If I'd rather have some notebooks that don't sync, I can do that, and back up the others to Dropbox or my Mac. I can send individual pages out of unsynced notebooks to Evernote either as images or as PDFs, my choice.

Yeah, a synced notebook shows up as a "note" and not a "notebook" in Evernote -- what else is new? Like old Penultimate, if I go into Evenote and move the Noteshelf "note" to a different Evernote notebook, the change sticks and all future updates show up where I want them to in Evernote.

Also, I can tag synced notebooks in Noteshelf, and the tags are synced! The tags apply to individual pages in Noteshelf, and to the entire "note" in Evernote, but still. It saves me some steps. And while I can't do handwriting searches in Noteshelf, I CAN do tag searches.

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I switched to "Notes Plus".  I think I'm going to like it.  Read the "User" & "Tips" notebooks that they have.  A lot of what I liked in Penultimate is in Notes Plus. And it was free.

 

How did you get Notes Plus for free?

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  • 10 months later...

Hi,

 

I built a cloud note taking application that is similar to Evernote. I use it everyday and I could not imagine using any other notes app. I hope others might find it useful as well.

 

You can view it at https://memrey.com

 

Once you signup you can create your first notepad and you are on your way. The app has collaboration features as well. You and others can share a notepad and view each others notes in realtime. Would love your feedback. 

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