tablet as substitute for paper notes?

[twpensyl]

I'm doing research in theoretical computer science, so my research for the most part involves a lot of playing with math. I end up with large stacks of scratch paper, containing ideas or derivations which may or may not be useful later. So far I have not been very successful in organizing my notes (read: piles of paper littering my room), and it is hard to actually find anything later. If I have solid, important ideas, I will rewrite them more concisely and orderly, or even better write them up in LaTeX, but that would be time consuming to do for everything.

 

I've never used a tablet, but the idea of using a stylus to take notes electronically seems like it could help. Ideally it would allow me to organize, manipulate, store, and retrieve all my notes more easily. (This could be used for classes as well, but class notes have inherent structure and so are easier to keep organized)

 

Can anyone who's used a tablet give their thoughts:  Is writing on a tablet easy/natural/frustrating; do you find yourself preferring to write on paper? What kind of tablets are best for extensive handwriting math equations? Do I need an iPad, or is will something cheaper suffice? Will this likely improve my efficiency, or should I just learn to organize my paper notes better?

 

Thanks

[DropTheBase]

I too would love to know how efficient writing on a tablet is. I'm heavily considering getting a Galaxy Note 10.1 since it has a stylus that's specifically designed for writing efficiently and making sketches (I think it's called an S-Pen).

 

DTB

[comp12]

I use the app Penultimate and a stylus for much of my handwritten notes and drafting. There are probably some other fancier apps, but Penultimate syncs into the Evernote ecosystem, which makes organization much more streamlines (assuming you use Evernote for synching your typed notes.)

[mrmalawi]

I'm not sure how the iPad works but the 'notes' function on an iPhone can sync seamlessly with your native 'notes' app on a desktop/laptop version.  While it's not related at all...if I am out and about and want to remember to look something up online I will pull out my iphone and type into the 'notes' app what I want to look up later and when my 'notes' app on my macbook air opens up it updates itself with what I did on my phone earlier.  Not sure if there is a similar program for stylus based programs though...i am sure there are though, just spend a few hours google searching and you will find it. :-)

[danieleWrites]

I don't use equations for my research (just fun and my use of the quadratic probably has nothing to offer you), but it seems to me that the problem is one of organization. The only difference between scratch paper and a tablet is that instead of scattered paper, you have stuff scattered in the tablet's memory (or on the Cloud, depending).

 

The tablet can help. I use a Windows 8 pro (took some getting used to) that has a stylus and a pretty solid math interface for people just like you. I use OneNote (yeah, MS drone here). I can write directly in OneNote with the stylus, and I can use OneNote to maintain organization so that I can find my notes when I need them. I may not work with equations, but I have to track a gajillion things from multiple writers, critics, and so on. I did reject the iPad because of the way I use the tablet; iPads don't have the hardware (external storage on SD cards, usb ports, HDMI ports, and so on). I prefer Android, but didn't get it because of the hardware constraints (the manufacturers that did have the external stuff were iffy, and Samsung is an iPad on Android). Oh yeah, should mention, my tablet has gorilla glass. That was a major selling factor 'cuz I could be nicer to my personal electronics, but I'm not. I haven't had any trouble with my OneNote/stylus set up. I picked up the entire Office 365 University suite for 80 bucks on a 4 year subscription. I hate that and the last thing I ever wanted to do was encourage Microsoft in this subscription ripoff (but 80 bucks for 4 years with all Office programs?). I hate SkyDrive and the whole sign in thing. I used my gmail account to sign in, actually, so I didn't have to get yet *another* email account. I have an HTC evo smartphone, not stylus friendly, but I do note that there's a difference in the way the touch screens work. I have a screen protector on the phone, but none on the tablet (gorilla glass yay!), and protector-free screen works best. When I write with the stylus, there are no missing pixels (like you get when you sign on screens for UPS deliveries or credit card slips). I write in what might as well be 8 point Arial font, and I can read it clearly without having to expand the screen. I would think that pixel-gaps in writing would be particularly important with math. I could puzzle it out, it's words, but math? Yeah, not a good thing to missing pixels that would change the entire equation.

 

I do find the tablet useful. I work with so much information, that it saves me some time. I still have a lot of paper notes that I have to sort through from the past. Still, I'm starting a new research project and most of my notes are on the tablet. It works well. Since I use OneNote and the stuff is on the SkyDrive, I don't have to have the tablet with me to work with my notes, or add to it. I have a laptop at home that I used to tote with me, but it's huge and difficult to manage in a backback with my books, and it's 2 hour battery life. I can move back and forth from my tablet (highly portable), my laptop, and lab computers on campus or other places. If I understood the hype correctly, I'm supposed to able to use Office 365 on any compatible machine, whether it's downloaded or not. I haven't tested it. I'm working with the idea of transferring my paper notes from relevant, past courses to OneNote in between semesters. I'll probably also scan particularly relevant marginalia into OneNote. I haven't checked to see if the handwriting is searchable (I should do that), but I can search OneNote as it stands. I do take paper notes, still. Mostly because I haven't worked out how to fit the tablet into my long-established study habits. My brain automatically associates devices with drafting papers, email, surfing, and whatnot. I have to train my brain to not check email, or to not try to take notes the way I would write a paper. I'm all ADHD that way, though, and an old fart. I don't think most people, particularly the more computer savvy, have this problem. I do prefer paper and pen for certain things, such as developing the structure of a paper, or writing poetry (yeah, I go there), or developing assignments for a course, or the syllabus. Writing makes me think differently because it's much slower. Writing on a tablet is ostensibly the same, but the page is smaller and I can't spread pages out side by side or reorganize them as organically. Still, the tablet will improve my productivity simply because it improves my ability to manage information.

 

Anyway. So. Organization. I would suggest that you solve that first, and then pick a tablet that suits you best. The reasoning is pretty simple: you have to know what you need before you can pick the best device, O/S, and/or note taking utility app for you. Hit a Best Buy, the mobile phone stores, or a similar and try them out. They should have demo models with a stylus available. If you can find an art student or professor with a tablet, you'd find someone who knows a lot about using a stylus to input information directly into software. I do know that some applications take data from a stylus better than others. I have no idea which ones, though. I suppose it comes down to which combination of hardware and software works best for you. It doesn't really matter what tablet I fangirl, 'cause there ya go. Frankly, I fangirl my Windows tablet because it works best for me, a Kindle and Android smartphone pairing for my guy, and an iPad for my mother-in-law. She fangirls cheap, so she's wrestling with an 80 dollar Android tablet and losing.

 

Oh, one more thing. I'm new to the tablet notetaking thing, I'm used to writing on paper. When I write on the tablet, my hand is pressed pretty firmly to the screen. In OneNote, my hand leaves no marks. In the sketching app I have, my hand leaves a faint mark every once in a while. I can also configure the stylus that I have to use the top as an eraser (where an eraser is on a pencil), so the stylus works just like a pencil on paper.

 

(Replies me, months after you asked).

[pterosaur]

I use the app Notability on my iPad mini.  It syncs everything to my computer through Dropbox, as well.  It has pretty good organization (categories plus folders within that), and lots of different ways to take notes.  I can annotate PDFs, type notes, draw figures (which are movable and rescalable).  It was about $3-4 in the appstore, and it's the only app I've ever paid for.  It's definitely been worth it, though.  I take all of my class notes and do some scratch work in it.

 

If you plan to do a lot of precise note-taking, I'd look into a tablet with a digitizer.  This means the kind with the pointy-tip styli instead of the blob-headed ones for tablets like the iPad, Nexus, etc.

[wreckofthehope]

I'm doing research in theoretical computer science, so my research for the most part involves a lot of playing with math. I end up with large stacks of scratch paper, containing ideas or derivations which may or may not be useful later. So far I have not been very successful in organizing my notes (read: piles of paper littering my room), and it is hard to actually find anything later. If I have solid, important ideas, I will rewrite them more concisely and orderly, or even better write them up in LaTeX, but that would be time consuming to do for everything.

 

I've never used a tablet, but the idea of using a stylus to take notes electronically seems like it could help. Ideally it would allow me to organize, manipulate, store, and retrieve all my notes more easily. (This could be used for classes as well, but class notes have inherent structure and so are easier to keep organized)

 

Can anyone who's used a tablet give their thoughts:  Is writing on a tablet easy/natural/frustrating; do you find yourself preferring to write on paper? What kind of tablets are best for extensive handwriting math equations? Do I need an iPad, or is will something cheaper suffice? Will this likely improve my efficiency, or should I just learn to organize my paper notes better?

 

Thanks

 

I've used normal capacitive styluses and they're not really a substitute for pen and paper. Tablets with a digitizer, though: amazing! I have an ASUS TF810 and I use One Note for absolutely everything now - I particularly like how it's easy to organize into digital notebooks for different subjects/projects and that it all gets saved automatically, so I don't need to worry about it. Writing on this particular tablet is almost the same as writing on a piece of paper (if your paper was shiny and very solid) and I've heard that the inking on other Windows 8 tablets with digitizer is very good, too (the Lenovo Think Pad Tablet 2 is cheaper than the ASUS and is supposed to give a very good writing experience).

[Cookie]

I'm doing theoretical chemical physics so I'm doing a fair bit of math as well. I tend to scribble on papers and then take pictures of the few thats worth keeping. Most of the time, I end up take notes and get my math problems solved on Mathematica on my laptop. I found keeping another gadget in my messenger bag very exhausting... I might give Notability a try though!

[jamesshaffer85]

I'm sure that tablet is an excellent substitute to scrappy paper notes. Some peopel have difficulties switchign to the innovative technologies and waste plenty of time on handwritign and further retyping of notes. Even though some psychologists claim that writing something in blue ink might help you memorize it, typing your lecture notes can save you plenty of time and effort.