The best note-taking apps for the iPad and Apple Pencil

hi this is life of Macworld and today
we're gonna look at the best note-taking

apps for the iPad and the Apple pencil
now I've actually been using my iPad

this way for a long time I like to use
it kind of like a legal pad as opposed

to something that you type on and
everything and the Apple pencil makes

that really convenient the really good
news is that there's a lot of apps

already on the App Store that allow you
to do this even though the Apple pencil

just now came to the smaller iPad so
today let's try some of those out so the

first step we're going to look at is
Apple's own Notes app it's Apple's own

stock app so you shouldn't expect any
big features in it so down here

basically you have a pen you have a
highlighter you have a pencil you have

an eraser and a selection tool and
assortment of colors you can also choose

if you wanted to have lines or you want
it to be unlined and but that's about

the extent of the customization you're
going to get with this tool one thing I

really like about it is that the pencil
actually looks like you're riding with a

pencil you believe it or not that it's
really hard to get in a lot of

note-taking apps but another really
amazing thing about this is that this

selection tool is extremely accurate
it'll pick up the line if you want

summary of a section of the text and
because this is Apple's own app it works

directly with the iPad interface itself
so very nice if you have an Apple pencil

you can just tap on it and boom you
don't even have to unlock your iPad you

can scribble a note but again it's very
bare-bones

so the next step we're gonna look at is
notability and if I were to tell you to

spend 10 bucks on any of these apps this
would be the one I would try to spend 10

books on I'll tell you why because it's
the one that I actually bought and it's

the one that I use frequently I use this
app almost every day so you have a lot

of the same features as Apple's does you
know you have the pin but the difference

is you can actually adjust the stroke
width here which you could not do with

Apple's one you have a lot more colors
here you have the highlighter you have

the eraser a cutting tool and just
something there that allows you to you

know the move around the text you also
have a you know you can actually just

write by regular text using a keyboard
if you want to but the most amazing

thing about a know bit none note ability
and which makes it more notable than any

this
is that it feels exactly like riding

with a pen so many apps don't get that
they feel you know you can you feel like

you're still using a stylus but this one
it actually feels fluid and I think

that's really important nobody else
nails that quite like notability the

other thing that's really nice about
this is other apps dude that's better I

should say is that you can take the
selection tool and you can click on it

right there and convert the text and
it'll actually see it actually misread

it there but I was trying to say dog and
this is what I mean by some apps do this

better but it's not that it's not the
best one and so converting your

handwriting into text is still very much
a work in progress but it is possible if

you write super neat the thing you have
to remember with a lot of these apps is

that often you're not really writing
neat so don't expect perfection with

that one final feature that I really
love about this is that you can start

recording up here and it will tell you
know so if I'm writing this later on I

can go back to these notes and I can
press on this and you'll hear the actual

audio that was being saying while I was
writing dog is black you know this is

really helpful if you're in a lecture
hall taking notes and you're writing by

hand and you want to see what your
professor said alternatively you can

also import PDFs mark them up with this
app and you can also change what the

paper looks like there are many
different varieties of colors here you

can you know make the paper gridded just
like you could a notes but there's a lot

more options here but basically anything
you want a handwriting based app to do

with your Apple pencil with taking notes
not necessarily making art with it you

can do it with notability so the next
step we're gonna look at is good notes

for good notes for is still a really
great app I wouldn't call it as great as

note ability but one of the really cool
things that it does is it allows you to

categorize your your subjects by
notebook so say you know you can change

the art here you know you can change the
paper and so you can create that book

and gives you a really good idea of
having like different subjects so we

would you know just like a regular you
know notebook that you buy at Walgreens

or something like that
you could you could boom you know you've

got a subject heading for that and then
you can you can start writing it here so

let's do something right here

now the problem with this as I see it is
this is an app that basically mimics the

feel of using real paper I actually
consider that a weakness because one of

the amazing things about digital ink is
that you know technically you should be

able to just keep scrolling and writing
as you want with this you're basically

limited into how the page looks which is
the way paper used to be which makes it

convenient for printing out obviously if
you want to and you can do that with

this app but the problem is it really
limited you and what you do but this

doing still has a lot of good options
you know you have the highlighter you

know you can erase you have the
selection tool and you also have a

really cool feature in that which you
can basically use the shape tool to make

perfect shapes more along the lines of
what you want it so let's make a circle

let's make a triangle and see it'll
basically make them on your page the way

you meant to make them so much like
notability and a couple of the other

apps we're gonna be looking at it does
recognize your text but unlike a lot of

these other apps it doesn't try to give
you text that you can paste into an

email or something however it does allow
you to search through your notes which

is kind of cool because it will actually
recognize what you wrote and sometimes

like video or this will show up
I doubt it could read Macworld here but

what that one feature I really like
about good notes for is that you can use

this little zoom in tool you know so if
you're typing if you're riding along as

I should say and you remember something
so I want to put a big note up here so

boom as you can see that shows up in the
actual text here on the page but it's a

lot smaller and especially when you have
a lot of text going here it's a lot

simpler to get that in so the next step
we're going to look at is my scripts

Nero and Nebo is really cool because
handwriting recognition is its thing

it's a fairly simple app otherwise but
you know you can't really adjust these

lines you can't put the grids on there
and everything but it is absolutely

fantastic at handwriting recognition
this is what it is meant to do so let's

write a line out here so I wrote the
sentence this is a video about apps and

I don't know if you can see it but I it
came out perfectly in text as I was

writing it and so there's none of this
circling it and everything else it does

it immediately and it does it very well
the problem is again you're really stuck

in this one structure but if you're just
interested in getting your you know

translating your thoughts from
handwriting into actual text without

doing a lot of you know retyping or
something like that this is a good app

for doing it now the problem is as a
person who writes a lot by hand I can

tell you that if you're taking notes and
you're in a classroom or something and

your professor is going so let's see I
want to say the nearest star to us is

the Sun and he's - saying that that's me
being I can actually read that but it

came out the nearest start to co-ed he
ate you MA so that gives you an idea if

you're really rushing to write something
down maybe you have better handwriting

than I do it's gonna you know you're not
gonna have an easy as a time and I

should say you know this works best with
a print based handwriting system as

opposed to cursive or something so let's
let's write my name yeah see I was

looking all pretty there in his putting
leg so if you're writing you know the

way it wants you to riding along the
lines writing and basically you know a

manuscript non cursive script it will do
really well other than that I don't know

but if handwriting recognition is what
you want

niebo is a really good app for it so
Apple fans get this the next app we're

going to be looking at is actually a
Microsoft app this is Microsoft OneNote

now he is a good chance that you've
actually used one notes before it's a

very robust app especially if you're
taking text and everything like that you

can insert photos you can answer tables
files but since we're working with the

Apple pencil this is what we're going to
be focusing on the drawing section now

in a lot of ways it's very similar to
Apple's own app and that it's got very

simple tools you know you you have the
pin you have a blue pin a green pant a

highlighter and some other stuff and the
nice thing is is that unlike Apple's

Notes app you can actually adjust a
stroke width and stuff so let's take a

look at it so far so similar to anything
else that we've written and let's add

another one now one of the reasons why I
really love OneNote is a lot of these

you can't really you know let's say I
want to scribble in something in between

here as you saw sometimes I had to use
like a magnifying tool or something but

watch this I can actually insert more
text in between here for me that's very

amazing especially when I'm writing like
handwritten drafts and I want to insert

another paragraph or something boom I
don't have to rearrange the whole thing

and another really amazing thing
especially if you're using this for like

a corporate group or something is that
you can actually add people too you know

you can invite people to collaborate on
this notebook with you and if you think

this is a small space so so let's add a
little blue here check this out it gives

you a massive range this is a massive
board to work with so this little bit

that we were working out of here the
opening page that's right here this is

the whole whole screen that you have to
work with so if you're trying to use

mind mapping with your colleagues or
something like that this is a good way

to to map it all out unfortunately this
means that you can't easily export it to

PDF like you handle with some of these
other apps but you know for the chance

to collaborate they're having a nice
easy place where your notes are stored

in the cloud available anywhere you want
them to be it's an excellent app so the

next thing we're looking at is notes
plus this actually used to be my

favorite handwriting app but later on I
found that notability had the really

fluid writing and so I went over to that
but other than that it's a it's you know

it's something that really gets what
it's like to write with a pen on digital

paper you're not really necessarily
limited to the actual page that you're

working with you can keep writing you
know so you know if I have this here

now I can just keep moving it and just
go on forever and that that's really

amazing thing to do here now another
thing as you saw you know some of the

other ones you know you I can use this
to zoom in to say something else so it's

uh yeah so if I need to really you know
zoom in to write something I can do that

now
the really cool thing about this one in

my opinion is that I can't believe that
and other apps don't do this but if I

make a mistake and I want to scratch it
out look at that I can just scratch it

out that's such a simple thing you think
that would be very intuitive with the

rest of apps with the Apple pencil but
this is the only one that I know of that

really does it and I think more of them
should do that as with other apps you

have you know handwriting ticket you
know handwriting recognition that one

actually did recognize me saying dog so
hey good for you notes plus but it's

basically the same thing as good notes
for note ability but it does some things

a lot better like that scratching out so
the next step we're gonna look at here

is car flow and unlike using in an iPad
like a legal pad or a notebook

it focuses on allowing you to use index
cars without killing a whole forest

worth of trees and I really like this
because it's a good way of arranging

your ideas in a way that a traditional
outline won't allow you to it's

basically a storyboard you know the way
that screenwriters and novelists will

put their ideas on the wall of index
cards and rearrange them as needed and

this allows you to do that right here on
the screen and it's it's really cool

because you know you can select multiple
of them and therefore you know you can

arrange them as you need and I could add
so many more cards to this the problem

is is that I've noticed sometimes when
you get too many cards it'll sometimes

crash but other than that I really love
this way of doing it you can also do it

with text you don't have to just use the
the pencil you know if you buy the the

premium version there is there actually
a very good free version you can add

hyperlinks and images and stuff like
that and it makes it really useful but

again I love this it is actually my
favorite outlining tool and for similar

reasons that you see with storyboards
and the like so today we've looked at

seven apps that all focus on writing by
hand with the

pencil on the iPad they all have various
strengths and they did those strengths

very well but if I were to choose ones
that I would use every day and one that

I would spend my money on it would be
notability