Do you use your iPad, iPhone, Android device or Windows tablet for digital note taking? Then we have the show for you! We discussed our tools and techniques for digital note taking in this edition of the Theotek Podcast.
Note taking is a very personal thing, so our crew shared their favorite apps and tools for taking notes. This includes everything from handwritten notes using the Apple Pencil, Surface Pen or a stylus, to typed notes and even some mind mapping. Watch the video below or scroll down to listen to the audio version at the bottom.
Note Taking Apps
The apps we use for taking handwritten notes mostly include the following:
If you’re going to type your notes then consider …
- Evernote
- Apple Notes (part of iOS and macOS)
- Notepad (part of Windows)
- Google Keep
- OneNote
- Fargo
Wes Allen mentioned a mind-mapping app called iThoughts. Mind-mapping takes your ideas and puts them down on paper or on the screen in a graphical way using shapes, arrows and lines. Think of a flow chart for ideas. Take a look at the iPad app in action in the video below. They offer a macOS version too.
The Best Stylus for Taking Notes
What’s the best stylus for taking notes. The first on all our lists is the Apple Pencil. It’s almost perfect. For Windows users, the Surface Pen’s just about as good.
In addition we like the following stylus options:
Adonit makes a bunch of these. The kind with the clear plastic disc at the end of the stylus doesn’t work that well, so we don’t recommend them. My personal favorites include the Pixel and Snap. The Snap looks like a carpenter’s pencil, much like the Pencil by 53 does. It has a button that doubles as a camera shutter button on both iPhone and Android. Both of these work with both iOS and Android.
Sketchnotes
We also talked about the wonderful artwork that Antoine Wright does when he takes notes. He calls them Sketchnotes and has a whole album of them on Flickr. Here’s the slide show of his beautiful notes.
Theotek Extra Live at CES 2017
Antoine Wright went to this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and Wes Allen and I caught up with him during a Theotek Extra. These are shows outside or normal weekly podcast. We’ll have more Theotek Extras coming soon. Here’s the YouTube video.
