Database Users

[Q] Note taking in class

Do you think the handwriting is good enough for taking notes in class? I'm in an engineering program, and note-taking with a keyboard is really not possible with the amount of math we do.
I don't care about the OCR, I just need to have everything archived. I really just want to replace all of my paper notebooks.

Yeah I'm in the same position. It works quite well for taking notes. Although the palm rejection on the stock note taking app sometimes doesn't work the OCR is incredible considering most humans can't understand my handwriting. For my engineering class I used an app called Quill. It has a stylus only mode so only the stylus writes on the pad. It has several different page options notebook and graphing paper that I use frequently. You can also export to pdf or png if you like but it keeps an archive of your entire notebook collection that you can backup to another location.
I know that's more than you asked for so in short the handwriting is more than acceptable for my uses. If you want I could write something out for you(but my none tablet handwriting isn't the best though)

Be sure to check out this thread from Lenovo's forum.
I use the TPT for college. This term for Calculus and Chem. I use my ThinkPad Tablet to take notes in class all the time. Here are some example math notes. Since its inception, I've been using Quill exclusively for all my note taking. Thanks Volker! :smileyhappy:
I do not find it heavy or cumbersome at all. As a PDF e-reader/annotator it shines! I have 3 textbooks on it and it works great. I recommend Mantano Reader or ezPDF. I do not see why it wouldn't work great as an e-reader in general. I have a Gen3 kindle, so non-PDF e-reading would be done on it as it is easier on the eyes, battery life, a lot lighter, etc.
Bundled with the right add-ons, it can also be used as a means to write a paper, etc. (Although it'll be better when LibreOffice ports their suite to Android).
Using a HP TouchPad Bluetooth Keyboard & Logitech Wireless M305 mouse.
I now own all Android Office apps thanks to Amazon's daily free app. I'd say each are quirky honestly, but I simply like the UI of OfficeSuite Pro & QuickOffice Pro HD rather than the bundled Docs to Go. In the end, each work. Google Docs remains unusable for me due to some unknown bug that leaves me with a white screen.
I opted against the keyboard folio, due to them not being instock at the beginning, Lenovo plauging people's lives with direct orders and people complaining about the mouse. All in all, my setup is cheaper and maybe smaller/lighter albeit not as mobile... I also love this keyboard, it's practically full-size or at least feels it.
As a replacement to a laptop, it is almost there but not quite, the browsers available via market are more than enough.
I get a lot of use out of it. But I'll be honest, without Quill, it wouldn't be getting much use other than a PDF reader/annotator and light browsing.
An article worth reading/skimming: ThinkPad Tablet Experience by The Gadgeteer.

I wish i had one of these when I was in engineering school.
Using mine for annotating PDFs in law school now.

^any chance you could throw up a screen shot of how it looks annotating a pdf on this? Im looking to a tab as an e-reader for journal articles and medical manuals and the lack of annotating ability is what has kept me from buying one yet.
Are you able to take notes/highlight/pretty much anything else you can with a pen and paper?
Also, is it possible to annotate and save over the original file or will it save a separate file with you annotations? ie if i have file"x.pdf" and I annotate it, when i save, will it replace x.pdf with the original file with my notes on it or will I have a completely separate file with the orig and my notes?
Thanks!

I'm using ezPDF Reader to annotate and highlight my pdfs.
It isn't exactly like pen&paper but it's ok for me:
You can highlight only text because you have to long-press on a word to get the text-selection handles. Then you have to select the text you like and choose if you want to highlight/unterline/strikeout. In other words: there is noch free-hand highlighting (so no highlighting of text in images or diagrams).
But there is a free-hand markup tool which you can select from the toolbar to write allover the document.
As soon as you try to highlight something in ezPDF for the first time it asks if you want to create a copy "x.annotated.pdf" or if you want to keep the original file "x.pdf"

rupheos said:
Yeah I'm in the same position. It works quite well for taking notes. Although the palm rejection on the stock note taking app sometimes doesn't work the OCR is incredible considering most humans can't understand my handwriting. For my engineering class I used an app called Quill. It has a stylus only mode so only the stylus writes on the pad. It has several different page options notebook and graphing paper that I use frequently. You can also export to pdf or png if you like but it keeps an archive of your entire notebook collection that you can backup to another location.
I know that's more than you asked for so in short the handwriting is more than acceptable for my uses. If you want I could write something out for you(but my none tablet handwriting isn't the best though)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you post images from your notes showing the capabilities of the TPT and Quill? I'm in engineering too and I would like to see if this is a real paper substitute. (Obscure.detour has too nice of handwriting for me to judge )

nsfl said:
Can you post images from your notes showing the capabilities of the TPT and Quill? I'm in engineering too and I would like to see if this is a real paper substitute. (Obscure.detour has too nice of handwriting for me to judge )
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Haha My notes are from Quill as well. It isn't that nice of hand writing

I use my TPT for extensive note taking in class both written and mathmatical notes. The winning combination for me has been:
1. Writepad stylus (notes)
2. ezPDFreader (reading and annotating PDF s)
3. QuickOffice Pro (word, power point, excel)
4. Thinking Space (brainstorming)
5. Smooth Calendar (assignments)

nsfl said:
Can you post images from your notes showing the capabilities of the TPT and Quill? I'm in engineering too and I would like to see if this is a real paper substitute. (Obscure.detour has too nice of handwriting for me to judge )
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I send notes to students using quill.

Modifynig Repligo reader.apk ???

Is someone here who can modify repligoreader.apk to disable page turn animation ???
That would be perfect...I'll appreciate it since I'm not a developer...

shimi85 said:
Is someone here who can modify repligoreader.apk to disable page turn animation ???
That would be perfect...I'll appreciate it since I'm not a developer...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so where are the so called developers ?? No one here can modify an app ??

shimi85 said:
so where are the so called developers ??
Click to expand...
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Modifying an application requires some effort.
You must do some reverse engineering and then modification.
If the application is one that you've never heard of and aren't even interested in trying,
then the motivation to expend some effort is missing.
If this "Repligo" reader has page turn animations, then it is surely not designed for eInk.
If you were going to make Repligo Nook Touch compatible you'd want to add in EpdController functionality.
So what is so special about Repligo over and above the handful of reader apps already discussed here?

repligo has a variety of options for annotation, highlighting and it supports multi-touch ...it's really helpful for technical docs...what apps do u suggest for pdf technical books..i'm a chemical engineering student and I read a lot of papers full of formulas and figures..

shimi85 said:
repligo has a variety of options for annotation, highlighting and it supports multi-touch ...it's really helpful for technical docs...what apps do u suggest for pdf technical books..i'm a chemical engineering student and I read a lot of papers full of formulas and figures..
Click to expand...
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IMHO pdf sucks on a small screen, unless text reflow can do a decent job, which is unlikely when you have
text and figures..
Have you tried to see if "NoRefresh" helps with Repligo animation?
Other Common pdf readers here are
Mantano, (has a free version)
EZpdf (paid)
--

ezpdf has lots of excess flashing and also slower than repligo...mantano is good but the only problem is that when I annotate a book it does not save on the book in order to watch it later on your labtop...but repligo saves the annotation right on the original pdf...

Some tweaks I would still like to see to S Notes

Here's my list of things they still need to add to S Notes to make it compete with a true note taking powerhouse like Echo Pen (this is a physical pen which takes notes on special paper, not a software but for me it is the chief competition to using S Notes all the time).
1) Have a way to record and embed a sound file anywhere within the page.
2) Make it so you can append audio notes to the end of an already recorded note page. As of now you can only delete the audio file and start over once it has been saved.
3) There is still the incredibly annoying zoom bug when writing at the bottom of the page if the user rests their palm on the screen.
4) They need to add a continuous scrolling feature to pages so that i can always be writing at the top half of the screen. Having to physically add a new page is annoying and unnecessary and forces the user to rest their palm on the bottom of the screen which causes problems.
5) Add a better highlighting feature to the pen for highlighting typed text other than choosing the highlighting marker. On typed text I prefer a nice clean straight highlighted line.
6) Please please please allow us to create our own templates? We are adults, we can handle the responsibility.
7) Allow us to add our own permanent background images. As of now you can add one and it disappears in the next session. Nonsensical.
8) Allow us to add our own text styles to the style sheet. If I choose Arial 16 point for the keyboard, stop changing me back to Roboto 22 every time I re-open S Notes. I LIKE Arial 16, got it?
9) Allow me to place the typing cursor anywhere I like by tapping the pen on the screen.
10) Since in their wisdom Samsung has decided to go with the truly obscure .snb standard (why?), please create a reader for us where we can view our S-Notes in Windows, Mac, etc environments. I have tried the various aftermarket .snb readers and so far nothing can decipher Samsung's proprietary flavor. C'mon guys, you are now competing against Windows 8, get it together.
There is so much about S-Notes that is done well and so much that seems like it would be easy to implement but they just didn't bother.
** And please no one suggest to me I try a different note-taking app. I like S-Notes, it just has some rough edges. I don't care for the way Lecture Notes interacts with the S-Pen.
Any other ideas? I plan on going to Samsung's lame Support Facebook Page and recommending these - lord I wish they had a real Forum like every other tech firm on the planet - oh well.

S Note is WIP may be some application developer work on it

samir_a said:
S Note is WIP may be some application developer work on it
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I hope so. However, of my experience with these sort of things is at all prophetic, they will end up adding features I don't care about and rarely use and not add the functionality I could use every day. The fact is none of these things I am suggesting would even be difficult as they exist in other competing products already. For some reason they simply choose not to implement. It's not that they can't they won't.

Try LectureNotes. It's far more superior.

Jonphinguyen7 said:
Try LectureNotes. It's far more superior.
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I don't like Lecture Notes. Hate the way the pen writes. I want to use S Notes because of the way it integrates with the entire ecosystem.

mitchellvii said:
Here's my list of things they still need to add to S Notes to make it compete with a true note taking powerhouse like Echo Pen (this is a physical pen which takes notes on special paper, not a software but for me it is the chief competition to using S Notes all the time).
...
10) Since in their wisdom Samsung has decided to go with the truly obscure .snb standard (why?), please create a reader for us where we can view our S-Notes in Windows, Mac, etc environments. I have tried the various aftermarket .snb readers and so far nothing can decipher Samsung's proprietary flavor. C'mon guys, you are now competing against Windows 8, get it together.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably you already know, but I recently discovered that the .snb files are just zipped compressed files. They can be unpacked with any unzip program.
Inside the archive there are many image files (.png), many .xml files, some mysterious .rels file and a .zdib file. See yourself if you feel like investigating more.
Just in case someone didn't know that...

sphere314 said:
Probably you already know, but I recently discovered that the .snb files are just zipped compressed files. They can be unpacked with any unzip program.
Inside the archive there are many image files (.png), many .xml files, some mysterious .rels file and a .zdib file. See yourself if you feel like investigating more.
Just in case someone didn't know that...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But is there a reader that can view them as created on a PC?

mitchellvii said:
But is there a reader that can view them as created on a PC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know that but probably a programmer could work on it if the files archived in the .snb are not proprietary/encripted. I've some doubt about the .zdib files... I didn't find any reference on the net about this extension (apart from this other one)

mitchellvii said:
I don't like Lecture Notes. Hate the way the pen writes. I want to use S Notes because of the way it integrates with the entire ecosystem.
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Click to collapse
Honest man... I like it!

I wish they would just add a 'zoom lock', which I think would take care of the palm zoom problem.

sphere314 said:
I don't know that but probably a programmer could work on it if the files archived in the .snb are not proprietary/encripted. I've some doubt about the .zdib files... I didn't find any reference on the net about this extension (apart from this other one)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are .snb readers. They just don't work with Samsungs brand of .snb.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk 2

Edit Samsung apps within Evernote

Hi,
One of the most useful things I was hoping for with my Note3 was the ability to write, doodle and brainstorm on the phone when I am lonely in the pub. Evernote let's me share notebooks and can be so useful. However I, or clients, can't edit these notes within Evernote (computer or by phone) instead they are saved as JPEGs, or even PDFs which I can't edit.
I'm a graphic designer and web developer and have always had a real note book (paper) with me for such occasions and the Note has always appealed massively for being able to digitize and share my notes stuff on the fly.
I don't really care if it's S Note, or another app (I like Notes Mobile too) and would even be prepared to leave Evernote it gave me the sync and share options that I need.
My question is this: Has anybody found a workaround, or combo of apps that means their notes can be shared and edited (text anyway) by others on desktop and/or mobile?
OK, I thought SNote save as PDF and share with Evernote might work but it doesn't. A couple of apps will save as PSD which is kind of good but I haven't tried that out yet.

Blizzaa said:
Hi,
One of the most useful things I was hoping for with my Note3 was the ability to write, doodle and brainstorm on the phone when I am lonely in the pub. Evernote let's me share notebooks and can be so useful. However I, or clients, can't edit these notes within Evernote (computer or by phone) instead they are saved as JPEGs, or even PDFs which I can't edit.
I'm a graphic designer and web developer and have always had a real note book (paper) with me for such occasions and the Note has always appealed massively for being able to digitize and share my notes stuff on the fly.
I don't really care if it's S Note, or another app (I like Notes Mobile too) and would even be prepared to leave Evernote it gave me the sync and share options that I need.
My question is this: Has anybody found a workaround, or combo of apps that means their notes can be shared and edited (text anyway) by others on desktop and/or mobile?
OK, I thought SNote save as PDF and share with Evernote might work but it doesn't. A couple of apps will save as PSD which is kind of good but I haven't tried that out yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have not worked with Evernote much but have found some programs (the best being simplenote) which claim they can import an Evernote file and use embedded OCR to convert the file to text based:
http://simplenote.com/downloads/
Hope this helps!

[Q] S-Pen Export/Scrapbooker

I'm new to the "S-Pen" thing, and before purchasing, got a couple of questions:
Can I export sketches or drawings, notes, scrapbook items and in what formats?
If I were a developer, what features would you like to see in an app that deals with s-pen or scrapbook managements?