The iPad is the Ultimate Notebook. Literally.
The iPad is a tool that has evolved significantly over the last decade. From what could be described as an oversized iPhone to the near laptop substitute it is today, it has grown hugely.
One of the biggest drivers of the iPad’s appeal has been the versatility the iPad can provide. It can accomplish a lot of tasks ranging from note-taking to entertainment all the way to photo and video editing.
It is suitable for nearly everyone and has the requisite feature set to appeal to various demographics ranging from students to professionals.
One of the biggest demographics of users for the iPad has been the student community. One of their biggest needs is relevant to note-taking. The iPad, coupled with a keyboard case (iPad or third party) and the Apple Pencil, has formed a potent digital note-taking setup for millions of students.
With a plethora of apps for note-taking ranging from Notability and Goodnotes to the ever-dependable (or not so much) Evernote and OneNote, the iPad is an invaluable notebook for these students.
It provides so much more than the traditional note-taking method and in a direct
Writing
With the apple pencil coupled with a special screen protector, you can get a writing experience almost akin to that with a pen and paper.
Sounds good
If you are in the mood for typing, hybrid typing and writing apps like OneNote are just for you. It can save you time because of its robust search mechanism and its integration with the Apple Pencil makes even the handwritten notes searchable.
With just a tap of the button, you can switch in between tons of pencils, highlighters, and pens to make your work easier to understand and more appealing.
Need to erase something? With just a single click, you can switch to an eraser which will erase everything without a mark.
You can refer to various pages at the same time through a split-screen and this could help you immensely when you need quick access to multiple pages in a single notebook.
Options
There is a notebook in every size and the same holds true with an iPad. Need one that can fit in your palm? The iPad Mini. A cheap one with a fairly large size? The iPad. One with better “paper quality”? The iPad Air. An expensive and larger one with a ton of features? The iPad Pro.
There is an iPad in almost every size you can find a notebook in and besides notes, there is so much more you can do.
If you require little more portability, there is an option of cellular so that you can get research done on the go.
Starting at $329 up to 230 on discount, the productivity it can help you achieve is insane.
Convenience
No more lugging around dozens of notebooks everywhere to go. In a package of just the sole pound, you can keep hundreds of thousands of pages of notes.
Your back will thank you for this.
What else? It’s every single thing you will need in an easily portable package. You can have access to your notes everywhere. Let’s say you need to take down a number quickly, whip out your iPad, and use haptic touch to create a quick note.
Just like you can write anywhere, you can refer to them anywhere.
Forget nothing, it’s there everywhere, you will have access to all your notes in just a click.
Sounds amazing!!
I know!
The game changer
Search. One thing that has plagued notebook owners ever since the dawn of the notebook. Sure there are perforated tabs, complex numbering systems, divisions of notebooks, and various other organizational paradigms, but nothing beats the ease of search on an iPad.
Need to find out everything you have written about the iPad over the last few years to create a mega article? Need to refer to this one concept you learned sometime last year to study for this test? What if you only need to practice a particular theory that was just a part of a single page in your notebook?
Let’s say you were to look through your collection of notebooks to search through all your civil war notes
If you were to do this offline.
- Find the relevant notebooks
- Flip through the notebook
- Skim till you find something you recognize
- Go through the page until you find a certain page
- Look through the page till you find the paragraph comprising a piece of information you were looking for
- Refer to it
- Repeat the process to find more matches for what you were looking for
Now let’s say you want to do the same thing on an iPad.
- Open the app
- Search
- Look through the matches with the phrases highlighted for easy skimming
Which of these would be more efficient? Which of these would be more productive? Which of these would save more of your valuable time?
Can it replace a notebook?
A while back, I may have been divided on this, but now, the answer is a resounding yes! With the advent of the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard, note-taking would no longer be limited to just the on-screen keyboard, but rather the experience has completely transformed.
Various apps now allow you to write with a pencil and take handwritten notes. The ease with which you can change pens, highlighters, and pencils is something that makes note-taking so much easier on an iPad.
One of the biggest problems most people have with a pen and paper is that you can’t search your notes for specific words, topics and you often have to resort to flipping through pages to find a specific note.
With both handwriting and text being searchable in most leading note-taking apps, this can be an exceptional alternative to pen and paper. It’s completely portable and easy to use.
Oh, and one last thing, everything can be stored on the cloud. You will never end up losing your valuable collection of notes.
Even the basic iPad, available for as little as $230 at times, can fulfill all of these. It’s the perfect notebook. Literally.
