Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 187th day.
Today's topic is: Record Both Your Notes and Your Handwriting
What if I told you, there was a software that will record notes and your handwriting? The software exists and it's called Notability.
When using Notability, first I suggest using the iPad. Because it is much more convenient to write on the larger screen. I have been using this app for 5 or 6 years now.
So how and when might you use this tool? I've often used Notability when attending training courses. Also, when having business meetings with your team, it's convenient to use this tool. Some even use this to record their diary entries.
Earlier we talked about Evernote. So what's the difference between Evernote and Notability? Well, Evernote is used mainly to enter text and store notes. Notability is mainly used to record handwriting.
There are three categories of features I want to share with you.
First, I will give you an overview of the functions of the Notability app. While its purpose is capturing your handwriting, it does capture text as well which means you can type.
For its handwriting feature, it has a digital pencil tool which you can use to highlight text. It has an airbrush to edit and it also has a rubber to erase things.
One great function is its ability to record audio at the same time as you are writing. It will capture the audio with the item that you're writing down. It's very convenient. Imagine capturing the speakers lecture as you're recording the notes at the same time. It's very good.
Second, let's talk about its sharing capabilities.
First of all, it can sync directly with the iCloud, which is Apple's backup storage system. So you can use the iPad or iPhone to back up files. You can also sync between your own iPhone, iPad and Mac.
You can also send your Notability files and notes to Evernote and it will be captured in the form of a PDF. This makes it easy to email notes to others.
I like to organize all my Notability files in Evernote because it is easier and more efficient to access the files out of Evernote. Therefore, I use Notability to capture my handwriting notes, then transfer it to Evernote for organization and access. Thus, Notability is not the final destination for my notes. Evernote is. If we keep all of our information in different apps, it makes it difficult to find things later on. It is disorganized and inefficient.
The other option might be to use Evernote to capture your handwriting notes but its function is not nearly as good as Notability. So I use Notability to write the handwritten notes and then Evernote to store and share the notes with others.
The third and last part, that I would like to talk about is whether or not you should use a digital pen when using Notability.
The problem with using your fingers to write even on a large iPad surface is that the letters are too big. One solution is to use a digital pen. There are many different versions you can use, but the downside is you must remember to take the pen with you, and you must charge it frequently. This is inconvenient, so I recommend you do not use a digital pen.
Instead, I suggest you use your finger to write. Notability has a special function, that solves the problem caused by the large size of your finger on the small screen. You can write inside a small box on the screen and it will automatically shrink the handwriting to whatever preference you decide.
Let me explain specifically how you can do this.
In Notability, click on the top half of the pencil button, on the point pen icon, and then click it again. It will allow you to select the type of track and the size of the track. That's the point of the pen. The track is the digital ink or the size of the words.
In the lower right corner, there is a magnifying glass. Click here to open it. A window will pop out and take up the lower half of the iPad screen, but you can adjust it to 1/3 to 1/4, or even 1/5 of the screen. Now it is easy to write in that box and it will automatically adjust the size of the font. You can even select whether you're left handed or right handed.
So you write inside the window, the font will automatically shrink to fit and this size is customizable. This feature is one of the many reasons I strongly recommend Notability over other such apps.
Each of the tools we talk about here has minor advantages, but when used together, I hope you can see just how much more productive and efficient you can be! Go try it out today, guys!
That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together. Have a wonderful day!