Notability: Best for Taking Notes on iPad and Mac

We have often recommended Notability for note taking on iPad or iPhone. This is because it is the best option on the iPad. There is no other note-taking app that works similarly on both iOS and Mac. The app uses iCloud to sync between the two platforms. We’ll take a look at what makes Notability such a quality note-taking app on iPad and Mac.

Attention on iPad

Apple launched the 12.7-inch iPad Pro last year and the 9.7-inch Apple Pencil earlier this year, great for both drawing and writing. The release has transformed Notability from a really good note-taking, diagramming, and simple drawing app into a great app.

The app organizes the notes into folders on the left. They are color coded to make it easy to find what you are looking for. Tap a folder to see your list of notes. The list shows the note titles and the date they were last used.

Users can search for note titles and text written in notes from the note editing screen. The import button in the middle of the three buttons in the upper left corner allows users to fetch notes from Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, or a WebDAV site. You can import a PDF file from Dropbox and start marking next to a new note or when you add it to another note. Other supported file types include images. This places the image on a note page ready to write around or on it.

The notes screen has a toolbar at the top with the note taking area that uses the rest of the screen. The user can change the appearance of the note page. I prefer a narrow lined page for my notes. The button in the upper left corner that looks like a switch allows users to select Paper to change the background. You can also set the default paper view in the app’s Settings. Download the others from Settings.

Tap on the magnifying glass in the lower left corner to turn on zoomed typing.

The app allows the user to type directly on the page, but the zoomed typing feature makes it easy to type lowercase letters and words on a lined page. Users can select text using the selection tool in the toolbar, which looks like scissors. Move text or other selected objects by dragging with your finger or Pen. Press and hold to change the thickness or color of words or drawings. See the first image at the top of this post for a screenshot.

Tap the microphone icon to start recording. The recording syncs with your typing or typing.

Notability also includes audio recording. Tapping the microphone icon in the toolbar starts recording. Syncs recording with note-taking. Tap a note associated with the recording to listen to what’s going on in the room as you write the note.

When you’re done, you can export your notes using the built-in sharing features or the iOS Sharing feature.

We covered the basics of using Notability for iPad. It works similarly on iPhone, but the app hides some toolbar features.

Here’s why it’s the best note-taking app on iPad:

We would like to see a few improvements:

Attention on Mac

Notability for Mac works pretty much the same as on iPad. The application layout is the same with a few exceptions. You can find the settings in the usual location for Mac Application Preferences – under the program’s menu name in the menu bar. Also, most of the features appear in the menu and behind the onscreen buttons in the toolbar. No zoomed handwriting mode. However, when the user clicks the second button from the right in the toolbar, a nice pen settings section appears along the right edge.

The fact that the application is on all platforms helps people who use their phones, tablets and computers to take notes. Adding things to one platform allows the user to use the notes in the program on other platforms. For example, thanks to the fast and reliable iCloud sync feature, it’s easier to attach a photo taken on my iPhone to a note I created on my iPad. Then when I get home I can open the same note on the Mac and convert the entire note into a PDF ready to share with colleagues or other students.

Price and Availability

iPad and iPhone version It costs $7.99. Buy once and use on both devices. Interestingly, the Mac version only costs $5.99 on the Mac App Store. As mentioned above, there is no version for Windows or Android.