Paper Notebook replacement

[garyconrad]

I am an outside sales representative that sees about 10 clients per day. I would like to replace my leather bound paper notebook with the IPad. I take many pages of notes during the day, and would like to be able to transfer these notes to my computer. At this time I have to spend hours copying them at the end of the day.

Will there be any programs that will allow me to do this? Maybe I could just use word and save the file to my imac.

thanks!

gary

 

[JSRinUK]

If you mean writing on it using a stylus as a pen, then I don't think it's designed for that.

If, however, you mean typing documents then the iPad-specific iWork apps were announced during the Keynote. If you get Pages ($10) on the iPad and use that, then I'm sure you'll be able to transfer to you imac.

I'm intending on doing a similar type of thing - using Pages to work on documents on the iPad and then later exporting them as Word .doc files to my netbook.

We don't yet know how good the on-screen keyboard will be for typing up great swathes of text, but I'm hoping it'll be do-able for at least a modicum amount of work.

 

[wyneken]

There's always the bluetooth keyboard, in case the on-screen keyboard doesn't prove very satisfying.

 

[kornchild2002]

It isn't a bluetooth keyboard but rather a keyboard dock accessory. It doesn't go through bluetooth, it uses the dock connector on the bottom of the iPad and has a dock connector on the back along with a 3.5mm audio jack.

That holds true unless I missed the announcement from a company saying that they are coming out with a bluetooth keyboard for the iPad.

 

[wyneken]

I think what the company said, unless I'm mistaken, is that the iPad will have bluetooth capability, so the existing Apple wireless keyboard will work with the device.

 

[JSRinUK]

My recollection agrees with wyneken. I'm pretty sure it was said that the iPad would support both the Apple wireless keyboard.

Just checked and:

iPad also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology, letting you connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/design/

I don't know if it'll work with other bluetooth keyboards, but I would expect it to.

 

[kornchild2002]

Ah, OK. I thought wyneken was talking about a specific iPad bluetooth keyboard or something. I knew it came with bluetooth 2.1+EDR but I wasn't aware if Apple was going to come out with drivers for their bluetooth keyboard. Having bluetooth is only half of the equation; the iPad's OS would have to be able to use drivers in order to communicate with the hardware. I wonder what else they are going to support with the iPad. It is kind of interesting that Apple will support their bluetooth keyboard when they are coming out with a docking keyboard. Knowing Apple's past, one would think that they wouldn't do this. Oh well, it benefits people who have already purchased it.

 

[astroman33]

It really will depend on how much note taking you're doing and how well the iPad's keyboard will work for you.

One alternative is to consider a previous generation, lightly used Mac laptop (say an iBook) for your "road trips". You already have an iMac and knowing the OS and use the keyboard. OTOH, perhaps the situations you're in with your clients would make it awkward to be typing on a laptop in their presence. Or, maybe they should get used to it! Or, even better, they might be impressed with you!

Either way, iPad or iBook (or MacBook Pro), it would save you the additional step of typing your notes in and be worth it.

 

[Mochan]

I think for typing up notes on the go and transferring them to your computer, the iTouch or iPhone is way better. From what I gather you can't use the iPad to type something while you're standing in front of a client because of the way the keyboard works. Unless you're a master of hunt and peck typing.

You'd still have to sit down and put it on a table (in which case a netbook would be a much better proposition).

If you want portability to go with your notetaking the way a leather-bound notebook is used, the iTouch or iPhone are way better.

 

[JSRinUK]

From what I gather you can't use the iPad to type something while you're standing in front of a client because of the way the keyboard works. Unless you're a master of hunt and peck typing.

What's "hunt and peck typing"? I envisaged holding the iPad like a clipboard and typing with one hand, if I'm standing up. Are you saying that's not "the way the keyboard works"?

If you want portability to go with your notetaking the way a leather-bound notebook is used, the iTouch or iPhone are way better.

I don't have fat fingers, but I've never properly got to grips with the iPod Touch keyboard for typing anything longer than a quick one or two line email. The squinty little screen and keys so small that I'm forever having to correct my words doesn't make the experience a nice one. The larger format of the iPad would seem to solve this problem, I would have thought.

The iWork apps, particularly Pages with all its formatting options, would surely make the iPad a far better note-taker than the basic text app on the iPod Touch.

 

[kornchild2002]

If you want portability to go with your notetaking the way a leather-bound notebook is used, the iTouch or iPhone are way better.

How? Apple is not releasing their iWork software for the iPod touch or iPhone and both of those have much smaller screens than an iPad. I guess that makes since: it is easier to thumb around on a smaller device in front of a client than to sit there holding something on one hand and typing with the other. Yeah, that is just what I want to see: someone bring out their cellphone in the middle of a meeting.

 

[Bromdale]

Handwriting recognition

An on-screen keyboard is a hopelessly ineffective solution to the text-entry problem. The whole point of the iPad is to make the keyboard obsolete. Someone, somewhere will bring Handwriting Recognition to the iPad very soon.

Bromdale

 

[JSRinUK]

An on-screen keyboard is a hopelessly ineffective solution to the text-entry problem. The whole point of the iPad is to make the keyboard obsolete. Someone, somewhere will bring Handwriting Recognition to the iPad very soon.

If so, I hope it's an effective solution.

My old PDA had the option of handwriting recognition but it was a right pain. The current multiple options of handwriting recognition on my touchscreen phone are no improvement over the old PDA. Constantly trying again and again to get it to understand the word I'm writing just makes me go back to stabbing away at the tiny on-screen keyboard on the grounds that jabbing with a stylus, despite being slow, is so much quicker.

How many people these days can write neatly enough for the handwriting recognition apps to recognise what it is you're trying to write in the first place?

A better option would probably be one of those voice recognition solutions - so you could just speak to the iPad and have it turn your words into text.

 

[Mochan]

How? Apple is not releasing their iWork software for the iPod touch or iPhone and both of those have much smaller screens than an iPad. I guess that makes since: it is easier to thumb around on a smaller device in front of a client than to sit there holding something on one hand and typing with the other. Yeah, that is just what I want to see: someone bring out their cellphone in the middle of a meeting.

I'm just not convinced that you can enter data properly and quickly enough on the iPad with one hand and the keyboard. Whereas thumb typing is a proven fast and effective method.

Celphone? Think of it as a PDA. The iTouch isn't even a phone.

 

[wyneken]

I'm just not convinced that you can enter data properly and quickly enough on the iPad with one hand and the keyboard. Whereas thumb typing is a proven fast and effective method..

Only because the limitations of existing devices have forced us to learn how to do this -- in the same dynamic that played out with the Qwerty key layout of an old-fashioned typewriter (which, as I understand it, was designed originally to slow typists down so that the primitive machines would not jam).

Surely if people (not including me, I should add) have managed to teach themselves to thumb-type, they can manage to adapt to a much larger and user-friendly keyboard.

 

[JSRinUK]

I'm just not convinced that you can enter data properly and quickly enough on the iPad with one hand and the keyboard. Whereas thumb typing is a proven fast and effective method.

Personally, from my own experience with my iPod Touch, I could not agree that thumb typing is either fast or effective. Anything more than two lines in an email and I've had enough already. I'm forever correcting words it thinks I haven't spelt right, while the squinty little screen and tiny on-screen keyboard doesn't do anything to improve the situation.

On the other hand, I've been typing on QWERTY keyboards for the best part of 30 years. I haven't learned any particular "rules" of typing. People do find it amusing that, while in the middle of a long typing session, I often switch to one hand typing - either to drink from my coffee cup with the free hand or sift through my notes or whatever.

I suspect I'll find one hand typing on the iPad to be much more of a "fast and effective" method of data entry than thumb typing, particularly as I'll be able to swap between one and two-handed by just turning the iPad around.

Maybe the T9/SMS generation would prefer thumb typing, but I'm not one of them.

 

[jmuhobo]

Frankly,

I think this could be done by a talented group of developers. Developing an application that works just like a notepad and you could use a writing tool like
this

http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Designs-Sketch-Blackberry-Motorola/dp/B0021L6F3M.

I used to own a tablet pc in college and always took my notes on my tablet with a stylus.

I think developers could developer it, i mean they have that drawing software on IPHONE/ITOUCH that uses your finger and saves your drawing.

Why not create an application that uses the same concept but saves it as a pdf or a gif or jpeg. I think it's VERY feasible and if someone does develop it. IPAD and the Software could make a ton of money.

 

[JSRinUK]

Only because the limitations of existing devices have forced us to learn how to do this -- in the same dynamic that played out with the Qwerty key layout of an old-fashioned typewriter (which, as I understand it, was designed originally to slow typists down so that the primitive machines would not jam).

This is a little off-topic but I believe you're only half right. The layout was to stop original typewriters from jamming, but the intent was not to slow the user down - quite the opposite in fact.

With the keys being linked directly to the typebars that were situated in a semi-circle, common key pairings would often result in two typebars being up at the same time with the high risk of jamming. By separating the keys, the typebars were also separated, which reduced the chance of jamming - thus allowing the user to maintain a good typing speed.

Of course, jamming still happened (I started on an old typewriter back in the 80s and know first hand that it wasn't perfect) but far less frequently than it would otherwise have done.

 

[wyneken]

This is a little off-topic but I believe you're only half right. The layout was to stop original typewriters from jamming, but the intent was not to slow the user down - quite the opposite in fact.

With the keys being linked directly to the typebars that were situated in a semi-circle, common key pairings would often result in two typebars being up at the same time with the high risk of jamming. By separating the keys, the typebars were also separated, which reduced the chance of jamming - thus allowing the user to maintain a good typing speed.

Of course, jamming still happened (I started on an old typewriter back in the 80s and know first hand that it wasn't perfect) but far less frequently than it would otherwise have done.

Thanks for filling the gaps in my "little knowledge." This makes perfect sense.

I've jammed up a keyboard in my day, too. And unlike a Brit friend of mine, I don't come anywhere close to 10,000 words a day.

 

[goneapplecrazy]

Has anyone seen the video for MS Courier?

If there's one actual notebook replacement I've seen, the Courier seems like it

The iPad will most likely be a device to read on and surf a little internet or maybe watch a video or two