Notability: Notes, PDF Reviews

by Angrmtz

Many issues that I don’t like. The microphone function has a lot of potential but ultimately the only thing I can hear after recording in large lecture rooms are staticky background noises and the tapping of my pencil when I’m writing.
The left handed mode doesn’t make much sense to me. I’m used to functions being on the top and now functions are on the bottom and don’t actually help with being left handed.
There’s also A LOT of skipping that occurs which is incredibly annoying and there are times when I will be writing a letter but it is automatically changed to a shape. When I try press the back function to erase the shape, letters written before the shape are erased so I have to use the actual eraser. In instances like that, it would be nice to have a forward function because somethings are accidentally erased but now I have to completely rewrite it.
The font size for pencil and higher are completely out of wack. I tend to write pretty hard so the writing gets very thick even though I have it on a thin setting and the examples of the thickness aren’t very representative. I also wish we had more control over the colors we prefer. All default colors are first which I only use black and it comes with a bunch of colors I don’t like but can’t delete them or change them to colors I’d prefer. I came from GoodNotes and I’m very use to their functions which might be the issue but since I paid for this app I actually want to use it.

by TheGreenMiles

I will start by saying this app has been an amazing note-taking app for me. I purchased this app for iOS and macOS. Two separate purchases. The reason for the one star review though is the planned change in their pricing structure. Giger labs has determined it best to transition to a subscription model. I don’t mind this on it’s own. Where I take issue is that they are legit removing features such as iCloud sync, hand-writing detection, and math from the upcoming “free version”. These are not new features- but instead features that were added in previously to those who paid for Notability , essentially crippling our versions and “stealing” our money.

Ginger labs are going about this transition all wrong. If they want a better model, look at fantastical. They too transitioned to a subscription, but when they did, all the features added up to that point still accessible to those who previously paid for Notability .

I strongly believe that Ginger Lab’s plan to lock away features previously provided to those who paid for Notability amounts to theft, and unless this policy is changed, I suggest everyone who bought Notability files a complaint with the BBB, Apple, and their State’s attorney General. For those that have paid for Notability, please do not update to subscription until they change course. Goodnotes is also a wonderful not taking app, and even Apple notes has become pretty darn good.

by Jfletcher2020

I have seen several other complaints about this app needing better organization, so it is upsetting knowing that nothing has been done to address this issue. There needs to be some kind of additional their of organization that allows you to either 1) put the dividers into a folder. For instance, all my dividers have a bunch of subjects in them, and when i am done with this semester, I would like to be able to put those dividers into one large folder that says “fall 2020.” Or, 2) you could keep the dividers/subjects, but add another teir underneath subjects where you could subdivide specific lessons. All in all, the divider and subjects organization that is in place is too simplistic.

I cannot recommend Notability to someone who is doing most (potentially all) their school work on it. It just doesn’t have enough organization. Another issue is when you go to send a file to this app, it brings up a ton of subjects, all the subjects you have ever created. If you are using the subjects tab for weekly modules like I do, it gets very annoying to find the correct subject as I have around 50 (and i have only been using it for one semester).

Notability is nice to take notes in, but not long term. It has worked well for a single semester, but I do not know how I will be able to continue adding files with such a simplistic organization style.

by ThatThomasGuy13

Notability is solid, as everyone else has already pointed out. The thing is, it could easily be better for those that like tiered organization. If you’re using a divider for a subject, you can’t use dividers within that subject. Dividers are meant to /divide/. Notability describes a “divider” as “dividers group subjects,” which is literally not the definition of dividing. GoodNotes’ organization system is bounds better, but this one has a few features that make me stay with it. It would be perfect if they just added additional organization levels, but it’s a real hinderance for the schooling that I do between my engineering major and sociology minor.

Update:
I moved to Apple during my internship 2 years ago. For school, I try limiting everything to just my iPad and MacBook. I even get digital copies of my textbooks. I used this app and GoodNotes to try testing which was better. They each had their pros and cons. What ended up nudging me to GoodNotes was how engaged they were with their forums and feature requests. I forgot what this app didn't have, but it was a big thing people had been requesting for literal years. In their feature request forums, there was absolutely no engagement from the devs. I knew they were only making this product for money. Now they're going subscription based? Especially with lack of interest for customer input? Lame.

by Troyfig

I’ve been using this app for the past few years and love it. Being able to upload PPT and PDF decks for meetings and then take notes on my ipad has been a game changer for productivity. I can review documents - mark them up - and then send the notes directly back to my team. Except for a (very) slight delay sometimes between my Mac and my ipad, everything was seamless. I recommended this app to everyone.

However, the latest release of this app for Mac is a disaster. It crashes often. When it isn’t crashing it’s nearly impossible to use. Trying to drag notes from one folder to another is incredibly frustrating - difficult to accomplish and takes a ton of time to get it to work. Often I can’t seem to drag and drop except on the fourth or fifth try. Imagine if your mouse pointer only worked about 25% of the time. Also - I used to be able to “print to this app” directly from PPT (incredibly useful for quick uploads) and that feature is gone. And uploading a folder from Finder by dragging it over to this app is frustrating - super laggy, often results in the “spinning wheel of death”, or just crashes Notability . I would go back to the previous version is a hot second if I could. It’s so annoying that I’ve even considered moving to a different notes system - although I really don’t want to do that.

I love Notabilty and the ipad version works great. But I need my full this app ecosystem to work well together. Like it used to.

by Horse Girl 710

I’ve been using this app for about 7 years now. As a student, it is important to make sure you don’t miss any information and sometimes that can be difficult if the professor goes too fast. One tool that I started using about 3 years ago was the microphone to record lectures. I loved it because I could follow along with what the professor was saying and what I wrote as well. Right now I’m really upset with this app because of a bug. Recently I’ve been having problems when I completely close out of Notability . Not only are my recordings getting deleted, but so are my notes!!! That’s a major problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an app quite like this app, so I will have to stick with good old fashioned pen and paper until this problem is resolved.
I’ve also been having problems with the other tools. I usually have no problem with changing colors, font sizes, or anything related to that nature but I can’t even do that anymore! This isn’t a huge issue as I can still select the right tool, but it’s hard to organize my notes. I also can’t create subjects or dividers anymore which is driving me insane! It’s the beginning of the semester which means I need to be able to organize myself from the start to work efficiently throughout the rest of the semester. I’ve never had any issues with Notability before, but these are some major problems that need to be fixed before I continue using it.

by Tye Fighter

I use Notability for all my schoolwork. Its ability to have to notes open at a time has been essential. I have been able to have power point slides open on one half of my screen and my notes on the other, and then easily copy and paste diagrams from power points into my notes. Another amazing feature is the ability to search your own handwriting. This has made it considerably easier to search for a specific topic, when my notes become many pages long. The only downside to Notability is its lack of organization. You can only create one layer of folders. Meaning instead of being able to have sub folders for each of my classes such as exams, quizzes, homework, notes, etc. I am only able to divide my content by semester and class. I really hope they add the ability to create sub folders to help with organization. Because have 30+ notes for one subject isn’t very efficient.

My other big complaint is with the pricing changes. I liked how you could buy a single sticker pack or a technology piece, and you only had to pay once. However now, you have to subscribe and a pay a yearly fee to access these features. Build the cost of these features into Notability , and please take away the subscription, or allow people to buy things at a slightly higher rate… but without need to pay a regular fee.

by Rico_927

Notability could probably be the best note taking app for students just because of the recording feature. The tools up top are fine but they are missing so much compared to GoodNotes. Most of the size for the Pen are useless. After the 4th or 5th size the strokes become way too big for any practical purpose. Same thing with the highlighter except it the opposite. The varying sizes for the erasers is great though because I can basically erase pixels or entire sentences if needed. The cut and paste tool will not select small strokes or words for whatever reason, so sometimes I’m forced to erase and redraw or write. Other than that its works great. Seriously the only tool carrying Notability is the Recording feature, GoodNotes has them beat in every other department. (I never mentioned the lack of templates). If GoodNotes has that feature I would go back to GoodNotes immediately, but they don’t so I stay with this app. Now the bugs are getting annoying. I cant go a 1 minute without my lines not drawing or Notability freezing or the zoom in feature freezing Notability . Also the random shapes I get when writing sometimes that I cant delete with the back button and for some reason can only be removed by the eraser. Idk maybe these bugs will eventually send me back to GoodNotes and lectures will have to be recorded the hard way.

by (ง ͠° ͟J ͡°)ง

I love Notability, it is definitely the best for note taking on a tablet out there. However, I had a performance issue last year and I tried to contact support and no one ever got back to me. I’ve had similar issues and didn’t bother reaching out because I knew it would be futile. In my opinion, a product can be mediocre, but if it has great customer service, that sets it apart. this app is the opposite. The product is great (in theory), but whenever there are issues, there is no support. Notability is constantly glitching, between the handwriting jumping around the page randomly, not allowing me to close out of the right side menu that allows you to search in the document, or the most annoying bug where a note scrolls to the bottom of a page and will not let you go back to the top until you close out of Notability . Currently, I am having an issue where I have two notes open at once (one is a pdf of my textbook, and one is the notes I am taking from it), and there are numerous problems, including those I just mentioned, as well as tools not working as I am trying to go back and forth writing on both documents. This is the best notetaking app I’ve tried, but the constant bugs are extremely frustrating when this is the main mode I use to read textbooks, take notes, and get homework done.

by RobPrater

I can attest to the comments regarding the palm rejection issues after the recent update. Since the update, anytime I attempt to take class notes with the Apple Pencil results in erratic screen behavior. It will zoom in or out randomly, delete the last portion of what is written, or the screen will shift/shake. This only occurs when I am trying to write and my palm is resting on the lower portion of the screen.

I have had some previous issues with palm rejection, mainly with the shifting of the screen or zoom but it has been manageable up until this update. It has become basically unusable for me in terms of handwriting since the recent update and the handwriting feature is nearly the sole purpose for purchasing Notability in my case. I’ve basically had to resort to other apps for note taking because this has become nearly impossible to write on (unless I write without my palm on the screen and that is definitely not an alternative for me).

After reading the previous comments, I have already performed a hard reset of my iPad (an iPad Pro 11” on iOS 12.3), turned off the palm rejection feature in this app and turned it back on, and finally uninstalled Notability completely then reinstalled. None of these attempts have rendered any improvement. Hopefully this is something that can be investigated by the developer and corrected quickly as this has been my preferred app for note taking.

by Rainera

Notability has almost everything anyone who is going to school could ask for, except one very vital thing, that I know for me makes Notability a total nightmare to use.
Notability is great for grabbing PDF file imports and webpage imports for references, which I need lots and lots for my masters program that I am in. However, the organization of Notability is a logistical nightmare! Trying to separate the pages is difficult since they all seem to download into the “new” directory, and then once you locate them, putting them in any orderly fashion is nearly impossible.

Why haven’t you, with such a wonderful app, been able how to figure out how to add notebooks and folders? Notebooks for the class subjects, so we could create a folder called something like “625 BUS Ethical Business Practice” and then have file folders within the notebooks to put out PDF files that we need for our weekly research papers, and then have them accumulated for reference if we wanted to use them for our final 10-15 page papers, without having to try and sort through all of the pdf files that have been downloaded again. Because the organization of files is so difficult to do, and working full time and school, I don’t have time to try and force this program to work the I want it to work.

by Kmc121084

Notability is very helpful, especially the feature to record lectures. I can stay on top of what my professor says easier, and use the Apple Pencil to highlight or emphasize certain points. There is a bit of a delay for the notes and the audio, so when I click on a note, I know to automatically hit the “rewind 10 seconds” button, but I just deal with it because it is so helpful regardless. However, while the recording ability is the star feature of Notability, the other features need improvement.

1. Since more classes are taking place online due to the pandemic, there should be an option to record lectures using the iPad’s internal microphone. Right now, I play the lectures on my phone and record audio with the iPad, since I do not have a better option.

2. Second, and my biggest gripe with Notability is ORGANIZATION. Although you can have subjects, and place notes in the subjects, I want the ability to make folders within the subjects. A lot of my subjects in school are so complex - with labs and assignments in addition to lecture notes and different subtopics, the ability to make folders within subjects is seriously ESSENTIAL. The most I can do is change the name at the beginning of the file to reflect what kind of material it is (ex: Lab 1, Assignemnt 2, etc.) but the ability to make folders really holds Notability behind. I still use it for the recording feature, but the lack of organizational options available is really frustrating.

by GDOGUNDERSCORE

Notability is my go to app for anything I do in school. It has made taking notes fun and easy. And now after using Notability for a little over a year and a half, I can absolutely say that this is my favorite note taking app. Practically everything that I do for school is on Notability, which when paired to my phone makes it a breeze to quickly scroll through my notes at any time. The writing feels fluid with great options for size and colors. Importing files and documents is extremely easy and fast. On tops of this, the line straitening and shape recognition is amazingly useful and easy, without being intrusive or correcting things that were not meant to be corrected.

My one issue I have is with organization. Especially towards the end of the year when I have hundreds of notes and files, they can often be lost in the clutter. I have found ways around this by specifically labeling my files so all of my notes, quizzes, tests, and handouts are all sorted by category alphabetically, but I wish there was a way to put folders inside of subjects. Notability is my favorite, but to make it the best it really needs a better way to organize files inside of subjects. Again, I cant imagine creating folders inside of subjects would be hard do and I really hope they include this soon in an update.

by _Music-Lover_

I’ve been using Notability for years, and appreciate all the updates that have occurred since then. Notability has sufficed all my note taking needs, in and out of the classroom. One feature I would like to see is the ability to rename recordings, and possibly to attach these recordings to individual pages. One thing I’ve tried doing this semester is have the recording function on while at a lecture, but having numerous recordings in a file that grows daily is difficult with the current set up. If you don’t remember the time stamp or recording number for a particular point, you have to guess and listen for a bit to see if it’s right. It’s either that, or guess based on the date the notes were recorded. If you could at least rename the audio files, Notability would be more useful. It would also be nice if you could change the paper style of individual pages, as well as a feature that easily allows you to draw geometric shapes (adding a figure on top of a graph sticky or any other element get tricky when you click on the wrong one. Sometimes because of that, the graph background ends up on top, and the figure behind it, rendering it useless).

There aren’t really any visible bugs with this version of Notability , Would recommend for someone looking for a suitable note taking app, whether it’s handwritten or type. I think the addition of a few features would make it better.

by Jason 909

Writing a review of this app is hard. On the one hand, I use it every single day on my iPad. I do a lot of reading/research for my job, so this app has saved me from being buried under an endless pile of paper. I even pair it up with Scanbot so I can quickly scan materials in meetings and then have all my notes/handouts in a single place. Being able to search my handwriting is a game-changer! So is having access to my documents and notes everywhere, including my laptop, and having all changes and edits synced through iCloud. I’ve always wanted to go paperless with ubiquitous access to everything; this app is my hub for that.

Which brings me to my chief complaint about this app: it’s iPhone app is terrible. It’s nice to see my notes on my phone if I need to skim something quickly on the go, but basic functionality is missing. You can’t search a document, highlight pages, see all the pages in a document—if you’re looking for something, you can only scroll until you find it. That’s ok if you’re talking about two pages of notes; but if you are looking at a 50 page journal article trying to find something, it’s ridiculous. Competitors have this functionality on iPhones, but this app has never added it. I wish they would! I also wish they would format text-only notes like Google Docs, adjusting text size for a given display without affecting the formatting.

by J Micah

I was using OneNote on a Surface tablet until the digitizer stopped working. I decided to try using an iPad Pro instead, since they’re lighter. this app was the only app to offer most of the same functionality as OneNote on a Windows tablet. There are many things that I prefer about this app, but there are a few issues that prevent me from giving it more stars: first, I would like the ability to create a group of commonly used highlighters/pens for marking up documents. I have a system of using certain colors to represent certain things, and I would like to be able to organize all those highlighters and pens into a group where I determine the order and placement. If that is possible in this app, I haven’t been able to figure it out. Secondly, I use this app in a setting where I’m regularly working with several languages (including RTL - Right to Left languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic). this app does not have good support for combining multiple languages in one document at this time, especially not mixed English-Hebrew or English-Aramaic. Please give this app the ability to recognize and format RTL languages. I can do that natively on most Apple apps, and many 3rd party apps, so the inability to do that on this app really sticks out. Please improve these issues, and I will gladly give it a 5 star rating. In fact, if those two issues are fixed, I won’t even miss using OneNote for most of my coursework.

by Lyuldo Drop

To help me diagram charts and graphs I like to use the shape feature where Notability tries to guess the shape you’re drawing such as a square or a circle and makes it clean and orthogonal for you. One particular thing that frustrates me is that I would draw a rather crude rectangle and it only registers it as a rectangle like 40% of the time. Notability has a tendency to turn my rectangles into an arrow or some random trapezoid or rhombus shape.

I think a solution to this problem would be to have Notability have a built in calibration setting that the user can set up. This way I can draw a rectangle and tell Notability to ONLY recognize rectangle, circles, or oval shapes. I have no need for rectangles or random trapezoid shapes and don’t know why they were even considered when the conversion system is super buggy and inconsistent. Having more shapes for Notability to recognize just makes it more difficult for Notability to be consistent.

Please give the user an option to select what shapes are recognized or at least gives us the ability to draw a shape and tell Notability this is what we want and calibrate its sensitivity to how we draw shapes. Either that or give us the option to place the shape into our notes like a sticker as done in Microsoft word.

by K1lluhk4m

I love Notability it is almost everything I’ve ever wanted. I’m very happy with the usability of it in comparison to other note taking apps. I’m not a fan of the subscription model I would rather pay an obscene price one time instead of having an app potentially affect me in the future. My advice is to throw in a lifetime deal for like $50. People could complain but at least they’d have the option. Two features that I would love to see come to Notability is to be able to pin audio to a page visually, with a play button and a slider. I use Notability for creating story boards and if I can have audio cue in correlation to my my scene breakdowns; I would make more practical use of the audio player. The second feature that I would like to see, is a lasso tool for images. Or an eraser for images. when I create a scene I want to be able to take a picture of my scenes and props and arrange them within Notability . The Apple Pencil support is BEAUTIFUL! It would be nice to get some smudging features and paint for it. I would like the option to highlight over pictures as well so I’m able to simulate lighting on my subjects. GIF’s. This is definitely more than two things 😅 but currently AS IS this app is a complete product is worthy of its asking price. However I feel that if those few tweaks were added it would be worth even more and it wouldn’t be debated.

by Eddy2050

I’m a computer science student graduating in August 2020. this app has been incredibly helpful as a work tool for school. I bought myself an iPad as a freshman in university. I also bought this app to take notes. Not having to worry about carrying notebooks and losing papers has been an enormous help. All my notes are taken and saved in this app. I have an entire 4 years of university on Notability. The synchronized recording with pen note taking has been the single most helpful thing for me. In some of my toughest computer science courses I would record the lecture (with audio built in on the this app app) and when I was confused (because I couldn’t keep up with the speed of the lecture) I would go back and listen to the audio and know exactly where the confusion occurred because the writing was synchronized with the location in the audio. I’ve tried multiple note-taking apps (paid ones too) and this is by far my favorite. Thank you this app team! One thing I would appreciate is a better file management system. Having four years worth of work on my this app app makes file management essential and the current file management could be improved!

by Millbean

I’ve waited a long time to write this because I want to know an app fully before judging it. I’ve used this app for the past 3+ years along with GoodNotes. I can confidently say that this app is the superior app. Yes, there are many more features that I wish were present in both apps but, as a whole, this is the best note taking app. In its basic form, handwriting in Notability is perfect. Whatever software that GoodNotes uses to try to improve your handwriting is incredibly annoying and causes it to look worse. Its not that way with this app. What you write is what it shows. The file management style is much easier to follow than the endless folders in GoodNotes. Also, when major updates come, you don’t have to pay for it. Paper templates and being able to set your 3 most used colors and pen sizes right on the task bar will HOPEFULLY be coming to this app soon. That is the biggest drawback I think. Having to do multiple touches every time I want to switch pen size can be annoying and when taking notes in lecture, can take up valuable time. Having those right on the top bar would be INVALUABLE. Other than that, Notability is superior to GoodNotes in general.

by Mandy Vanz

So, here’s the thing. There are a lot of note taking apps on the market. I feel like if you want a quality one, maybe you need to pay for it. So, I purchased this one and Good Notes. I’ve used Evernote and Microsoft OneNote as well. Nothing sets this apart from competitors besides the price. And please beware: that price for the iOS app does not include the desktop app. That’s a separate charge. You can’t access it through a browser either. That’s a huge negative in my opinion.

Additionally, sometimes Notability will crash (like during iOS updates) and you’ll lose your subjects and dividers. So, there’s a way to get your subjects back, but you’re out of luck with your dividers. What does this mean? It means that all of the classes you’ve set up for multiple semesters will be wiped out. Whatever was organized under is able to be obtained, but you have to go back through and sort all of it. Do you know what an incredibly awful and tedious task that is? When you contact their customer service, they’re basically just like “Oh, sorryyyyy yeah we don’t care.”

If you’re still reading this, oh hey. One last final note: don’t waste your money. I’ve tried them all and think Microsoft OneNote is really the way to go. It’s free, you get cloud storage, Notability on the computer is free, and you get full functionality of program. Recent updates means it does EXACTLY what this app does.

by Ngizoqgrhuv

Currently I am loving Notability. I have been using it for a couple days now and I’ve been able to transfer all my notes from Microsoft’s OneNote without a hiccup. Though in my time using Notability, I have discovered two things that could need some improvement on. The first is, being able to name a file the same name as another, so long as it’s in a different location. Currently i am left adding a (1) or (2) for duplicate file names for different classes. And ultimately my notes look less organized. With that said, my main concern is the lack of notes segregation and organization. Currently, the only two methods to separate your notes are the Divider and Subject functionality. It would be Godsend if there was another sub-level category. A folder within a subject per se. For example: You have Math as a subject, Great! Now within the math subject, you have different kinds of notes that you would like separate from others. Like notes for different kinds of tests, notes for quizzes, notes for Classroom discussion, notes for projects, notes for resource documents. All of these you would like to be easily distinguishable from another, thus you group them likewise. Consider implementing these features as I believe it will become a game changer, this is definitely a Five-Star app, the three star is just motivation. Love you guys!

by Mklawaters

Update: I have used Notability for YEARS now through high school, college, and now medical school. I love Notability and appreciate it to no ends. However, one ongoing issue I have noticed is its unreliability with downloading ppt files to PDF within Notability from Canvas. I don’t know if it’s a problem with communication with canvas or just a general issue with converting to pdf within Notability , but it’s annoying to have to convert all my lecture notes to pdf on my MacBook then transfer them to my iPad. It’s so unreliable I don’t think I can use only my iPad anymore, which is what my goal was. Anyway, long story short: I love Notability, but it’s been frustrating for about the past year or two.

The new update added better pencil integration, ,earning now it has actual pressure sensitivity rather than just the way they did it before which was through speed sensitivity determining the weight of the line drawn. This combined with the other amazing aspects of Notability that I have always enjoyed make this my favorite app ever. I use it in college to take notes and annotate presentations during lecture as well as at work for taking notes during meetings or as a work log. It is simply an amazing app, well worth the money, and I look forward to continue using it with my iPad Pro through medical school. Thank you ginger labs!!!

by Chris 123abc

I love noteability and would give 5 stars if it weren’t for the iCloud issues. I have Notability on my phone, MacBook, and iPad. I mainly use noteability on my iPad and enjoyed being able to create a note, and seamlessly read or edit it on my laptop or phone. However every once in awhile noteability would freeze all of my notes on my iPad and I wouldn’t be able to read or edit until it was done syncing which would take at least 30 minutes, sometimes hours. What’s even more frustrating is that sometimes I’ll be editing a note and Notability would be syncing that same note to the cloud in the background. So when I exit the note I have 2 sometimes 5 copies of the same note, and I have no idea which one is up to date. This especially happens if I have noteability open on more than one device at a time.

I got so sick of it that I’ve disabled iCloud syncing and only use it on my iPad, which is a shame because I paid 10 extra dollars for Notability on my MacBook (which is absolutely not worth it on its own by the way). The only device that gives all of the features that noteability has to offer is the iPad.

With that being said, I absolutely love Notability on my iPad and I hope that the dev team will fix this issue soon.

by Kevconfar

There are some missing features that hold it back from 5 stars:
1) When I take notes and annotate, I like to have multiple pens and highlighters out. There should be an option to add additional pens and highlighters to the toolbar. When rapidly taking notes, time is precious, and this would make it less tedious.
2) inserting diagrams is too difficult. There should be a math or shape mode that you can toggle on and off that auto recognizes shapes and fixes them. Having an math text mode that auto recognizes math notation would also be fantastic ... p.s. OneNotes version of this is poorly executed.
3)**** when I record lectures, I am always slightly behind when note taking. If there were an advanced feature where we could choose where the audio track lines up with the notes, that would be spectacular. Revisited notes would be much superior and would be more like sitting through the lecture again.****
4) there should be an option to directly add in PDFs to our notes. They could be added in as entire pages to the document, just integrating the PDF, or auto convert to an image to be pasted in. But working with PDFs in existing notes should be an option.

by Busylife0000

I absolutely love Notability. Between work, school, and life, Notability helps with notes, and my planners for everything. It’s so much more convenient to carry my iPad around rather than a bunch of books. Notability is very user friendly, making it very easy to take notes and convert from the pen to highlighter, etc. You can even search your own handwriting and text from a pdf that has been uploaded in the same file which makes it easy to go back and look for something specific instantly rather than scroll through pages of notes. Great app!!!

Update: I recently tried to access my notes on my iPhone, but half of the files wouldn’t sync between the ipad and my phone, which was annoying. I had down time to study and couldn’t because they wouldn’t sync. The only way to fix was to duplicate the file on the ipad so it would sync to my phone. It wasn’t a huge deal for that day, but could potentially be a major issue down the line if you don’t have the original device you used for the notes.

Other than that, I still think it’s a great app and recommend it to anyone who is switching to digital notes and who doesn’t want to carry around a bunch of binders/notebooks!

by Lalah-007

Notability is almost perfect. From the beginning I downloaded both GoodNotes and this app to try both. I can honestly say I can hardly use GoodNotes now, because I can do so much more here I one place. If I could suggest a couple of things that may make this program a little better for a student. First , It would be great if you could choose a folder from the drive or photos(of slides)and then pop the entire file IN the document I’m writing on and it default to a page size image - as doing them one by one , then having to size each one is a real pain when I have a bunch to add. One thing GoodNotes / books does well. Or at least if I could choose more than one image from my note to drag in ...OR not have to click back into the photo options button after each one as its a real pain if I want to import several pages and to a note in a hurry. I would love to have the option to read and turn my pages horizontally like a book and have a book folder file to confine or open it easily - like GoodNotes. Besides these two things - it seems perfect. Its a great well thought out program that keeps progressing with so many great options. Good job to the developers

by Coug-Terp92

I’m currently in grad school and after my first semester, I decided to switch to digital note taking. I was simply overwhelmed by the massive paper trail that often happens in grad school. I shopped around and I saw Notability and decided to give it a go. I don’t normally spend $10 on an app, but it has been worth every penny! The organization is top notch, it works with many different type of styli (I use the Friendly Swede interchangeable tip stylus, because of the cost, but Apple Pencil works great if you have an iPad Pro), the recording feature is great, sharing notes is super easy and it’s been so convenient to have all of my school documents in one place. So far, I’m at 600+ documents and I haven’t lost anything since using Notability. I absolutely credit Notability with helping me pass my comprehensive exams.

My only complaints is that I wish I wouldn’t have to buy it again for Mac. I also would like it if they were to incorporate tabs, so I wouldn’t have to back out to the menu every time I wanted to switch between a few related notes. In spite of these shortcomings, I still give it five stars because of how much it’s helped up my game as a grad student. Thanks, this app!

by Bowlayo

Honestly, I was really debating on whether on not I should use this app to take my notes or if I should use GoodNotes 5. In the end, I ended up getting both just to try them out, and what I found was that the UI for this app was almost flawless for me. Being able to record audio on here is great, but I think the biggest factor for me was how it felt like writing notes in Notability. It’s literally feels like I am just writing on paper. My handwriting on Goodnotes 5 just seemed messier and I noticed that they would try to alter my handwriting a bit. If I could make some suggestions, it would be nice if the highlighter could go under the words rather than over it. I would also love the option to just automatically switch back to pen mode after using the eraser (Useful tool in goodnotes). There would be times where I’m writing and Notability doesn’t register it and would momentarily freeze a bit. But these are minor inconveniences. Overall, this is a great app to take notes on and annotate PDFs (what I mainly do). The partial eraser is amazing and the automatic backup is a extremely convenient. Definitely recommend it for college!

by Thomas419

I know for starters Notability may seem like a lot, especially with the cost for both the iPhone/iPad and the cost of the Mac apps, BUT ITS WORTH IT! Being a college student I use Notability every single day in all my classes. Notability is so easy to use, and so intuitive. The iPad app is amazing for use with Apple Pencil or other styluses, and the fun pen colors and paper choices make notes less boring. Notability also works with TONS of file types which you can import and annotate. I have nor used the voice feature yet, but I am thrilled to as I am sure it is as good as everything else Notability offers. Finally my favorite feature is that this app automatically saves all my files and updates them constant across all my devices, so I never have to wait for my files to load. The useful feature of backing up the notes to google drive or Dropbox is amazingly helpful and lets me have my notes accessible even when I am not on my own laptop with Notability . Overall MUST BUY for college students especially, or anyone who is a frequent note taker or writer. Absolutely, 100%, hands down, the most amazing app on Notability Store!!

by Ole Mithaugen

I haven’t been paying much attention to update when suddenly I realize that my this app App is awesomely different. I have been a long time user of Notability and have loved it since day one. I have experimented with other note taking apps but very quickly return to this workhorse of an app. Now with the latest update I am blown away! I love to write with my apple pen and being able to convert to text is extremely useful. So far it has been flawless in conversion; however I am old school in my penmanship so that my work in my favor. Being able to put notes side by side? Since I convert all documents into files in this app for meetings, to be able to pull up other documents alongside of the notes I am taking is absolutely amazing.

One thing that I am watching and am unsure of yet is that in watching battery consumption this app seems to have suddenly become my primary drain, outstripping my FaceBook app. So this is something that I will be watching since I tend to leave this app running in the background.

But overall I want to give a big shout of thanks to the developers for making a great app even better.