Leave a Review Notability
New Update — Not Good
I have been using Notability for a while now, and I have absolutely loved it so far. I use it for all of my school note taking. I can have all of my notes in one place rather than having to carry multiple notebooks. However, there has been a new update, and I honestly cannot even enjoy taking notes anymore. For starters, they added line stabilization to the writing tools on the option that shows pressure difference/line weight (there’s now an option for no pressure difference/line weight difference). It is awful, to be frank. I wish there was a way to turn it on and off, because I am sure it is useful for drawing, but the majority of people using this app are students who are writing and taking notes. It makes writing really frustrating and unnatural. They also added a sliding bar feature for picking pen size, and it is inconvenient. The old way of choosing pen size showed how big it was going to be. Now I have to slide through and try writing to know what size it is. They added a pencil though, so that’s cool. Pen is ruined though. I hope they fix these issues soon, because it looks like a lot of people are not enjoying the update. For now, I will be typing my notes and looking at other app alternatives.Show lessthe saddest boi
Good medicine studying tool
I’ve used notability for my 4 years of medicine, NBME tests, step exams, organization of documents, logbooks, and extracurricular. What I like the most was the option to import any document that needs signing or writing on, and being able to do so. Allowing me as a student to have different documents, ppt, word documents and pdfs in a single place facilitated my studies and work. The iCloud setting for apple devices is another good option to be able to instantly refresh documents to your mac or iPhone. Sometimes it would malfunctioning and would not want to refresh as indicated (ie: documents would not appear on their folder, they would appear under all notes) but it’s not that big of a deal. A handful of times the app crashed and I lost all my documents, it is important to have a backup, even though after that incident I still did not backup. I recommend this app to any student who is starting undergrad and/or postgrad and want to take their education seriously.
“A well organized education should not be one which prepares students for a good remuneration alone. It should be one that can help and guide them towards acquiring clear thinking, a fruitful mind, and an elevated spirit.” -Haile SelassieShow lessmojonrojo
Great app, but does have some flaws
Flaws - It is hard to toggle between pen and eraser. The interface isn't as aesthetically pleasing as good notes. It is very hard to add a different page that isn’t the same template as previous pages. The palm rejection is bad. Even if you put on palm rejection it’s still bad and glitches a bunch.
Greatness - But through all of that, the app is great. You can record lectures and play them back. There are infinitely more template and page options. And there is a special “social media”, basically a gallery where people can create calendars and fancy note sheets for you to use for free! The reason why I did “social media” is because you can like it and post your own custom page templates. The two tap for undo works much better than good notes, but I turn it off so that it doesn’t randomly undo stuff due to the bad palm rejection. There are more brushes, like dotted and dashed brushes. THE SHAPE MAKER IS BETTER! So you create perfect circles instead of an ellipse or a square. You can also get polygons for those weird boxed. I’m sure there are more things that are great about this app that I may have missed, so please buy it! But if you are more for the aesthetics rather than a student and wanting those good grades, get the other apps! But if you are a student and are okay with a less aesthetically pleasing interface, (but still great templates and note pages!), get this!Show lessLickalottapink
Great, one major flaw
I love what I can accomplish in this app without paying for a subscription, and use it regularly (more on that below). BUT it regularly drops and re-downloads ALL my notes, even whichever one I’ve left open for editing, which costs me both time (waiting instead of working) and data/money (my internet is pre-paid by the Gb). I’ve asked twice and been told both times that it’s probably because I don’t have much free storage on my iPad. I have four or five Gb free, and Notability is one of the main apps I use on here, so I really feel it should have an option to never erase notes unless I have deleted them. If the storage gets full, yes, I’ll have to deal with it, but I’d rather cross that bridge in other ways than re-downloading all my Notability notes multiple times a month.
On the plus side, some of the great uses I’ve found: for handwriting notes around pasted-in scriptures during sermons, for pasting in passages in a language I’m learning and practicing my handwriting, for reading & marking up PDFs of academic documents for class, and for marking speaking tests using a rubric - I can import the rubric PDF filled with names for an entire class and then export it back to Drive as a new PDF with all my marks, saving me printing the several-page document week after week.Show lessMissJubilee
best notes app by a zillion miles
I love this app, have used it every day for a few years, and couldn't get along without it 🥰 I use it for a lot of things, including trying to learn Spanish and French 😅 For me, new languages aren't exactly a snap, but Notability makes it so much easier, and more fun. I also love looking up at the stars, and then taking a few quick notes about what I saw. I can add screenshots from SkySafari that show exactly what was visible at the time I was gazing. Even though I've got lots of dividers, and tons of subjects, with gobs of notes, I can find everything!!! Organization is a breeze in Notability.......... I've tried several other note apps, including Goodnotes 5, but for me, they didn't work as well. In Notability, I love the ambience (I use several "themes") 🎨 and it's a pleasure to work in such a wonderful, colorful atmosphere. I often work in two notes at the same time which makes life easier, and is a lot of fun. I usually use it in portrait, even when working on two notes (top and bottom), but side-by-side is available too. To my surprise, Notability handles huge PDFs with ease. I have several PDF files that I write in often that are over 200 pages 😳 Notability handles them without blinking, even though I've added in a ton of images 😂 Nothing seems to faze Notability 😄 WISH LIST: layers palette for making sure that overlapping images stay in desired order.Show lessBlue Pine
Developer Response
Hi, thanks for using Notability and for your feedback. We will keep your comments in mind and appreciate knowing of your interest in custom colors for paper.A real app for work
I need to produce about 1000 well-organized words for my editor each week. When I am at home, I can use my iMac. But we travel much of the year. During the time on the road I rely on Notability. Although I have an older iPad and can't use the split screen, I can take advantage of Notabilities Web clips that can be lined up nicely along one side of the paper I am working on...keeping my notes easily available. Better yet, Notability handles the complex notes like a champ...no slowdown in typing, etc. The app is also aces in with a first-rate filing system...I do many versions before I get my 1000 and I can keep the versions together by putting them in the week's subject. I have been using Notability since it came out and find that it has gotten better with each new version. My hard-earned pennies were well-invested in this app. My desiderata: word count and the ability to add space to the lines...It's easier to edit when text is double-spaced. I could use Pages which has both of these but I like how Notability feels as I write....the text comes out smoothly; Pages doesn't have web clipping or the nice filing system. There are LOTS of note taking apps but I find Notability to be really great....I actually can get stuff done with it.
Ok, here’s a suggestion. I would like to be able to popup a notability note while I am in another app—Show lessTsmollett0
I’m using it! ☝🏾
I love the app 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 the app is to be able to pin audio to a page visually, with a play button and a slider. I use this app 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 the app. 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 Notability 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.Show lessK1lluhk4m
Great for Handwritten notes, but inconsistent shapes
To help me diagram charts and graphs I like to use the shape feature where the app 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. The app 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 the app have a built in calibration setting that the user can set up. This way I can draw a rectangle and tell the app 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 the app to recognize just makes it more difficult for the app 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 the app 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.Show lessLyuldo Drop
This app could be the crème de la crème, if only…
This app has almost everything anyone who is going to school could ask for, except one very vital thing, that I know for me makes this app a total nightmare to use.
This app 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 this app 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.Show lessRainera
Notes, Nickels, and Dimes
I use this app 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 this app 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 the app, 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.Show lesstye fighter
