23 Mobile Things 5. Notetaking

When I facilitate iPad for Beginners classes I typically point out the basic note taking app. I share this because it works without wifi. While I typically don't take most of my notes in the Notes app, it has saved me a few conferences when wifi has gone down. There are a few things that the iPad has in it’s iOS that make the Notes more functional.

• Speech to Text. Depending on the iPad you have, you may have access to the small microphone that would appear next to your spacebar on your onscreen keyboard. By touching this microphone you will be able to speak what you would like and your iPad will turn it into text on your device. The majority of the time it is pretty accurate. Learn from my mistake. If you are going to demonstrate this think carefully about what you will say. I was showing a group of teachers this feature at a back to school meeting. My iPad was being projected as I modeled this great tool and it turned one of my words into a swearword. I did not know this had happened until a very kind teacher pulled me aside during work time and pointed it out!! Yikes!
• When typing a sentence if you tap the spacebar twice it will put in a period, give you one space and make the next letter you type uppercase. This is just a nice time saver.

I use different note taking apps for different reasons. In this post I will focus on how I use Evernote.

Link to Evernote in the iOS App Store

I use Evernote for my groceries. My husband has Evernote on his phone. When he realizes we are out of milk, he can add it to the list. He does not need to call me and ask me to pick it up. I also like Evernote because it has small checkboxes for my list. In the past I would bring my hand written note to the store and scribble off items as I put them in my cart. Evernote allows me to check off items as I pick them up. There are many more great aspects to Evernote and paid features. However at the very basic level, these are the two things I use the most!!