Notability for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By Jay the SRNA

  Love/Hate

  I loved everything about taking notes on this app! Worked great on my Pc and iPad for about 1 year, however recently over the last few months more and more problems have made themselves present. 1) I now have about 50% of my notes in limbo, unable to open with a cloud spinning on it like its downloading yet it never does, I've tested it for hours, never able to open it. Ive contacted Microsoft support twice unloaded and reloaded the App doesn't help the issure. One time it even scrambled ALL 750 of my notes that were organized in 30 subjects, BAD DAY! Reached out to Ginger Labs 3 times, and the first time was a few months ago and didn't hear back for a few weeks and I was told to do the same thing unload and reload the app, didn't work. 2) So I am now limited to using the app on my Pc since my notes will never download on my iCloud synced lastest updated iPad with updated App, but now my Pc isn't ever updating the notes if I make a change. 3) Last few notes I've made during class on a Powerpoint PDF that I import highlighting and drawing on it in the app, suddenly hours later when I open it to study, the backgroud or PDF is blank/white/gone, making the note worthless. Hoping this gets the attention of Ginger Lab to contact me! I'd like to get these issues resolved so I can love my app again, especially since this week is final exams week!

  
  
• By Bryce import

  UPDATED: Works Great

  I’m updating this review because of the version 3 update. It now recognizes handwriting very well. I haven’t thoroughly tested it but the problem I had was fixed and seems to be very good. I’m not sure how well the conversion works and if it converts the text and saves it in the note for the iPad version to then be able to search too, but I’ll find out soon. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I think the app has great potential with a just a small amount of work. The app should match the abilities of the iPad version. The Windows version cannot convert the handwriting to text after it’s selected like you can do on the iPad. If you can it’s not obvious. It would also be nice if you could right click on the pictures that were taken with the program and save them as a JPG. The option now is to copy it to the clipboard, open it in another program such as Preview and then save. It seems to be a poor workaround. It does sync very well with iCloud and I found it backs up just fine to Dropbox (iPad version). It will only allow one device on your account to back up. I’m not sure why unless it considers a backup just another sync.

  
  
• By jamanjeval

  A very good app that keeps getting better.

  The developer has been constanly updating the app and adding helpful features like the new eraser tool. The features aren't necessarily groundbreaking, but rather practical and measured. Features havent been added at the expense of app stability. I really appreciate the reliability because I reaaly dont want to loose data. And so far, I have never lost data or even recall having any issues with the app crashing or behaving strangely. I use Notability as a substitute for paper and pen notes. While working, I need to keep track of ideas in the form of little notes and mostly hand drawn diagrams. What I love about notability is that I can easily revise older notes and delete parts that are no longer relevant. With paper, this becomes a mess. Having this app on both mobile, tablet and desktop makes this a tool I use and rely upon. If you have similar needs, Notability would well be worth looking into. As for it's features like handwriting recognition, I dont use them because my notes are often digrams with text. Still, its nice to have the data in document searches.

  
  
• By NickSchwartz

  Great for Ipad but lacks good Windows support

  I love taking handwritten notes on my iPad but when I go back to review my notes on my Windows...sometimes I need to chnage some things I have wither typed or written. Now im not looking to re write things on my Windows trackpad but rather type new content into the document. The way you have to insert text is rather cumbersomne and not how I pictured it to be. You are stuck to writting underneath your handwritting and in a normal document outline. You can not just create a textbox and move it around to place text where you would prefer. I really wish they add or if they already do have that feature make it more accesiblie to edit from a computer. Overall this app is strongly better than any other in competition cough* cough* goodnotes. The ability to index and search your handwritting is extremely good. I don't have good handwritting so the fact that it can index and search my handwritting stuns me. I have tried countless diffrent apps and platforms this is the best for note taking there is relative to taking notes like on a platform like microsoft word or Microsoft pages. This is the strongest alternative. Just wishing for stronger computer support.

  
  

Leave a review or comment