Since the iPad was first released, app developers have scrambled to create apps that let the user take notes and create drawings just like they’ve done for years with a notepad and pen. Freehand note entry is a popular use for the iPad, and now another app enters the crowded market. NoteLedge attempts to carve it’s niche by offering features other note taking apps don’t. Let’s take a look at what it has to offer.
Overview
While NoteLedge is a note taking app, there’s nothing basic about it. The app allows you to combine handwriting, typing, videos, photos, and audio in your “notebook”. The app even has some basic “scrap booking” features. It’s marquee feature is the “Navigator”. This gadget allows you to select contents, crop it any way you like, and paste it into your note page. With these features and more, NoteLedge is a great tool for jotting down brief notes, keeping a travel diary, scrapbooking, and brainstorming.
While I used it for mostly note taking and a few photo pages, I also tried out all of the other features. I love that fact that as well as freehand writing, you can also type words in various fonts and sizes.
As well as the standard pencil to write with, the writing tools include a crayon, and three type of brushes. All writing tools can be applied in various colors and sizes. One especially cool feature was the ability to control the opacity of the tool you were using. For the more artistic among us this allows them to control the shading of the current writing/drawing tool.
One handy feature is the adjustable Palm Rest. This allows you to rest your hand on the screen while using your finger tor stylus to write or draw on the screen.
The ability to save your pages to your iPad, share it to Facebook, email them to yourself or others, (in NoteLedge native file format, or JPG, and PDF formats) or save them to various cloud storage providers, (DropBox, iDisk, Box.net, GoogleDocs, FTP, and WebDAV are all supported) just adds to the flexibility of this app.
You can embed just about any type of media in your pages. Audio, video and photos are both available for use. While audio is restricted to what you can record from within the app, for video and photos you can either select files from your libraries, or for iPad 2 and higher users, you can take photos or record videos and embed them in your pages. They are then resizable, and can be placed anywhere on the page.
Pages can be represented as blanks, graph, ruled, or loose leaf templates. Notebook covers can be created from photos in your library.
I know I haven’t mentioned some of the features of this app simply because of the long list of those features. I highly suggest checking out the app yourself.
Verdict
This flexible app should be in the app library of any user who finds themselves needing a note taking app with more than the standard amount of features.
While some of the features could be a little more intuitive, I found that after using the app a few times the features became second nature. I enjoyed using the app, and I believe it will keep its place on my iPad for at least the near future.
Price: $1.99 – Available now in the App Store. (App Link)
Rating: 4/5[rating:4]
Pros:
- The ability to save your work in various formats and out to multiple cloud services is a useful feature.
- The ability to email your work to others in native and PDF and JPG formats gives needed flexibility for sharing your work.
- The inclusion of various types and sizes of drawing tools is a great feature, as is the ability to include audio, video, and photos.
Cons:
- The saving and reloading of files aren’t very intuitive. I deleted a few pages by accident.
- Selecting of the writing implements could be easier. Moving between the implements moves quickly, making selecting the one you want a little hit and miss.
