[NTLK] Newton-like note taking on Windows?

[Anthony Morrow]

On Jan 7, 2017, at 3:51 AM, Jon Glass <jonglass at usa.net> wrote:

> On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 1:12 AM Aaron Brigati <abrigati at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I just got a Dell Venue 8 Pro 5855 with an active stylus and I'd really
>> like to find a Newton-ish note taking program for it.
>> 
>> The built-in Windows HWR is pretty good, but you can only write in a
>> predefined little box, there's nothing like the Newton's 'write anywhere'
>> and editing is a royal pain.
>> 
>> I found a few 'note pad' apps on the store, but they either use the system
>> pen input box or they're just a sketchpad that doesn't convert the writing
>> to text.
>> 
> 
> I have Nebo installed. It does HWR, and you write on the lines on the
> screen, with the converted text above.
> 
> Nebo HTML Export
> this is a note. I don't know if it does HWR.
> 
> I just wrote the above, as you can see from the attribution. :-)
> 
> Might be worth checking out as an alternative to OneNote, though OneNote is
> pretty usable.
> -- 
> --
> Jon Glass
> jonglass at usa.net
> jonglass at mac.com

I’ll throw a vote to Nebo and OneNote as well. Nebo is great for wanting to write and have it converted instantly to text. It has a lot of gestures similar to the Newton like making a character of a word uppercase, joining/splitting a word, etc. This is the closest experience I’ve found to the Newton’s “Text” recognition mode. The maker of Nebo will often times run specials on the Windows Store and make the app free. 

OneNote is good for drawing and jotting stuff down. It does HWR in the background so you can do text searches against your scribbles. You can also convert hand written notes to text. OneNote, to me, feels like a combination of the Newton’s “ink Text” and “Sketches” recognition mode running at the same time. Remember, there are two version of OneNote for Windows: the UWP app from the Windows Store and the full desktop version available through an Office365 subscription or free at <https://www.onenote.com/download>. I personally use the desktop app on a Surface Pro 4 and find it to be better for a large screen. Before that I was using the UWP app on a Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2.

I would love to use Nebo’s HWR mode inside OneNote. It would be a pretty good combination. Sadly, you can only export to HTML or MS Word from Nebo and while you can copy and paste from those to OneNote, it is just too many steps.

Tony Morrow
lookanotherblog.com