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I have been reviewing how I record client notes in meetings.
Laptop = too much of a barrier between client and myself.
Echo Smartpen (It’s a digital pen where you write on special “dot paper”. The pen’s camera records what you are writing and you can download to your PC later on). Trouble is I kept forgetting the pen and the special notebook. The pen is also quite geeky and distracts the client sometimes. The process of transferring to the PC is a bit of a micro-USB faff. So in short I am selling on eBay.
So in reviewing alternative options the only “given” was that I wanted an easy download to Evernote as part of the package. (See The Technology Coach for Evernote usage notes.)
I have a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet. My £15 work around has been to order a stylus and write on the tablet in client meetings. I then researched software to record notes and audio with. I have purchased LectureNotes (less than £3) on Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acadoid.lecturenotes&hl=en
It is clearly designed for students but I am really impressed by this software. Very customisable and will allow note taking and audio recording at the same time. It also allows simple exporting of both notes and audio to Evernote. And amazingly Evernote will even allow me to search for terms within my terrible scrawl (should have been a doctor.)
But here is the thing. I have a touch of gadget envy here. You might think all styli are the same but no. The Samsung S-Pen (and a few others like it) are active rather than passive (don’t IFAs love that debate). The S-Pen can hover OVER the smartphone screen and select but not activate onscreen buttons etc. There is a switch on the stylus’s side to change the functionality. It is more accurate and pressure sensitive to boot. In short a better noting tool.
So I thought fine. Use existing tablet with new S-Pen. But no, the S-Pen relies on additional hardware in the screen. Therefore the only question is how long I will be able to hold out on:
(If you have read this far you might actually be considering your own note taking options. This is worth a look too: http://evernote.com/getting_started/moleskine/ )