Notes and handwriting capability

jlaspoq · 11-15-2009, 06:27 PM

The Droid seems like a good choice - nice screen, good speed, lots of nice features - however there are the 3 things I have not found evidence of that I really need in a phone / PDA replacement - does anyone know of applications that can do these things?:

1. Input by handwriting - This needs to be fast (using mix of cursive and block letters / numbers / symbols) so that I can take notes quietly in meetings, fast without having to spend too much time looking at a keyboard while doing the notes. I don't think finger painting will work here well (might be wrong.), so might need a pen/stylus of some type. I understand there are styluses that work on the capacitance screens now.

2. Note application - needs to be able to sort by category of notes, search text in the note, and have text and graphics (linked into there so drawing notes or pictures can be there too) capability. This needs to be able to read the notes I already have (can export them to a Outlook Notes format, though that loses the picture links, so would have to put those back in manually), and be able to export in some format that I can reasonably expect to be able to keep the notes intact when future upgrades or applications come along. Needs to have a pretty large number of notes capability (currently I have about 2000 notes). Also needs to sync to PC so that I can add/subtract notes from either phone or PC

3. Easy way to transfer the input method on the phone between keyboard and handwriting.

Any ideas??
Thanks!

ch4rl0 · 11-19-2009, 03:46 AM

I want to move over from Symbian to Android, but I can't find an app as mention by jlaspoq. I have being using handwriting phones since SonyEricsson P800 (Symbian).

tranzz · 12-05-2009, 02:42 PM

yeah,
please would some app developer do it?!

I've had Handsprings, Palm pilots, Clie's, and am finally dumping Palm because they dumped me when they dumped graffiti. My PalmOS Treo's are still better than the Droid in some ways, but when we get the app we're asking for here, I'll finally mail the pieces of a crushed Treo to Palm HQ.

tranzz · 12-05-2009, 03:45 PM

Maybe a different website? I just lost a detailed reply I was giving you here, and it's happenned at least 4x before.

serious answer though, and I'll break it up into sections because of the probs I'm having.

Google docs. I have Gdocs on my Droid as a native app. Be sure to setup a gmail account for yourself, and turn on synchronisation with your Droid.

tranzz · 12-05-2009, 03:46 PM

Google docs supports lots of formats, so any conversion / migration should be very simple. I'm migrating from Palm currently, and haven't yet done any batch exporting of my memos. I may have to do them individually, which would be a pain. I've always avoided the personal expense of Outlook, and back when I got into Palms, Palm Desktop was a far better app than Outlook in many ways.

Google is far more into the idea of searching for a doc than keeping an ordered, sorted list to browse. I'm more with you. Still I think that you could get good function out of gdocs and get used to it.

tranzz · 12-05-2009, 03:46 PM

As far as access, synchronization, and backup of memos goes, that's the whole kernel of the gdocs concept, and it's pretty solid. It's not quite as quick and clean as a text file on the device you're holding in your hand or on your lap, but the cloud has it's advantages.

Surf other sites and forums though and join me in my pleas and quest for precisely what you described above. I think us users are going to need to make some noise to get it.

tranzz · 12-05-2009, 03:53 PM

Part of Googles docs is Picasa, for your pictures. You can put a picture into, or attached to any of your google docs, and storing your pics in picasa is the link.

I don't know about the droid camera automatically uploading it's pics to my picasa account, it might do it with some setup work, or it might just be something you have to do "manually" in batches.

katahdin · 12-16-2009, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tranzz

Google docs. I have Gdocs on my Droid as a native app.

What native app is that? I haven't found it. Thanks

the best Ive found so far is Note Everything - which just came out with palm memo import !!

tranzz · 12-17-2009, 07:18 PM

Hmmm, I thought it was native, but maybe not! GDocs is the name, and I found it on the Marketplace, so it must not be "native".

BTW

MobileWriter does Graffiti, Graffiti2, and "handwritten". I'm loving it.

NoteEverything seems pretty good too in some ways. It will import Palm Memos now too.