Saturday, January 27, 2007

Notes on a tablet

I take a lot of technical notes as well as meeting notes. I've used a yellow pad for years and am slowing moving over to my tablet. I start the day off by drawing a line across the page (to separate that day from the previous day). I indent all my notes underneath keywords that are left for the farthest left of the page. When I need to follow up on something, I create a box on the far left. I then check this box off when I'm done with that to-do item. I do the same with a technical piece of information that needs to be entered into a different system (contact info that needs to be added to outlook, or technical information that need to added to the clients documentation system). I don't rip off the pages until all the check mark boxes are complete, and then I scan them in so that I can reference them. later. My biggest hang up is that I would prefer that these notes are done the first time on my tablet so that they are searchable. The problem that I have is the infrequency of when I'm taking notes. Being in a meeting that you can prepare for is one thing. But, as an IT professional, I'm getting bombarded with information all day long and bringing my machine back to life to write down an IP address or a phone number just isn't practical. Battery life is what kills me.

Another irritation is that all the devices that are small enough to carry around easily, are also not big enough to comfortably take notes on. The NEC Litepad was the closest I've used to being the best as hitting the sweet spot of size (almost as big as a pad of paper, and super thin). The problem with that device is that it snapped in half to easily, and it was underpowered. I currently have the Q1 and I can firmly say that I am NOT a fan of touch screens. It's easier to use the device in general, but it is a nightmare to take notes will standing up. I haven't used the P1610 with palm rejection technology, however, that very well could solve that issue. Is there a reason someone like ritepen couldn't add palm rejection technology into their inking software??

Sorry I went on a bit of a rant, but I've been trying to use tablets since the Toshiba T200 days (still have mine). And these are the problems that I've had ever since those days.