Notes Plus 4+

One week in it I’m finding it an extremely nice little app. There are tweaks I’d like to see but generally it’s been well thought out and if the developer keeps adding features (I couldn’t see how to copy pages for instance) I can see this quickly becoming one of my favourites. I’m a communication consultant working on a lot of different projects and was looking for something alongside Microsoft To Do and my Mindmapping app to keep up with constantly changing information input. The page template feature is great for instant page layouts while the range of cover colours for different notebooks is too limited. It’s brought my iPad Pro to life in a new way and, when I connect it to our large electronic whiteboard means I don’t even have to get up and write when facilitating a workshop session. Finally, when on zoom calls, it’s a good tool via the iPad when screen sharing and better in my view than the native zoom whiteboard. So far, so good.

I agree with a previous review, not to get seduced by this formidable but poorly worked out app. Irresponsible but talented people behind this concept.
This app revolutionised my professional note taking, allowing me to integrate drawings , photos, annotate them, save them at different stages of reviewing them. The erase function was capital for me, so immediate, it didn t break flow of writing, the pressure adjustment on the stylus with glide and thickness brought huge satisfaction to my daily note taking. This app expanded my creativity, the integration of my knowledge. And then the automatic update arrived and four months of confidential files which hadnt been saved crashed. It took hours to retrieve them into dropbox, where they were supposed to go. Its going tho take me much longer to relocated each file which in the process got duplicated 6-8 times to their correct dropbox file. But at least they have been saved. Hours of filing and checking lie ahead. These are medical files. Loosing them would have compromised my position. I cannot take the risk any more.
Clearly the way ahead is with this type of app but after some important creases have been ironed out. I am changing over.

The potential in this app is very good, BUT and it’s a big but. On a number of occasions I have done surveys and hit the save button, checked it’s all there, closed my iPad and gone back to the office. In opening up the app back in the office, I’ve found that all the info has disappeared, meaning I’ve either had to go back to site or get the information that’s been lost, remotely. Neither being ideal. There is no ‘Waste basket’ to go to for retrieval of lost information. Extremely annoying and frustrating.

I’ve had to check the info is on screen when on site and export it there and then, either on email, (presuming I can get a signal) or export to ‘photos’ to achieve a back up of sorts. Neither are ideal as I can’t then put the file back into the app to be able to edit all the info that was previously on screen, only add to it.

If the developers could sort out a ‘waste basket’ or make the storage more stable, I’d give this app a much higher score. As it is, I use it, but am very careful not to rely on the stability of the app to be able to retrieve the input info I’ve put in it.