{"id":57793,"date":"2017-04-13T06:31:56","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T13:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cookiesandclogs.com\/?p=57793"},"modified":"2020-11-14T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T22:24:00","slug":"goodnotes-4-convert-handwriting-to-text","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cookiesandclogs.com\/goodnotes-4-convert-handwriting-to-text\/","title":{"rendered":"GoodNotes 4: Best Note Taking App & How to Convert Handwriting to Text"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I received my iPad Pro 9.7\u201d<\/a> a few months ago, the first thing I did was run out and buy an Apple Pencil<\/a>. It seriously hurt to shell out that $100 but, I have to say, that was one of the best purchasing decisions I made in a long time. While the fine precision and pressure-sensitive technology is great for art, I mostly use it for taking notes. Not all note taking apps are made equal, though, and few can convert handwriting to text as well as GoodNotes 4<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"Cookies<\/p>\n

GoodNotes 4 \u2014 The Best Note Taking App for iPad Pro & Apple Pencil<\/h3>\n

At first, I tried taking notes in the free Notes app. While this app does support the Apple Pencil<\/a>, it is so bare bones and klunky. I downloaded several free apps but it was a pain to use them. For a while, I was using a paid app we already had called PDF Expert<\/a> (costs $9.99). This program allows you to highlight, type text, add signatures, annotate PDFs freely, and more. But, I still wasn\u2019t able to take notes in a way that felt natural to me. PDF Expert is great for editing documents and scribbling things here and there. But, for straight note taking, the functionality was lacking.<\/p>\n

After reading several online reviews and getting a recommendation from one of my sisters, I decided to try out GoodNotes 4<\/a>. This app is $7.99 in the App Store and I have to tell you that it is worth every penny. As far as I\u2019m concerned, this is as close to writing with paper and pen as you can get using digital media. Create notebooks with colorful covers, choose from different paper types (lined grid, wide ruled, blank, music sheets, etc.), and organize notebooks into category folders. You can write, draw, type, highlight, underline, circle, and add graphic elements to any PDF file.<\/p>\n

\"Cookies<\/p>\n

How to Use GoodNotes 4 to Convert Handwriting to Text<\/h3>\n

Since GoodNotes uses an advanced OCR technology (Optical Character Recognition), you can even search through handwritten notes. Using that same technology, it can also convert handwriting to text. Yes, you read that right. Even if you have terribly messy scribble-scrabble like mine, the app can identify the characters and turn it into digital text. This gives you the best of both worlds \u2014 handwritten notes vs\u00a0typed text.<\/p>\n

It seems to be about 95% accurate. GoodNotes even adds little arrow symbols when I draw them in my notes. I can then use that text to use in posts on my blog or social media. It\u2019s super simple to do this too.\u00a0Here\u2019s a quick tutorial of how to convert handwriting to text using GoodNotes 4<\/a>. In the demonstration, I am using an iPad Pro 9.7\u201d<\/a> and an Apple Pencil<\/a>. For reference, I will also include the steps below.<\/p>\n