I’ve been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so.-Frank McCourt

I’ve always loved different kinds of paper, notepads, note cards, journals, etc…I love to own them, but I’m stingy about using them.  I’m also a list person.  I have Post-It notes everywhere to remind me of things.  I’ve started putting a lot of notes and reminders in my iPhone for convenience and I love having it all in one place.

I recently  found the PaperDesk app.  PaperDesk is the best way to take notes without dragging around loads of paper, notebooks, pencils, and pens to your next class or meeting. PaperDesk is a fun, easy-to-use notebook replacement made specifically for the iPad.  PaperDesk allows you to keep a “desk” full of your notebooks. You have unlimited notebooks with an unlimited number of pages in the full PaperDesk app! You also have all of the most popular exporting options, including Dropbox, in the full PaperDesk app. Autosync to Dropbox to ensure your notes are at your fingertips anywhere you go.  The app is $4.99 but there is a lite version. In the lite version, you are limited to 3 notebooks with 3 pages per notebook and no exporting options.

Here are some highlights:

Typing:
• 58 Fonts, colors, bold, italic, and underline formatting options
• Custom characters built into on-screen keyboard
• Automatic bulleted and numbered lists

Drawing:
• Color picker with thousands of colors
• Rest your wrist on screen while drawing
• Smooth, gel ink
• 20 level undo support for text or drawing

Importing (not available in PaperDesk Lite):
• Import PDFs from other apps, Dropbox, or iTunes (up to ~180 pgs per PDF)
• Insert images from photo library or camera

Exporting (not available in PaperDesk Lite):
• Dropbox
• GoogleDocs
• Email
• Twitter
• AirPrint

Organization:
• Bookmark pages to navigate easily
• Search all of your notebooks in seconds
• Keep a task list in each notebook, with in-app notifications
• Organize notebooks and folders by name or date
• Animated folders for notebooks

I haven’t used this in my classroom yet.  I’ve just downloaded it for myself.  However, I see it as particularly useful for students in keeping things organized, for science or math journals, observations, taking notes or drawings.  PaperDesk gives you all the benefits of a simple pad of paper – with all the benefits of note taking on the iPad!

I’d love for you to leave a comment, subscribe to my blog, and/or share this post with a friend.