Aug 28, 2014 Welcome to Notability: powerful, yet wonderfully simple note-taking and annotation. Apple's Mac App of The Year! Apple Editors' Choice on iPad, iPhone, and Mac! Typing Text (Mac) Recording and Playing Audio (Mac) Photos and Images (Mac) Handwriting and Highlighting (Mac) Drawing Straight Lines (Mac). Notability free notability mac notability app for android notability ipad pro notability review notability vs onenote notability apk notability vs evernote notability for windows 7 notability for.
For anyone who reaches for a pen and paper to take notes, reaching for an iPad app like is already an adjustment, let alone a Mac, which of course doesn't even have a touchscreen. On iOS, Notability is a popular and elegant note-taking app with an ink-first mentality., promising to bring that same design sense to the desktop and sync up all your notes with iCloud—and it largely succeeds. Though with free, note-taking powerhouses like and out there, is Notability worth your $10? Notability's strengths The short answer is it depends.
If you are a die-hard Notability user on iOS—and especially if it's your go-to notetaking tool on an iPad—having all of your content available on the Mac will be well worth it. Add in images or write many different types of pen input. The app will also appeal to users who connect to their Mac for drawing or note-taking. It handles writing, drawing, and marking up content very well.
For the rest of us who stick to a trackpad or mouse, Notability's inking possibilities will still be useful for highlighting and marking up content, with several choices for the pen color and width. Of course you can also type, with sufficient font options for a note-taking app. Notability is really designed to do both in tandem, along with the ability to record audio for an all-in-one digital notebook.
Note the way you want Each note is pretty much a blank canvas—just click and start inking or typing (although you can't insert text on top of an image). You can drag-and-drop an image, screenshot, or any other file type that you want to ink over.
Notes that you create on your Mac sync to any iOS device through iCloud. You can organize notes into subjects, which get assigned a color code to make it easier to glance at (unfortunately you can't change the colors). Throw a divider in between some of them to clean up the interface.
The iCloud integration works really well—notes that were created on the desktop appeared rapidly on an iPad, and vice versa. I found if you already have the iOS app you should be sure you have turned on iCloud syncing in order to get your notes to start showing up on the Mac. Mine was turned off, but once I flipped it on they showed up right away.
For extra backup you can save your notes to a third party service: Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and WebDAV servers are supported. This will save the notes as a PDF so you can import them elsewhere.
Voice recording works really well, too. Just click the microphone and start recording. When in the same note you can hit 'record' again after ending a session and the audio will record after the first one - a nice feature if you are recording a Comcast customer service call and want to wait while on hold. The search capability is not as strong as something like Evernote, which will find text inside of images. Yet it will find text anywhere in your notess, highlighting the words inside them so they pop out on the screen for easy viewing. A few bugs While the design and connection to iCloud are great, Notability has a few bugs that need to be squished.
Notability pulls a disappearing act when minimized. One weird quirk is when it's in full screen mode.
When swiping to Notablity from another app the screen hesitates for a moment and then skips over to the desktop. I found I needed to take it out of full-screen mode for a more stable experience. Also, when minimizing Notability to the Dock the preview image disappeared, leaving only the icon.
It was more of a nuisance than a usability issue, but was still rather odd. A possible cause could be that Notability is coded for the future, as the familiar three buttons feature the translucent look of OS X Yosemite. Should you buy it? Right now $10 is a lot to ask for a note-taking app when there are good, free alternatives and a few bugs that need to be worked out. However, Ginger Labs has a good track record with its iOS version and is likely to get those resolved. So if you have been using it considerably on mobile, it makes sense to make the leap and get the desktop version.
Welcome to Notability: powerful, yet wonderfully simple note-taking and annotation. Apple's Mac App of The Year!
Apple Editors' Choice on iPad, iPhone, and Mac! Students, teachers, and business professionals use Notability daily to enrich their lives. It is uniquely designed for each device to provide the best note-taking experience at school, home, and work. STREAMLINE YOUR WORKFLOW. Become fully paper-free, in the classroom, office, and at home. Complete, sign, and share documents in Notability.
Quickly create and edit notes by dragging and dropping documents, photos, or audio recordings from the desktop. Get more done with keyboard shortcuts. Secure and lock your notes using Touch ID. SEARCH AND CONVERT HANDWRITTEN NOTES.
Search for handwritten words from the Library and in the note view in any of our 14 supported languages. Convert handwriting to text. It all happens on your device, so your information stays private.
SAVE TIME WITH MULTI-NOTE. Multi-Note lets you open multiple notes at once in new windows. Easily access your recently opened notes in the Recent Notes subject. ESSENTIAL FEATURES.
Notability includes full-featured, left-aligned typing with a wide range of fonts, sizes, and colors. Create outlines, interactive checklists, and text boxes. Fully express your artistic side with custom colors and match any color with the color dropper. Handwriting has been fine-tuned to be smooth and expressive using a trackpad or mouse. Ink can be scaled, transformed, rotated, nudged (with arrow keys), and restyled. IMPORT AND SHARE. Import PDFs, DOCs, PPTs, images, GIFs, and more - conversion to PDF happens on your device, so your information stays private.
Annotate imported pictures, lecture slides, and meeting agendas, or complete class assignments. Share notes via email, AirDrop, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, and more.
RECORD AND PLAYBACK AUDIO. Get more out of your lectures and meetings when you record them. Notes are automatically synced with audio recordings so during playback you can listen to what was happening as you wrote. AUTO-BACKUP AND ICLOUD SYNC.
Use iCloud to automatically sync your notes to Notability on iPad, iPhone, and Mac, or to retrieve previous versions of your notes. Use Auto-backup to send your notes to a cloud service for archiving or recovery. Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive are all supported! IOS app sold separately. Notability is a registered trademark of Ginger Labs, Inc. What's new in 3.1.
You asked for these features and we listened! We've added powerful new features: custom colors, a color dropper to match any color in your note, increased note security using Apple's Touch ID, in-app file conversion, and dark mode. Custom Colors & Color Dropper. Custom colors have arrived - the rainbow is the limit! Expand your color palette by saving up to 32 additional custom colors. Colors can be chosen with a color wheel or by entering a HEX value. The color dropper easily allows you to select any color in your note and save that as one of your custom colors.
New Locking Feature. Our security just got amped with Touch ID to unlock subjects. In-app File Conversion. Notability now converts Microsoft Office files to PDFs on your device for added privacy and security.
Quicker and more reliable conversion. Dark Mode. Notability now supports the system wide dark mode introduced in Mojave.
3.0.3 Sep 24, 2018. What's new in 3.0.1. Bug fixes. What's new in 3.0. This is a major update for Notability! We've added powerful new features: handwriting recognition, handwriting to text conversion, view multiple notes at once in new windows (Multi-Note), quickly open recent notes, and added support for custom fonts. Handwriting Search.
Handwriting is now searchable from the Library and within a specific note. Handwriting can also be converted to text. The first time you launch Notability, your library will be indexed.
After that, your handwriting will be searchable! If you have a lot of handwriting, creating the initial index may take a while. Multi-Note. Multi-Note lets you work with multiple notes side-by-side. Open multiple notes in new windows for ultimate productivity. Supports audio recording and playback. Recent Notes.
We've added a Recent Notes subject to your Library just below All Notes. Recent Notes holds up to 10 of your most recently accessed notes. Custom Fonts. Custom fonts and more default fonts now supported! Fonts populate in Notability based on the device’s locale and preferred languages.
More fonts available for non-Roman alphabets. 3.0 Aug 20, 2018. What's new in 3.0. This is a major update for Notability! We've added powerful new features: handwriting recognition, handwriting to text conversion, view multiple notes at once in new windows (Multi-Note), quickly open recent notes, and added support for custom fonts. Handwriting Search. Handwriting is now searchable from the Library and within a specific note.
Handwriting can also be converted to text. The first time you launch Notability, your library will be indexed.
After that, your handwriting will be searchable! If you have a lot of handwriting, creating the initial index may take a while. Multi-Note.
Multi-Note lets you work with multiple notes side-by-side. Open multiple notes in new windows for ultimate productivity. Supports audio recording and playback. Recent Notes.
We've added a Recent Notes subject to your Library just below All Notes. Recent Notes holds up to 10 of your most recently accessed notes. Custom Fonts. Custom fonts and more default fonts now supported! Fonts populate in Notability based on the device’s locale and preferred languages. More fonts available for non-Roman alphabets. 2.9.3 Jul 12, 2018.
What's New in 2.8. Greatly improved search speed. Improved audio recovery when Notability is terminated while recording. Bug Fixes in 2.8. Notes would sometimes not download properly from iCloud.
Notes will no longer be duplicated when enabling/disabling iCloud sync. Better handling of renaming sub-folders in Google Drive and then exporting Notability notes to renamed folder. Sticky notes with a lot of handwriting could cause crashes when dragged around quickly in a note. Fixed a crash related to subject names. Other minor bug fixes.
2.7.2 Oct 12, 2017. What's new in 2.5. Fixed a bug with converting PowerPoints into PDFs via Google Drive - Now you can select and copy any content on a page, and paste it as an image, enhancing your note taking experience by giving you an efficient way to re-use content. For example, if you need more room to annotate a diagram, simply add a blank page, and copy & paste the diagram into it. You can also easily paste your selection into other applications!
- Copy and Paste Notability lists now uses correct format. General bug fixes and improvements. If you're enjoying Notability, we'd appreciate it if you took the time to leave us a review, thanks!. 2.4.1 Mar 24, 2017.
New Features: - Notability now detects a variety of typed or pasted data, so you can: - Click a hyperlink to open it in your web browser. Click a date to add a calendar event. Click an email address to start a message in your email app. Click a phone number to dial it. Click a street address to open it in Maps.
Recover older versions of a note if iCloud syncing is enabled in Notability. To do this, right-click on a note thumbnail or title in the note list. Select a destination folder for Auto-backup in the all-new preferences panel.
Progress bar for Auto-backup. Bug Fixes: - Fixed an issue where Notability would unexpectedly scroll to the top of the document. Fixed a resizing issue when Notability is used in Split View. Fixed a crash when re-ordering pages in the page navigator.
Fixed a file conversion issue during import. The toolbar no longer moves while recording audio.
New in 2.4.1 - Fixed a bug in PDF autobackup that could cause text box content to be hidden. Several other minor bug fixes If you're enjoying Notability, we'd appreciate it if you took the time to leave us a review, thanks!. 2.4.0 Mar 21, 2017. New Features: - Notability now detects a variety of typed or pasted data, so you can: - Click a hyperlink to open it in your web browser. Click a date to add a calendar event.
Click an email address to start a message in your email app. Click a phone number to dial it. Click a street address to open it in Maps.
Recover older versions of a note if iCloud syncing is enabled in Notability. To do this, right-click on a note thumbnail or title in the note list. Select a destination folder for Auto-backup in the all-new preferences panel. Progress bar for Auto-backup. Bug Fixes: - Fixed an issue where Notability would unexpectedly scroll to the top of the document. Fixed a resizing issue when Notability is used in Split View. Fixed a crash when re-ordering pages in the page navigator.
Fixed a file conversion issue during import. The toolbar no longer moves while recording audio. If you're enjoying Notability, we'd appreciate it if you took the time to leave us a review, thanks!.
2.3.2 Feb 21, 2017. What's new in 3.1.
You asked for these features and we listened! We've added powerful new features: custom colors, a color dropper to match any color in your note, increased note security using Apple's Touch ID, in-app file conversion, and dark mode. Custom Colors & Color Dropper.
Custom colors have arrived - the rainbow is the limit! Expand your color palette by saving up to 32 additional custom colors. Colors can be chosen with a color wheel or by entering a HEX value. The color dropper easily allows you to select any color in your note and save that as one of your custom colors. New Locking Feature. Our security just got amped with Touch ID to unlock subjects. In-app File Conversion.
Notability now converts Microsoft Office files to PDFs on your device for added privacy and security. Quicker and more reliable conversion. Dark Mode.
Notability now supports the system wide dark mode introduced in Mojave. Bryce import, UPDATED: Works Great I’m updating this review because of the version 3 update. It now recognizes handwriting very well. I haven’t thoroughly tested it but the problem I had was fixed and seems to be very good. I’m not sure how well the conversion works and if it converts the text and saves it in the note for the iPad version to then be able to search too, but I’ll find out soon.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: I think the app has great potential with a just a small amount of work. The app should match the abilities of the iPad version. The Mac version cannot convert the handwriting to text after it’s selected like you can do on the iPad. If you can it’s not obvious. It would also be nice if you could right click on the pictures that were taken with the program and save them as a JPG. The option now is to copy it to the clipboard, open it in another program such as Preview and then save. It seems to be a poor workaround.
It does sync very well with iCloud and I found it backs up just fine to Dropbox (iPad version). It will only allow one device on your account to back up. I’m not sure why unless it considers a backup just another sync. Bryce import, UPDATED: Works Great I’m updating this review because of the version 3 update. It now recognizes handwriting very well.
I haven’t thoroughly tested it but the problem I had was fixed and seems to be very good. I’m not sure how well the conversion works and if it converts the text and saves it in the note for the iPad version to then be able to search too, but I’ll find out soon. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I think the app has great potential with a just a small amount of work. The app should match the abilities of the iPad version.
The Mac version cannot convert the handwriting to text after it’s selected like you can do on the iPad. If you can it’s not obvious. It would also be nice if you could right click on the pictures that were taken with the program and save them as a JPG. The option now is to copy it to the clipboard, open it in another program such as Preview and then save. It seems to be a poor workaround.
It does sync very well with iCloud and I found it backs up just fine to Dropbox (iPad version). It will only allow one device on your account to back up. I’m not sure why unless it considers a backup just another sync.
Skeeboman, I don’t get who this is for? Simply got tired of Evernote’s lack of attention to what was once a good app, and have been trying out everything that isn’t subscription serviced. Based on the hype, I was expecting a lot more from Notability. Is it for kids?
Large graphic icons that take up 1/4 of your page. Who needs this? Yes, you can click it away and have a page only format, but then you loose the useful hierarchal filing system which does its job quite efficiently. Being forced into this gratuitous graphical system wastes too much needed space and makes me wonder how good these dev’s really are. When it is page only, great, nice set of tools to modify and format. Love the highlighter, maybe one of the best I’ve seen, and the drawing tool is great as well. So with all the good things that this app has, why don’t they at least have an option for adults?
And syncing - forget it. Not nearly up to par of many others.
So close, but yet - no. Two stars for good bones and one for brush and text tools. Skeeboman, I don’t get who this is for?
Simply got tired of Evernote’s lack of attention to what was once a good app, and have been trying out everything that isn’t subscription serviced. Based on the hype, I was expecting a lot more from Notability. Is it for kids? Large graphic icons that take up 1/4 of your page. Who needs this? Yes, you can click it away and have a page only format, but then you loose the useful hierarchal filing system which does its job quite efficiently. Being forced into this gratuitous graphical system wastes too much needed space and makes me wonder how good these dev’s really are.
When it is page only, great, nice set of tools to modify and format. Love the highlighter, maybe one of the best I’ve seen, and the drawing tool is great as well. So with all the good things that this app has, why don’t they at least have an option for adults? And syncing - forget it.
Not nearly up to par of many others. So close, but yet - no. Two stars for good bones and one for brush and text tools. Jared999999, Buggy on my mac I love and don't think I could live without notability on my iPad pro.
I use it for note taking in college. I recently downloaded notability for my mac as well so I could re-take notes on my ipad while viewing them on my mac. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that I had to purchase the app again for MacOS, but I reluctantly forked it over knowing it would be worth it. Unfortunately, my audio recordings crash just about every time I'm relistening to them. I'll be chugging along re-taking notes on my ipad (in a different file than the one I have open on my Mac) when the audio recording playing off my Mac will stop out of nowhere and reset to 0:00. Then I have to go back and spend however long to find my place again and re-play. It's extremely frustrating and usually happens 4-5 times or more in the span of an hour or so.
This has been happening since I purchased the MacOS app in August. If it were to be resolved I would rate the app 5 stars. Jared999999, Buggy on my mac I love and don't think I could live without notability on my iPad pro. I use it for note taking in college. I recently downloaded notability for my mac as well so I could re-take notes on my ipad while viewing them on my mac. I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that I had to purchase the app again for MacOS, but I reluctantly forked it over knowing it would be worth it. Unfortunately, my audio recordings crash just about every time I'm relistening to them.
I'll be chugging along re-taking notes on my ipad (in a different file than the one I have open on my Mac) when the audio recording playing off my Mac will stop out of nowhere and reset to 0:00. Then I have to go back and spend however long to find my place again and re-play. It's extremely frustrating and usually happens 4-5 times or more in the span of an hour or so. This has been happening since I purchased the MacOS app in August. If it were to be resolved I would rate the app 5 stars.