iPad App Review: Notes Plus

There are iPad apps that can, in a pinch, substitute for the old reliable legal pad, but why bother? The advantage for ALJs and HOs, of course, is the creation of searchable bench notes, not to mention the ability to create a backup copy of those notes. As of the time I pushed the “Publish” button on this post, Apple’s Apps store is displaying 2319 apps that can be found when performing a search for the word “notes”. The vast majority are no better than the iPad’s built-in Notes app (some have little to do with taking notes!). Two, however, look promising: Notes Plus and WritePad.

Both allow for taking notes via keyboard or handwriting (finger or stylus), both let you save and export files. Most importantly, both have handwriting recognition so you can morph your handwritten notes into type. I had no interest in buying both, so I read a few reviews, including a recent one on WritePad in the June 28, 2012 issue of TechnoLawyer’s “TL Answers” email newsletter. WritePad’s $9.99 price was a little steep, though not insurmountable given that it converts your handwriting to text as you write. However, I appreciated the author’s frankness in pointing out that if you make a mistake, the mistake appears immediately, and you become overwhelmed with the desire to stop writing to fix the mistake– “its best feature . . . becomes its biggest distraction.”

I therefore decided to buy Notes Plus version 3.0. In many ways, it reminds me of Miscrosoft’s OneNote. It can, of course, be used for taking notes. Like OneNote, it has a recording feature that will create a simultaneous digital recording while you are taking notes for later review, if necessary. [However, read my note on good hearing practice techniques, below.]

The other OneNote-like feature is Notes Plus’s ability to pull photos, graphics and PDFs right into the notes. And because it has a built in browser, you can draw a circle around something of importance on a web page and simply drag it into your notes. All graphics, whether dragged from the browser, created in Notes Plus (you can create shapes like a circle, square, triangle, etc. — it will detect what you’re trying to do and automatically create that shape with perfectly straight lines). All graphics may be resized, recolored, and moved anywhere on the page.

With its simple user interface, it gives the user access to some very cool features, including the ability to create new “notebooks”, each with it’s own cover (there are twelve to choose from) and paper (there are eleven to choose from: lined white, blank white, Cornell University’s note taking paper, a daily planner, engineering grid lined, regular grid lined, lined yellow, list, monthly planner, and music). The yellow lined paper’s colors are spot on and easy on the eye. It has a simple and pleasant interface, offers several “pen” thicknesses and colors, in addition to a highlighter pen. It also has a magnifier window and an autoscrolling system to make writing small and legibly, simple and easy.

If you have handwritten your notes, you may decide that there are sections that you would like to convert to text. Simple create a circle around the handwriting you want to convert and a small arrow will appear. Click on the arrow and you are presented with a short column of choices: Draw Stroke Instead, Group (used for grouping items together) Convert to Text, Duplicate, Copy, Delete, Send to Back, and Change Style. (As you can see, Notes Plus can be a very powerful tool for creating graphics, in addition to taking notes.) Click on “Convert to Text,” and as if by magic, Notes Plus converts all but the worst chicken-scratch to text.

I have been getting used to using Notes Plus for the last three weeks and am enjoying using it. There are times, as with taking bench notes using pen and paper, that it’s sometimes difficult to keep up. For the most part, though, it has been working well. I will be posting a follow-up review in the next few months to reveal whether I have continued enjoying using the app for my bench notes, or whether I’ve given up and gone back to my trusty paper stand by.

Note: It should go without saying (but I’ll do so anyway) that from a practice standpoint your bench notes are your work product and usually not subject to subpoena. Recordings, whether by stenographic, taped, or digital means, are not considered work product (I don’t have case citations, sorry) — they contain the record of the proceeding. Therefore, I highly recommend against using the “Record” feature of Notes Plus as an adjunct to taking bench notes for two reasons: 1) There should be only one recording that constitutes the official record of the proceeding– having more than one could lead to obvious problems, and 2) If the ALJ/HO has a recording it may be subpoenaed, (I certainly wouldn’t want to run the risk!) along with his/her bench notes since they are derived from a single App. There should be only one recording of the hearing, the official one. ALJs and HOs should therefore avoid a situation that could result in their notes becoming part of any evidence on an appeal.

No consideration of any kind has been accepted for this review. The opinions expressed herein are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of NYSALJA.