Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me take notes at school

Recording a conversation (such as in a meeting or lecture), without permission, is illegal in most states, FYI.

Having said that, I love Note Taker HD on the iPad, but the recording feature sure would be nice. Any solutions with recording more in the price range of NTHD ($5)??

If its simple-note-taking ability is all you need, Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac has the Notebook interface that I find to be fine for taking notes in class. It doesn't have all the connectivity features of other programs, but it does everything I need, including recording lectures while I take notes.

As a grad student, I use Evernote for taking lecture notes and jotting down ideas for my dissertation. Evernote is free, fun, cross-platform, and cloud-based.

I'm a reporter, and I began using PearNote this spring to take notes while simultaneously recording interviews and public meetings. I can hardly recommend it highly enough — it makes finding and checking quotes much easier than any other system I have ever used. Money well spent.

If syncing sound and notes is not high on your list, I suggest using a very simple word processor. My choice is Bean for Macintosh. It's simple, it has a number of features and it's compatible with a number of other word processors when I want to share my files.

This might sound old-fashioned, but I use Word for note-taking. I organize them with folders in the Finder/Windows Explorer. Dropbox for backup/syncing. Even though they're proprietary formats, .docx/.doc have so much support in other products that they are arguably the most portable and compatible document format short of something like plain text or HTML.

To take notes on existing PDF's...i've found iAnnotate to be the best around. Type, write, draw, whatever....also I think there is a pretty good file management system in it...

I'm a math professor; I have an iPad 2 and have been looking for an app to let me use it for writing (not typing) notes, and even use it for teaching. I first tried Notes Plus, which was really nice, but it missed one feature I need -- the ability to write/draw on a PDF document. The developer is working on a new version which is supposed to have that feature, but I needed it by now since classes have started this week for me.

So I am using Note Taker HD instead. It's very nice. I can start with a PDF document with some examples set up, then hand-write the rest of the calculations. At the end of class I can easily e-mail myself a PDF of what I've done, to post on my course web site.

Both Note Taker HD and Notes Plus give you a large magnified box so you can write larger letters, and it shrinks it down onto the page. Writing larger lets me write more clearly. Oh, and Note Taker HD also works well when plugged into an external display -- it lets me hide the interface elements (like the zoomed box), so I can see them on my iPad screen, but the students in class looking at the projected version just see the document itself.

I just started using it in class this week, but so far I'm happy with it. Both apps I mentioned are $4.99. Oh, and I use a Targus stylus with it.

I wish I had an easy way to have a second projector showing the previous page, while I work on a new page. Neither app has "smooth scrolling" as far as I know, so you can't see the bottom of the previous page while writing at the top of the next page, which would be nice sometimes. There are other features I'd like, but both packages seem to be evolving, and will hopefully continue to do so.

I personally use Scrivener. Although it is designed to be an - awesome - environment for writers, it enables you to gather information in one place, organize it in any way you see fit and then use this content - for example to prepare a talk or an essay or a scientific paper.

I recently started using Note Taker HD for iPad. I use it with a wacom bamboo stylus. Perfect for doing handwritten math notes especially.

How has every single site on the face of the earth missed NoteTaker HD + BoxWave Stylus as a solution. Seriously, there is no other app. Lifehacker, TUAW, Gizmodo, none of them talk about any of the BEAUTIFUL note taking apps the iPad has once you have a proper stylus.

Look at this sample, seriously, and tell me that this is not as good as pen and paper. This was taken in a hardcore math class as well.
http://i.imgur.com/4IqAM.jpg