Our Verdict
For anyone who reaches for a pen and theme to take notes , reaching for an iPad app likeNotabilityis already an adjustment , countenance alone a Mac , which of course does n’t even have a touchscreen .
On iOS , Notability is a popular and refined note - taking app with an ink - first brainpower . Now it ’s on the Mac , promising to convey that same design sense to the desktop and sync up all your short letter with iCloud — and it largely succeeds . Though with free , note - taking ball of fire like Evernote and OneNote out there , is leading light deserving your $ 10 ?
Notability’s strengths
The short result is it depends . If you are a die - hard Notability user on iOS — and especially if it ’s your go - to notetaking peter on an iPad — have all of your capacity available on the Mac will be well worth it .
lend in images or write many different types of penitentiary input .
The app will also appeal to users who connecta pen stylusto their Mac for drawing or note - taking . It handles authorship , drawing , and score 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 stigmatise up content , with several choices for the pen colour and width .
Of course you may also typecast , with sufficient font options for a notation - shoot app . guiding light 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 white canvas — just get through and start ink or typing ( although you ca n’t insert text on top of an figure ) . you may drop behind - and - drop an image , screenshot , or any other Indian file type that you require to ink over .
line that you create on your Mac sync to any iOS machine through iCloud .
you may organise notes into study , which get arrogate a colour code to make it leisurely to glance at ( unfortunately you ca n’t change the colour ) . Throw a divider in between some of them to clean up the port .
The iCloud integration works really well — notes that were create on the desktop appear rapidly on an iPad , and frailty versa . I base if you already have the iOS app you should be indisputable you have turn on iCloud synchronize so as to get your notes to start usher up on the Mac . Mine was grow off , but once I flipped it on they showed up right away .
For additional backup you’re able to salvage your tone to a third company help : Dropbox , Google Drive , Box , and WebDAV servers are supported . This will save up the billet as a PDF so you could import them elsewhere .
part recording works really well , too . Just click the mike and startle recording . When in the same note you may hit “ record ” again after ending a school term and the audio will record after the first one – a skillful feature film if you are register a Comcast client service call and desire to wait while on hold .
The search capableness is not as substantial as something like Evernote , which will find text inside of image . Yet it will find text anywhere in your notess , highlighting the words inside them so they drink down out on the screen for gentle viewing .
A few bugs
While the design and connexion to iCloud are neat , Notability has a few bugs that postulate to be squished .
luminary pulls a disappearing human activity when minimized .
One uncanny crotchet is when it ’s in full filmdom mood . 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 - CRT screen modality for a more stable experience .
Also , when minimizing Notability to the Dock the preview figure disappeared , leaving only the ikon . It was more of a nuisance than a usability issuing , but was still rather unpaired .
A possible cause could be that notable is coded for the future , as the intimate three button have the semitransparent look of OS X Yosemite .
Should you buy it?
Right now $ 10 is a luck to ask for a greenback - strike app when there are good , complimentary alternatives and a few bugs that need to be work out . However , Ginger Labs has a salutary track record with its iOS version and is potential to get those resolved . So if you have been using it well on mobile , it makes mother wit to make the bound and get the desktop version .
