If you’re a student or interested in a note-taking app for whatever reason, I’m sure you’ve come across Evernote and Notability. Definitely Evernote, as it’s the clearest recommendation of anything ever. On the other hand, prominence is known for doing specific things right. It’s only available on Apple devices as a paid app, and it stores notes in a proprietary format like Evernote. Its big benefit is that you can scribble anything on the screen with your stylus or just your finger, and can also record audio.
If you are messing around in your head, not sure which one to choose, hopefully you will have a clearer idea at the bottom of this page.
Basic difference
Cross-platform availability: You’ll find Evernote apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and most importantly, the web. And Evernote has done a commendable job of trying to keep functionality the same across apps. On the other hand, Notability is only available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Money: Evernote is free to use. Notability’s iOS app is $4.99 and the Mac app is $9.99. Though Evernote has a premium plan for $4.99 a month that allows features like offline support, which is built into Notability’s app by default.
Notability syncs audio recordings with text notes
If you are a student, you will love Notability. When you create a new note, you will have a large white area that you can draw, scribble, or type in. You can also add images, PDFs, and audio recordings, and you have the ability to bookmark.
If you’re using an external or built-in keyboard to type, Notability will also map the entered words to points in the record. So you can quickly switch between lecture notes and start listening to the excerpt you want. But this function only works when you are using the keyboard. If you like taking notes by doodling with a stylus, you’re out of luck.
Evernote can also record voice
When you create a new note, you will see a Microphone button. Pressing this button will start voice recording. Like Notability, you are free to type your notes while the audio is being recorded.
Notes on standing out from Evernote
The biggest difference between the two is that Notability offers an integrated note-taking experience. You have 4-5 different sources – audio, scribbled notes, drawings, imported text, imported images, and PDFs – and Notability ties them together into a complete, contextual package. If you do it right, everything you need to review a lecture can be contained within a single note.
On the other hand, Evernote lacks all this contextual stuff. Yes, you can have audio and text in a note but that’s all. If you need to annotate documents inside notes, they must be in PDF format and you need to be a Premium member.
This is it. This is what it all comes down to. If you want a packaged, contextual note-taking experience, you’ll have to use Notability, there’s no way about it.
Where does Evernote win?
Notability focuses on creating this unique experience. Evernote is more than that.
A few things Evernote can do: You can use it as a task management system, as a repository for old documents, life diaries, or whatever you want. And Evernote has features like great operator-based search to make finding things easy.
If your note-taking takes place outside of classes and meetings, Evernote can offer much more.
Notability is also limited to iOS and Mac. This leaves out Android and Windows users, which is a sizable population.
Evernote is also free to get started. But if you’re a heavy user, you’ll quickly get over your free usage, and you’ll want your notes to be available offline. This is where you’ll pay $5 a month or $45 a year for Evernote Premium. Prominence, on the other hand, will cost you $15 total on iOS and Mac. There are no upgrades or monthly pricing there. Notability uses iCloud to sync between devices while Evernote uses their own servers.
When it comes to exporting content, Evernote and Notability are both pretty stable thanks to their proprietary formats. Notability can export notes as separate PDF and audio. You can also export the note as a Notability file to share it with other Notability users.
Evernote’s sharing features are much better. Multiple users can collaborate on the same document. It’s not as good as Google Docs, but it’s still something that Notability doesn’t have.
Evernote also has a secret scribble weapon
A few years ago, Evernote acquired Penultimate, another handwriting/notes app that you can freely draw or write on the iPad screen. More recently, the app has been integrated with the Evernote experience. Penultimate is a free app, but you can unlock features by paying for Evernote Premium.
One cool feature is that Evernote scans all your handwritten notes and lets you search within them. And yes, Penultimate is just a handwriting/notes app that integrates tightly with Evernote. But for some, that might be all you need.
Conclusion
There’s so much Evernote can do, people have written books about it. So I cannot go into full detail here. But it is safe to say that Evernote will let you scan all your handwritten notes/PDFs/images and let you search for them easily.
Notability is a fairly targeted app. That’s not a bad thing. They are the best at what they do. But you should be aware of the limitations before jumping in.
Who did you go with?
I’ve tried Notability and I will continue to try it, but I’m an Evernote user myself right now. How about you? Which one did you choose in the end? And if you’re not sure, don’t feel bad, we’re all in the same boat. This comparison is only about two of the top services and there are many more to come.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
