Annotations Template Routes To Evernote & Dropbox. Any Others?

[kulte]

Hello,

 

Here I was just trawling the web looking for suggestions on a better way of taking notes and notebooks to use and I run across this forum! Wow, I didn't think about punching my own custom notebooks and getting exactly as I need. I shouldn't have been surprised. So thank you from a short-time but thankful lurker on the wonders of DIY notebooks!

 

I like the Annotation-style page from Levenger for projects and note-taking at work. If only there were a way to digitize them as part of my work flow. I read an article on Lifehacker that referenced Whitelines Link and how it could send your notes to Evernote, Dropbox, or an email address.

 

As a proof of concept, I went to the Whitelines site where they have Link templates and downloaded their A4 template. I then downloaded the Annotations template by mmcadory at DIYPlanner. Using a PDF editor, I put the Annotations template in the Whitelines Link template, careful to keep the template inside the outside edges of the corner icons, assuming that is the virtual border. I figured that printing that much gray would be both a toner sucker and would make the paper not as enjoyable to write on, I converted everything around the template to white in true neanderthal fashion: I made a bunch of white rectangles and blocked out the gray. Not the prettiest of work, but for a PoC, it was good enough!

 

Here is the template mashup:

Annotation Lined Template with Whitelines Link.pdf

 

I downloaded the Whitelines Link app on my iPhone, Scribbling some notes on the printed template, I wrote an "X" on the Evernote icon on the bottom of the printout, used the app, and held my breath. The app found the border icons, photographed my notes, and asked me which Notebook I wanted to put the PDF output in my Evernote account. Seconds later it was in that Notebook. REALLY COOL! There is some gray smudging in the scan, though. Not quite sure how to fix that, but for what I'm doing it isn't a big deal at all.

 

Whitelines has a very intuitive and neat app. They wouldn't have sold notebooks to me but they sure could have sold me an app if it weren't already free! I hope I don't upset them by modifying their template--but just to make sure I kept their name and logo at the bottom of the template.

 

Does anybody else have cool tricks to digitize notes into cloud apps? I couldn't find anything for Skydrive and I have been thinking about using One Note to better organize notes, clippings from the web, PDF's etc.

 

Thanks again for the new obsession!

 

--kulte

 

 

[Plume145]

There's a notebook made by Japanese brand Kokuyo that lets you take a picture of your notes, then upload it to dropbox, evernote, and possibly a bunch of others? I'm not sure because I mainly like it for the seriously freaking awesome paper :-) I think I only used the upload feature once, just to try it out. It's called CamiApp, and you can get it from Jetpens (possibly elsewhere, but that's where I get it).

 

I think some of the moleskine notebooks also let you do the same thing, but IIRC they are REALLY tied into evernote, which could be a problem if you don't use that. Also, bear in mind Moleskines can be a bit controversial around these parts, because some find the paper to be poor quality for use with fountain pens, and often inconsistent (ie from one batch to another - one notebook, or even the beginning of one, could have great paper but the next notebook or the end of the notebook could have terrible paper). But others don't see that, they like the notebooks and feel they are getting a bad rap for not doing something the manufacturers never promised they would do in the first place - make notebooks for use with fountain pens. Just a heads-up! (Personally I don't much care either way, because I'm a nerd and I like nerdy 'hybrid' notebooks - notebooks that open out like a binder so you can move the pages around. I don't think there's enough of us to have a row about which type is better )

 

Thanks for the whitelines solution though! It's nice that you made your very first post a real contribution like that!

[plc123]

Hi, I've been using Evernote, and I just discovered a feature that allows you to take a picture within a note. So, I had handwritten graphs that I took a picture of to go with my typed notes within Evernote. It was quite legible with an ipad.

 

Good luck finding something that works for you!

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for the link!

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Two posts and gone. But very helpful two posts.