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BLUF: OneNote for Android NEEDS support for stylus input for drawing and annotating!
Let me first say that on my IBM X200 with digitizer that OneNote is my most used application. I absolutely love the ability to make rough design sketches then annotate them with information. (Parts lists, notes etc) My favorite feature though is the ability of OneNote to actually improve upon the simplicity of pen and paper. You have the freedom to use it as a simple notepad. But where it excels is with the ability to move and resize drawing and text elements. All though college I used it to take notes in class and being able to move a diagram around was a huge benefit.
Android needs the pen input functinality. I can't stress this enough. I'm not talking about handwriting recognition for text input. I'm talking about being able to use the application like a notepad. Initially I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 to use as my "idea pad". With all of the capability that the table has, the software available for the built in digitizer is abysmal. It does everything well except be a notepad. It's actually pretty horrifying how much trouble to have to go through to even try to use it that way. It was so poor at being a notepad that I returned it. The same is almost true of the Samsung Galaxy Note II I have been using as my phone.
I have found an application published by Asus called Supernote that does a decent job at combining a notepad and drawing application. If the handwrighting recognition feature were enabled it could give OneNote a run for it's money. OneNote still has the advantage with the moving text and graphics around. If it could access the clipboard for the S-pen that would be great too...
The question is, with more and more devices being sold with digitizers and stylus', when is OneNote going to support their input? (Oh, and being able to ignore finger input while the pen in is use is an important aspect of that.)
Thanks for listening,
Michael
A family of Microsoft products that enable users to capture, organize, and reuse notes electronically.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2012) and a Galaxy Note 2, stylus input is absolutely vital to me for note taking and idea sketching. OneNote is being completely out-performed by Evernote now that Evernote released pen support in their program.
I too wish to support Michael in this issue.
I want to see Pen input for android device (one note)
I feel like it was me who wrote Michael's original post. Share his sentiments and experiences almost word-for-word. Widely vaunted note taking apps on Android like Papyrus and Lecture Notes are chintzy imho and just don't offer the overall functionality and usability of OneNote. I feel like most, if not all, users who brag about Papyrus, Lecture Notes, et al have never tried OneNote.
Having said that, I'm not holding my breath that pen-support will ever make its way into the Android version of this app. Being able to take hand-written notes with an active digitizer might still be niche functionality, but for Windows-based tablets like the Surface Pro, Samsung Ativ, Dell Venue Pro, Asus Note 8, etc., it's obviously a pretty big selling point over most Android tablets and the iPad. Even if only 1 out of every 5 people who buy those Windows tablets do so because of the active stylus + OneNote, I don't see any reason why MS would spend the development hours to implement something that could only hurt that market share.
Wow! That's pretty cool. I hope they're working on more features, but this should make Microsoft either give up or work harder. I prefer lots of things about OneNote, but it does not have ink on Android, so this pushes Evernote into the superior position.
Looks to be a good day for Android Evernote users. Inking just came out of beta today.
Works pretty good to. I wasn't a big fan of EverNote, but being able to do handwriting is enough for me to use it over OneNote.