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Dan Bricklin’s Note Taker HD for iPad adds Palm Rejection

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Dan Bricklin’s excellent Note Taker HD App for the the iPad just became more excellent. The most recent update added a number of new wrinkles, but the one that has me the most excited is that Dan added Palm Rejection. He calls it a Wrist Guard. For those that are unfamiliar with the App, I’ll point you to this GBM Shortcut from Matt Dillon where you can check it out in action.

Note Taker HD has two distinctly different input methods called Edit 1 and Edit 2. Edit 1 allow you to Ink into a box (you can see this demonstrated in the Shortcut above) and your Ink appears above you on the page. (That’s a simplistic description but watch the video.) Edit 2 is where the “Wrist Guard” comes in. You turn it on our off in the settings. When turned on, your hand can rest on the screen while you ink with the stylus.  You’ll notice that you get one line at a time, or one section of the screen at a time. There’s a little diamond that follows you down the screen as your notes begin to fill up the page.

Note Taker HD is and has been an excellent Inking app for the iPad. Adding Palm Rejection (Wrist Guard) is another big step forward. It looks like this works primarily for right handers, but depending on how you hold your pen, it might work for lefties. This app takes some working with to get down all that you need to know if you are a serious Inker. I’d highly suggest taking the tutorials.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. HG

    08/12/2010 at 12:49 pm

    I am going to have to reload the App on my iPad. I didn’t like the inking before, because of the rough edges. Now with wrist protection, it might come in handy.

  2. Dan Bricklin

    08/12/2010 at 2:38 pm

    Thanks for the kind words about the new version of my app.

    Just FYI on left-handed operation: Buried in the Help (at the end of both the “Writing on the Screen” and “Page Editing” help topics) you’ll find a section on “Support for left-handed and right-handed operation.” Here’s some of what it says:

    “By default, the app is set up for people who write with their wrist below the fingers they write with (or hold a stylus with)… However, many other people, especially many left-handed people, write with their wrist above their fingers. The default layout and wrist guard operation do not work as well for them, and inadvertent touches become common. To help avoid this situation, there is a “Wrist Writing Position” setting on the App Settings…for indicating the assumed wrist position… For those people who write with their wrists above their fingers, you can set the Writing Wrist Position setting to “Above writing” and then the layout and operation when editing will act differently than the default “Below writing.” Buttons will display at the lower part of the screen, the wrist guard will block touches above your writing instead of below, and the Close-Up View will be at the top of the screen in Edit 2 instead of the bottom.”

    I’m sorry this wasn’t more obvious. I really tried hard in this release to make it more accommodating to people who write in ways differently that I do. There is still an issue with people who write with their wrists to the left or right of their fingers, but I didn’t learn about that until late in the testing. Interacting with a computer directly with your hands is something we are constantly learning more and more about.

    -DanB

    • Thomas Edwards

      02/01/2013 at 5:59 am

      I’m one of those unfortunate enough to write with their wrist to the left of the fingers (not above or below). Has palm rejection been updated to account for this?

  3. Warner Crocker

    08/12/2010 at 3:42 pm

    Thanks, Dan for pointing that out. Keep up the great work.

  4. Tuur

    08/13/2010 at 12:09 pm

    Can I open pdf’s and ink and annotate them with this app?

  5. Wiggy1

    12/29/2010 at 3:04 am

    Yse, you can ink pdf’s in this app. However, you have to first use something like the Dropbox app to download the pdf to your device and use the “Open In” feature to send it to the Note Taker HD program. The Note Taker HD program will then import the PDF as a new note that you can annotate. Once you are done, you have to export the PDF back to another app for uploading back to your network or internet storage location. Dan is working for a direct plug-in to Drop Box or other cloud storage solutions. That will save from the import/export steps. Despite the work-around, it is extremely pleasent to ink PDF’s using Note Taker HD for basic pdf reviewing (95% of what I do).

  6. Jerry

    02/03/2011 at 11:48 am

    I love this app! I have been using it for a while for class notes on my iPad. I don’t even bring paper in my backpack anymore! The other students and even professors want a demo. I can’t imagine school without it now. I just import the professors powerpoint as a pdf and annotate right on the ipad. When I’m finished I email it directly to the class notebook I have set up in Evernote and I’m good to go. Awesome app. I have a question for Mr. Bricklin. Do you plan on creating an android app? I may switch to an Android tablet at some point as my iPad doesn’t do flash and most of my school stuff is written in flash. Thank you for a great app.

    • Jerry

      02/03/2011 at 11:49 am

      By the way, I am a lefty and it works great. No issues.

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