School is starting in just a couple of weeks, which means that you’ll soon be on the lookout for the best apps for school notes!
The best apps for school notes will help you stay organized and prepared, so that you can focus more on learning and less on trying to remember where you left your class notes. In this post, we’ve gathered our top picks for the best apps for school notes.
If you want something simple and straightforward, we recommend Evernote. It’s free and easy to use, so it’s perfect if you’re just getting started with digital note-taking. If you’re looking for something a little more advanced, try Google Keep or Microsoft OneNote—they both offer enhanced features such as voice recording and grammar checking.
Best Apps For School Notes
Taking notes in school can be a big challenge for students with learning and thinking differences. They may struggle with writing and organizing their notes while listening. Or they may have trouble keeping up with a teacher because of slow processing speed. These note-taking apps can help.
Price and availability may vary but were accurate as of August 17, 2018. Understood does not endorse or receive financial compensation for the sale of any of these products.
AudioNote
With AudioNote, students can record lectures and type or draw notes at the same time. The app automatically syncs the recorded audio to a student’s notes, creating a lecture with matching notes. Students can jump around in the audio by clicking the notes they’ve taken. This lets them review the lecture through sound and notes.
Price:
AudioNote 2 for iOS, free (with in-app purchases)
AudioNote for Android, $5.99
AudioNote LITE for iOS and Android, free
Available for: iOS, Android
Evernote
Evernote lets students take notes across multiple devices. They can create and organize notebooks for different subjects, using lists, text, images, sounds and other media. Evernote’s interface is simple, which may be helpful for kids who are easily distracted. Students can also customize the app’s appearance through highlighting, fonts and color-coding, and share notes they’ve created.
Price: Free (premium features are available for $7.99/month)
Available for: iOS, Android
Notability
Notability is a fun tool for taking and organizing notes. Students can draw and type notes, or record audio notes. There are features to capture sound and images from the classroom, as well as add media like photos. Notes can be shared via email or through services like Google Drive and Dropbox. The app allows kids to get creative with their notes, so students with an artistic side may especially enjoy it.
Price: $9.99
Available for: iOS
Whink
Like Notability, Whink allows students to draw or type notes, or record audio notes. Students can add sound and images from the classroom and from the web. They can also share their notes. Students who like modern design may like Whink’s sleek interface.
Price: $4.99
Available for: iOS
Inspiration Maps
Inspiration Maps is a mind-mapping tool. A mind map is a way of representing ideas in a visual way. For example, instead of making a list of historical events, students can put each event in a bubble and connect it to similar events with lines. Visual learners may like Inspiration Maps. It lets students create several kinds of mind maps. These include diagrams, brainstorms and outlines. The app also has built-in templates for taking notes in various subjects, like English, history and science. There’s a similar version of this app for younger kids called Kidspiration Maps.
Price: $9.99 (a free trial version is available)
Available for: iOS
MindMeister
MindMeister is another mind-mapping app. Students can customize the color and look of their maps. MindMeister has some great options for letting different users work together on the same mind map. The app also allows students to assign dates and priorities to different ideas and notes. Mindomo is another free mind-mapping tool to consider.
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Available for: iOS, Android
Microsoft OneNote
OneNote is a well-known and popular app that lets students capture, organize and share notes. Kids can organize their notes in folders, as well as sort and search quickly. The app works across multiple devices, and allows the sharing of notes with others. Microsoft also offers Learning Tools for OneNote, a free add-on with several assistive technology tools, like text-to-speech.
Price: Free
Available for: iOS, Android
MarginNote
This app lets students import digital text and then take notes in the margins of that text. After they make their notes, students can use the app’s tools to create notes for a summary, mind maps and flashcards. MarginNote may be especially helpful for high-schoolers and college students who are tackling longer, more complex texts like books and articles.
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Available for: iOS
LiquidText
When it first came out in 2015, LiquidText won numerous awards for its innovative approach. Through gestures like pinching and swiping, students can import and manipulate digital text. They can grab a piece of text from one page and move it to another page to compare it. Or they can scroll through different parts of a book at the same time. They can also take notes and pull out key passages and terms.
Price: Free (with in-app purchases)
Available for: iPad
Squid
With this app, students can handwrite notes on a tablet or mobile phone with their finger, digital pen or stylus. Students who like to handwrite notes but want to move away from pen and paper may enjoy Squid. It lets students choose various kinds of digital paper, including ruled and graph. They can save notes, organize them into folders and share them. With a subscription, students also can import PDFs and annotate them, use virtual highlighters and add shapes to their notes.
Price: Free (premium features are available for $1/month)
Available for: Android
Otter Voice Notes
Otter Voice Notes lets kids record lectures and meetings, while creating digital transcripts of the recordings. As people talk, the app displays their words on screen, so kids can see what the speaker is saying in addition to listening. Once recordings are created, kids can listen to them and follow along with the transcript at the same time. The app highlights each word as it’s read aloud. The recordings and transcripts are also searchable, and kids can share them with others. This app can be a big help for kids who struggle to take notes and keep up in class.
Price: Free
Available for: Android, iOS
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About the author
Common Sense Media, Understood Founding Partner is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology.
best note taking app with stylus
The Surface Pen and Surface Slim Pen are mighty tools that only get better when you add some of the best Surface Pen apps to the mix. From note-taking to form-filling to coloring, here are the best apps to grab.
Bamboo Paper
True Paper Feel:
Bamboo Paper
Editor’s pick
The first time you touch your Pen to the screen with Bamboo Paper open, you’ll wonder just how they made it seem so much like real paper. Take notes using the six writing tools, add pictures to your pages, and write over them. And share your ideas with others using Bamboo Paper on other platforms.
From Free at Microsoft
Leonardo
Infinite Canvas:
Leonardo
Staff favorite
Leonardo is still in its beta stage. But it has a full set of tools for amateurs and pros alike, including infinite canvas, tons of brushes, grids and perspective lines, and a user interface that’s easy to navigate. Whether you’re sketching, drawing, or painting, this app will accommodate your needs. While it remains in beta, the price is knocked down to $40, 50% off the full price, at least for now.
$40 at Microsoft
Autodesk SketchBook
Pro Drawing Tools:
Autodesk SketchBook
If you were holding out on Autodesk SketchBook because of the price, you can now get the full version — including some Pro tools — for free. This is one of the best drawing and sketching apps for pretty much anyone, with a wide selection of brushes, surfaces, tools, and features to choose from.
Free at Microsoft
Drawboard PDF
Take Control of PDFs:
Drawboard PDF
Drawboard PDF is regarded as one of the best PDF apps available, thanks to an enormous selection of tools. It’s a document builder that lets you merge multiple PDFs, has annotations that can be calibrated for scale, and a large number of grid and line templates. If you’re often working with PDF files in a professional environment, Drawboard PDF should be near the top of your list.
From Free at Microsoft
StaffPad
Write Music With Ease:
StaffPad
Musicians out there, take notice: StaffPad is an app designed for Surface that makes it incredibly easy to annotate music. As you handwrite your music, it’s automatically and precisely converted into an engraved score. Once you finish writing, let StaffPad playback your creation with its full orchestra of instruments.
From $90 at Microsoft
Sketchable
Multipurpose Inking:
Sketchable
Sketchable is a free (with paid upgrades) drawing, sketching, and painting app that has been designed with the Surface Pen in mind. Not only can you use Sketchable for notes or to work on existing images and artwork, use it to create an entirely new work of art thanks to its wide array of tools. If you have even a bit of creativity in you, this app will be hard to put down.
From Free at Microsoft
Index Cards
Get Organized:
Index Cards
There’s just something about a stack of index cards that makes you feel like you’ve got your life in order. Both sides of cards can be marked up with your pen, and a zoom function lets you jam quite a bit of information onto each card. Cards and stacks of cards can be shared with others, and there’s no limit to the number of cards you can create.
From Free at Microsoft
CollaBoard
Digital Whiteboard:
CollaBoard
For those of you commonly involved in team projects, CollaBoard is an app that works with your Surface device and the Microsoft Hub. It’s best described as a digital whiteboard that multiple users can contribute to, all in real-time. With Skype for Business integration and compatibility with PDF, images, videos, and more, the whiteboard can become the central pivot point of your more extensive project.
Free at Microsoft
OneNote
Digital Notebook:
OneNote
Microsoft’s own free note-taking app syncs across all your devices, but it shines when you add the Surface Pen. Take notes on blank or grid backgrounds, highlight text, or draw pictures using various tools, then easily sync with OneDrive to keep your notes with you wherever you go.
Free at Microsoft
Xodo
Read and Edit PDFs:
Xodo
This fantastic PDF reader and editor is completely free, which is frankly surprising considering what you’re getting here. Just open a PDF file, and you’re given free rein over what you can do. Write all over it, highlight the significant bits, and save it as a new file. This is especially useful for quickly filling out those annoying forms that you usually have to type information into.
Free at Microsoft
If we’re making some suggestions
Thanks to most of the above apps having at least some sort of free version, you can give them a try with your pen essentially risk-free to see if they’ll come in handy. And don’t worry about mixing and matching hardware; the Surface Slim Pen works with older Surfaces. Don’t have a Surface Pen? You can always check out these Surface Pen and Surface Slim Pen alternatives.
Wondering exactly where to start with the apps? Bamboo Paper is a lightweight app that delivers a true paper feel while writing. Not only is it great for notetaking and journaling — you can add your own photos to a page — it can also be used to sketch or draw thanks to a custom color palette and a collection of tools beyond just a pen.
Need something more suited for artistic ambition? I’ve been using Leonardo, which is now available straight from the Microsoft Store, for some time, and I appreciate the simple UI that scales to any size display and the overall collection of tools. Whether you want to sketch something rough or go for a full work of art, you shouldn’t have any problems. The infinite canvas is ideal for letting your artwork flow, and while it’s still in its beta stage, you can save $40 off off the full price.
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