Tablets for uni?

[lynt.br]

Recently I was considering buying some sort of usb tablet for taking handwritten notes on my laptop. I'm one of those crazy people who has to have their notes in a certain way otherwise I'll probably never look at them again. I was thinking of using a usb tablet for drawing diagrams and stuff that I normally can't do on my laptop next year. I don't really have much experience in this area so I was wondering if anyone has used a tablet for note taking before? I was looking at the Wacom bamboo pen but it seemed more like a tablet for graphic artists. How do you think these sort of tablets would work for note taking? I don't want my writing coming out like on those dodgy signature machines.

I'm looking for something not too expensive. Preferably small so I can carry it around with my laptop and so there is space to sit it down next to the laptop on lecture tables. Anyone have any recommendations?

Also how well does the inking feature work in something like OneNote? Is it really as easy as just plugging in the tablet, installing the drivers and then writing away in OneNote?

I've heard some critics say that you have to write really small on the tablet because your handwriting comes out jumbo sized on the screen. Is this true?

My laptop is a 12" Asus UL20A with Windows 7.

Thanks!

[burbs]

http://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=add+a+touchscreen+to+a+laptop

EDIT: http://gizmodo.com/173203/navisis-turns-regular-monitors-into-touch-screen-monitors

[RainerWolfram]

Early this year, I bought a wacom bamboo touch and pen tablet at Harvey Norman. I've found it extremely useful for some of my units where it allowed me to jot down handwritten notes, mathematical questions/solutions, formulas, diagrams and do quick annotations on a pdf file without having to print out the lecture notes. It's not hard to write on the wacom; the tablet is sensitive to the tip of the pen so you don't have press down hard on the pen. The tablet is very accurate and smooth, almost like writing with a felt pen on paper. However, when you are handwriting notes, you have to consistently look at your monitor since it's really easy to lose coordination of the pen pointer and as a result, there's a high chance that you will overlap some of the letters or write unaligned. I don't recommend the tablet if you plan to write down large amounts of text in a short amount of time; anything more than three lines (A4 page width) of handwriting will get messy and time consuming. It's designed best for quick annotations or short handwritten notes.

As for the size of the tablet, it's really compact and light - the dimensions (length and width) are no larger than the size of a 12 inch laptop and thinner than a 64 page notebook. I normally leave my tablet inside my 13inch macbook, as in between the keyboard and the monitor when carrying my laptop around. When taking notes, I just leave the tablet on top of my keyboard and trackpad since there's no desk space and since my tablet has touch functionality, I don't have to use my laptop's trackpad to control the mouse - I just use the tablet as the mouse. If you do plan on getting a wacom, I would recommend getting one with touch functionality because it can be handy when you don't have desk space.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[RainerWolfram]

Sorry, I forgot to answer some of your questions.

Also how well does the inking feature work in something like OneNote? Is it really as easy as just plugging in the tablet, installing the drivers and then writing away in OneNote?

Yep, pretty much. Just install the drivers and write away

I've heard some critics say that you have to write really small on the tablet because your handwriting comes out jumbo sized on the screen. Is this true?

Not exactly true. The dimensions of the pen active area is directly proportional to the size of your monitor. So let's say you place the tip of the pen 1/3rd of the pen active area's width in the east direction from the centre of the pen active area, you will see the pen pointer on your monitor also 1/3rd of the monitor's width in the east direction from the centre of the MONITOR screen size. Since the pen active area is relatively large and given that the size of your monitor is 12inch, you don't have to write small. Don't worry, you will get used to it once you have practiced on the tablet for a couple of days.

[lynt.br]

Hey thanks for the detailed post. I would only be using the tablet for diagrams, equations, annotations and small amounts of text. For large blocks of text I'll use the keyboard. I'll take a look at the pen and touch model. Using it as a trackpad sounds great because the trackpad on my laptop is small and not very smooth.

As it's a USB device, does it drain the laptop batteries much?

[burbs]

You know what I realised the other day? Office 2010 (probably 2007 and older as well) have some pretty good equation writing tools, and visio is the king of diagrams.

I know that a tablet is much easier because its like handwriting, but maybe these programs would be enough - saving you money?

That said, I've never used a tablet for anything other than graphic design so danieltennis may be more credible

[Mao]

It simply isn't the same. You don't get the consistent neat typography offered by digital documents, and you don't get the complete freedom offered by hand-written notes. At the end of the day it's a gimmick for about a month before you realise it won't be productive.

Software alternatives can be considered, but you might find it much more effective just listening and paying attention rather than lugging around the pinnacle of high-tech procrastination.

[Russ]

What's wrong with taking actual handwritten notes? I considered a laptop for uni but I've always had more success with pen and paper

[shinny]

What's wrong with taking actual handwritten notes? I considered a laptop for uni but I've always had more success with pen and paper

Same. Used to use one but I ditched it for good ol' pen and paper. Much easier and efficient. Saves having to lug around a laptop too.

[Plan-B]

It simply isn't the same. You don't get the consistent neat typography offered by digital documents, and you don't get the complete freedom offered by hand-written notes. At the end of the day it's a gimmick for about a month before you realise it won't be productive.

Software alternatives can be considered, but you might find it much more effective just listening and paying attention rather than lugging around the pinnacle of high-tech procrastination.

I agree with this. I have a wacom bamboo for graphic design and personally would not use it for note taking. It has distinct advantages for drawing/sketching digitally, but it just doesnt suit note taking in lectures in my opinion. For me it would be less productive and you would have to carry the laptop, tablet and it's corresponding cable, which might be a nuisance for you?

[lynt.br]

Thanks for the additional replies. I think the tablet may not be a suitable solution.

I take my laptop to uni everyday anyway because I find it invaluable for law, so regardless of whether I buy a tablet or not I'm still carrying my laptop with me. It's pretty compact and light so carrying it around isn't a problem. I also regard myself as pretty disciplined when it comes to concentrating in lectures. My main reason for considering a tablet was so I could have all my notes for each subject on the laptop rather than having some notes in the laptop, some in textbooks, some on lecture notes etc.

What's wrong with taking actual handwritten notes? I considered a laptop for uni but I've always had more success with pen and paper

I used a notebook for some of my commerce subjects this year and felt it was a bit unsatisfactory for me. The main problem was I was taking typed annotated notes on the lecture slides and writing whatever I couldn't type on my notebook. I figured if I could find a way to put everything on the comp it would solve that problem and if I could save myself having to buy the lecture notes each semester it may be worthwhile but it looks like a tablet wouldn't be a good solution. I'm pretty terrible when it comes to keeping a notebook organised and I find this stops me revising my notes a lot of the time. Then again, I like the flexibility of written notes and being able to read and revise them anywhere. I'll probably have to learn to put up with the minor inconvenience and try to work out a paper system that works for me.