(Note: Also see my list of notetaking apps and other useful iPad apps for writers.)
COURSENOTES | iTunes link | Website
Version: 1.1. Updated May 13, 2010.
Developer: Jonathan Klein, Price $4.99.
As you may be able to guess from the name, CourseNotes is geared toward students. I loved the clean and easy-to-use interface, and intend to use this app for taking notes when I attend workshops this summer at the SCBWI conference. The app lets you keep your notes organized by subject and class meeting. You can also mark items as ToDo items for easy browsing later on. Export via e-mail or peer-to-peer with other CourseNotes users. A bonus: you can also keep a lexicon of terms and definitions for each subject.
What I liked:
I know it's not really relevant to functionality, but I LOVED the app icon with its Moleskine-like look. My favourite iPad icon ever.
I liked the interface and clean design so much that I spent a while trying to figure out how I could use this in my day-to-day writing. What I found, though, is that although it's perfect for taking notes for classes, I don't I'll be able to use it regularly in my writing projects and notes.
My attempt to use this app for managing writing projects:
Instead of entering a course name, for example, I entered the name of a book project. There were also fields for "Instructor" and website. Hmmm, I thought. I decided to use the Instructor Name field as my genre/type field, so entered "YA novel." Under website, I entered the wordcount goal.
I labelled each note session with a Chapter. e.g. Note #1 was "Chapter 1", note #2 was "Chapter 2" etc. Up to this point, my plan was working since I could then type whatever I wanted under each Chapter heading --- plots notes, for example, or a rough draft. But then I realized that these were all being listed under one session, and you can have multiples sessions for each subject/book.
I suppose the other sessions could be used for other book-related notes. Another session could be character notes, for example, and another could be general background info. I like the look/feel of CourseNotes SO MUCH that I'd be so tempted to try this were it not for the fact that you can't rename or reorganize session notes -- the date they were created automatically becomes the name. You can pick the name of subjects but not sessions. Within each session, however, you can name the notes.
On my wish list:
To be able to choose or create a template rather than have to stick to the course notes theme. But then it wouldn't be called "CourseNotes", would it? As I said before, this app is GREAT for students or anyone taking courses. As for general writing-related notes, I'm still looking for an excuse to keep this wonderfully designed app on my iPad all the time, not just for course notes.
[Update: CourseNotes just informed me that they're actually working on a version which allows users to rename sessions, yay!]
