MobileNoter - an iPhone app to sync OneNote notebooks

[John Hill]

Several weeks ago I was invited to be a beta tester for the MobileNoter application. This thread will keep you up-to-date on the progress of the test and let you know about any problems or successes I encounter.

As an active user of OneNote for 5+ years and an iPhone owner, this is a very exciting application. Having access to my OneNote notebooks from a pocket-sized device that I always have with me will encourage to put even more information into OneNote since I can access it so easily.

Of course, taking handwritten notes onto my iPhone would be the Holy Grail of OneNote/iPhone/Tablet PC apps but this is a great first step.

[John Hill]

Well, I installed the app and synchronized my OneNote notebooks. The process was explained very well and it only took a couple minutes!

The typed and handwritten notes look exactly like my OneNote pages. Using the iPhone's pinching feature I was able to zoom in and out of the pages just like with a photo. After the first sync I realized I didn't need some sections and deleted them. I then did another sync but the deleted sections remained on the iPhone. I then created a new section in OneNote and a new note and that sync'd with no problem.

I have emailed the MobileNoter folks about the sections/notes that didn't go away on the iPhone side and I'll let you know if it is just a setting that needs to be changed or an actual bug.

[BK_NC]

Looking at their website I see they are talking of making it possible to ink notes on the iPhone/ipod-touch that can by sync'd back to OneNote. Is that in the version you are beta testing?

Does the iPhone / iPod-Touch support inking like with a Tablet PC ? I have a Touch but I'm not sure to be honest. Would be a great feature for a portable OneNote type app though.

[John Hill]

No, it just supports typed text, not handwritten.

[John Hill]

I emailed the developers because when I deleted some sections in my OneNote notebook they did not get deleted from the iPhone. They were able to duplicate this problem and released an update. This morning I downloaded the update and it works great now!

Next, I added a QuickNote on the iPhone and then tried to Synchronize again. The QuickNote did not appear in the Notebook on my tablet and I have emailed the developers about this.

[John Hill]

I emailed the developers because when I deleted some sections in my OneNote notebook they did not get deleted from the iPhone. They were able to duplicate this problem and released an update. This morning I downloaded the update and it works great now!

Next, I added a QuickNote on the iPhone and then tried to Synchronize again. The QuickNote did not appear in the Notebook on my tablet and I have emailed the developers about this.

[John Hill]

MobileNoter is now in the 3rd revisions and the synchronizing is being improved. Apparently they exceeded the capacity of their DB host and have moved it temporarily to another system.

Minor bug fixes.

Right now everythign synchronizes well and they application works as described.

[digitaldoctors]

No, it just supports typed text, not handwritten.

Not worth it then !

[wiggy1]

DD, you should write an app for iPhone or WebOS or Android that would allow for inking with the finger (in all your spare time right :) I know there are several crude drawing applications out there that will allow you to draw on the devices. I don't know how good they are though. I am a Palm Pre user and just use it as a phone/PDA. I do have flash cards on it too and want to sync my Ink Flash cards but haven't been successful yet.

[digitaldoctors]

MobileNoter - sounds like OneNote Mobile for the iPhone.

I expect apps like this to allow inking. At least they could convert your writing to an image and save that.

OneNote files can be quite large, especially when you have images/pdfs. I'd be surprised to see a large OneNote collection work well on an iPod.