Does anyone have any experience with taking notes in class on a tablet pc?

In classes where the prof gives out lecture notes, I tend to leave them for after class, preferring to write out my own notes by hand. Out of class I'll rewrite my notes and condense them, using the provided lecture notes or the text. This makes for a lot of paper and I'm interested in going paperless. I already file most records worth keeping electronically (scans) and I am interested in doing the same for my notes. It could also be useful to put a copy online so I could refer to my notes from anywhere with access, and a tablet seems like it would make it easier to whip out sketches of diagrams (I'm an ME major). OCR might be a hurdle because my handwriting sucks when I have to write fast.

Do professors typically let people use laptops / write on tablets? Do you type up your notes, and if so, how do you deal with equation notation and sketches?

5/24/2007 11:28:26 AM

i have an x41t

i just graduated with an ME degree

taking notes on the tablet was awesome because most professors had them in pdf so i just imported that to one note and added ink annotations on top. one note 2007 can search pdfs now, so there is a bonus

it is nice just carrying a 4 lb tablet vs several notebooks in addition to the textbooks for the class

5/24/2007 11:38:59 AM

did you ever run solidworks on it? how was the performance? I need something that can handle moderately large assemblies in Inventor 10... but I figure if its not a tablet, I won't use it in class. (tappity tappity and all that).

the bookstore website says that state "expects incoming students to have a laptop". How does that jibe with reality?

5/24/2007 11:47:28 AM

you dont need a laptop (i use to sell them at the bookstore) it just makes life convenient. i would not use a tablet as my primary machine unless you get a docking station with a larger monitor but then you are looking at an additional $400

you could probably run solidworks on an x60t (core2duo but it has a 5400 RPM hard drive)

5/24/2007 12:02:12 PM

you could graduate from state with any degree without even owning a computer, there are that many lab resources. if you like to handwrite a lot of little notes, a pda might work but a tablet is probably more practical. I type WAY faster than I handwrite and often cant read what I wrote by hand either so notepad.exe was all I ever needed.

5/24/2007 12:35:03 PM

there is no portable tablet that will run Inventor/Solidworks well at all.

We have a tablet for the office, and its unusable for 3d moderling / CAD. For pretty much anything else it works pretty well though (VERY light autocad use, light photoshop, illustrator, sketchbook pro, painter)

I'd recommend looking at the Fujitsu Stylistic. We researched a LOT of tablets and went with the Fujitsu and have been absolutely impressed by it. LONG battery life (7-9 hours), it's light, doesn't run too hot, and it's well designed and styled and LOADED with features.

5/24/2007 12:40:32 PM

capncrunch?
more like capn-nerd lawl

5/24/2007 4:30:50 PM