I am exactly the name way. I love using the apple pencil to write with. I have been wanting pencil support here for awhile. I did find ’ app in the ios store called Mazec. It is expensive,$l3, but it’s a handwriting keyboard that converts handwriting to text automatically. I handwrote this whole post for example. This handwriting keyboard works with every app on my ipad. Including Agenda.
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This was a great find. Although not perfect, and takes a little getting used to, I have found it is very forgiving to my illegible scrawl. The user-defined dictionary is a nice touch. Intelligent handwriting recognition is nontrivial, and expecting Agenda to include it is unrealistic. $13 is a reasonable cost, given its sophistication.
However, I’m not convinced that any stylus entry can be as fast as keyboard. I know there are lots of people who dream of one do-it-all app. What you really want is an app that integrates with best of breed components.
This response was created using Mazec. Sure, I could have typed it faster, but l’m already getting better at its quirks. It shows great promise, and is much better than anything the Agenda team could cook up from scratch.
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Interesting insight, thanks. You are right that handwriting recognition is very difficult. Note that Apple don’t even support it in their apps, which gives some idea.
We do want to support Pencil in the near future, but I’m afraid it will not have handwriting recognition in the beginning. We are unsure if we will be able to provide it long term either, but that is uncertain.
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I’ve never been convinced by the one app to rule them all. There are too many users with too many varying requirements.
Personally the ability to link to handwritten notes in Goodnotes 5/Nebo Myscript/Noteshelf… would be preferable. Let me use then pen in apps that handle the pen well, but allow me to link to them easily in Agenda. This is a win for both app developers. If I could tell Agenda I want a new handwritten note and it opens in it Goodnotes so I can write the note and then link back I’d be a happy bunny.
Here are my concerns with Agenda attempting to add Goodnotes type functionality:
- You would get app bloat. Once implemented people would ask for colour highlights, maths equations, checkboxes…and an ever increasing list of things. This will massively slow down the app, not to mention what would happen to synchronisation over time as handwritten notes grow.
- If you implment handwritten notes you have to implement a search facility that can find words written by hand. Without this no one would be able to find what they had written. I doubt this is easy to implement.
The saying goes that you should use the right tool for the right job. People like Agenda because it is fast and simple. Evernote started out that way, but now is a bloated beast, plus this invariably drives up the app’s cost.
My plea is for developers of different apps to work together to allow cross linking and integration. That would allow each developer to make their app better and give users the best of both worlds. It seems by reading this forum that linking to Goodnotes, Nebo Myscript and Notshelf/ledge, would cover the majority of handwritten apps people use. Perhaps reaching out to those developers would be a great place to start?
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Excellent summary by svs.
I should also say now that I use:
- Agenda, for creating an agenda, or high-level summary of a project
- OneNote for doing handwritten notes, as part of that project.
When I am done writing the note, I include its link in the Agenda note. By clicking on the link, I am able to open the note with the OneNote app.
So, for me this works quite well. Yes, if there was a tighter integration, it would make my life simpler. Ditto for a tighter integration between Agenda and the Calendar.
But I would prefer a further development very much along the lines described by svs.
–Christos
Yup! I second that motion wholeheartedly.
Hello,
propably some of you might have a look on Selvy PenScript which is also a handwriting keyboard but free of charge. It works the same like WritePad or Mazec and you can install different languages for the keyboard.
Working with this keyboard and Agenda feels very good.
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Hey, THIS IS COOL!!
Thank you, it works!!
Only thing is I have to read their “terms” as they want “full access” whatever this means…
Hi,
this means that the software developers may/can transfer all text entered by you. This may also include personal information such as your credit card number for instance. You can activate or deactivate this in the IOS settings. I have deactivated it and cannot see any disadvantage in the functionality.
OK, so I´ll do the same. Good feedback, thank you!
This app really is another step towards my next step to buy an iPad & pencil and as such I´ll be able to leave my MacBook much more often in the office during meeting, where I now only use Agenda. I did 100% cancel using Evernote since I own Agenda.
I just did two weeks ago and you won’t regret.
I am very exciting what you said about Evernote. I understand that you really replaced Evernote with Agenda. This means, for example, that you put documents that you have scanned all into Agenda? How does the search function work? Is it as powerful as in Evernote? Do you work with as many notebooks as in Evernote? I would be very glad to hear more about that.
I did use Evernote as documentation archive for meetings etc. I did not add so much documents to it by Scan, usually I have PDFs. I also generate PDFs using the ScannerPro App. Adding those by a link inside Agenda is much better than copying a picture to Evernote.
What I didn’t like about Evernote than is, that all data are stored anywhere out of my control. Which is not the case with Agenda. And in addition to Agenda, I still struggle to consequently use Notability or GoodReader, both linked to my own data repository. But both are not connected with my schedule, which is a disadvantage.
In Agenda I have created around 20 “notebooks” within 5 categories.
What I really would like to have implemented for a program is, that the same documentation tree as in my Finder is also found within these programs. I try to be consequent myself, which is (naturally) not always successful.
I agree, using the keyboard would be a lot faster. When I know I will he needing to do some serious writing, a keyboard it is. This suggestion was for there who want, or asking for some thing the this until the agenda folks implement their ideas for the pencil. This keyboard could be a good supplement to what they come up with. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to come up with something the ’ this from scratch. There is something I enjoy about handwriting over typing.
Ditto on linking apps that handle the pencil well into Agenda.
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Hi! Quick jumping on the bandwagon here.
Before Agenda, I was using Notes.app a lot. I still do, and I still go for it on iPad pro for a quick sketch with Pencil. The drawing engine is great, but the render isn’t very cute: lines too thin and no character, default colors boring, no choices of grids for the background.
I tend to do sketches with Linea app, but sometimes it’s better to have a sketch inline with a note.
Would Agenda bring sketching/doodling in-app, I’d use it all the time.
- I need sketching, drawing
- I don’t need note taking / OCR
For sketching / drawing, I need threee tools, no more: a pencil/crayon, to outline, draft things, an ink pen for contours, lettering, one that has a bit of character, with a variable line depending on pressure and dyamics, and a too to fill, that is not covering too much the other tools (transparency). They’d work in both light and dark mode.
I could also be satisfied with a default palette of 16 well chosen colors.
I prefer tools and features to be just a few but well tuned and balanced.
That would be so cool if sketches could integrate seamlessly inside of the notes, inline, so the document stays beautiful, in both light and dark modes.
A v2 could bring ability to load up images in the sketches, to draw on top of them, achieve collages.
But in the meantime, could we be able to use the Share feature of iOS to send images or documents from art apps (such as Photos, Linea, Procreate) to Agenda’s current note? That would be very nice.
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The share sheet is planned. One issue is the “current note”. I see what you mean by that, but not sure it is scalable. What do you do if someone shares, and there is no selected note? Really needs a more robust approach I think.
What you can do is copy from the other app, and paste in an Agenda note. Doesn’t take much time, especially if you just swipe between apps. Probably just as fast as a share sheet, where you first have to find Agenda etc.
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It’s not so simple. In Linea, for example, you don’t get to « copy » your canvas. You can export it to a file or another app, but you can’t copy it. Neiter can you from Procreate, Concepts etc. You can copy bits, selected layer, but not your whole canvas.
Other apps seems to follow an identical pattern, that is simple and robust. Take Enlight Videoleap for example. You can send video clips, images or sounds to it, from an app using the share sheet, or from Files or another cloud app. If there is an active projectin Videolep, then the imported file end up being place exactly where the playhead (cursor) was. But if there’s nothing obviously active, then the file is imported into a new document.
For Agenda, that would mean importing at cursor place in the active note, if any, or, in case no active note can be determined, into a brand new note in a new project in the first Category. I think users using the share sheet know what they do, so they make sure to prepare an active note, or they’re ready to deal with a new one that they’ll have to manyally move within Agenda.
Anyway, glad to read that the share sheet function is planned 
Very happy with the latests additions and the steady arrival of new features.
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Are you certain you can’t copy an image from those other apps? A common way to do it is to use the action button (box with arrow), which then usually has a copy option, as well as options like save.
Re: share sheet, I guess we could go that way, but it doesn’t feel very useful. Dropping a new note in the first project, when that project could be anything at all. I think we need to offer more control over where you put things, and we have ideas and designs already. Think we can make a nice experience.
Ahhhh I really need Pencil support. Guys PLEASE integrate it. I want to be able to jot down notes under a meeting and have it in there. Right now I have to jot it all down in Notability and then re-type it into Agenda.
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We have plans to get to this quite soon. Note it will only be drawing/handwriting capture, but not conversion to text. for conversion to text, you are probably best with a third party handwriting keyboard like Marzec.
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