4

Keeping notes on your iPad

equipment_needed.eps Equipment needed: An iPad that is ready to use, and reasonably clean fingers!

skills_needed.eps Skills needed: Knowledge of how to start apps.

Now that you have your iPad set up and know how to navigate its apps, it's time to start using them. In this chapter, you find out how to jot down ideas and memos on your iPad. You start by using the Notes app, one of the simplest apps that comes with your iPad, inspired by a humble pad of paper. Whether you're writing a shopping list, a song or a story, Notes is there in an instant to capture your ideas before they drift away. When you need to refer to a note, the search function makes it easy to find.

Although you can email your notes to people, the Notes app is not intended for creating polished final documents for sharing. There are no features for bold text, underlining, different fonts or any other changes in formatting that you might be used to from a word processing package. That might sound like a limitation, but it's actually a strength. There is nothing distracting or unnecessary on the screen, so you can focus on what you're writing. If you're one of those people who has to fiddle with 15 fonts before you start writing, you're all out of excuses. You don't even have to save your work. Notes takes care of that for you ...

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