Over the past couple of weeks, I have been rediscovering what it means to be a student. The last time I was in a serous academic environment was in 1998. This was before the widespread availability of high-speed internet, wireless internet, and mobile devices. So there are many little tools that I am finding to help me in this new world that I have entered.
Another chaplain introduced me to the iPad app called “Notability” last week, and I am so grateful that he did. This little app has made my life much easier and my reading much more rewarding and profitable.
Notability is a document reader. The app primarily reads PDF files, but will accept other files and covert them to pdf. Once a file is imported into the Notability app, the app makes the document easy to read and make notations on. Using your finger, the highlight feature allows the reader to make parts of documents easily identifiable. With another tool, Notability allows the reader to take notes of the side of the document in the margins. This feature is not the most useful for me because I’m not yet comfortable or skilled in writing on a digital screen with my index finger. My handwriting improves when I use a stylus.
This app has already paid for itself in my using it to mark documents that I am required to read for each day’s class. I can wholeheartedly recommend this app as a way to read PDFs and keep the notes for the future.