Notability Guide
Getting started with Notability today
This is a draft and subject to change without notice.
Why hello and welcome. I’m not sure how you got here, but I’m glad you are here. This is a simple pastime guide I’m building for the Notability community. So let’s begin…
About
This Notability guide assists newcomers in creating and taking digital notes on their Apple iPad. Beginning with setup, we will explore the various features and functions to get you started. Enjoy!
Setup
To start, you will need either an iPad or iPad Pro with Notability installed. I recommend having a keyboard and a pen compatible with your iPad/Pro. While you don’t need a Magic Keyboard or an Apple Pencil, owning the latter will significantly enhance your experience. Having both will greatly improve your experience.
This guide will only be covering Notability for iPadOS. Though many of the topics do translate directly to iOS for iPhone and MacOS for Macs. I decided to pursue a life of only using an iPad Pro without the use of a traditional computer. So it is hard to speak to something I, myself, cannot attest too.
Start Here
For all things Notability and the source-of-truth concerning Notability, go directly to the Notability’s website. There, you’ll find their Blog offering tips and tricks, and their Support with troubleshooting resources.
Ginger Labs🚀 is the parent company of Notability. Ginger Labs was founded in 2008 and is based in Palo Alto, California.
Support
Notability offers a few channels to get both direct support and community help.
Direct support is found both in online chat and within the Notability app.
-
Online chat:
- Go to Ginger Labs
- In the bottom right click Help
- Enter your question in the How can we help?
-
Notability app:
- From the Library screen (where Subject and Dividers are shown), click Settings (⚙️) > Help > Contact Support
- Fill in all of the fields with as much details and clarity as you can provide
Community support is found on Reddit and Discord.
- Reddit: Go to r/notabilityapp
- Discord: Go to Notability
Like any form of community involvement your mileage will vary in the tone and assistance from others. I can be found on Reddit under u/ccarver_tech.
First Things First
Life is filled with rough and tough days. These two topics of Auto-Backup and iCloud Sync cannot prevent rough days, but they might help you prevent turning rough days into terrible days.
Auto-Backup (IMPORTANT)
Before you create your first note, turn on auto-backup. You might be thinking, “I’m safe, I have iCloud sync turned on.” Plain, simple, and to the point: iCloud Sync is not enough and will not protect you. Not because you cannot trust Notability or Apple, but because life happens and iCloud Sync doesn’t cover all of the scenarios.
Instructions:
- From Library window, go to Settings (⚙️).
- Select Auto-Backup.
- Choose one of the cloud service providers listed in the Select Service. If you do not see your cloud provider, then I suggest you choose one of the ones provided. They all have free-tier options.
- Select the Destination folder to store your backups into.
- Under File Format it is suggested, if you are in a position where you do not have a spare iPad, iPhone, or Mac, then select PDF + Recording; else select Note.
PDF + Recording is suggested in the event your device stops working and you need access to your notes. A PDF is a universal format that most systems can open from anywhere and makes it an ideal format to backup. If you have another device that you can install Notability on, storing the backups as Note is also preferred as well. You can always export Note to PDF later.
Pros & Cons
There are some unique pros and cons for both formats. Choose the right one accordingly.
| Type | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| PDF format is universally accepted. This means notes can be easily accessible and print. | Once you convert a note to PDF, then those elements you added are locked in place and cannot be edited later. | |
| Note | If you need to restore from backup, then you can resume editing your note as needed. | Can only be viewed by the Notability application. |
iCloud Sync (WARNING)
Notability supports iCloud Sync to synchronize your notes across your iPhone, iPad/Pro, and Mac devices. However, carefully consider whether you truly need to use iCloud Sync.
There is a common misconception that iCloud Sync is the same as iCloud Drive. iCloud Sync is an Apple service of iCloud Drive, however iCloud Sync does not behave like that of Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. iCloud Sync, not Notability, determines where your data resides. Your data should reside on iCloud Drive regardless, but iCloud Sync determines (not Notability) if a local copy resides on your device. You will also notice, you do not have direct access to your Notability files on iCloud Drive and that’s because iCloud Sync protects them within your iCloud Drive and you can only access your Notability files from Notability. All of this comes into play when addressing iCloud Sync issues.
The most common issue involves missing or empty notes. This is not a Notability issue but an Apple one. Many apps that leverage iCloud Sync suffer from the same issues. Typically what happens is iCloud Sync determines to free up space on your device and then removes the local copy of those notes; even if you have 10GB of free space for a 10MB note. Normally this is not a problem. Well that is until you need access to those notes in a timely fashion.
The biggest problem with iCloud sync arises when there is little to no internet service available or the amount of notes that need to be synced back to the device. This frequently impacts individuals in older buildings that lack stable internet connectivity. Typically, this happens to students and faculty located in outdated buildings with unstable WiFi connections.
There is a misconception thinking ‘I have full bars’ is a stable internet connection. Whether using a celluar network or wifi, the bars on your device only conveys signal strength. They do not convey stability or access. Without getting into heavy technical details, you can have full bars, but lack a stable connection. And many universities and campuses throttle Apple services. So waking up the day of a major test, only to find your notes are missing or inaccessible, is due to the fact your network connection is not stable to Apple’s iCloud sync service.
Advice:
- Only use iCloud sync if you plan on editing notes on more than one device.
- Consider not using iCloud sync if you plan on editing on only one device.
- Turn on auto-backup.
Notability has no control over iCloud Sync, so problems that arise from iCloud Sync should be directed to Apple. Notability has a page dedicated to troubleshooting iCloud sync issues.
Restoring Notes
If you are here, you are having a rough day. Let’s see if we can make it better.
If you have iCloud Sync turned on and there are missing or empty notes, then DON’T PANIC and do something you will regret. Follow Notability’s troubleshooting iCloud sync issues documentation.
From Notability
If you manually deleted a note (intentionally or accidentally) within the last 30 days, follow these steps.
Instructions:
- Open the Notability application.
- From Library window, go to Settings (⚙️).
- Select Recently Deleted.
- Select the notes to recover and click Recover Notes.
Restore From Backup
In order for these instructions to work, you must have turned on and configured Auto-Backup.
Currently there is no bulk import of either Note or PDF files within Notability. You will have to restore each individually.
If Auto-Backup was saved as Note:
- From the device that has Notability installed, open your cloud storage application where the notes were saved to.
- Go to the folder where the Note(s) were saved.
- Click on the file. This will trigger an automatic import into Notability. You will be prompted where to place the Note.
If Auto-Backup was saved as PDF:
- From the device that has Notability installed, open your cloud storage application where the notes were saved to.
- Go to the folder where the Note(s) were saved.
- Long-press on the file and select Share.
- Select Notability. You will be prompted where to place the PDF.