My wife performs business system audits (ie...ISO9001, TS16949, etc...) and is thinking of getting an iPad to use instead of a notepad and then transposing the notes into a form on her laptop. She feels she can take the notes, either annotate PDFs or just email/transfer the notes to her laptop. Has anyone that uses an iPad or another brand of tablet been able to do this successfully?

 

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I hate typing on an iPad, to be honest. It is a little too big to hold in your hands, so you are forced to put it on the table to use the keyboard. Love it for reading though.

On the iPhone, it is the right size to go nuts with your thumbs and type like a teenage girl.

 

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http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/note-taker-hd/id366572045?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/app/remarks-write-notes-annotate/id496413403?mt=8
Two different note taking apps for the ipad. Both annotate on PDFs

This is what she is thinking of being able to do. Either those or Dragon dictation

 

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Only time I've seen this done well...person used a bluetooth keyboard. Limited data entry is easy enough...but as soon as you need to write a narrative...the virtual keyboard becomes a serious limitation.

 

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Targus, Zaag, and a few others make nice cases with integrated keyboards. The iPad in those cases adjusts to a comfortable angle and allows for fairly easy typing. Might be worth looking into.

 

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All great replies but only one thing, and perhaps I needed to be a bit more definative.
Think of the application for the need as if you were walking around your house and taking notes on everything you see. A keyboard is not going to cut it in that application.
If no one understands what auditing business systems entails, it is walking the process of a company doing business and verifying that the company is adhering to a standard that applies the type of product that company produces. Right now she walks around with a notepad and questionnaire and interviews employees and then notates their responses to certain questions. At the end of the day she goes back to the hotel room and then transposes this information to her laptop. She wants to be able to take the notes and electronically transfer the information to her laptop without the need to retype everything.

 

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