I use my Apple Pencil regularly to highlight academic PDFs and to underline/add notes to scripts for sermons and presentations which I’ll deliver directly from the iPad. It’s great if I need to make a last minute adjustment/addition or underline a word that I might stumble over.
My handwriting is poor, so I’ve not been able to make effective use of it to make meeting/lecture notes.
I use mine for drawing in Procreate and Affinity Designer. I edit photos with Pixelmator Photo. I edit podcast with Ferrite Pro. Sign documents, write notes, use Scribble instead of typing. I highlight quotes on Scribd and Kindle.
One of my favorite thing to do when its time to edit my essays and short stories is to annotate my own work. I convert them to PDF and comment, add corrections on my work with PDF Expert. That way, I can track my own thoughts and edits. It help me grow as an amateur writer. I learned this method from Margaret Atwood where she has manuscripts with her own comments written all over her typewritten pages.
I’m an extremely frustrated Apple Pencil user.
I want to use my iPad to take meeting notes which, in theory should be pretty simple, right?
So why am I frustrated? Because I want to work with Craft and Drafts to take advantage of all the automation available and send actions to OF for example. Trying to use the Pencil in those apps is painful and very distracting. Can’t use them in meetings.
GoodNotes (and others like it) doesn’t cut it. They live inside themselves and mostly share only via PDF. My college student kids use it.
Scribble isn’t ready for prime time in my opinion. Having to wait that millisecond for the text to transform just interrupts my train of thought. Not to mention trying to insert a new line. Tap tap tap.
So there you have my afternoon rant. I’m open to any suggestions!
I love my Apple Pencil. What a terrific device! I love to do art, scrapbooking and doodling in Procreate which is a wonderful art type app that is extremely cost affordable.
This video really opened up what the Pencil is capable of: How To Create Wonder Woman Theme Song in GarageBand for iPad — Tutorial [4K] - YouTube
And for those who don’t know it, this is a pretty good channel. I don’t consider any new Apple device until I have seen iPhonedo review it.
Not a day goes by that I don’t use my Apple Pencil. I’m in the camp that mostly uses it for marking up PDFs and handwritten notes. When I present information on screen, I use the pencil to create call out boxes and the like. I use the feature that converts handwritten text to typewritten text for searches and for composing emails and the like. I recently burned my Apple Pencil to a crisp (Maillard reaction and Apple Pencils) and had to wait about a week for a new one. I realized how hard it was to do all the things I do on an iPad without the pencil. I’m pretty reliant on it.
One of my favorite things to do is markup documents with the Pencil while riding in an Uber. Dorky, perhaps, but I always found it hard to pull out a laptop or get much work done on my phone while riding in a car. But it’s seamless to pull out my iPad and get real work done without skipping a beat.
Bought one, probably the most useless (for me) Apple device I have purchased. Not used more than half a dozen times as my 12.9 iPad is usually in landscape mode on a stand with an Apple external keyboard attached.
Honestly I will probably downgrade the iPad next time to a base model as compared to using a Mac I find it frustrating in so many ways.
For me, the Pencil has two benefits:
Neither are regular for me but I appreciate having the right tool when they come up. I feel like I’ve gotten my cost-per-use down to a reasonable amount.
I try to force myself to use it more, and sometimes succeed. Key use cases for me:
Layback general device navigation, sometimes the extra length of the pencil makes reading RSS, magazines, twitter, FB etc better.
If you use the pencil to navigate a little more, keeps your screen clean, fingerprints are a big issue for me.
I do quite a bit of photo touch-up on iPad, impossible without pencil.
I’m in the camp that’s trying to justify purchase of pencil. Don’t draw and usually can highlight PDF using fingers alone. Periodically need it when doing heavy annotations. Having to charge pencil’s battery when need arise to use it is also a turn off.
The pencil runs a long time without being charged and it charges very fast.
No, i agree it needs lots of work but I’m guessing that it depends upon the app you are using.
I hardly every use my iPad without using the pencil. Just a few of the things I did with it today:
Draw a diagram in Goodnotes and send it to my Mac for inclusion in an email
Use Goodnotes to take meeting notes.
Read in a kindle book, highlighted some passages, and added my own handwritten notes (a full nnotation not just a quote)
Read a scientific paper in Highlights, Highlighted several sectiosn with different colors and made notes sent all the highlights to my Mac and then into Obsidian linked to the paper.
Did a quick art sketch in 3 different tools as I try to decide what i like to sketch with
I use Goodnotes and share markdown text mostly
Never had that problem. I am more likely to forget to charge my ipad than the pencil, it lives attached to my iPad most of the time
I end up buying more books in Apple Books, but might try the kindle app for one. Thanks for the response.
Very interesting question!
About 30 minutes ago I went hunting for my apple pencil because I needed to quickly rework a powerpoint model, and I wanted to do by quickly sketching the changes first.
I couldn’t find the pencil.
While I was looking, though, I did find a notepad and a pen.
I used them instead.
Can’t think why I didn’t do that first. Hmmm.
LOL! There is a app in the App Store that will help you find your pencil when it gets up and wanders away. Bluetooth finder. It was inexpensive.
Even real pens can get up and get away when you need them.
The pencil is great when your carpal tunnel is bothering you.
The original pencil runs flat all the time if kept near the iPad and infrequently used, because it connects when in range of the iPad even if the iPad is asleep. It does charge up quickly if plugged into the iPad via lightning port - a couple of minutes plugged in give a lot of time to work with it. However this doesn’t work when it or the iPad is having one of its fugues, where it doesn’t connect unless you forget it and re-pair it.
In short, original pencil, infrequently used, invariably does not work when you decide to have another go with it.
I use the pencil every day for taking notes With GoodNotes. Sometimes some sketches in Notes or Onenotes.
I just came across this YouTube video of Apple Pencil tips that I thought would be good to collect in @HellsKitchenDweller’s thread. Top 10 VERY Useful Apple Pencil Tips & Tricks - YouTube
The ten tips include:
I have the second rev of the pencil not the first one. I didn’t know that about original apple pencil.