Stylus Write app... One to rule them all?

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brecklundin

Senior Member
Apr 15, 2011
105
50
Matt,

Am using Write more and more. Right now I have a project where I will keeping a journal which will:

(1) use at least one photo/page;
(2) All pages will have notes (I would love to write notes directly on to some photos);
(3) Resize image on page with the ability to rotate an image or specify a percentage of a page;
(4) Smart scaling of an image during importing especially if the image is very large. Having to create smaller image versions just for use in journal will be a bit disruptive to my photo edit workflow, still its workable short term.

Of course if image import is not going to happen for awhile..."never mind" ... I have other options until Write gets refined image handling.

So far when I tried importing a JPG the app crashes. I did submit an error report via Android/Play error pop-up.

Thanks...


Sent from my Samsung Note 8.0 in Tapatalk HD
 
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gharaee

New member
Oct 19, 2013
1
0
Thanks and some suggestions

Thanks for the great app. It is the best note taking app I have ever used. it is very quick.
I just have a suggestion to get the app better. I am a student and I have to draw lots of graphs in the class. I think it is very helpful if you add a some simple shape recognition like lines, arrows, etc to the app.
 

PBSurf

Member
Feb 1, 2011
47
77
It looks like there's a problem with the latest update on the Galaxy Note 8.0. Please uninstall and reinstall Write if you are experiencing crashes. Use Preferences -> Advanced -> Import existing documents to restore the document list after reinstalling.

The problem appears to be related to the Google Play incremental update mechanism and I don't know how to work around it or why only the Note 8.0 seems to be affected. If you have root access and can send a directory listing of /data/app-lib, it would be greatly appreciated.

-- Matt
 
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usn.mustanger

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2010
450
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Just wanted to post to publicly thank Matt for being such a responsive dev. E-mailed him about an issue with the app, got a same-day response explaining everything. So thanks, Matt! :good:

Now a feature request: Any way we can get built-in Dropbox document syncing support?

Thanks again, and keep up the great work!
 

gramps50

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2011
127
12
Nice note taking app, hadn't seen this one, just started using LectureNotes. One thing I see missing or I'm missing it is you can't use the keyboard, it's write only.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 

usn.mustanger

Senior Member
Jul 22, 2010
450
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Nice note taking app, hadn't seen this one, just started using LectureNotes. One thing I see missing or I'm missing it is you can't use the keyboard, it's write only.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Yes, but that's the idea with this one (hence the app name ;) ).
It's all about elegant simplicity and a handwriting-based note taking app done right.
:thumbup:
 

rmein

Senior Member
May 9, 2011
189
193
Just to say I am using this with the latest CM10.2 build from sbrissen.

Good points:
It just seems so much more responsive than on stock... faster, accurate writing with less lag.
I can finally set the spen button to what I want, I never managed to do that on Samsung roms.

Bad points:
I have spen with eraser, and the eraser button doesn't work. (I don't think hover works either)
Palm rejection doesn't disable the capacitive buttons, so I have to use it upside down to avoid pressing the back button by mistake.

For me the combination of CM10 and Write is perfect. I found all the fancy Samsung spen features just got in the way of my workflow. All I want is to be able to take simple written notes as quickly as possible, and now I am much happier with my Note 8.0 :)
 

8J1n6l3

New member
Jan 8, 2011
2
4
When I click the pen icon to change pens I have to hold it and scroll down to select. Is there a way to select it and it open with 1 touch?
Thanks for any help!

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk 4
 

KukurikU

Senior Member
Nov 23, 2006
1,735
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Rehovot
What am I missing? Can anybody tell me why I get this incomplete Menu after installing the app in both Note 8 and Note 3? There are missing items in the Menu and there are even less items while in portrait mode.
Both devices are rooted but using the latest stock Rom.
 

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p107r0

Senior Member
Jan 29, 2010
1,829
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What am I missing? Can anybody tell me why I get this incomplete Menu after installing the app in both Note 8 and Note 3? There are missing items in the Menu and there are even less items while in portrait mode.
Both devices are rooted but using the latest stock Rom.

Could be change of DPI?

Sent from my GT-N5100 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
 

turt

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2006
687
54
What am I missing? Can anybody tell me why I get this incomplete Menu after installing the app in both Note 8 and Note 3? There are missing items in the Menu and there are even less items while in portrait mode.
Both devices are rooted but using the latest stock Rom.
Actually it's the same for me (GT-N5120 on stock CMI1 ROM), can you please let me know if you've got the solution?
 

KukurikU

Senior Member
Nov 23, 2006
1,735
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Rehovot
Actually it's the same for me (GT-N5120 on stock CMI1 ROM), can you please let me know if you've got the solution?

Me:
Hi,
I was really impressed by the video but after installing it on my Note 8 and my Note 3 I don't get the full menu. Both devices are rooted and using a stock ROM. Tried in landscape mode but still no luck. Also the roll down menus (he ones I have) don't stay opened but roll back as soon I lift the pen. Is it a feature maybe?
Please advise.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Matt:
Hi Adrian,
What happens when you press the menu button on the Note? Is anything displayed?

By default, the action bar menus close when the pen is lifted. This is because I think it is faster to select menu items by pressing, dragging, and releasing rather than tapping, moving the pen, and tapping again. But you can change this behavior via Preferences -> Input and UI -> "Open tool menus on press"

Best Regards,

Matt White
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me:
Hi Matt!
Thanks for yr replay.
Check out the attached pics for the Menu.
Thanks for the "Open tool menus on press" heads up. I think I'll use the option, too much "scratching" of the scree on the Menu area.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Matt:
Hi Adrian,
It looks like all the menu options are there - depending on screen size, items that can't fit on the action bar are moved to the menu. The items from the clipboard menu on the action bar got to the "Selection..." submenu.
Best Regards,
Matt White
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me:
This just doesn't fit with all the pics and flics I've seen. Why am I punished? :)
Are you sure that all Menu items are there?
OK, maybe I was hasty. I'll play with it a little more.
Thanks.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yes, it seems that the missing menu item are on the Bottom left "Menu". I still suspect that there are not all the items but right now I don't have time to make a comparison with what I've seen on other devices.
 

KukurikU

Senior Member
Nov 23, 2006
1,735
46
Rehovot
Those seem to be from the desktop version (either PC or Mac, not sure) - downloadable here: http://www.styluslabs.com/download/.
Maybe (just maybe), you have adroid app as it should be on both your devices?
I think you are right. I didn't know they have a desktop ver. Tx! I wonder why would somebody put a demo from a desktop version on Google Play and why the dev didn't mention this possibility on our brief correspondence...
 
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PBSurf

Member
Feb 1, 2011
47
77
I think you are right. I didn't know they have a desktop ver. Tx! I wonder why would somebody put a demo from a desktop version on Google Play and why the dev didn't mention this possibility on our brief correspondence...

Sorry for the confusion. The video was created with the desktop version because there wasn't a good way to create a screen capture video on Android at the time. Also, a couple of the screenshots on Google Play are from an older version with different action bar buttons.

-- Matt
 

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  • 23
    I just fell in love. Was checking out Papyrus android app because much as I like Lecture Note and S-note they both Can get on my last nerve. I stumbled across what bills itself as a "stylus based wordprocessor". It's called Stylus Write... watched the video demo of Papyrus in Play Store then stumbled across a Stylus Write video... I was instantly smitten. Here is that video:

    I think that shows how powerful a tool an active stylus can be. Hope it gives the OP more insight and options.

    Best of all the app is FREE!
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.styluslabs.write

    Obviously this is based on a very brief interaction, maybe 30mins, so before the net nitpickers decend, lighten up. :p these things take time but I 'm hoping a few folks have tried it already & can add their take comparing to other options.

    I was leaning to switching to Papyrus but it just did not feel like a good fit for me. Know what I mean? Some apps just don't feel right to you. Write, however, appeals to me on some visceral level.

    EDIT

    Found the twitter feed for Stylus Labs:
    https://twitter.com/styluslabs


    Sent from my Samsung Note 8.0 in Tapatalk HD
    17
    I tried it and it's not you. I tried holding The button while carrying out the action and it didn't switch to "erase tool" either. Maybe we missed a co-setting, maybe it's oneof those features needing fixed & we can contact the dev?

    Hi, I'm the developer of Write. Unfortunately, the pen button isn't working on Samsung devices. It appears I can get it to work by integrating the S-Pen SDK, which I hope to do in the next major update.

    I will subscribe to this thread, so please feel free to post any other comments or issues.

    -- Matt
    6
    Been looking for a 'go-to' all-purpose S-pen-worthy notes app. Perhaps that would have been S Note if Samsung hadn't left us all hanging with an unsupported app. So looking around quite a bit, trying quite a few, I've been honing in on LectureNotes as my leading candidate.

    Just downloaded this, and looks interesting, but truthfully I'm getting wary of learning curves on all these apps and just want to get to it. Anyone with LN experience have any commentary, i.e. observations based on comparison of both apps?

    Edit: I should add - I realize that LN is a more 'mature' product, so I'm not looking for comparison points for minor features (e.g., customizable notebook covers), but rather more important items, (e.g., s-pen responsiveness)

    I was using S-Note at first then moved to LN and now am using Stylus Write pretty much exclusively. I really gave LN a shot but it was simply too cumbersome for my daily-driver note app. I don't need all the complexity of LN and had higher hopes for S-Note. S-Note seems like abandonware at this microsecond in time. I still use the "sticky note" feature to jot down fast details from a phone call if I don't have the time to create a new document in SW. S-Note can get so mess organization wise it's spooky, well at least I can let it get messy prolly due to being a lazy, lazy guy. ;) But there is no debating that LN is a nice and very powerful option. It just was not the right one for me, myself and I. ;)

    Viewing the SW website showed me you can build a pretty complex notebook thanks to the bookmarks feature. Just add a bookmark to any page/note/blurb to create new "sections" within your "notebook". Then maintain a TOC at the front of the document and also in each chapter/section/sub-section of your new document or document collection. I figured if you can build a website using SW there is no problem creating as complex a collection of documents as you might need. Candidly though, I have not had time to dedicate to that aspect of SW though to find all the quirks of bookmarks to create that document hierarchy.

    Have you watched the Stylus Labs video? If not do that...so much is covered in a compact video, only about 3.5 mins or so. http://www.styluslabs.com/ Plus their site was created from pages written in Stylus Write. I highly recommend watching that "demo" video...seriously... everything you need to know about using SW is in the video on YouTube or the SW site.

    S-Note and LN have features which would be nice for SW. I like the "Notebook" paradigm for keeping organized but that i handled OK with folders. Plus there are "bookmarks" I mentioned above.

    I would like to keyword pages in SW for searching. Searching for notes is not really possible in SW.

    Paper types are really nice in LN and just not there in SW, at least not in the same fashion.

    Thing is none of the other stylus note taking apps hold a candle to the speed of use in Stylus Write. SW lets you switch pens in a blink of an eye, insert new lines quickly (you do have to pay attention when writing to allow for possible addition of new blank lines later.) Custom pens are good enough in SW.

    I really like the ability to create columns and sections using simple lines on the page...this is a very non-trivial feature I now use all the time.

    The way pages auto-magically grow in SW is a very, very nice feature but I still have not fully gotten the hang of it so often extend pages with just marking lines across the page or down the margin then erasing them as time permits.

    But for me SW had by far the lowest learning curve of all these apps. It does lag in the area of keeping things organized when I'm too lazy to stay on top of things. But I took to it the very day I first discovered it.

    I like something else, the file format (HTML with SVG graphics) is readable by pretty much any browser plus you can edit the HTML if you want. I haven't used pages in something like Word or other word processor but that would be nice as well.

    I'm trying to remember but there are a couple features I would really like to see added to SW but at this microsecond I can't recall. Oh, yeah, I remember a couple now...

    LAYERS. I love this feature in LN. It's not there in SW at all but it's not in any of the other note taking apps I've tried either. Layers in LN is a seriously powerful feature and unmatched in anything else I've looked at. For my daily-driver notes it's not a feature I would need. For using, say a Lab Book in chem, o-chem, physics or whatever lab setting I think I would use LN to create my final, for printing version because you can create some very advanced page layouts via layers.

    EQUATION EDITOR or just a mathematical module. I originally hoped for this sort of feature being added to SW, then I got better. For taking notes in a math class SW lets me fully mimic my old trick of using colored pencils. In one of my Diff-EQ courses I learned about using colored pencils to group equation manipulations before rewriting the line below. You can actually make multiple manipulations each in a different color on a single line then rewrite the result on the next line. As an aside this is fast way to blow though not just note taking but also when solving things on your own. The use of colors to group the changes lets you see them instantly. SW and the lightening fast way you can change pens is perfect for taking this sort of notes.

    The color pencil idea also works excellently for chemistry work. Works for O-Chem, Bio-Chem, even inorganic. Basically chemistry equations are just math using a different set of operators/operands within a different solution space so the anything that works for math should translate to chemistry work as well.

    Both the above needs fit SW a bit better than LN. For me SW is ton's faster. But again for formal notes to be printed or converted to a PDF for submission LN can offer a better looking result. But it's just a case of the right tool for the right job not that one tool is better than the other.

    I've also thought of some "features" but in the end it is only to make things "prettier" which end up over complicating and reducing flexibility so I end up talking myself out of the idea. Which brings me back to why I prefer SW 90% of the time, it genuinely mimics pen to paper notes. But it also extends that pen-to-paper model with the slick editing tools for adding spaces, erasing or what have you. It's the only app I've used which would allow me to take notes as I would on a yellow-pad with the same speed. LN never allowed me to work that way. But my note needs are not as advanced as for others.

    FORMS/TEMPLATES: I would love to build some of our work forms for SW but again it makes things over complicated I think. My solution is to use a hand made SW version with no data, only field names as on a print form. I then open and save-as which I then fill in as needed. I am often away from the office when I get calls and need to take notes, using my pseudo-forms I can do this quickly while talking to the client. Later I can enter the data in our management app on the desktop.

    I think LN is as good as you can find for advanced note taking when you want more formal output. But for handwritten "yellow pad/composition book" style notes, SW is by far the way to go. I can't wait to get a Win8 device to run SW. Last time I checked the Win version had a number of added features over the Android version. Over on http://www.styluslabs.com/ the Windows version indicates the need for a Wacom digitizer so I would make sure for anyone looking that way to email the dev and confirm the active digitizer on the device you are considering is supported. Perhaps the dev can chime in here when he has time.

    Sorry this ran long but I don't get time to comment much so wanted to add all I could think of at once. And don't think I'm blowing you off if I don't answer any follow-up right away. Time and health issues keep me chasing my own tail all day long and we all know how easy it is to disappear into these forums. :D
    5
    Few things I would like to have is auto import feature.
    ...
    I would like to see auto reflow, auto zoom function so that notes from note8 are equally visible on any other device. Note that I'm not asking for note to be rescaled permanently to other resolution, I would like files to be unchanged, just fully visible.
    Also importing from pdf, would be most welcome. The only usable format that snote will provide as export. I have tons of notes, quotations, that I would like to switch over.

    Auto import will be added in the next major update. In the meantime, if you can do without the preview images, using a file manager instead of Write's built-in document list might be a solution (see this post).

    For auto zoom, how about an option to always open documents zoomed to fit the page width or page height to the screen?

    I do plan to add PDF import in the future, although not in the next update.

    Is it possible to have a diary template with date insert support? I'll be really happy if you could provide more templates instead of the plain page format.

    Beyond the ability to configure rule and grid lines in the Page Setup dialog or insert an image of the template and scale it to fill the page, there is no support for templates yet, although I plan to add this in the future.

    -- Matt
    4
    Sorry for the difficulties with syncing. I am working on a major update of document organization that will just use the filesystem, so that syncing the top-level document folder will be sufficient. Thumbnails will be stored within the .html files themselves and there will be no restrictions as far as subfolders, etc.

    In the meantime, you can try using a file manager (ES File Explorer works) instead of Write's document manager. Although you'll lose the preview thumbnails, you can title and organize document files however you like and newly synced files will show up immediately. Tapping on an .html file will bring up the option to open it in Write. To create a new document, just create a new, blank .html file and open it.

    -- Matt