LectureNotes app

[acadoid]

@Spark14: I just uploaded v2.4 into the app stores.

 

[stbxxl]

@Spark14: I just uploaded v2.4 into the app stores.

Already updated. I can see lots of potential with the custom drawing tools. Thanks!

 

[Spark14]

@Spark14: I just uploaded v2.4 into the app stores.

@acadoid: I've downloaded it and so far it's working great! Thanks so much for this!
Playing around with it now to build some components and it's working well, and the first thing I've noticed is that the parameter system (which is a great idea by the way) doesn't seem to remember the parameters between sessions. So for example with the coordinate system, if you set xmax and ymax to 5, then leave LectureNotes, come back and use the tool again, it defaults back to 1 and 1 for these values. It's not a big deal really, but for some uses I can imagine it could be frustrating trying to remember what value you "like" for a certain tool, if you want consistency in your notes.

Aside from that minor detail though this is working perfectly, so thank you again.

Edit: For what it's worth I'll post up my circuit shapes once they're finished either here or in a link, just in case anyone comes along in a similar situation to myself or the previous poster.

 

[acadoid]

@Spark14: The values that you choose in the dialog are remembered only during a notebook session. If you prefer different default values, clone the example and adjust the default values.

I am still thinking how to facilitate exchange of custom drawing tools. One user suggested to add `containers´ (somewhat like folders on the notebooks board) and to allow to share (export) and import these containers.

If you wish to post custom drawing tools, I suggest to do that in a separate thread (the thread for the custom paper pattern http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1936617 worked quite well).

 

[Spark14]

@acadoid: Fair enough, thanks.

That sounds like a pretty good way of doing things. You could probably do it easily with something as simple as renamed zip files (*.lnt? for LN Tool), with a structured (plaintext) information file and the individual 'scripts'/tools in separate files inside? The individual scripts could just be txt/js files and the info file could have necessary data like names for tools and their parameters and values, etc and if it was necessary there could be optional data such as the author, package description and whatnot. If you set LectureNotes as the system default for opening such files, it would make their installation even easier.
(Edit: Technically you needn't even so far as to using zip files, everything could probably go in a single *.lnt that was simply a plaintext file, with an information section on top and tool data below. Not exactly sure which would be easiest to parse/correctly build through code though)

Ah - of course I will, my apologies.

 

[acadoid]

@stbxxl & Spark14: It turned out that there is a problem with the custom drawing tools. I already uploaded v2.4.1, please update to this version.
@Spark14: LectureNotes uses an XML file for the custom drawing tools that is stored in the app directory. This file contains all information except the actual JavaScript codes, which are stored in separate files with extension .js. Hence, a collection of custom drawing tools (a container) could be an XML control file and the associated JS files, packed together in a ZIP archive. Of course, one could pack everything into a single XML file, but I did not do that for local storage for a couple of reasons which apply here as well.

 

[Spark14]

@stbxxl & Spark14: It turned out that there is a problem with the custom drawing tools. I already uploaded v2.4.1, please update to this version.

@Spark14: LectureNotes uses an XML file for the custom drawing tools that is stored in the app directory. This file contains all information except the actual JavaScript codes, which are stored in separate files with extension .js. Hence, a collection of custom drawing tools (a container) could be an XML control file and the associated JS files, packed together in a ZIP archive. Of course, one could pack everything into a single XML file, but I did not do that for local storage for a couple of reasons which apply here as well.

@acadoid: Thanks for the heads up, will do when I'm back to my tablet!
Yeah that sounds like the ideal option. Fair enough - like I said, all in one was just another option since the entirety of the data would be plaintext. I'd personally prefer working with the ZIP archive if it was me I would still recommend giving it its own file extension though rather than ZIP, just so you could have that one-click install functionality available (unless you decide to have some other system).

 

[nickzeff]

@acadoid - what a great update.

First of all - thanks for adding an icon to insert a page - very useful indeed.

The custom shape stuff is great. Really like the way you have opened up the opportunity for others to create their own shapes. The idea of containers is a good one, so people could exchange shapes easily rather than cut and paste javascript code into the template editor.

Of course, with all new functionality comes a barrage of new suggestions. Here is one of mine:

- Allow for more than just numeric parameters. Perhaps you could allow for Boolean and dropdown as well? I am thinking of using custom shapes to create my templated titleplates for pages. So I would populate a dropdown with a range of text choices ("Team Meeting", "Sales Meeting" etc.) to insert on a page.

And two other things:

- For some reason, when I take a landscape photo to insert into the page, it is always rotated to portrait automatically, and I have to spend time rotating it back. This is a bit fiddly, since I have to resize it smaller before rotating it (since if I rotate it, the image will leak over the borders of the page, and thus the app does not allow it). Also, the rotate rarely gets it smack on an exact 90 degree rotation. A few ideas - have a "rotate 90 degrees" option, or snap rotation to a grid. Allow rotation even if it overlaps the borders of the page, so it doesn't get "blocked". Hope that is clear.

- I am secretly hoping that your vector shapes or editable text functionality is coming in the next big release, but no pressure!

As ever, no pressure on these things since this is already the most productive and best liked app on my Galaxy Note 8.0!

PS. I am still having problems with the touchscreen stopping working (and S-Pen the only means of input). I tried your suggestion from a few pages back and still the issue persists. Very aggravating. If you had any other suggestions, I would appreciate it, but no big deal since you are clearly not Samsung support...!

 

[acadoid]

@nickzeff: For boolean, you could use a parameter of minimum 0, maximum 1, and two steps. For text selection, you could use an integer parameter and add a switch into the JavaScript, selecting the text based on the parameter.

I guess that the rotation is by the camera app (someone already suggest automatic rotation of camera images).

When you click on the rotate icon, the rotation is to the next 90 degrees.

 

[acadoid]

I started a separate thread for custom drawing tools at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2610695, feel free to post additional codes there.

 

[nickzeff]

@nickzeff: For boolean, you could use a parameter of minimum 0, maximum 1, and two steps. For text selection, you could use an integer parameter and add a switch into the JavaScript, selecting the text based on the parameter.

I guess that the rotation is by the camera app (someone already suggest automatic rotation of camera images).

When you click on the rotate icon, the rotation is to the next 90 degrees.

Thanks @acadoid. I did think of that as a temporary measure... but it's just something to consider in the future should others also request this feature.

Cheers again.

 

[Penguinsfly1]

This is easily the best note-taking experience on a tablet, thanks for making it. I have a couple of suggestions/questions.

Is there no way to rotate whole pages? It would be useful to have a rotate feature (maybe in the notebook overview?). Though it seems you can only have one orientation per notebook so I can understand it might be difficult to change.

Is there any way to get a button at the bottom of the screen to scroll down slightly? I dont have an active stylus tablet so its much easier for me to write near the bottom of the tablet so a little button at the bottom left or something that scrolled down a custom amount would be less flow breaking than scrolling with fingers or the scroll bar.

Thanks!

 

[acadoid]

@penguinsfly: No, all pages have to have the same aspect ratio.

There is the `arrow´ icon that scrolls down by an adjustable amount, it is hidden by default but can be enabled in the app's menu settings; the step size can be adjusted in the app's handling settings.

 

[llblwskydrgn]

I have the EVGA Nvidia Tegra Note 7. Lecture Notes works well except for the pressure sensitivity. Even flipping the stylus over to use the rubber back end of it as an eraser works.

If you want more details, reply to my post here and I will do whatever testing you'd like.

Hey ERamseth, I just got my Tegra Note today. I am trying out lecturenotes and find the writing very poor compared to what I had experienced on the Samsung Note 8.0. Can you let me know what kind of settings you are using and how accurate you are with the Tegra? I have lots of difficulty writing quickly and having my writing be legible...

 

[ERamseth]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Does it write smooth in other apps? Like the built in write app?

 

[acadoid]

@llblwskydrgn: I do not have this specific device at hand, so I cannot be of too much help here. From the device description that I found it seems as if it comes with an active stylus, is this correct? Even in this case, the detection resolution can be lower than that of the Galaxy Note 8.0.

For devices with capacitive stylus, LectureNotes has an input method called `input zone´, and you can try it on your device. The `input zone´ provides an area at the bottom of the display, whatever you write there will get scaled down (to compensate for the lower resolution of capacitive stylus) and placed at the position indicated by the `cursor´. There are several options for the `input zone´ (horizontal and vertical movement, delay-induced and position-controlled auto-movement, etc.).

 

[diiacoo]

minis

---------- Post added at 10:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:17 PM ----------

i wanna use this thing

 

[llblwskydrgn]

@llblwskydrgn: I do not have this specific device at hand, so I cannot be of too much help here. From the device description that I found it seems as if it comes with an active stylus, is this correct? Even in this case, the detection resolution can be lower than that of the Galaxy Note 8.0.

For devices with capacitive stylus, LectureNotes has an input method called `input zone´, and you can try it on your device. The `input zone´ provides an area at the bottom of the display, whatever you write there will get scaled down (to compensate for the lower resolution of capacitive stylus) and placed at the position indicated by the `cursor´. There are several options for the `input zone´ (horizontal and vertical movement, delay-induced and position-controlled auto-movement, etc.).

Hi acadroid, thanks for the reply. I'm not sure if it is an active stylus, I believe it's a capacitive stylus but modified to work with the Tegra Note. (I say this because I can register hits on my smartphone with the stylus) But I think they did something with the software so that it can almost work as an active stylus, it has great palm rejection compared to a regular capacitive stylus.

I wasn't aware of the input zone feature, thank you for pointing that out, it's great! :victory:

Just for reference in case anybody else is interested, I did set up some filters to make the pen "smoother." I set the Savistky-Golay filter to 9, and the Ramer-Douglas-Peuker filter to 50 and the pen seems much smoother now. Not as good as the Note 8.0 still, but I can't argue with the price differential!

 

[joeted]

Inverse Velocity Option?

Hi @acadoid,

First off - thank you for this awesome app, the deep customizability and many options made it an instant choice to purchase.

As I do not have a pressure-sensitive pen device, the velocity option looks promising for some 'calligraphy' style writing.

However, Inverse Velocity is probably closer to what a real-life brush would do.

I see that LectureNotes used to have this option in below post, however it seems to have disappeared? :

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=39575573&postcount=1156

(I'm currently on LectureNotes v2.4.1)

 

[acadoid]

@joeted: The option is still there, it has been moved into the `velocity sensitivity setup´ as velocity (and pressure) can act now on line width and on opacity (previously, it was only line width), and you can inverse the dependency individually.