Can you use the iPad to "write" like a notepad

There are many drawing apps for the iPad. I have Draw Free. I do not understand your statement of " format to electronic "typed" notes".

As lllaass said, there are number of apps that will let you write, but offhand I don't know of any that include OCR, which I take it is what you want? (Not saying there aren't any, just that I can't think of any that work that way.)

There are lots of apps that allow you to take handwritten notes. However, in my opinion, they don't really work that well. Any stylus that will work on the iPad's capacitive screen will, of necessity, be fairly thick. Also, if your wrist rests against the screen, it can cause problems. There are apps that try to work around this. Still, I always find that typing is faster and easier.

For handwritten notes that can later be converted to typed documents, the LiveScribe pen works quite well.