iPad with Apple Pencil (iBook/Kindle/etc)

Totally agree. Also, writing in the margins is one of the most helpful ways to engage with the text; it's actually a learning tool. If I'm reading a novel for pleasure, it's no big deal. But if I'm trying to learn something, I want to highlight, take notes in the margins, underline, throw in an exclamation point or question mark, etc. I'm surprised there isn't more demand, especially in the education context.

The answers on this page have helped me decide to not buy an iPad pro. I thought it would be great to have the ability to notate without clunky on-screen keyboards a book. Serious people using books for serious purposes not only highlight, but also notate. A basic function of a real book is to have a margin which intellectuals for years had used to mark up, write notes to themselves. They become a literary treasure for famous writers papers when they pass on, like Lorraine Hansberry for example. It gives insight into how the person thinks. For actual study of any topic it is important. If you are a student of Neuroscience, you'll have a ton of new words to learn that won't appear in an on-line dicitionary. There will be concepts that need short descriptions. The notation needs to be easy and visible. E-books need to replicate real books perfectly and be more convenient, otherwise a real book is better, even if it weighs something more. Light reading of novels doesn't require this, but study does. Apple needs to fix this, Kindle needs to fix it too.

Real books have a physicality You read a book, put it down go to work, you come home, its where you put it.But in an iPad it might be there but gets lost in the clutter. That's why you need to make the eBook better in someways.

After just 2 days using my iPad Pro 10.5", I have found two critical flaws with the use of iBooks for medical school purposes, both of which can (and must) be addressed by Apple.

(1) Inability to annotate iBooks using Apple Pencil - This is the subject of the current post, and has to be addressed ASAP. If the iPad Pro is truly a device for professionals, it needs to meet the needs of said professionals.

(2) Lack of medical dictionary (or ability to add other professional terminology) - this is a major deficiency, since students are often exposed to a long list of new terms in each subject area. This concern extends beyond the medical profession.

Currently the Apple Pencil is not well integrated into eBooks to let you annotate as if you were using a pen. Both Kindle and iBooks have really clunky, tedious and rigid annotation capabilities. Not at all suitable for my use. I would like to see Notabilty-like markup capabilities that would integrate with eBooks.

1) I am a participating member of the medical education committee at my institution, and as a group we all agreed that this is truly a 'critical' flaw that makes it unusable for medical professionals. Two weeks ago we met with an Apple representative to help us develop iBooks for the medical curriculum, and these two issues arose that shut down the discussion (this and a storage issue with embedded videos). The literature pertaining to information processing and retention point to more interactive learning tools, which was the goal in using iBooks.

2) It is actually very realistic to expect a device to incorporate new "custom" dictionaries. Since I am in the medical field, I have actually done this for Microsoft Office applications on my MacBook with no problem (just needed to import a .dic file with the appropriate terminology).

Again with the irony.

I don't like when people Attack others without justification

when there insulting tone is so rooted in misunderstanding.

The original post was Is there an app or any software that will allow me to use an iPad or iPad Pro as my ebook and write freehand using the Apple Pencil?.

It was a question about the pencil!

Along the way it got hijacked into a discussion(?) about reasonableness.

Simply because a product may have abilities beyond what is possible upon purchase, does not mean each and every one of those abilities should be provided by the vendor at purchase time.

The sentiment has been you are "unreasonable" to expect an advanced feature, likely addressed by the 3rd party space, to be provided at purchase by the vendor.

It's not unreasonable to want something in general.

In fact you made this statement earlier alluding to the concept of "a complete dictionary" Perhaps if you had defined complete. I would not suggest "complete" for a broadly sold consumer product like an iPad should include a legal or medical dictionary.

Now if there was an "iPad Medical" or iPad Legal" model for sale, lacking these dictionaries upon purchase, I would heartily agree with you.

You go on to bemoan other "seemingly simple features" that are missing.

Is there a Android Tablet out there preconfigured for every need of the medical or legal field? For accountants? Real Estate professionals?

And since it appears you are a lawyer, what with your line of work's penchant for accuracy... nobody called anybody STUPID.

With iOS 11 you can highlight a word or passage in an ibook, epub book, and then add notes to it.

Using the pencil, tap and highlight the passage, then tap on it to bring up the options bar, and tap on the speech bubble, to bring up a note. You can use the keyboard to type a note. The note will be placed on the book margin, and you can tap the yellow box to open the note.

There are many Apps that will let you use the Pencil to write notes and draw and do other things.

This would all be separate to whatever you do on iBooks.

In iBooks you can use the Apple Pencil to highlight passages in different colors, but i do not believe there is an option for drawing on an iBook.

http://www.imore.com/how-highlight-apple-pencil-ibooks

Beyond that, you can have iBooks and a secondary App open in Split View(as long as the App supports it) to read from the iBook and write or draw on the secondary App.

At its most basic the default Notes app that is pre-installed on an iPad will let you do this.

About Multitasking on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

as a group we all agreed that this is truly a 'critical' flaw that makes it unusable for medical professionals.

It is actually very realistic to expect a device to incorporate new "custom" dictionaries.

Not to the vast majority of the community here.

You are really in the wrong place for this feedback.

Feedback for Apple goes here >>> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

If you had the ear of an Apple employee who could not help, imagine our abilities. We do not work for or speak for Apple in any way.

If eBooks can be converted to PDFs or your books come in a PDF format, there are lots of PDF editing apps and notes apps that can edit and highlight PDFs.

You can even take screenshots of ebook pages and highlight and add notes to these screenshots using notes apps thst can work with highlighting and working over images.

You have to think different when it comes to using iPads for education.

Many students use iPads instead of laptops for school and college, now!

There are notes apps that will, also, let you record the instructor's voice in class for voice notes!

Do a search on YouTube for videos to see if you can use an iPad for college.

Search

Using iPads in College or Using iPads in Universities.

BTW,

You don't necessarily need to more expensive iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to use an iPad for work/schoolwork!

You can purchase a cheaper, plain 9.7 inch iPad like an iPad Air 2 OR the new 2017 iPad 5 and purchase a cheaper third party Bluetooth smart stylus from Wacom, Adonit or The Joy Factory that work with very well with non-Pro iPad models.

Good Luck!

pepinme01 wrote:

After just 2 days using my iPad Pro 10.5", I have found two critical flaws with the use of iBooks for medical school purposes, both of which can (and must) be addressed by Apple.

(1) Inability to annotate iBooks using Apple Pencil - This is the subject of the current post, and has to be addressed ASAP. If the iPad Pro is truly a device for professionals, it needs to meet the needs of said professionals.

(2) Lack of medical dictionary (or ability to add other professional terminology) - this is a major deficiency, since students are often exposed to a long list of new terms in each subject area. This concern extends beyond the medical profession.

1. Wait for iOS 11. Beyond that it meets the needs of many professionals. Just not the specific type you need. But that does not in any way make it any less of a tool for professionals . It just depends on the type of professional. I consider myself a professional, not in a medical field, but a professional nonetheless. Just because it does not completely meet your needs does not make it any less of a tool for other professions whose needs it does meet.

2. Since its completely unrealistic to expect a device to have a dictionary of terms for every conceivable profession and field of study out there right out the box, these devices come with an App Store and iBooks Store you can use to download any dictionaries you may need that are oriented to any particular profession you may require. Not everything needs to be built in.

Just did a search in the iOS App Store.

There is a whole bunch of medical terminilogy apps there and you could copy and paste these into other apps like PDF apps and other notes apps that are compatible with the Apple Pencil.

Thank you for looking into this; I will give it a try and provide an update. The Apple representative suggested that, within iBook Author, creating an index containing terminology. However, this would be unfeasible given the number of terms. Anyway, I will post here what I find.

Where as the iPad Pro/pencil may not meet your needs as a medical student, as a practicing medical professional it is a great tool. The needs of a medical student the first two years of medical school are very different from the clinical years.The majority of your medical journal articles will be coming in the form of a PDF. PowerPoint presentation can be converted to PDF. Microsoft has a suite of offices tools that are pencil in abled. There's plethora of apps for anotation with the pencil in PDF form. And all of your clinical care will be on the EMR. The big EMR's are available on iPad apps as well as the most popular medical references. The medical dictionary, medical knowledge base, journal industry etc. is big bucks. Don't expect much for free or low-cost apps. Get ready for a lifetime of paying extra for medical specialty specific tools. Unless you plan on swapping out your device every two years, the iPad may get you along way. Especially by the time iOS 11 comes out. Believe me, you won't be looking at those textbooks for long.

The device is attached to the internet it is completely reasonable to expect it to have a complete dictionary. Also most doctors and lawyers I know hate the fact that many seemingly simple features are ommitted from this device. Don't get me wrong I still love it and I still use it, but a basic function of adding a $100 pencil should be to allow you to use it with Ebooks. I used my iPad all through law school, but it has not been without significant frustration at times.