Got a tablet? Committed to a paperless world? Want to make note-taking quicker and more organised?

We’ve narrowed down 6 PDF markup essentials that can streamline note-taking for work, the lecture room or the classroom.

Note: most of the PDF markup tools mentioned in this blog post work best with a digital pen (stylus) on a tablet like a Surface Pro or iPad and are all available on the Drawboard PDF app. Drawboard PDF is a PDF markup tool built to help people work faster, without paper.

Use digital Ink

Use digital ink to mark up PDFs and write notes with the feel of pen on paper. Using digital ink is a great way to write shorthand notes or mark up documents.

Pen is best, according to research. A study conducted by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton suggests that students who take notes longhand may perform better than those who type notes on laptops. This is because - the research found - that students who type on laptops are more likely to type notes verbatim which can result in lower cognitive intake.

Utilise note-taking templates

Using digital note taking templates can give structure to your notes and help you to keep them neat, organised and easy to read. In Drawboard PDF, you can write digital notes on lined paper templates including notebook paper, Gregg ruled paper, Pitman ruled paper and Cornell notes. In addition to these note-taking templates, you can also mark up and draw on Graph paper, Engineering grid, Isometric grid and music tab and stave and more.

Taking notes in class?

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Try the Cornell note-taking structure

Cornell notes are a simple, structured and easy-to-digest form of note-taking that is perfect for taking notes in class.

Here’s how you structure them:

• Left column: for your keywords, subheadings or questions
• Right column: for your notes
• Bottom: A quick summary of your page of notes

Take photos to add to your notes

Take photos of important lecture slides and drag them directly into your note-taking documents. On the Drawboard PDF iOS app you can tap and drag images from your desktop, from a webpage, from your photos app or other app and drop directly into your documents.

Take snapshots to remove, duplicate or move document sections

Marking up PDF documents? Snapshotting is great for copying and enlarging images, graphs or diagrams on PDF documents and marking up with extra notes or details. On the Drawboard PDF app (pro) you can use this tool to copy and paste content at a vectorized PDF content level, meaning no blurry images and content!

File notes with a document organiser

Keep your notes in one place. Use a document builder to file, split and merge notes documents, extract and rearrange pages. Unlike with real pen and notebook, using a PDF markup tool with a built-in document builder means you can re-organise your note pages after you’ve created them. On Drawboard PDF you can arrange documents by name or date to keep them in a preferred order or simply do a quick search to find them. No need to flick through hundreds of notebook pages to find the notes you’re looking for.

Whether you’re writing Cornell notes to streamline your note-taking, capturing key lecture moments to add to your note documents or re-organising your notes into a new order, Drawboard PDF can help take your note-taking to a new level. Drawboard PDF is a PDF markup tool that is designed to help you work faster and better, without paper.

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