Infinitely long sheets
It would be nice if we could have infinitely long sheets like in Onenote. There really isn't a need to be restricted to physical dimensions of paper anymore.
asdf
shared this idea
Hey everyone, in GoodNotes 5, we added the ability to set the scrolling direction to “vertical”: https://support.goodnotes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000118135-How-to-set-the-scrolling-direction-to-horizontal-or-vertical
We’re using a framework for page handling that treats every page as a separate file. This allows things like:
- export of a selection of pages
- easy reordering of pages within a document
- rotation of pages
- adding images/photos as standalone pages
- mixing multiple file types (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, GoodNotes) in a single document
- etc.
Since each page is an individual file, a truly infinite sheet is not feasible with the current framework.
114 comments
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Scott Moulton commented
I was looking to move from Notability to Goodnotes. I tested a bunch of test files and was happy. Then I go to get my first most important note from Notability and go paste the long text into the first note for Goodnotes and then find that my text is in a box that keeps on going paste the bottom of the page break. I cannot see the text or get to it, it doesn't scroll or anything. Then I am like surely my first attempt can't be the limit, they must have a way to deal with this, like get rid of page break. Then I see this. REALLY GUYS a long text?? Thats where you tool fails? Of all the hard stuff to deal with in software and its a long pasted text box that you cannot handle? I think you guys need a new manager to come over and tell you what to do if you cannot handle long text in a note taking apps. I saw your excuse. Its unacceptable. Digital has advantages over paper and don't limit a digital implementation to match an analog. I guess I am done using Goodnotes. Its impossible to not have long pasted text from other apps. And really? No record audio button? Two things that could be fixed in 1 day. Unacceptable no matter how good the other stuff is.
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Anonymous
commented
Why not just have a separate template that allows for an infinite sheet? Then the page format doesn't have to be reformatted, there just exists an alternative option in the template selection.
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ApplePencilMightierThanTheSword
commented
Or maybe as long as the blank page you are writing on is the last page in a notebook or note; have the app add a new page automatically as long as you add content to the page. And include this as a toggle switch in the settings in addition to preseting how many pages you want in your note for those who may want to manually add pages. The current implementation of adding a page one at a time kinda breaks your flow of note taking because you have to pause to swipe to add a page.
One last thing i wish i could lock the zoom level of a page so that I avoid accidentally zooming in or out of a page with my palm
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Bob Popular
commented
The workaround offered by Goodnotes is a good suggestion, I guess. I think the ability to have infinite scroll is still pretty critical since there are a lot of users who are having to export and to an assume page size. Seems like a functionality toggle.
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Mehmet Akyüz
commented
+1. GoodNotes is the best iPad app I could find for white-boarding while sharing the screen over video chat. Working with pages is very limiting.
Infinite pages could be a specific type of item, such as QuickNotes. It could be a Whiteboard item or something.
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Daniel
commented
Rather than have an infinite working space, an alternative might be to be able to create a pre-defined number of pages. So if you know you need 10 or 30 or 150 pages, then being able to tell Goodnotes that, both in creating a new document and in existing documents, might take the chore out of having to create one page at a time manually.
We then just need to ability to write from one page to another and to copy and paste images from one page to another.
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dirksikora@web.de
commented
I would join this wish, in combination with a feature from OneNote, which I appreciate very much: Create a gap on the page by inserting a space of any height. This creates space between existing text or sketches for additions.
It might be a problem to move the space to the next page, because the content of the next page is delimited. A compromise would be creating a page on which the moved part is pushed. -
Brett Ryan
commented
This is needed for situations where you're brainstorming or replacing a whiteboard.
I believe that you can still keep the "page" framework but make pages closer together in a grid, similar to how https://draw.io works when you turn on page layout.
I love the style of goodnotes, but unfortunately notability wins here due to its support for this feature.
Horizontal scrolling isn't a workaround.
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Rahul Chachada
commented
I think the problem can be solved very easily where you provide a sperate page for such infinite sheet which do not provide you option to export pages into pdf.
Please bring this feature as I use goodnotes for revision charts preparation and finite sheet limits my area. For this sole feature I am considering of leaving goodnotes which I don't want to since I love this app so much. -
Starvon Washington
commented
+1 on infinite long sheets. Just started using GoodNotes - I love it! However I am jumping to Noteability App for that feature. I'd love to switch fully to GoodNotes - please add! Thank you!
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MaxOs
commented
Infinitely long sheets is the one feature why I prefere OneNote over GoodNotes
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Anonymous
commented
Remove the margin/spacing between pages and find a way to allow pen strokes to cross a page boundary to another page. This would pretty much give people the same thing as an infinite sheet within the current framework.
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Anonymous
commented
Ooooh so excited for this to get on the development roadmap. I also liked the comment about potentially donating toward the development. Right now I use another app (paid 9.99) that acts as my infinite scratchpad and then have to switch between GoodNotes to organize the ideas into notebooks or develop the organization logic. The other app I use as an infinite visual only saves the file as a .png so I don’t expect it to save pictures, objects, or anything fancy... it’s really just like a brainstorming scratchpad/brain map to make sure I get the ideas down without distraction of how ideas connect or can tie to other ideas on another page. I previously had a large 10’ piece of butcher paper across my wall and a couple white boards to accomplish this type of note taking. I know some scientists and programmers who also work like this. I would’ve gladly given GoodNotes a donation toward this development instead of another app! Maybe it can be a notebook type? Or just an independent sheet type outside of a notebook? Thank you for your great product!
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simon wan
commented
in many cases , I use GoodNotes as an electronic blackboard or scratch paper when I have a discussion with the team. It would be great if there is an infinite page so
We don’t have to turn between different pages, just like Onenote. -
o s
commented
Would it be more feasible to have a similar system to the page layouts in notability where the page size is still fixed but there no longer is a gap between pages allowing for writing to cross between pages easily?
And if this would still be incompatible with the features you listed could the user at least get the option to sacrifice those features to have infinite scroll when creating a new note?
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Mario Goebbels
commented
Would probably be an idea to go along the lines of what Nebo does and introduce a special page type that is infinite.
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Anonymous
commented
Are you developing an infinite sheet option? Else will have to switch to other apps for that. One single infinite sheet like one note
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jeroen
commented
When linking my ipad to my mac to record educational videos, the document does not scroll smoothly (what I see on the ipad - smooth scroll - is not the same as what appears in the screen recording on my mac - nonsmooth jump between pages). The ability to smoothly scroll through a document is essential, in particular in edu context...
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Adam K
commented
> If infinite pages aren’t currently feasible could a feature making it easier to write on the bottom 1/4 of a page be added. Currently the pages locks and I think a simple allowing the page to not lock to my screen and position the bottom portion freely in the middle of my screen would make a huge difference.
This is exactly what it needs. Other applications do this, such as Procreate. It's very difficult to write in the bottom section of the iPad and forcing this is terrible UX.
Update: I've solved this folks. Switch your scrolling direction to vertical, and make sure you've always got an extra page added. Then, when you need to write at the bottom of a page, you can simply scroll up and onto that last blank page, but writing on the bottom of the previous page.
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Niaaz Wahab commented
How about using the same framework, but the individual file size is not capped? Such that I can have one infinitely long page as a document following your same architecture, except that the page will be significantly larger.
Or even possibly to have multiple infinite pages