The first Pencil was prone to roll off desks (just like a regular pencil) and attached to the iPad in a way so awkward that it could double as a self-defense weapon or medieval pike. Price was one: the first iPad Pro started at $800 and the Apple Pencil added $99. As with most first-generation implementations, there were gaps. The weaknesses are two-fold though: others may not be able to read your chicken scratch, and the notes you take are not text-searchable – meaning the most you can search by are file name and whatever characteristics your document management system provides.Īpple released the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil in 2015, which was a watershed for digital handwriting. You get all of the benefits the Princeton researchers found with handwritten, and the storage and retrieval benefits of digital. This approach remains viable and eminently affordable since the greatest expense is a scanner (if you need a new scanner, see our recommendations here ). Prior to 2015, I suggested lawyers continue handwriting their notes but make a concerted effort to date, digitize, and file those notes into a document management system. We spend a great deal of time convincing legal professionals that they should be less paper-dependent and more digital-native. It found students who handwrote notes performed better on exams, took shorter (but better) notes, could relay ideas better, and had better short-term retention.įor legal technologists, studies like this put us in an odd position. A recent study by Princeton University researchers compared students taking handwritten notes versus typed notes. We also have scientific evidence that handwritten notes beat typed notes for information retention. I can’t remember the last time before then that I received a postcard, and it was a treat! When I worked around Congress, I noticed the handwritten letters from constituents were most likely to make it beyond legislative correspondent staffers to the Congressman’s desk.

I received 18 handwritten postcards in the mail last year from my high-school best friend who was traveling across the U.S. By Jeffrey Schoenberger, senior consultant at Affinity Consulting Group LLCįor business development and correspondence, we know that handwritten notes and letters make the best impression.

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