I get a question quite often about how I take notes using my phone. You know, an idea hits you and you want to "jot" it down for later. Yes, I know all of you old timers out there like a piece of paper and a pencil. However, I always have my phone with me and paper and pencil are not usually around when I need them. Of course, after I write something on the paper, I cannot find the paper later. Again, my phone is always nearby if not in my pocket.
Be cautioned. I have written about this excellent app previously. However, it was in 2013 and there have been some interesting changes made.
The app is, yes, you guessed it free and from Google and is called Google Keep. You can use it online at keep.google.com, from the Google Play Store for your Android phone/tablet and also starting in 2015 in the Apple App Store for those devices.
There are several useful features contained in this small app. First, you can take a note. In your note, you can type in text, a list and even a bulleted list with check-off boxes as you complete those listed items.
Next, you can leave yourself a voice message to listen to later. But my favorite part is that it immediately takes the recording you make and transcribes it into text. How accurate is it? Well, as my friend Jim Britt says, "I would not dictate an important document, have it transcribed and hit the send button without a very careful review and edit." For instance, I dictated the first paragraph in this article and it transcribed, "an idea hits you" came back as "and I didn’t hit you." It is still helpful but the review and edit could take longer than just typing it out.
Next, you can set a reminder to go off for a specific note at another date and time. Not bad, but even better is you can also set it to go off at a specific location. Yes, it can track your location with GPS and say have your grocery list pop up on your phone when you drive by the grocery store. It reminds you to stop and also what to get from the list.
Next, something that I use often. As an instructor, I will often find a quote, paragraph or interesting information I would like to include in a document I am working on. The only issue is that the possibly lengthy text may be in a graphic or photograph. In Keep I can place the photo in a note and then click the menu and choose, "Grab image text." Then it quickly scans the graphic and places all the text below the graphic as plain text. You can then manipulate the text as if you had typed it.…without any of the background picture clutter getting in the way. This is not always perfect but is accurate most of the time.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about another Google app which vanished from Google…for Google Keep may it never be!
