Should I get a new device to cope with paperless meetings?
June 1, 2024 8:37 PM Subscribe
If you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?
Our office’s regular meeting (every 3 weeks) has made the change to paperless, with little notice. In theory this is good news, but in practice, I found it was a struggle with a 15-inch non-touchscreen laptop. So, if you have ideas on making things easier, read on.
The meeting in question is mostly updates pulled from various sources, with some in-house data. Until now, each participant got a printed copy (60 -150 pages of single-sided A4) depending on what’s going on.
This is now in pdf format…some pages are easy to read, others are content members need to be given, but the aim is saying we received it, not making it easy to read, necessarily. As an example, 6 powerpoint slides printed on a single sheet of A4, where to read the data 1 or 2 slides per sheet would be a lot better. Another example is 16 graphs probably made in excel and then squashed on to one page in Word.
My only available device for reading this is a laptop which does not have a touch screen. Most pages are in portrait mode, but some are landscape, and lack of experience on my part made this harder than it should have been.
So, I could:
Carry on like this
Get a tablet?
Get an e-reader?
Find a laptop with a touch screen
Do something else that you can advise me on?
I am yet to find reading glasses helpful; until now, moving the paper documents closer or further away has been fine. This did not work well with the laptop, and shrinking or increasing the pdf size was not smooth (again inexperience with this style, I am sure). I have never owned a smartphone, and don’t have any experience with tablets, e-readers or the like.
In the last meeting, I made analogue notes on a notepad. It was fine, but I am aware that this could be done digitally with the right gear.
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these. Covers, keyboards, and styluses are a different budget, and that is less constrained than the main item itself.
Most colleagues are using their own devices, which are higher-end, and not within the office budget. Not planning to spend my own money on this.
So, if you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?
Our office’s regular meeting (every 3 weeks) has made the change to paperless, with little notice. In theory this is good news, but in practice, I found it was a struggle with a 15-inch non-touchscreen laptop. So, if you have ideas on making things easier, read on.
The meeting in question is mostly updates pulled from various sources, with some in-house data. Until now, each participant got a printed copy (60 -150 pages of single-sided A4) depending on what’s going on.
This is now in pdf format…some pages are easy to read, others are content members need to be given, but the aim is saying we received it, not making it easy to read, necessarily. As an example, 6 powerpoint slides printed on a single sheet of A4, where to read the data 1 or 2 slides per sheet would be a lot better. Another example is 16 graphs probably made in excel and then squashed on to one page in Word.
My only available device for reading this is a laptop which does not have a touch screen. Most pages are in portrait mode, but some are landscape, and lack of experience on my part made this harder than it should have been.
So, I could:
Carry on like this
Get a tablet?
Get an e-reader?
Find a laptop with a touch screen
Do something else that you can advise me on?
I am yet to find reading glasses helpful; until now, moving the paper documents closer or further away has been fine. This did not work well with the laptop, and shrinking or increasing the pdf size was not smooth (again inexperience with this style, I am sure). I have never owned a smartphone, and don’t have any experience with tablets, e-readers or the like.
In the last meeting, I made analogue notes on a notepad. It was fine, but I am aware that this could be done digitally with the right gear.
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these. Covers, keyboards, and styluses are a different budget, and that is less constrained than the main item itself.
Most colleagues are using their own devices, which are higher-end, and not within the office budget. Not planning to spend my own money on this.
So, if you have imperfect but not dreadful eyesight, need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?
There are I'm sure many, many options that would work well for this. Personally, I have done a lot of reading on an iPad--the least expensive options or a used refurb would still plenty of power for this purpose. One nice thing about the touchscreen option is how easy it is to pinch to zoom in, and if you switch to landscape orientation then you have a fair amount of width to zoom out within. I did like the mini size for portability, but for your usage, you might want to stick with a 9 or 10-inch screen to make sure it's big enough for the pages to be readable. If you can get it approved, the Apple Pencil is genuinely great, especially if you stick a silicon nib on it, which makes it writes more smoothly and with less clink against the glass.
I did most of my reading in grad school using Notability to highlight and take handwritten notes on the pages. They have switched to only offering a subscription model (boo). It looks like Goodnotes, which I've heard is also excellent, has both subscriptions and one-time purchase options.
posted by past unusual at 9:00 PM on June 1, 2024
I did most of my reading in grad school using Notability to highlight and take handwritten notes on the pages. They have switched to only offering a subscription model (boo). It looks like Goodnotes, which I've heard is also excellent, has both subscriptions and one-time purchase options.
posted by past unusual at 9:00 PM on June 1, 2024
Response by poster: Thanks, congen. I was using Foxit reader and the scale thing in the lower right hand corner of the screen to change the size.
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 9:01 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 9:01 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
I can't give you a recommendation on a device, but I do recommend that your office adopt some universal design and accessibility standards that would stipulate that documents need be in a minimum of 12 point sans serif font and in a PowerPoint 18 point sans serif font.
posted by brookeb at 9:03 PM on June 1, 2024 [17 favorites]
posted by brookeb at 9:03 PM on June 1, 2024 [17 favorites]
I don't think the issue is with your eyesight. I am with brookeb. The issue is not having standards for font size. I would suggest standards for accessibility and take hand written notes that refer to the page number until they agree.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:59 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:59 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
Second monitor, that's larger than the one on your laptop. As I can't see the back of your laptop I can't tell what's right for you, but having a second monitor to offload documents is a game changer. In fact... I am running THREE monitors on my desktop right now. :)
posted by kschang at 10:25 PM on June 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by kschang at 10:25 PM on June 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
iPad with iAnnotate PDF would be my solution. Probably with an Apple Pencil.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:57 PM on June 1, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:57 PM on June 1, 2024 [3 favorites]
Not answering the actual question but in the meantime: here's a list of Foxit's keyboard shortcuts, including for rotating documents. Apparently you can customize the shortcuts too.
Is it important to you that notes you take be digitized or searchable later, or that they be saved together with the document you're annotating?
posted by trig at 11:00 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
Is it important to you that notes you take be digitized or searchable later, or that they be saved together with the document you're annotating?
posted by trig at 11:00 PM on June 1, 2024 [1 favorite]
(Sorry, I just noticed that shortcuts link is for Macs. If you're on Windows, I can't find an equivalent list but the menus and options should be similar - try ctrl instead of the command key.)
posted by trig at 11:11 PM on June 1, 2024
posted by trig at 11:11 PM on June 1, 2024
Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
I fully agree about accessibility standards - our in-house stuff is fair but not standardized. The outside stuff - I guess - has to be shown as we receive it, and it is all over the place.
As for an extra monitor, it is an in-person meeting, and I won't be able to carry one to the room we meet in.
Still thinking about the importance of digitizing notes or whether they need to be searchable. It is a great question (and I now need to think about non-physical storage, too, I imagine).
Will try to find some Windows version of the Foxit shortcuts - great idea, thank you, trig.
30 years of all-analogue meetings changed overnight! No comment, question, observation, etc is too obvious...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 11:27 PM on June 1, 2024
I fully agree about accessibility standards - our in-house stuff is fair but not standardized. The outside stuff - I guess - has to be shown as we receive it, and it is all over the place.
As for an extra monitor, it is an in-person meeting, and I won't be able to carry one to the room we meet in.
Still thinking about the importance of digitizing notes or whether they need to be searchable. It is a great question (and I now need to think about non-physical storage, too, I imagine).
Will try to find some Windows version of the Foxit shortcuts - great idea, thank you, trig.
30 years of all-analogue meetings changed overnight! No comment, question, observation, etc is too obvious...
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 11:27 PM on June 1, 2024
Best answer: Well, even a "similar size" monitor can be "stuck" to to the back of the screen and pulled out / retracted as needed. There are cheaper models that will go as slow as $100, but you probably get slower refresh rate.
posted by kschang at 11:35 PM on June 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by kschang at 11:35 PM on June 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I produce digital documentation and proof it only after printing it out. Nothing else works for me and I am very good technologically. I understand your work has gone paperless but you have the pdf, I'd print it and be done with it.
posted by deadwax at 4:40 AM on June 2, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by deadwax at 4:40 AM on June 2, 2024 [4 favorites]
Rather than trying to rescale things in specific programs, which depending on the program and the content can lead to weird reflows and artifacts, I'd use the Windows Magnifier, which is pretty much designed for your exact problem. If you're on a Mac, they have basically the same thing in the accessibility settings.
As far as external devices, I have a friend with extremely limited distance vision (legally blind but has enough vision to read things up close if it's large enough). In addition to the afore mentioned enlarger/screen reader, when necessary she uses a 6" phone to take picture of what she needs enbiggened, then zooms in and scrolls around to read. (She also has a 10" tablet for the purpose at home.)
If you try this, please ensure that you're in compliance with your company's policies. Doing that with the default configuration on both iOS and Android at this point will try to store the photo in the Apple or Google's cloud (assuming it has an internet connection), which would be a fireable offense (if done after being told it's forbidden) at my employer (we have multiple strong reasons to make sure company data doesn't leave our network). YMWV.
posted by Candleman at 6:02 AM on June 2, 2024
As far as external devices, I have a friend with extremely limited distance vision (legally blind but has enough vision to read things up close if it's large enough). In addition to the afore mentioned enlarger/screen reader, when necessary she uses a 6" phone to take picture of what she needs enbiggened, then zooms in and scrolls around to read. (She also has a 10" tablet for the purpose at home.)
If you try this, please ensure that you're in compliance with your company's policies. Doing that with the default configuration on both iOS and Android at this point will try to store the photo in the Apple or Google's cloud (assuming it has an internet connection), which would be a fireable offense (if done after being told it's forbidden) at my employer (we have multiple strong reasons to make sure company data doesn't leave our network). YMWV.
posted by Candleman at 6:02 AM on June 2, 2024
need to at least look at not great documentation, and make occasional notes about the content, how do you go about it?
Fabriano dot grid . (e.g. paperandinkarts) especially for only occasional notes, paper beats rocks, scissors, & all else, imo
Still thinking about the importance of digitizing notes
from your handle: hoping the co. has duplicators/scanners?
So, I could: Carry on like this
vision remains a question
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these
would the company be willing to get a mini/ultra mini projector? if there’s a proper spot to set one up, that’d create a larger image
posted by HearHere at 6:14 AM on June 2, 2024
Fabriano dot grid . (e.g. paperandinkarts) especially for only occasional notes, paper beats rocks, scissors, & all else, imo
Still thinking about the importance of digitizing notes
from your handle: hoping the co. has duplicators/scanners?
So, I could: Carry on like this
vision remains a question
The office allows us to buy devices and peripherals. Options are looking like the cheapest possible ipad, the Xaomi Pad 6, or something cheaper than either of these
would the company be willing to get a mini/ultra mini projector? if there’s a proper spot to set one up, that’d create a larger image
posted by HearHere at 6:14 AM on June 2, 2024
I have two family members who swear by their iPad with an Apple Pencil for reading PDF documents and taking notes in realtime during classes and meetings. I believe they use iAnnotate.
On the other hand, I tried to adopt this setup for reading and annotating PDFs. It made it much easier to read the PDFs. My eyesight also isn't great, and zooming in/out while moving to different parts of the page is very quick on easy. In the end, though, I didn't get past some stumbling blocks in making the annotation useful, so I don't use the device for work anymore. So the moral is, YMMV.
In many countries Apple has a generous return policy. If you want to try this setup, you might able to do it and then back out if you don't like it.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:17 AM on June 2, 2024
On the other hand, I tried to adopt this setup for reading and annotating PDFs. It made it much easier to read the PDFs. My eyesight also isn't great, and zooming in/out while moving to different parts of the page is very quick on easy. In the end, though, I didn't get past some stumbling blocks in making the annotation useful, so I don't use the device for work anymore. So the moral is, YMMV.
In many countries Apple has a generous return policy. If you want to try this setup, you might able to do it and then back out if you don't like it.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 6:17 AM on June 2, 2024
would the company be willing to get a mini/ultra mini projector? if there’s a proper spot to set one up, that’d create a larger image
Mini projectors lack both the lumens and contrast to do this at all effectively. Keep in mind that distance from source is important - a high quality 1080p LCD right in front of you is much more readable than a 6' projected image 10 feet from you.
posted by Candleman at 8:07 AM on June 2, 2024
Mini projectors lack both the lumens and contrast to do this at all effectively. Keep in mind that distance from source is important - a high quality 1080p LCD right in front of you is much more readable than a 6' projected image 10 feet from you.
posted by Candleman at 8:07 AM on June 2, 2024
Best answer: The best solution for paperless is going to depend on what kind of notes you take and what you use them for after the meeting.
How did you take, keep and organise your notes when they handed you a printed meeting pack with 150 pages?
If you used a paper notebook keep using that, even if you look at the material on screen. Alternatively, open up OneNote on your laptop and switch to that window to take notes.
Or did you take notes on the 150 page meeting pack? If so, what did you do with the annotated pack after the meeting? How frequently did you refer back to your notes? If the act of annotating the pack helped you concentrate and think a solution that lets you annotate the pdf will allow you to do that. If you were just jotting down questions or actions use OneNote or take a notebook/pad into the meeting to jot things down on.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:19 AM on June 2, 2024
How did you take, keep and organise your notes when they handed you a printed meeting pack with 150 pages?
If you used a paper notebook keep using that, even if you look at the material on screen. Alternatively, open up OneNote on your laptop and switch to that window to take notes.
Or did you take notes on the 150 page meeting pack? If so, what did you do with the annotated pack after the meeting? How frequently did you refer back to your notes? If the act of annotating the pack helped you concentrate and think a solution that lets you annotate the pdf will allow you to do that. If you were just jotting down questions or actions use OneNote or take a notebook/pad into the meeting to jot things down on.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:19 AM on June 2, 2024
Posting this suggestion on here for thoughts and feedback too. I have been considering reMarkable for some time. It seems like a comfortable way of reading PDFs and other documents and taking notes but wondered if anyone has used it?
This might work for your needs.
posted by ichimunki at 3:16 PM on June 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
This might work for your needs.
posted by ichimunki at 3:16 PM on June 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I agree with kschang, an external monitor seems to be exactly what you need, especially if the company will pay for it. Most, if not all, monitors allow you to turn them to either portrait or landscape mode. Both Windows and Apple laptops make it easy to plug in external monitors with a minimum of fiddling.
posted by lhauser at 4:23 PM on June 2, 2024
posted by lhauser at 4:23 PM on June 2, 2024
I have been considering reMarkable for some time. It seems like a comfortable way of reading PDFs and other documents and taking notes but wondered if anyone has used it?
I have a Boox tablet, which is similar but run Android so you can have apps other than just the reading writing ones, which is a benefit for my use cases. I have a few friends who love the reMarkable because it can't do anything else, which helps cut down on distractions while working. I've seen them in-person and they're close enough that I'd say both are pretty good but you're always going to have a bit of lag with the current eInk technology and neither are as satisfying as writing on paper. But the convenience of what they can do that paper can't is enough to make them worth it to some of us.
posted by Candleman at 5:45 PM on June 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have a Boox tablet, which is similar but run Android so you can have apps other than just the reading writing ones, which is a benefit for my use cases. I have a few friends who love the reMarkable because it can't do anything else, which helps cut down on distractions while working. I've seen them in-person and they're close enough that I'd say both are pretty good but you're always going to have a bit of lag with the current eInk technology and neither are as satisfying as writing on paper. But the convenience of what they can do that paper can't is enough to make them worth it to some of us.
posted by Candleman at 5:45 PM on June 2, 2024 [1 favorite]
I've got one of the Duex Lite portable monitors that kschang linked and it's great - very portable and comes on & off my laptop easily using magnets.
posted by augustimagination at 8:34 PM on June 2, 2024
posted by augustimagination at 8:34 PM on June 2, 2024
Response by poster: Thank you everyone. The portable monitors were a revelation, and the one kschang introduced looks like it can be positioned in portrait mode, which could help a lot.
As for notes and annotations, koahiatamadl's comment helped clarify my thinking here. I am not sure my already messy notes will be improved by going digital. deadwax's approach seems the best.
Having said these things, there have apparently been complaints that the decision was made without following proper process and we may be going back to the old system for a while.
Thanks again to everyone who added thoughts!
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:21 PM on June 4, 2024
As for notes and annotations, koahiatamadl's comment helped clarify my thinking here. I am not sure my already messy notes will be improved by going digital. deadwax's approach seems the best.
Having said these things, there have apparently been complaints that the decision was made without following proper process and we may be going back to the old system for a while.
Thanks again to everyone who added thoughts!
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 4:21 PM on June 4, 2024
I just came here to add a vote for:
iPad with iAnnotate PDF would be my solution. Probably with an Apple Pencil.
I would add a keyboard case to aid taking notes by typing rather than writing. I've done 'paperless' meetings for years using this set up and it just works. I use a combination of typing (for longer notes) and writing with an Apple Pencil for shorter notes, highlighting, drawing circles around things etc. Note that iAnnotate PDF is an old version - the current one is just 'iAnnotate'.
posted by dg at 6:42 PM on June 4, 2024
iPad with iAnnotate PDF would be my solution. Probably with an Apple Pencil.
I would add a keyboard case to aid taking notes by typing rather than writing. I've done 'paperless' meetings for years using this set up and it just works. I use a combination of typing (for longer notes) and writing with an Apple Pencil for shorter notes, highlighting, drawing circles around things etc. Note that iAnnotate PDF is an old version - the current one is just 'iAnnotate'.
posted by dg at 6:42 PM on June 4, 2024
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