LeCoqRoti
Paper notebooks do not offer a search field, and they certainly do not sync with an iPhone. GoodNotes takes the familiar metaphor of the page and gives it the quiet mechanisms of a Mac app: iCloud sync, a folder tree, and a set of tools that treat handwriting as malleable objects rather than fixed marks. If you have used the iPad version, the Mac edition feels like opening the same desk from a different seat in the room.
Compatibility: what your Mac needs
The current version, 5.9.8, runs on any Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina or later. Apple Silicon and Intel machines are both supported natively, so there is no translation layer to worry about. The app shares its document format with the iPhone and iPad editions through iCloud, meaning a notebook started on a tablet appears on the desktop without export steps or conversion. The interface adapts to the pointer and keyboard without losing the page-centric layout that defines the software.
Tools: handwriting, hyperlinks and the marker eraser
On the Mac, you can create digital notebooks, type text, draw, and import PDF files while keeping their live hyperlinks intact. Handwriting can be moved, rotated, resized and recoloured after the fact — useful when a sketch needs repositioning or a note requires colour-coding days later. A custom table of contents can be built for navigation inside longer documents. One small, thoughtful detail: the eraser tool can be set to remove only marker ink, leaving pen strokes untouched. Documents organise into folders and subfolders, and frequently used pages can be pinned to a Favorites section for quick access.
Dragging in a PDF slide deck: one motion to annotate each page
You arrive at the desk with a PDF slide deck that the lecturer posted the night before. Dragging it into GoodNotes takes one motion; the app places it inside a new notebook, each slide becoming a page you can annotate. The first thing you do is open the thumbnail sidebar and drag page three to the Favorites list — it contains the only diagram you will need to refer back to during the tutorial later.
With the lecture underway, you keep the Mac open and the typing tool active, but you switch to the pen whenever a formula appears. The Shapes tool turns your rough isosceles triangle into a crisp geometric one as soon as you pause the stroke. Between slides, you add a blank page with Cmd+N and scribble a quick question in the margin in red ink. Halfway through, you remember a related passage in last week's readings; you open a second notebook from the Favorites bar, copy a paragraph of handwritten notes, and paste it directly onto the current page. It lands slightly too large. You pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad — not a gesture the app heavily advertises, but it works — then resize the block by dragging a corner handle until it settles neatly under the slide content.
When the session ends, you have a single notebook containing the original slides, typed notes, three annotated diagrams, and a handful of margin questions. You build a quick table of contents: two taps to name the sections by lecture topic, and the navigation panel populates with jump links. Before closing the lid, you drag the notebook onto a Desktop folder called Revision. A PDF export runs silently; the file lands exactly where you expect it.
Continuous scroll versus discrete pages: where Notability diverges
Notability shares the same basic territory — handwritten notes, PDF annotation, iCloud sync — but draws its pages on a continuous vertical scroll rather than discrete leaves. That feels more natural for some, especially when recording audio, which GoodNotes does not do. In exchange, GoodNotes offers a richer document structure: folders, subfolders, Favorites, and custom tables of contents. The Mac version also feels more like a document manager than a simple canvas, which matters once a library grows past fifty notebooks.
OneNote is free and cross-platform in a way GoodNotes is not, and its infinite canvas suits brainstorming. But the page model is looser, and PDF handling is less precise. Live hyperlinks in imported files do not always survive the trip into a OneNote section. For a student or researcher who needs a faithful PDF layer beneath their ink, GoodNotes wins on fidelity.
Apple Notes has improved sharply in recent macOS releases, and its Quick Note feature is genuinely useful. Yet it remains a lightweight tool: you cannot build a custom table of contents, the eraser cannot distinguish marker ink from pen strokes, and there is no Favorites section for pages. GoodNotes occupies the space between a free scratchpad and a full document system.
Erasing only highlighter marks: a shield for your pen lines
Several touches are easy to overlook during the first week. The marker-only eraser mode — found under the eraser tool's secondary options — protects pen lines while clearing highlighter marks from a dense textbook page. Long-pressing the Shapes tool reveals a list of recognised shapes; the app can produce arcs and curves, not just rectangles and ellipses.
Handwriting recolouring works on an entire selection at once. Lasso a paragraph, tap the colour well, and every stroke shifts to the new ink. If you use colour to encode urgency during lectures, this lets you reclassify a section after the fact without rewriting a single word. The Favorites list, meanwhile, accepts not just pages but entire folders: drop a folder onto it and it becomes a permanent sidebar shortcut, handy during exam season when three notebooks see daily use.
One detail that rewards habit: dragging a page from the thumbnail sidebar to the Finder produces an instant PDF of that page alone. No dialog, no export menu, just a file. For anyone who regularly sends meeting notes or sketch pages to colleagues, it shaves a surprising amount of time off the end of the day.
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