Smartpen Tips

Studying, Recording and Note-taking with the Echo Smartpen

Adding Bookmarks

The first is creating ‘bookmarks’ as you take notes. If you know your professor is about to talk about something important or noteworthy, you might want to put a star by that section of your notes. You can then go back to that section, select the star that you made, and hear everything that was said from that point in time onwards. Using bookmarks is a good supplement to ‘normal’ notetaking because it ensures that salient pieces of information have an easy access point in your notes.

Reducing Background Noise While Recording

In order to reduce background noise while writing with the pen, it is recommended that you put something behind the piece of dot paper on which you’re writing, such as other papers or a notebook. This will reduce writing noise in the audio recording.

Making an audio-based study sheet

If you need to memorize terms, you can create an audible study sheet using the Echo Smartpen. First, write out all the terms you need to study on a single sheet. When you're done, record definitions for each term. To do so, tap Record, tap the word, say the definition, and hit Stop. Repeat this process for all the terms. Not only is this faster than making flashcards, but you might also find that you benefit more from hearing the definitions.

Adding notes to previously recorded audio

Here's a quick tip not many users are aware of. If you're playing back audio, either by searching for it on the pen, or by tapping the notes written to it, any notes you take during the playback will also be associated with that audio.

Using the pen as simply an audio recorder

If you're out and about without a notebook, and want to use the Smartpen as simply an audio recorder, you can do that by long-pressing the power button. A couple seconds later, the pen will beep to indicate your recording has begun. To stop recording, just tap the power button once and the file will be saved.

You can play back this file later on by tapping the menu button (the cross with four arrows) on any given notebook page. Go to Main Menu > Paper Replay > Play Session and find the recording. While you play it back, any notes you take will be synced with that recorded audio. Neat!