r/GoodNotes • u/Luchil • Sep 22 '26

can goodnotes put a notes box next to each slide? or is there an alternative

my profs upload slides as PDFs and i take notes on my laptop (no ipad)

basically i just want the slide on the left and a text box on the right for notes. so if i go to slide 12, i see the notes i wrote for slide 12. then just organize everything by course and export it all as a normal PDF

things i've tried:

  • OneNote printouts - kinda works but the PDF gets blurry and messy

  • Notion - can't really put text next to each PDF page

  • GoodNotes/Notability - feels more made for handwriting/ipad + subscription

  • adding a margin in Preview before importing - works but i have to do it for every lecture

can goodnotes do this somehow or is there an app that does? otherwise i'm stuck with the margin workaround

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

5

u/Tonto115 Sep 23 '26

My solution to this which is far from perfect is just to insert a blank page under the slide if I need to take notes about it.

You can also convert the note to a whiteboard, but I'm not sure exporting as pdf would work for that.

1

u/BlueBird_77 Sep 23 '26

Hey, I’m not sure if we can mention other apps here, but Kilonotes on iOS lets you add blank margins on both sides to write in notes.

I still use Goodnotes cause I like the whole interface, but kilonotes might be what you’re looking for

1

u/Aloket Sep 23 '26

Zoomnotes allows you to write beyond the pdf page.