There are people everywhere, and learners in every classroom, who struggle with written output. Here’s a free iPad app with tremendous potential to help.

PaperPort Notes stands head and shoulders above any other iPad app I’ve tried, in terms of its potential to support individuals who struggle with writing. Text can be written with the keyboard, with a stylus, or dictated by voice. As well, audio recordings can be attached to any note.

It is the speech-to-text that sets this app apart. Whenever the keyboard is called up, the user has the option of dictating by voice. Using only the built-in iPad mic, I found the accuracy to be almost flawless, even when dictating with low levels of background noise present.

As is the case with Dragon Dictation, the iPad must be connected to the Internet for speech-to-text to function. PaperPort Notes is from Nuance, who are also responsible for Dragon Dictation. As is the case with the Dragon app, text-to-speech is only available via Speak Selection when the keyboard is visible. The opportunity to hear what has been dictated is important for anyone who struggles with both reading and writing.

There are numerous other features that make PaperPort useful. These inlude the ability to create text boxes and sticky notes, to incorporate images, and to conveniently import and annotate files and web pages, or even cropped parts of web pages. Notes can be created on a yellow or white lined page, a blank page, or on a graphing page. The image below illustrates just a few of these possibilities.

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There are multiple options for sharing notes–via email, into Google Docs, DropBox, etc. Notes can also be printed directly to an AirPrint printer. Or, notes can be opened in other iPad apps as PDF files.

A 20 page User Guide is made available by clicking on the ‘Help’ tab. This can be viewed within the app or downloaded as a PDF file.