I've been thinking for a while that a device that would let me read pdf's and make notes on them while on the go would be handy.

Ideally the notes would be in the form of digital ink or whatever the technical term is added to the PDF's so I can circle, underline, etc. like I would with pen and paper.

Xournal looks like it might do what I want. Does anyone have any thoughts about how well the n800 works for this purpose? I don't want to plunk down the cash for the n800 only to find out that while it technically can do what I want it's really slow/frustrating/etc.

I think it works really well...

The writing on PDF files with Xournal works fine but It is not nearly as pleasant as writing on a physical paper. The screen is more slippery than paper, although with the right screenprotector it can be made acceptable. Also when you rest your hand on the screen and then touch the screen with the stylus a line is drawn from your hand to the stylus, so you're forced to rest the hand alternating on the table and the border around the screen, which takes some getting used to.

While some PDF's can be zoomed to fit, PDF documents are designed to be printed and text doesn't reflow like a html page. So it depends on how it was formatted. If you have a letter format pdf with three colums you will be scrolling from left to right all the time. On the other hand, you don't need a light to read, for occasional notes it works fine. there is hardly any delay between writing and the scribbles showing up, and the screen is very detailed and sharp. It is possible use an external bluetooth or usb keyboard with a n800 and type your comments.

How can I get pdf text reflow or wrapping to fit the screen on n800. Most my pdf research papers are in wide single column format and I have to keep scrolling from side to side to read each line...very frustrationg. Can anyone suggest a pdf reader/application that allows text reflow?

Nothing ever is! :-)

The advantages of note-taking on electronic devices are that you can carry thousands of bits of paper in your pocket, lots of pens of different colours, lets you undo or redo stuff, and perhaps most importantly it lets you email exact copies of your notes to other people.


I might be missing the point here, but have you tried zooming out a bit?

Landscape mode, full-screen, and zoomed to the width of the text on the page, I can read any document I've ever tried to easily.

You might find the manual zoom feature helpful; that's where you move the tablet closer and closer to your face. Maximum zoom is obtained when you slap yourself in the nose.

As for actually reflowing PDF text, if you really need that, FBreader might do that. Not sure.

Yah xournal works really well for writing on PDFs, you shouldn't have any problems with it being slow. Also, the resolution on the n800 is very good so that you can zoom out and still read what's on the screen if you don't have bad eyesight.

The only problems I've had have to do with the how small the screen is, naturally. Writing small and smooth is a lot easier to do when I'm zoomed into the document so that it's about the same size as it would be printed out, but that also means having to scroll around a lot in some cases. I should mention, though, that zooming in and out is pretty fast in xournal, and easy to do with the hardware buttons.

Xournal can sometimes be a bit slow to display the PDF first time around (especially if it has a lot of pictures) but once it gets there it is fine. My only real complaint is that the hand tool (Ctrl+Shift+A) isn't on the toolbar so there's no easy way to switch between reading and note-taking.
I haven't had problems with resting my hand on the screen, but maybe I'm just fortunate being left handed: I learned a long time ago not to rest my hand on the paper otherwise it ends up covered in ink. Likewise the slippy surface takes a little getting used to but is quite bearable. The stylus could be more comfortable for doing a lot of writing: back in the days when I used a Psion 5 I had a pen which switched between pen mode and stylus: does anyone know if you can still get these (it doesn't have to have Psion 5 printed on the side)?
The pose factor when someone asks you to review a word document and you email them back a pdf with scribbles is also quite good.