Useful Windows Store apps for tablets and convertibles

In this blog post, I’d like to present some Windows apps that have proven their usefulness to me and to my fellow students. Most of these apps are intended to be used with computers like the Microsoft Surface, Lenovo Miix and Yoga, or any other device that’s optimized for touch and pen functionality.

Drawboard PDF – Professional annotations

As the name implies, Drawboard PDF can create new PDF files, and edit existing ones. Simply rightclick the PDF you want to edit and select “Open with -> Drawboard PDF”. Once the program’s open and your file loaded, you can select the tool you need in a small circle in the upper left corner of the app. Using the pen of your device, you can even write directly into your document to create comments and highlight important information. Drawboard’s digital pen functionality allows you to choose color, size, and opacity of the tool. Text can be edited with highlights, underlining, and strikethroughs, and you can add images, signatures, and geometric forms (arrows, rectangles, circles) to you document. You can even save your personal signature into the program to insert it into any document. Your preferred tools can be stored in a favorite list on the right-hand side to allow for quick selection. The design of Drawboard PDF follows the minimalistic Windows 10 style guidelines, so it has a clean and straightforward look without any distracting elements or superfluous menus. You can find more tools and options, however, like page manipulation to insert or delete entire pages, in the menu in the left upper corner.
In contrast to Microsoft’s OneNote, you can edit and save PDFs in Drawboard directly, while the former app needs to import and convert the files into its own format before you can work on them. Drawboard PDF is available in the Windows Store for 10.70 CHF.

Xodo PDF Reader & Editor – The free alternative

Xodo is a good, free alternative to Drawboard PDF. Even though some useful features like page manipulation aren’t available in this app, it can still do almost everything that is useful for annotating documents. Features like highlighting, or inserting text, images, and geometric forms, as well as signatures are all available. However, Xodo doesn’t support pressure sensitive pens at this time, so the lines you draw will always look the same. Xodo PDF is also available in the Windows Store.

WolframAlpha – Computational knowledge engine

The computational knowledge engine by Wolfram is much more than just a regular search engine. Based on the computational program Mathematica, WolframAlpha uses artificial intelligence to analyze natural language input to find more meaningful results than general purpose search engines like Google. WolframAlpha is most useful in the fields of mathematics and science. For instance, it can automatically solve complicated equations, derivations, integrals, or even differential equations without the need for a complicated syntax like in programming languages. For any input, WolframAlpha will show additional information like plots or approximations to give you as broad an answer as possible. Additionally, the app can show you step-by-step solutions for mathematical input, which is unavailable in the web version of WolframAlpha. Since some features are only available with a paid contract in the web version, the WolframAlpha app is also interesting for regular laptops. For all fields ranging from physics, engineering, statistics, history, geography, chemistry, and many more, WolframAlpha is a highly useful tool to make your life easier. The app is available in the Windows Store for 3.20 CHF.

Sketchable – graphical work with an active pen

For graphical work with a Surface or similar device you can use Sketchable. In its free version, the app contains all necessary features you need to get started with drawing. Sketchable’s touch support is particularly useful as it enables the use of multi-finger gestures for zooming and other functions. Since it’s a specialized app, it can’t compare in features to Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter. However, the support for active pens and pressure sensitive painting are very well implemented. The basic version of Sketchable comes with nine different brush tools. The premium version, priced at 24 CHF, extends the toolset with useful features like layers or a brush stroke preview. Sketchable can save your projects in many different formats like PNG, JPEG, or Photoshop PSD.
A good alternative to Sketchable is Autodesk Sketchbook, which is also available in a free version from the Windows Store. Sketchbook gives you better control over the brush tools in the free version than Sketchable, but it can only save projects as TIFF files.

Evernote – Organizing your day

Evernote is a popular productivity app that enables you to create notes, to-do lists, and file stacks, all of which you can share with other users. With the smartphone app, the Windows app, and the web client you can easily create and view content on any device. For instance, you can create a shopping list on your computer, share it with your roomies so they can add items, and later view it on your smartphone in the supermarket. Evernote now even supports handwritten notes on any touchscreen device. Additionally, you can attach reminders to all your content so you’ll get an e-mail or a pop-up when something is due. As an alternative to the Windows app, you can also use the excellent web version of Evernote on any device.