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I use an erasable notebook [1] for my scribbling. I find it quite good for sketching a quick diagram /prototyping, short-term todos, mindmapping and brainstormi

I use an erasable notebook [1] for my scribbling. I find it quite good for sketching a quick diagram /prototyping, short-term todos, mindmapping and brainstorming. I don't think it's good for long term journaling (a proper notebook would be better). Having an erasable pen solves my problem of making tons of stupid spelling mistakes, being guilty of wasting paper and losing them in a giant pile of worthless annotation. For me it's more helpful to have some of my working ideas physically in front of me instead of hidden behind another window or virtual desktop. My particular brand of erasable notebook (Whynote) also have detachable sheets, so I'm not bound to the linearity of a conventional notebook (I not super fan of constantly having to turn pages). [1] http://www.whynote.ch http://www.whynote.ch or http://www.wipebook.com http://www.wipebook.com or http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/category/magic-notebook http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/category/magic-notebook

wakkaflokka 10y ago
Fascinating, I might have to get one. Do these smear when you close the book? Does it have a similar feel and aesthetic to paper?
- PetitPrince 10y ago
  Smear : you really have to put a lot of ink and immediately close the book to have some. In practice I have none. Look and feel : The texture and feel is quite different from paper. It's basically paper laminated with some sort of plastic. It depends on the pen you're using[1]. If you're using a medium pen, it feels a lot like a whiteboard (gliding feeling) . With a fine pen, it's a little bit more scratchy. [1] they are all using Staedtler Lumacolor correctable 305 pens. I wonder if there's an expired patent or if it's just a happy coincidence
  - Cyph0n 10y ago
    Do you need to use special pens? Or can you just use standard dry erase markers?
    - stan_rogers 10y ago
      Erasable pens for overhead transparencies. They're not expensive at all, and most decent stationers would have them.
      - PetitPrince 10y ago
        While those works, they can leave some traces. The guy behind Wipebook made a video about it [1]. See also the Tips and Tricks videos from the same company [2] [3] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hE6VDAG_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hE6VDAG_I [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtGd0YkMos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtGd0YkMos [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PWw7G1jfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PWw7G1jfg
cr0sh 10y ago
This is very interesting and it looks useful - thanks for posting this!
VickBear 10y ago
Do you happen to know if either of these are in a retail store such as Staples (would like to check it out in person, seems awesome).
- zapu 10y ago
  Wipebook, on their webpage, claim they are available in Staples: https://wipebook.com/pages/faqs https://wipebook.com/pages/faqs
zapu 10y ago
Woah, I kind of want one now.
victorhooi 10y ago
How do you find the Whynote versus Wipebooks? Is there a reason you went for Whynote over the others? (I have a Wipebook - but sometimes I forget to erase it immediately, and it gets hard to erase if you leave it too long. Also, the pages aren't the most durable, especially to any liquid. The Whynote doesn't appear available in larger sizes though - e.g. A4, Letter).
- zapu 10y ago
  Are there any other unexpected caveats there? Like, I don't know, do your fingers get dirty because of small particles of the ink that didn't stick, which add up over time (think whiteboard markers but on smaller scale)? Because this really looks too good to be true, at least for me. Maybe I should order and see myself...
  - PetitPrince 10y ago
    * The correctable pens (fine point) can dry up pretty if uncapped. I had some case where my pen where partly dried and would randomly not write. In some case I had the feeling that a particular area of the notebook wouldn't let me write where in fact it was only a dry pen. You can "undry" the pen - see [1] - but the process is not as smooth and elegant as the video would suggest. I think it's less a problem with medium point pens; but I don't like writing stuff with those medium pens - too large to my taste. [1] : https://youtu.be/y_PWw7G1jfg?t=51s https://youtu.be/y_PWw7G1jfg?t=51s * While we're at it, the pens tends to die much quicker than a conventional ballpoint pen (2-3 month of solid use ? I don't really know). But then, I think I write more with this notebook than I ever wrote with a conventional pen, so my estimation is probably flawed. * I think I had dirty fingers only once because of the pens, but then that tend to also happens with gel pens. Maybe there's something wrong with the way I'm transporting or holding them ? * When you erase a whole page (probably with some water - the ink is water soluble - and a microfiber tower) and it is not properly and thoroughly dried, it can stick to the opposite page. But that sort of thing tends to happens to a lot of plastic sheets, and the leave are thick enough to not be a problem. It's only a minor papercut (... sorry, this pun was terrible). * The spine is not supper-dupper rugged and I recently lost one spiral (one year after I bought it). But the perks of having reorganisable and easily scannable pages are worth it. * I would really like dotted pages instead of lined pages but this is not available at the moment. * OneNote OCR doesn't transcribe the scanned page as magically as what it can do with a tablet PC stylus (it's probably looking at the stroke themselve, something that is lost when you scan a page)

wakkaflokka 10y ago

Fascinating, I might have to get one. Do these smear when you close the book? Does it have a similar feel and aesthetic to paper?

PetitPrince 10y ago
Smear : you really have to put a lot of ink and immediately close the book to have some. In practice I have none. Look and feel : The texture and feel is quite different from paper. It's basically paper laminated with some sort of plastic. It depends on the pen you're using[1]. If you're using a medium pen, it feels a lot like a whiteboard (gliding feeling) . With a fine pen, it's a little bit more scratchy. [1] they are all using Staedtler Lumacolor correctable 305 pens. I wonder if there's an expired patent or if it's just a happy coincidence
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  Do you need to use special pens? Or can you just use standard dry erase markers?
  - stan_rogers 10y ago
    Erasable pens for overhead transparencies. They're not expensive at all, and most decent stationers would have them.
    - PetitPrince 10y ago
      While those works, they can leave some traces. The guy behind Wipebook made a video about it [1]. See also the Tips and Tricks videos from the same company [2] [3] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hE6VDAG_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hE6VDAG_I [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtGd0YkMos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQtGd0YkMos [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PWw7G1jfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PWw7G1jfg

cr0sh 10y ago

This is very interesting and it looks useful - thanks for posting this!

VickBear 10y ago

Do you happen to know if either of these are in a retail store such as Staples (would like to check it out in person, seems awesome).

zapu 10y ago
Wipebook, on their webpage, claim they are available in Staples: https://wipebook.com/pages/faqs https://wipebook.com/pages/faqs

zapu 10y ago

Woah, I kind of want one now.

victorhooi 10y ago

How do you find the Whynote versus Wipebooks? Is there a reason you went for Whynote over the others? (I have a Wipebook - but sometimes I forget to erase it immediately, and it gets hard to erase if you leave it too long. Also, the pages aren't the most durable, especially to any liquid. The Whynote doesn't appear available in larger sizes though - e.g. A4, Letter).

zapu 10y ago
Are there any other unexpected caveats there? Like, I don't know, do your fingers get dirty because of small particles of the ink that didn't stick, which add up over time (think whiteboard markers but on smaller scale)? Because this really looks too good to be true, at least for me. Maybe I should order and see myself...
- PetitPrince 10y ago
  * The correctable pens (fine point) can dry up pretty if uncapped. I had some case where my pen where partly dried and would randomly not write. In some case I had the feeling that a particular area of the notebook wouldn't let me write where in fact it was only a dry pen. You can "undry" the pen - see [1] - but the process is not as smooth and elegant as the video would suggest. I think it's less a problem with medium point pens; but I don't like writing stuff with those medium pens - too large to my taste. [1] : https://youtu.be/y_PWw7G1jfg?t=51s https://youtu.be/y_PWw7G1jfg?t=51s * While we're at it, the pens tends to die much quicker than a conventional ballpoint pen (2-3 month of solid use ? I don't really know). But then, I think I write more with this notebook than I ever wrote with a conventional pen, so my estimation is probably flawed. * I think I had dirty fingers only once because of the pens, but then that tend to also happens with gel pens. Maybe there's something wrong with the way I'm transporting or holding them ? * When you erase a whole page (probably with some water - the ink is water soluble - and a microfiber tower) and it is not properly and thoroughly dried, it can stick to the opposite page. But that sort of thing tends to happens to a lot of plastic sheets, and the leave are thick enough to not be a problem. It's only a minor papercut (... sorry, this pun was terrible). * The spine is not supper-dupper rugged and I recently lost one spiral (one year after I bought it). But the perks of having reorganisable and easily scannable pages are worth it. * I would really like dotted pages instead of lined pages but this is not available at the moment. * OneNote OCR doesn't transcribe the scanned page as magically as what it can do with a tablet PC stylus (it's probably looking at the stroke themselve, something that is lost when you scan a page)