Sempere
Guide contents

Tutorials

Lecture notes with audio

Bring the slides, record the lecture, write on top, and later tap your notes to hear what was said.

You need: an iPad with an Apple Pencil (an iPhone or Mac works), and the lecturer’s permission to record.

Before class

  1. Get the slides as a PDF, and import them: Import PDF… in the note list. Each slide becomes a page you can write on. (No slides? Make a New Note on Ruled or Cornell paper instead.)
  2. File it: put the note in a notebook such as School/Physics (the note’s menu ▸ Move to Notebook…) and tag it lecture.
  3. Optional: transcripts. Turn on Settings ▸ Audio & Transcription ▸ Transcription ▸ Transcribe Recordings on This Device. If Download Language Model appears, tap it on Wi-Fi now, not in class.
  4. Check the microphone: record two seconds and delete it, so the permission prompt does not interrupt the lecture.

In class

  1. Open the note and tap Recordings (the microphone). The recording bar appears with Pause and Stop.
  2. Tap Annotate and write. Every stroke remembers the moment it was written.
  3. Need a break? Pause, then Resume. If another app takes the audio (a call), the recording pauses and says so.
  4. At the end, tap Stop. The recording becomes a card on the page; move it where it suits you (in Hand).

Recording continues with the screen locked or the app in the background, so you can glance at something else.

After class

  • Hear a moment: play the recording, turn on Tap Ink to Play, and tap a word you wrote. Playback jumps to when you wrote it, and the strokes written at that moment light up as it plays.
  • Read the transcript: the recording’s menu ▸ Show Transcript. Tap a word to play from there. Uncertain words are marked.
  • Search it: turn on Search Recording Transcripts to find words that were said, not only written.
  • Mark the version: ⋯ ▸ Save Version… named “After lecture 4”, before you start reworking the notes.

Sharing or studying elsewhere

  • Export ▸ PDF… with PDF + attachments puts the pages, the recording and its transcript in one PDF. It is not encrypted.
  • Export ▸ Media… gives you the audio file and transcript on their own.

Tips

  • One hour at the default quality (AAC, 64 kbit/s, mono) is about 30 MB. Lower Quality in Settings ▸ Audio & Transcription ▸ Recording for long courses.
  • One note can hold many recordings: record each session of a course in the same note if you like.