When the device worked, it was a great product and would have saved me considerable time. I scan my meeting notes on a scanner and was thrilled at the prospect of skipping the scanning step. However, the device did not work. When I tried to transfer the files created by the digital notebook they were corrupt and could not be opened or copied. Now I have to pack it up and return it. It is very frustrating to go to a meeting, take ten pages of notes (being careful to advance the pages, number the pages, etc) and then come back to the office and only be able to retrieve some or none of them. I am not sure who SolidTek is; the device shipped to me was made by ACECAD, a company in Taiwan.

Very good and versatile notepad. If you want, you can use it as a normal notepad, and take notes with pen and paper. You can also use it as a graphics tablet, with very good resolution for a notepad.
The reason I'm giving it 4 stars is because of the only drawback I found with it - compatibility with other annotator softwares, and pdf formats. The notes taken from pen and paper can be uploaded in a specific format, into the product's software only. The alternate option is to install a virtual printer and print the notes in pdf... no big deal, but could be more friendly.

I reallly wanted to like this product. I couldn't wait to get it out of the box and play with it. Unfortunately, I immediately noticed that the function keys were working erratically. I had trouble going back and forth a page, adding a new blank page, and erasing a page. I also couldn't reset the time. Right now, none of the function keys appear to be working and if I wanted to delete a page, I have to connect it to my computer.

One good news was that I was able to try out the handwriting recognition software and online writing. Both worked quite well.

I'm hoping I just got a lemon and will get a fully functioning notepad after I exchange it.

I purchased this device basically for my amusement, although I did think it would be nice to be able to electronically capture mixed text and diagram meeting notes without having to scan them. I was not at all sure it would work for me, as I am an "inverted" left-hander, and I write with a strange wiggling thumb movement, which I thought might be read into the digital trace. I was pleasantly surprised! The captured strokes are very, very close to the originals (the "real" inked characters on the paper). There are minor differences, particularly at the beginning and end of the strokes, but nothing that would interfere with recognizing the letters. The accuracy seems very similar whether one is writing on the top sheet of a quarter-inch pad of paper, or a single sheet lying directly on the surface of the tablet. Somehow, they've figured out how to detect when the tip of the pen is actually touching the surface of the paper, irrespective of the distance of the pen from the actual surface of the tablet (something to do with capacitive coupling?). There is no problem with writing very small letters (two lines of text per line of 3/8" ruled paper). There are occasional slight registration errors. These seem to occur more when one comes back to a region of text one wrote in an earlier "session." For instance, when I later circled some regions of text, the relationships between the circles and text in the original and the electronically captured page were very slightly different, but again, not enough to cause any problems. These might have occurred because the depression in which the pad sits allows for about 1/16" of play in the position of the pad, or it may occur because I held the pen differently when drawing the circles as opposed to writing. (The pen sensor acts as if it sits perhaps 1/16" above the surface of the paper, so a given position of the pen's tip can generate slightly varying positions of the digital ink, depending on the slant of the pen.) On the other hand, there was no problem with registration when cross-hatching interiors of shapes in a diagram, i.e., the cross-hatches begin and end at the outlines of the shape. Thus, I'm inclined to think the previous registration problems related more to repositioning of the paper pad than to pen angle. One question is, is the captured image any better than one could get by simply scanning the notes? The answer is an emphatic yes! I compared a printout of a page of notes, printed directly from the ACECAD Digimemo Manager software, vs. converted to .pdf and then printed, vs. scanned (by an HP LaserJet 3300) in halftone mode to .pdf and printed, vs. scanned in line mode to a .pdf and printed. The direct print version was, as previously stated, nearly identical to my original. The file converted to .pdf by the Digimemo software had significantly lower resolution, but was otherwise acceptable. (Note, there don't seem to be any options for the resolution of the .pdf conversion.) Both of the scanned versions had much poorer resolution and departed significantly from the darkness of the lines in the original. In particular, the half-tone scan varied inexplicably in darkness across different lines of text. (This has always been my experience with this particular HP scanner/software when it scans handwritten text; I think this problem is a deficiency of the HP scanning software, rather than a problem peculiar to my scanner.) The size of the .pdf was much smaller for the tablet-captured notes as opposed to the scanned notes - 94KB for the tablet .pdf, 294KB for the half-tone scan, and 363KB for the line scan, so there's a considerable savings. A couple of other nice features of this product: 1) The pen feels like a regular ballpoint pen. Because of my weird writing style, I have trouble with fat pens, but this electronic pen is very comfortable. 2) When plugged into the computer, the tablet becomes an absolute-position pointing device, which is handy for many types of software, as well as for free-hand drawing. (Note that when used for freehand drawing in Powerpoint, pen contact is interpreted as holding down the left mouse button, so your freehand form will complete the moment you lift the pen off the paper.) It meshes fine with the touchpad on my laptop - if you want to revert to using the touchpad, just move the pen away from the tablet. There's still a lot to explore in using the device. I have yet to try the handwriting recognition software. I don't know how long the ballpoint pen cartridges will last, nor whether they are a standard insert or something I'll have to order from an ACECAD vendor. I also haven't bought a standard legal pad yet to see if it fits in the tablet's depression. Too large will be useless, and too small will be almost as bad, as the ability to maintain registration requires that the pad can't slip around. Be aware that a standard 8-1/2x11" pad would be 7/8" too short for the depression, and thus could slip around vertically. However, so far, this product warrants 5 stars, especially given the price ($123)!

This digital paper clipboard works very well just like the manufacturer describes. I bought it to use during web meetings at my work and it worked flawlessly. We were able to share a marketing consultants hand written notes and graphs in real time over the internet using WebEx Meeting Center to 24 board rooms full of executives. They were all amazed and curious how we were able to do it. One jokingly commented that it must be nice to be able to buy nice gadgets to use. I quickly told them that the fancy device was less than $150. The speaker originally requested his usual easel and white flip chart paper which would not have been able to be easily and economically share the presentation to all of those people. This was his first encounter with a digital clipboard and talked about getting one himself. We are well pleased with the quality and ease of setup and uses. I recommend this be advertised on all WebEX and other remote meeting websites. It is sure to be a hit!