First off, for those just looking for a simple note taking app or to-do list manager, take heed: Projectbook is probably not for you. For everyone else, be prepared for a bit of a learning curve in order to wrap your head around the full power of this app. Evernote seems more approachable in this regard; its a powerful app, but almost anyone can get started storing simple notes and other bits of info and then work their way into more advanced workflows.

That said, getting started with Projectbook is easy enough. The first time you open the app youre taken through a slideshow that outlines the major features. After that, you simply tap the plus (+) button to create a new note or to-do item. When you create a note, its name is chosen for you based on the first line in your note. That seems logical, but it can be frustrating if youd rather have these two things be different. In contrast, Evernote provides a title thats independent of the notes content, which I prefer.

Sitting above the onscreen keyboard, a row of special keys contains buttons for indenting, making bulleted or numbered lists, to-do items andmost welcomearrow keys for moving the cursor. If you use a Bluetooth keyboard then this row of special keys stays locked at the bottom of the screen. It partially obscures the buttons at the bottom of the screen but theyre still tappable if you aim carefully.

As youre typing, youll notice that some of your words appear underlined. These are keywords that the app indexes in real-time using a natural language processing algorithm. That sounds so nerdy, but its really awesome. Tapping on a keyword brings up a list of other notes that contain that same keyword, including those found in PDFs and Word documents (more about that later). You can also choose to view similar notes which, again, uses the apps language processing engine to group those for you.

I found that Projectbooks automated keyword indexing works very well and it has become my second-favorite feature of the app. With Evernote, I find myself using only a handful of folders and tags, and relying on that apps excellent Search feature to locate notes of interest. I work similarly in Projectbook, plus Ill often save one or more keywords as a smart folder which then makes it easy to locate those related notes and to-do items.