Draw on top of your laptop with DrawTop

What happens if your computer battery dies on you? Do you still carry a pen and paper? What if you could write on your laptop? No, really, write on it, like on a whiteboard!

To be honest, I am using a Genius Shortcut called TheDrawTop on mine. It is like having a mini-whiteboard on your laptop computer (iPad, iPhone, etc. too!), where you can make notes. But is that the only thing?

Of course not!

So, how do I use it (properly)? Here are 5 ways to make the best of TheDrawTop:

1. When your battery runs out of power, but you still want to take notes. Start writing on your personal whiteboard.
2. When you want to mindmap or draw something quickly (and you don’t want to wait for the right app(lication) to load. Just write on top of your device.
3. When participating in a meeting, write your name on it, so people know who you are. At conferences I also write my Twitterhandle (@BertVerdonck) on it.
4. When you are giving a presentation, welcome all participants and invite them to ask questions. I also draw our customers’ logo on it, but granted not everyone does that. You could also draw a graph on it if there is not a flipover or other whiteboard available.
5. When you want to focus and isolate yourself, you can write a message or sign to let people know you don’t want to be disturbed (and scaring people away might be too much 😉 )

Now, I hear you say: All nice and well, but how am I going to keep what I’ve written down? Aha! Here are 3 easy steps to take it to the next level:

1. You take out your smartphone and you take a (clear) picture of your drawing, mindmap or whatever you wrote.
2. You wipe your whiteboard clean and can start all over again 😉
3. You synchronize your smartphone with your laptop later on (when you have power again). This way you have digitized your notes and drawings!

I admit, for the advanced lifehackers, there are a couple of next steps too:
1. Upload it to Evernote
2. OCR your drawing
3. Download it again as text or in whatever format you want it!

By the way, if you want to go cheap (TheDrawTop starts at 12 $) and do it yourself, you can also buy the adhesive whiteboard material at your office supplier. Of course, you still need to cut it at the exact dimensions of your laptop. As you know, I always choose the easy way. TheDrawTop asks you for the type of your laptop (or other device) and delivers it made to order for your computer. That’s the way I like it!

Tip: As an extra TheDrawTop also includes a set of 4 markers and a microfiber eraser cloth.

Enjoy drawing on your laptop,

Bert