I’ve been looking for a substitute for the traditional notebook and pen for more than 20 years. I thought the old Palm Pilot was a pretty good substitute to the small back-pocket notebook, until the Palm Pilot bit the dust.

I’ve been waiting for the tablet revolution to catch up and provide an alternative to a larger size notebook, and I think I’ve finally found a viable solution. I’m pretty committed to the iPad family and do not want to switch to a Windows 8 based table.

The alternative I’ve come to love is the NoteShelf app running on an iPad and using an Adonit Bluetooth stylus. This combination comes pretty close to the size and feel of a traditional 7 x 9 inch notebook. While this Adonit stylus is supposed to be related to Evernote, it world seamlessly with a number of other apps. It is not limited to Evernote.

NoteShelf is an organizer of notebooks. Each notebook behaves exactly like a regular notebook. It has sequentially numbered pages which can be organized and moved around between notebooks. Any page, or group of pages can be exported as a jpg or pdf to DropBox.

Best of all this combination comes close to the look and feel of a real notebook. I can write with a fountain pen on any page, erase when needed and annotate. The Adonit stylus has the finest point of any iPad stylus I’ve found and glides smoothly over the glass screen.

This combination has become an essential element to my daily productivity.