TOPS Docket Gold Steno Book, 6" x 9", Gregg Rule, Clear Poly Cover, 100 Sheets (99708)

Finally! A steno pad that does not let the ink bleed when you write on it.When I use my favorite ball point ink pens on many of the steno pads the ink bleeds on the writing side making the lines broader than they should be. Furthermore, the ink bleeds through the page so badly that you can't write on the backside and read the writing easily. This is not a problem with the TOPS Docket Gold steno pad.There might be products which make good use of post consumer paper products but writing pads using ink are not it.The pages are heavy weight 20 lb. paper which provide a firm writing surface but the 100 pages made the pad a bit thick - approx. 7/16 inch overall and a tad heavy.It has a really stiff back cardboard which is good but it has a translucent plastic front cover versus the usual opaque front cover on most pads.The wire spiral has a unique design which prevents the wire from unraveling.I really like the fact that the paper doesn't bleed when I write on it with my pens and if you take a lot of notes then this is the pad for you.

I love this notebook!! I use them for work because I'm old school and always taking notes by hand. What I love is the left-side spiral with the perforated pages, so I can rip the pages out very cleanly. Also, the cardboard backer is not perfectly solid, but is SOOOO much thicker than the other flimsy notebooks that I have purchased. It's very easy to write on this notebook while you're holding it in your hands (vs. writing on a desk or other hard surface). It is also nice looking, the plastic cover is sturdy and doesn't get all marked up (takes a beating in my purse), which brings me to my favorite part, the size. Large enough to take a lot of notes, small enough to still fit into my purse. It's ideal!

I have been buying this top of the line steno pad for a few years, because they were extra sturdy and I loved the hard front cover. However, on my most recent purchase I got a terrible product!! The pages stick together at the top---they are literally sealed together and un-turnable. They just rip apart whbn you try to flip the page over. Just a hot mess and obvious manufacturing defect. Very poor quality control. I purchased it, and didn't use it until my previous pad was filled up, so it is past the return window. Also, no clear way on how to contact the seller. This was $8+ down the drain for one non-functional, useless steno pad!! Super aggravating. I will never buy Tops again.

Any 6x9 Gregg Rule steno book would've worked, I guess. What makes this one stand out is the number of pages (gives me more pages to keep notes on), the vinyl cover in case I spill something (I do that often) and the cover page under the vinyl cover where I labeled what the steno book was for. I bought two of these for my projects --- one is an exercise log, and the other I use to keep notes of business phone calls and other project notes I want to not lose (the way I lose them when I use random little pieces of paper). It is serving it's purpose, and I use small Post It labels to mark my pages so I know where to refer back to when I need those notes I took.

Things have changed so much in the paper industry of late - it's become very difficult to find what used to be standard quality paper products! Other brands of steno note books have gone to such thin and flimsy paper that writing on both sides is impossible as it bleeds or shows thru the other side, making clear and easy record keeping illegible- almost like writing on toilet paper with durability to match! These Tops notebooks have excellent quality and weight paper and would be perfect except for the perforated top edge which tears easily upon repeated use. I use them for recoding budget info so I don't need to remove pages for my purposes. I use them frequently and with only a few repeated uses the perforations separate along the top. So now I have to ad scotch tape across the top of the pages to keep my record books intact. I never had that problem with just the spiral bound books in the past but the flimsy paper quality has become impossible! I'm older and " if it aint broke don't fix it" still makes perfect sense to me.... So it's now a trade off for me, between pages that tear off unwantedly, or pages so thin they bleed thru and wrinkle so that records can't be neat, stored and accessed without incident? So with the use if scotch tape as a reinforcement, these are the best quality paper and weight I've found. The firm plastic outer cover is very nice and ads stability most of the others no longer have as well!

I can't say enough about these steno pads. I've been using these for 3 years and I just bought 6 more. Other brands don't even come close. I use one as the central hub for everything I'm working on. To do lists, notes on projects, sketches - you name it. I know there are apps for that, and I've tried a bunch, but for me I think I'll always prefer paper. The paper weight, the poly cover and the heavy chipboard back equal two important things: ink doesn't bleed through (I've even written on both sides of the page, and although you can see the writing on the other side, both sides still end up being VERY readable) and the pad doesn't get beat up in my work bag. The perforated pages are a plus, too. Don't settle for the the cheap imitations!

If you're a fan of either fountain pens or the larger-sized gel ink (e.g., Pilot G2 at 0.7), you've probably experienced the poor paper quality issues with cheap steno pads and even Moleskine notebooks. The paper in this book is very nice and smooth to write on and does not have the problems with smudging that many other notebooks have.Certainly, the Rhodia paper is a step above this, but at a small fraction of the price and if you prefer to avoid the "hipster notebook" look (particularly of the orange Rhodias), these steno pads are great.