I push the "Notes" button, a neat "Notes"-headed page appears and... nothing more! No pen-icon, no template-files, no way to write down notes.
The only working environment where I have the pen working is with image files.

[Disclaimer: maybe I'm just losing some useful hint from the user's manual, so I'm really not sure it's a fault of my iLiad]

Download this zip file from irex: http://www.irextechnologies.com/files/Notes.zip
Unzip it and put it in your notes folder on the iliad.
Then you can click on notes, choose a file and start scribbling around.

Or you can put any bmp or jpg file on your iliad and load that and start scribbling there.

Download this zip file from irex: http://www.irextechnologies.com/files/Notes.zip
Thank you tribble! The more I love my iLiad, the more I hate their so-called-user-manual...