Go to a document or other text field and place the insertion point where you want your dictated text to appear. Press the keyboard shortcut for starting dictation, or choose Edit > Start Dictation. The default shortcut is Fn Fn (press the Fn key twice). Convert Handwriting to Text in OneNote. You can use OneNote 2013 to handwrite notes instead of typing them. This is desirable when you can write faster than you can type, and it’s great for.
If writing text on a mobile keyboard is difficult for you, maybe writing with your finger is a plausible alternative. Google has a tool that can be used to enter text in Gmail, Google Docs, and their mobile site with nothing but your finger (through your handwriting that is). After enabling the feature on a desktop browser, it’s as easy as choosing a button in the menu to open a new window with a blank canvas, ready for your handwritten input.
In addition to desktop browsers, you can on a mobile device to enable the handwriting feature for searching Google’s mobile site. However you want to use it, turning it on is a breeze – it’s learning to use it properly that may take some time. Let’s take a look at how this is done on both desktop and mobile browsers. How to Enable Handwriting Input on a Desktop Browser Step: Start by opening Gmail’s settings. To go there directly.
Step 2: Under the General tab, first click a link called Show all language options. Then choose Enable input tools. Step 3: Find your language in the left column. Choose the option that has the small pencil icon next to it. Then click the arrow pointing to the right to add this input tool to your Google account. Remember to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the settings page and save these changes.
Now the option is enabled and can be used in Gmail or Google Drive. Using Handwriting Input in Gmail With Gmail open, either start composing a message or click the pencil icon before doing so. This button is located under your email address on the top right of the screen. Write the text out in the open window the handwriting tool creates. Drag this box around the screen with the small handle at the top left of the window. Ensure you’ve chosen a text area where the handwritten shall be entered. Then click the blue enter button to send the text to the selected area.
If you’re choosing a word that isn’t the first in the list, just click that word to use it. Using Handwriting Input in Google Docs Using the handwriting tool in is the same as with Gmail, but the pencil isn’t located directly on the menu. With a, choose the More menu item to find it.
The same handwriting window will appear for Google Docs as it did for Gmail above. Write out the words and then choose an auto-populated word or phrase to enter it. How to Enable and Use Handwriting Input on a Mobile Browser Open Google’s homepage on your device and sign on to your account.
Scroll to the bottom and choose Settings. Then select Search settings in the resulting menu. Note: The handwrite ability is currently available for Android 2.3+ phones, Android 4.0+ tablets, and iOS 5+ phones and tablets.
Find the Handwrite section and change the feature to Enable. Scroll to the bottom and save the changes. Now when you open a search page, you can choose the small G icon on the bottom right of the screen. Begin writing anywhere on the screen. A moment of no more typing will signal the feature to convert the written text into one usable by Google. Press the small G icon again to search with the regular keyboard.
Here are some tips you can use while using the handwrite feature on a mobile device:. Delete letters: Touch the backspace icon at the bottom of the page. Start over: Touch X in the search box at the top of the page. Clarify ambiguous characters: When you type a character that could be mistaken for another, like 0 (the number) and O (the letter), a list of options may appear at the bottom of the screen. Use predictions: To help save you time, a list of predicted queries may appear in the search box as you write. Touch a prediction to search for that query, or touch the arrow to the right of a query to explore related searches.
Include symbols: Try symbols and special characters such as + @ & $. Conclusion If you prefer writing your text out rather than entering it on a small keyboard, enabling the handwriting feature may be right up your alley. You can always disable it if it doesn’t fit you right. Last updated on 8 Feb, 2018.
After resisting the temptation for several months, I finally broke down this week and bought an Apple Pencil. I when it first came out, but sold it and switched to the 9.7-inch model last week, and so far I’ve been very happy with that choice. Figuring that I’ll probably stick with this size iPad Pro for at least a year, I decided the Apple Pencil would be a worthwhile investment. And I was right. I was skeptical of the it was first announced, as I assumed it would just be the same as the tacky styluses third-parties had been making for years, but after using it I’ve realized just how wrong I was. The thing that I noticed very early on in my time with the Apple Pencil though, was how crazy good the palm rejection is. Writing with an Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro is nearly as easy as writing on actual paper.
As a student, this is a huge factor for me when it comes to note taking, so I decided to dive a little deeper into the apps on iOS that are made for taking notes and are optimized for iPad Pro. Here are some of the ones I would recommend. GoodNotes 4 GoodNotes is an app that I wasn’t entirely familiar with until I purchased my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, but I’ve quickly realized that it’s one of, if not the most, complete note taking apps available in the App Store. You have the ability to create multiple notebooks – like one for each class or subject – and then create individual pages within each notebook with varying page styles. There’s also the ability to insert charts and images which definitely comes in handy.
GoodNotes also indexes your notes so you can quickly search them. I have pretty awful handwriting, but it was still able to correctly index my notes and allow me to search through them when I needed to. It also supports the Apple Pencil for pressure sensitive writing, something that really comes in handy while taking extensive amounts of notes at a time. To me, GoodNotes 4 felt most similar to traditional notebooks when it came to taking notes. It really felt like writing with pen and paper, just modernized with many new features.
GoodNotes 4 is available for $7.99 on the App Store and is definitely worth it. Notability Notability and GoodNotes are very similar apps on the surface, and if anything, Notability feels slightly more polished and easier to use than GoodNotes. It offers many of the same features as other handwriting apps, including palm-rejection, pressure sensitivity detection, and the ability to insert images, charts, and even full webpages. That last feature is notable as it means you can import a webpage and highlight and mark it up as you go, something that’s important for working through research projects and the like. One thing that’s unfortunately missing and that will ultimately force me to stick with GoodNotes, however, is the ability to search handwritten notes.
While you can search PDF text, any notes you write by hand are not capable of being searched. On the bright side though, Notability is currently 33 percent off on the App Store, making it just $3.99 as of this post. Notes Plus is another solid note taking app with iPad Pro and Apple Pencil optimizations. In addition to standard features like PDF and image support, folder management, and shape detection, Notes Plus includes a few standout features.
For one, it supports a built-in browser for quickly and easily looking up facts and statistics. Additionally, it supports the ability to covert handwritten notes to text. This means that any handwritten notes are also searchable and later annotatable, unlike with Notability. There’s also support for recording background audio. For instance, if you’re in a lecture, you can be recording that lecture directly into the app so you can later go back and listen to it to ensure you didn’t miss anything. Notes Plus is currently 30 percent off in the App Store, making it $6.99 as of this past. Noteshelf In terms of pure writing experience, Noteshelf offers one of the smoothest experiences of any of these apps.
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The app supports the Apple Pencil and offers integration with Spotlight on iOS so you can quickly find different documents and notebooks. Unfortunately, there’s no way to search within handwritten notes like with Penultimate and GoodNotes. One nice feature of Noteshelf, however, is that you can add a passcode to protect important and sensitive notes, much like what Apple added to its Notes app with iOS 9.3. Noteshelf prides itself as the best note-taking app that offers the most beautiful handwriting effect – this is one of the key reasons why our users fall in love with Noteshelf. It perfectly mimics that intuitive ink-on-paper feeling so smoothly, it’s as if you’re using a real pen and paper. Noteshelf is available for $7.99 on the App Store. Evernote Evernote isn’t the most feature-rich app when it comes to using the Apple Pencil for note taking, but if you already use Evernote across other devices, it’s nice to stay in the same ecosystem.
The stylus can be used for essentially handwriting notes in the most basic format. Evernote is more reasonable to use if you’re typing notes and need to quickly sketch a chart or a diagram. For use cases like this, Evernote’s “Snap to Shape” feature is useful. The biggest selling point of Evernote is its cross-platform availability, so if you’re often switching between devices and operating systems for taking notes, then Evernote might be your best bet. It’s available on the App Store for free with various premium upgrades.
Made by Evernote, Penultimate is the company’s more advanced take on a handwriting app. Penultimate features a distraction-free interface that makes it easy to quickly and easily take down notes without accidentally changing settings or navigating away from the writing interface. The app is optimized for iPad Pro, as well, which means that it supports pressure sensitivity, so you can push harder for thicker lettering and lighter for more faint writing. Furthermore, and perhaps most notably, Penultimate analyzes your handwritten notes and allows you to search for handwritten text in the app. Penultimate is free with a host of in-app purchases to improve your experience.
Apple Notes You can’t discuss note taking apps without mentioning Apple’s own Notes app that comes pre-installed on every iOS device. Prior to iOS 9, Apple’s Notes app was pretty lackluster in comparison to many note taking apps on iOS. With the new operating system, however, the app is gaining on third-party solutions. It still doesn’t support things like searching notes or even different page styles, but it’s improving. There are however, new features such as additional font formatting options, support for inline checklists, and link thumbnail + textual previews.
Wrap-up Ultimately the moral of the story here is that the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro have convinced me that the iPad is now a viable way to quickly take notes in a variety of settings. Whether it be in meetings or in class, the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro paired with any of these apps makes for a note taking experience equivalent to that of pen and paper. Personally, after trying all of these apps, I think GoodNotes 4 is the most solid choice for iPad Pro note taking.
Its amazing handwriting recognition and search feature really sets it apart from the competition. For someone with awful handwriting, I didn’t think a feature like that would ever work for me. But GoodNotes proved me wrong. What do you use for taking notes with your iPhone/iPad? Let us know in the comments!
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