OneNote for Microsoft 365 Adds Real-time Native Handwriting Recognition

I’ve been a OneNote user since the beginning. I’ve used Microsoft’s fantastic tool to organize my life, work, and to augment my memory. The software has previously featured an OCR engine that would allow for the conversion of selected handwriting to typed text. Not long after that feature was added, another option to search handwritten notes was included.

OneNote has included optical character recognition since the early days. Select some inked text and use the menu to convert it to typed data.

These features were game changers. They were the reason I switched from other note taking apps to permanently using OneNote. Eventually many OneNote users, me included, learned to disable automatic pen detection and to manually select Window’s text input panel to achieve real-time writing to text in their notes.

Disabling the advanced option to automatically switch the pen modes allows you manually select the Windows Input Panel and write in it. You will need to manually select draw mode to sketch in your notes.

Using the Window’s Ink Input Panel trick has been my go-to method of creating easily read and shared notes for the last several years. Documentation for my work projects usually consists of me copy-pasting the notes I took while working. Many of my coworkers and peers do the same. It’s a timesaver to be sure.

Today, I noticed there is another option for handwriting in OneNote available in the Draw tab. The icon is a white pen with the letter A on it. I first saw this icon in the iPad version of OneNote when they added it to induce Scribble (Apple’s Handwriting Recognition Tool). I am an Office Insider and am currently on Microsoft® OneNote® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2308 Build 16.0.16731.20052) 64-bit. I am not sure if this is first version to include the new feature but suspect that it is. I have not been able to find any documentation on it as of yet.

Tap on the screen to place the cursor, then select the A pen from the draw tab and write on the page. Your writing will be translated into typed text in real-time. The tool is more efficient and easier to use than the manual select method I mentioned above. It also allows for easy editing, draw a line through text to select it and the editing menu will hover over it.

I’m enjoying the new feature, I’m sure the help and documentation for it will be updated as soon as it hits the mainstream version of the software. Happy note taking.