OneNote for iPad gets handwriting support and text within images searchable everywhere

Microsoft pushes handwriting to OneNote for iPad and brings optical character recognition (OCR) technology to all devices.

OneNote for iPad gets handwriting feature

Microsoft unveils today two major updates for OneNote, which will improve how people capture content and making it easier to recall. First up, the software maker is bringing handwriting to OneNote for iPad, and now the feature is available across platform, including in the popular Surface Pro 3. The second update the company is announcing is the addition of optical character recognition (OCR) technology to make text within image searchable on OneNote, on any device.

Starting today, handwriting for OneNote is finally available on iPad, Windows, and Android. Getting started is simple; make sure the OneNote for iPad is updated, now you’ll see a new Draw tab in the ribbon. Tap it, select a pen, maker, or highlighter, and start writing or sketching.

Handwriting on the iPad

Best of all is that handwriting works with any stylus and OneNote for iPad and supports Palm Rejection technology. Simply tap the Palm Rejection option and tap the most closely resemblance of how you normally hold a pen.

Palm Rejection

Nowadays is so convenient to just take a picture with our phones to capture receipts, recipes, menus and shopping lists. For quite some time we’ve been using Office Lens and Genius Scan apps to capture content into OneNote. Today in the latest OneNote update, Microsoft is adding text recognition technology, so every image you save into a notebook is immediately searchable on all PCs, phones, and tablets, as well as on OneNote Online. (Microsoft notes that it can take up to five minutes to show in results.)

InkingWithiPad4

The new text feature can recognize printed text on a variety of languages, but the company will continue to improve the feature in later updates. The new text recognition feature is available for consumers; in the coming months the software maker will bring searchable text within images to OneDrive for Business.

Source Microsoft

About the author

Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me.