Issue 633 • 8 – 21 June 2022 37Convert your handwriting to digital text
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Using the trackpad and a finger to write is much harder than using a stylus on screenCheck in your PC's System settings to see if it has a touchscreen
to achieve that: simply scribble on the
words you want to delete, rather than
select them, and they’ll be removed
immediately.
Convert handwriting
to text in Windows
Windows 10 introduced a handwriting
recognition feature called Ink, which is
still available in Windows 11. It works
best with a Bluetooth-enabled stylus on a
touchscreen, but you can also use a finger
on a trackpad for some functions if you
have no other option.
Not all computers let you write
with your finger or stylus on screen.
To check whether yours does, open
Settings by pressing the Windows key+I,
then click System, followed by About.
Check in the ‘Device specifications’
section for ‘Pen and touch’. As you
can see from the screenshot below,
ours is touch compatible with 10
touchpoints, which means it can
detect 10 simultaneous points of contact
at a time.
If your computer supports pen and
ink and you’re using Windows 11, click
‘Bluetooth & devices’ in the sidebar,
followed by ‘Pen & Windows Ink’. Click
the top section (‘Use your handwriting
to enter text’) and make sure your
Bluetooth pen is selected, if you have
one. If you don’t have a pen paired with
your computer, make sure there’s a
tick in the box beside ‘Write with your
fingertip’.
You now need to enable the writing
panel, which is part of the on-screen
keyboard. Click ‘Personalisation’ in
the sidebar, followed by Taskbar. If the
‘System tray icons’ section is collapsed,
click it to reveal its contents, then make
sure the sliders beside ‘Pen menu’ and
‘Touch keyboard’ are switched on.
You will now see a small keyboard
icon to the right of the taskbar. Click this
to open the on-screen keyboard, then
click the cog in the upper-left corner and
select Handwriting from the menu.
On Windows 10, open Settings and
tap Devices followed by ‘Pen & Windows
Ink’, then tick the box beside ‘Write in the
handwriting panel using your fingertip’ if
you don’t have a Bluetooth pen.
The easiest way to work with Ink on a
Windows 10 computer supporting touch
is to switch to Tablet mode. You can do
this by tapping the speech bubble to the
right of the taskbar then tapping ‘Tabletmode’. If you don’t see this button, tap
the Expand link to open the full set of
options. When the keyboard appears
on the taskbar, tap it, then tap the cog
and select handwriting from the list of
input methods.
Now, whichever version of Windows
you’re using, open a program to receive
your text – like Notepad, for example- then use your pen or finger to write
in the box (^1 in our screenshot above).
Windows converts your writing to typed
text and sends it to the program you
opened^2. If you don’t have a pencil, you
can also write by dragging your finger on
the trackpad, which is what we’ve done
in the screenshot above. As you can see
from the quality of our handwriting, this
isn’t as easy as using a pen. Nonetheless,
Windows recognised our writing and
converted it.
There’s one other setting you might
like to change. As you write, Windows
will monitor your input and compile
a personal dictionary that it can use to
improve recognition in the future. If
you’d rather your input wasn’t used this
way, return to Settings and click ‘Privacy
& security’ in the sidebar, followed
by ‘Inking & typing personalisation’.
Make sure the slider next to ‘Personal
inking and typing dictionary’ is set to
Off. To remove any data it has already
added to your dictionary, click ‘Personal
dictionary’ followed by ‘Clear your
personal dictionary’.
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