Page 761 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

The accuracy of Windows’ handwriting recognition has come a very long

way—which is great news if you have a tablet. Hey, if tablets can decipher
doctors’ handwriting, surely you can get your tablet to recognize yours.

In Windows 10, Microsoft has killed off the yellow two-line Input Panel of
previous Windows versions. Instead, handwriting transcription is built right

into the palette of available keyboards (Figure 12-9, second from top, right).
It lets you handwrite text anywhere you can type: Microsoft Word, your
email program, a web browser, and so on.

To make Windows recognize your handwriting, open any program where
you would otherwise type.

Now open the handwriting panel. It’s a window that automatically converts

anything you write into typed text. To view this panel, start by summoning
the regular onscreen keyboard (tap on the taskbar).

Once the onscreen keyboard appears, tap (top left); then tap the

Handwriting icon ( , circled in Figure 12-9). Now the handwriting panel
is ready to use. Just write on the line.

The “digital ink” doesn’t just sit there where you wrote it. A split second

after you finish each word, Windows transcribes that word into typed text in
your document, converted from your handwriting.

For your inking pleasure, a button at the right end of the panel serves as the

Enter key. Hit the icon at top right to open a miniature palette: left and
right cursors, space bar, Backspace, a button to get you the emoji keyboard,

and the “&123” button for punctuational and numerical fun. If you tap to
pull up one of those other keyboards, just hit the button to toggle back.

Tip

In the May 2019 Update, a similar handwriting input panel pops up automatically whenever you
tap in a text-entry area with a digital stylus.

Fixing Mistakes