Found a handwriting keyboard for iPad
One of my biggest frustrations was being able to convert handwriting to text, especially in OneNote. And I’ve tried all the things:
-Scribble: hate it! The insertion point jumps. It’s hard to control.
-Lassos: hate them more. Inevitably you miss part of the writing. And you can’t convert IN OneNote on the iPad. You have to paste it elsewhere.
—on my PC I can select handwriting in OneNote with the evil lasso or by highlighting the handwriting and use “ink to text”. But not natively on the iPad.
—AI bots will convert handwriting pasted into chat, but the info pasted loses any privacy. Not ok in my work.
—years ago I tried Notion, Good Notes, and Notable. Their handwriting conversion was not great and now I see people losing notes, plus they’ve all gone to a subscription model. Nope.
So I’ve still been looking.
I discovered the “Handwriting to Text” keyboard. I think via a Reddit post in this group-thank you to that person.
It’s a keyboard just like the typing and emoji keyboards already on the iPad. It opens a space (adjustable) for you to write with the pencil/stylus, instantly converts what you write to text with excellent accuracy, and instantly inserts that text exactly where you set the insertion point.
You find this in the App Store and when you download and open the app, it sets up a keyboard that works in ALL iPad apps. Everywhere!
Very important: there are TWO apps called “Handwriting Keyboard”. One has an elegant logo of a pen nib and a trademark in the title. AVOID that one. First, it’s an expensive subscription and worst, there is ZERO app privacy. You must agree to let the app have all access to your data. Not acceptable.
The app without the trademark has a cartoony hand pointing at a keyboard logo. This is the one that’s best. For a one-time fee of $3.99 you get the full app. No data is shared. It works offline. And it’s beautiful!
It uses a MyScript engine just like MyScript Notes (formerly known as Nebo). I loved how elegantly Nebo converted text, but it was impractical because everything was kept in the Nebo App and had to be exported to use elsewhere. This handwriting keyboard works anywhere you can use the regular on screen keyboard on your iPad. ANYWHERE. I especially love it in OneNote!
It’s very stable. The conversion is very accurate whether you print or write in cursive. You can use gestures like scratching out errors and even some 2 finger trackpad gestures in the writing area. (And if you need Japanese, you are in luck. It also converts both handwritten kanji and hiragana).
One caveat is that it hasn’t been updated in a few years so the developer may have abandoned it. That means no app support. But there are some instructions in the setup menu. It’s simple and somewhat intuitive. It took me a little trial and error to figure out what was meant by the various terms the developer used, in order to set up a large split writing window (3 sizes offered) to support continuous writing. When you fill the top part of the writing area you move to the bottom so there’s no time lag in converting to text if you have a lot to write. It’s a little hard to explain, but it supports continuous handwritten input. This is great for note-taking.
Once you have it set up the way you like, you don’t have to fiddle with it unless you want to. It becomes second nature to use.
Whenever a keyboard opens on iPad, it will open to the last used keyboard (I only have the regular onscreen typing keyboard, the emoji keyboard, and this handwriting keyboard). Just use the globe key at the bottom left of all keyboards to toggle between them.
I forget and use some symbols in my handwriting like an ampersand and delta for “change”. It can’t read those, though it does OK with dollar signs,punctuation, etc. I have to go back to correct those with the text keyboard. But that’s easy enough.
Seriously, this makes my iPad 1000 times more functional because I bought it exactly for the purpose of being able to take handwritten notes and preserve them as text. I love the organization of One Note and that has been my greatest frustration until now.
Highly recommend.
