Let"s face facts; a lot of us have poor handwriting. For those folks, that means using a stylus to take notes in the OneNote app for Windows can sometimes result in unreadable digital words. Today, Microsoft is trying to help those folks with a new feature in the OneNote Windows apps that"s available to test for members of the Microsoft 365 Insiders program.
In a blog post, Microsoft announced that it has added handwriting straightening to the OneNote app for Windows. It states:
Handwriting straightening transforms your handwritten inked text, making it more visually organized and coherent. It also improves ink legibility in your notes without taking away from your handwriting’s style and personality, and offers a great way to quickly clean up notes before reading them back or sharing them out.
Insiders can either open an existing notebook in the app that has digital ink or create a new notebook and then click or tap on the Draw tab to begin taking handwritten notes in digital ink. They can then straighten out the words by simply tapping on a line of text. It can also be done by using the Lasso Select option and then choosing the Straighten selection.
This new feature does have some limitations. It currently cannot be used on individual digital ink words. It also cannot be used in the app for formulas, tables, or images. In addition, it does not work with digital highlighter ink or underlines. Finally, the feature currently only works with letters that are written in the Latin alphabet.
Microsoft 365 Insider members in the Beta Channel can now try out the handwriting straightening feature in OneNote on Windows Version 2404 with the build number 17530.20000 or later. This feature is not being added to the OneNote for Windows 10 app. There"s no word on when the feature will become generally available.