For a few years now, I have been fantasizing about finding a way to write longhand and have it instantly be converted into editable text. I do all my initial drafts longhand, and when I go to typing them up, I get further and further behind, because I get new ideas as I am typing and get off on tangents, and other ideas, and pretty soon hours have gone by and the 1,000 words I wrote longhand that morning still aren't fully typed up.

I have literally hundreds of composition books, wire-bound college subject notebooks, pocket note pads, moleskine large sewn notebooks, yellow legal pads, and scraps of paper--all filled with hand written material that I will need, sooner or later.

I looked at all the OCR apps out there, looked into using my Samsung tablet, tried a subscription to MS365 because its Note program is supposed to do what I want. But none of them do what I need:

Let me take notes, write down ideas, write first drafts and transcribe it into type in the background, and let me organize all the material into a file system and SEARCH it for keywords! And do it in a format I can use in MS Word.

Well, that device has finally been created and I got one for Christmas.

It's called the SuperNote. It was created by Japanese engineers. It has a huge online support community to answer all your questions and help you learn how to use all the features. And it showed up very quickly--just a week--after ordering it from Shanghai.

It uses any Wacom stylus and has three different pens to choose from. The one I got feels like writing with a nice fountain pen.

I am so very happy with this device. And I think many of you would also find it indispensable. I don't think I'll ever write on paper again. And I am to pen and paper what a gourmand is to eating--I need paper with just the right texture and a pen with just the right feel.

I've ordered a couple of other types of styluses so that I can see if I also like their feel, and to have backups.

Check it out at SuperNote.com (and no I am not on their payroll. I just am so very impressed at how much more productive I am with this device, I had to share.)

One of the great things about it is that they don't upgrade the hardware, so you don't have to replace it with the latest and greatest new iteration. They just upgrade the software every few months and you can have it download automatically. The latest upgrade is just amazing!

SuperNote home page

There isn't an AI in the world that could decipher my handwritten hieroglyphics. I can only imagine the hilarity of the translations.

I take handwritten notes on an iPad with the Notability app. The free app is plenty powerful enough for my purposes.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
There isn't an AI in the world that could decipher my handwritten hieroglyphics. I can only imagine the hilarity of the translations.

That is why I want to try it. Have been criticized for my handwriting since the second grade.
Too often the criticism sounded as though my poor handwriting was a moral failure. Of course, that made it worse.

My handwriting tends to be pretty legible. Still, this blew my mind.

http://well-temperedforum.grou...0004433/m/5933988797

I imagine that the process gets as much from context as it does from raw reading of squiggles. A pickle jar in a toilet tank? Go with it.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
There isn't an AI in the world that could decipher my handwritten hieroglyphics. I can only imagine the hilarity of the translations.

That is why I want to try it. Have been criticized for my handwriting since the second grade.
Too often the criticism sounded as though my poor handwriting was a moral failure. Of course, that made it worse.

Mine, while it used to be rather stylistic when I did a lot of it, has deteriorated to the point where I put doctors to shame. I've been considering trying to revive some semblance of legibility. Sometimes I can't read it.

quote:

Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
There isn't an AI in the world that could decipher my handwritten hieroglyphics. I can only imagine the hilarity of the translations.

That's what I thought. I hardly even look at what I am writing when I write longhand, and half the time I can't read it myself. But the OCR is pretty impressive. Really very little editing has been needed.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
I take handwritten notes on an iPad with the Notability app. The free app is plenty powerful enough for my purposes.

iPads do too many things. If I wrote on an iPad I'd end up here and nothing would ever get written.