If you've got handwriting anything like mine, you'll sometimes struggle to read something you wrote the night before. Fortunately, AI is here with its powerful Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities that can read written writing and automatically transcribe it into text you can edit and copy. Now, OneNote is getting the ability to read your handwritten notes, which is great if you need a second opinion on translating what you wrote at 3 am with your Surface pen.

OneNote can now read your handwriting using Copilot

As announced on Microsoft Tech Community, OneNote can now use Copilot to read your handwriting. When you ask OneNote to read what you wrote, Copilot will give you a full-text transcript of what you think you wrote. From here, you can copy text and paste it elsewhere without having to re-type it by hand. And because Copilot grabs the text, you can ask it questions about what it read or ask for a summary. If you want to give the feature a try, Microsoft has this mini-guide:

To access OneNote Copilot via the ribbon:

1. Open OneNote and navigate to a section of handwritten ink.
2. Select the Copilot icon on the ribbon to open the Copilot pane.
3. Ask Copilot a question about your handwritten ink notes.

To access OneNote Copilot via the canvas: 

1. Select a group of ink strokes with touch, pen, or mouse.
2. Click on the Copilot icon to open the dropdown menu. 
3. Select one of the Copilot menu prompts and let Copilot do its magic — summarize, rewrite, or even generate a To-Do list!

Microsoft suggests that you try doing some advanced AI features with your handwritten text. For instance, it recommends you try asking Copilot to write you a to-do list based on your notes, letting the AI work out what you need to do based on what you wrote. Why not give it a try and see if it helps your productivity?