How do I convert handwriting to text?

[thecaptain42]

Picked up a 2014 Note 10.1 a few days ago, got much of it figured out. Main reason for the Note (in my opinion) is the conversion to text from handwriting. I've spent a LOT of time on Youtube trying to figure exactly how it works, but haven't found the level of detail I would like. This video was close, but he didn't say how to start the process:
Handwriting recognition on the Note 10.1 - 2014 edition - YouTube

Can someone tell me exactly how to start the process? It appears it is in the S Note app. In that app, I can scribble characters, circle them with Selection Mode and click transform to text. It appears circling text is not necessary , but I can't figure out exactly how to do it. Can someone let me know exactly how to keep scribbling characters and they automatically get converted to text? Thanks in advance.

 

[SpookDroid]

They don't. You have to select the 'scribbling' and tell the software to convert to text. What you're seeing in the video is probably the text-field input Handwriting recognition. There, the text you scribble DOES get converted to text automatically, but to use it you have to do the following:
1) Hover the S-Pen over a text input field. You should see a pencil icon appear right next to the cursor (and the option to do this must be enabled in the S-Pen settings).
2) Click on said pencil icon and the handwriting input appears.
3) Scribble away.

UPDATE: Hadn't seen the video hehe Yup, definitely it's the text input mode you're looking at. The only way to activate this in S-Note is if you inserted a text box and then hovered over it before you start writing. Please note that this is only available IF the keyboard is hidden; once the keyboard is open, that specific handwriting recognition mode is not available (you can, however, still use the handwriting mode of the keyboard you're using, if available... ironically, Samsung's own keyboard does have the feature, but for some reason it is different than the text-field input mode... go figure).

 

[thecaptain42]

Thanks and sorry, but I may be a bit slow with this. This is the main reason I bought the Note (want to be able to scribble notes & convert them to editable text), so really would like to get this working.

By "1) Hover the S-Pen over a text input field." Should I bring up S-Pen, edit a new doc? If I do that, hovering the pen over the blank doc does nothing.

 

[SpookDroid]

Nope, because the blank doc is NOT recognized as text input field. So that particular feature will not come up, but you can still have your handwriting converted automatically into text, just not like you see in the video. Input Fields are small boxes, like the address text box in your browser or a username/password prompt. That's where you see the pencil icon with the S-Pen.

If you want to do the same but in a full text app (like the document you're trying to write), you would have to bring up the keyboard and select "Hand Writing Mode" to start writing with the S-Pen and having the tablet convert that into text. You can also go into the keyboard's settings and there should be an option that says that if the tablet detects the S-Pen is out and you want to start using the keyboard, it will automatically start handwriting mode. Please note that this is just for Samsung's keyboard; if you change to another that may change; for instance, SwiftKey DOESN'T have a handwriting recognition mode.

I know it may sound confusing and I blame Samsung for having two separate ways of doing the same thing, but trust me, we're here to help. If you have more questions or doubts, let me know and I'll be glad to help if I can.

 

[thecaptain42]

BINGO, that was it, thanks. To make matters worst, I was running with SwiftKey and didn't see hand writing mode. Once I switched to the Samsung kybd, worked as advertised. Actually went into Excel & added text in a cell, really cool.

 

[SpookDroid]

Glad I could help. I actually switched to Samsung's keyboard from SwiftKey on my tablet. I do love SwiftKey Cloud and how it can carry my predictions from other devices, but the layout in landscape mode is horrendous (the shifted the entire bottom letter row, totally throws off your writing when doing it from muscle memory). So, since the Samsung keyboard IS powered by SwiftKey (so the prediction is the same), I sticked to it... oh, and the top number row helps, too hehe

 

[ddavtian]

Built-in handwriting is good. But I'd recomend to try MyScript Stylus beta from market, it's even better.