Surface Pro 2 Handwriting Recognition - Microsoft Surface

Hello, all
I just got a Pro 2 last week (I know, I know, a version behind). The handwriting recognition works amazingly well, but only on a stand-alone app. Web apps (like Google Drive) simply ignore the input from the handwriting keyboard.
The regular touch keyboard works fine (though I don't use it very much in favor of my Power Cover) but this only happens with the handwriting. The keyboard sees my input, translates it correctly from handwriting to text, but when I tap "Insert" nothing happens.
Thoughts?

Related

[Q] On screen typing

How is onscreen two hand typing on the TF? I currently have a iPad 1 and use it for class notes. Thinking about getting the TF, but I'm hesitant about lag it could have. I've tried looking on youtube for examples of it, but all I find are videos of the dock. I'd rather not get the dock, because of cost and added weight/bulk.
I don't get any lag from the stock keyboard or a Swiftkey keyboard EXCEPT in the browser....which is pretty bad....but notes or other things I don't.
Here is one suggestion for notes in class....not TF related but I use it at work.
I use an Intellipen pro. It's a digital pen that has a matching small jump drive that clips to your pad of paper and records what your pen writes...then you can load what you've written to the computer by plugging the drive in...and then you can go on to convert your handwritten notes to text.
It works pretty well and quite a buy for 85.00.
Even with my crappy handwriting it will nail it 100% unless I revert to ALL CAPS.
Just a thought.
rpavich said:
I don't get any lag from the stock keyboard or a Swiftkey keyboard EXCEPT in the browser....which is pretty bad....but notes or other things I don't.
Here is one suggestion for notes in class....not TF related but I use it at work.
I use an Intellipen pro. It's a digital pen that has a matching small jump drive that clips to your pad of paper and records what your pen writes...then you can load what you've written to the computer by plugging the drive in...and then you can go on to convert your handwritten notes to text.
It works pretty well and quite a buy for 85.00.
Even with my crappy handwriting it will nail it 100% unless I revert to ALL CAPS.
Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My minor is instructional technology and I know exactly what pen you are talking about. Livescribe is what I have used in the past and liked it. But, I prefer not to write, because my handwriting is garbage in the first place and hard to read. It does come with awesome games on the pen.
From the videos I see on youtube, I don't see any browser lag. Do you mean when typing in a text box?
bighulk666 said:
My minor is instructional technology and I know exactly what pen you are talking about. Livescribe is what I have used in the past and liked it. But, I prefer not to write, because my handwriting is garbage in the first place and hard to read. It does come with awesome games on the pen.
From the videos I see on youtube, I don't see any browser lag. Do you mean when typing in a text box?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, typing in text boxes in the browser is pretty lagalicious. Typing in the address bar is fine, but anywhere else in the browser is going to show pretty sad lag. I wouldn't worry about that much though because you're not going to type class notes into a web browser, and I believe I read that ASUS is going to implement the browser lag fix in the 3.2 update. Due to the many choices of keyboard styles that you can use with Android (stock, ASUS, Swiftkey, Hackers Keyboard, Better Keyboard, etc), I think you'll find the wider surface area of the Transformer a bit easier to type on than the iPad (assuming you're used to typing on conventional standard-sized keyboards).
PS - I don't have a need for a fancy pen like the ones you guys are talking about, but I want one anyway.
On my transformer when it's not docked I *love* Thumb Keyboard (market link). I can type very quickly and comfortably in landscape orientation, which I much prefer for most things.
I second the notion that I think some kind of android tablet is the way to go for your scenario. Being able to choose from a myriad of keyboards alone I think would make it worth it.
Check out the galaxy tab 10.1 as well. I would have gone that route but I wanted the keyboard dock (and the extra battery life).
Hope that helps,
Fiend

Ways you think TF could make more use of keyboard

I feel this is unique enough to merit its own thread and I looked at the first 30 pages for anything similar and found nothing.
What do you think would make the dock more worth it? Not necessarily more of a netbook, because if you want a netbook then buy a netbook, but more along the lines of functionality that should be there or is already there but needs improving. This is not really a gripe session, more of a brainstorm and also helping to make suggestions to other people if a solution already exists/comes into existence. But do try to keep it reasonable; keep your expectations realistic of an Android-running device.
I'm mainly talking about Android, since as far as I know, no other OS is stable just yet, but hardware is also a determining factor. Also, since a lot of Android is the apps, I think it would be alright to list an app functionality that would be nice (i.e., a video player, an SSH client, etc.)
And hopefully it would be nice if we followed the format of
What: What it is
Why: Why you believe it is necessary.
I'll start with a few I've noticed (I run Prime 1.6 [I think] currently):
Keyboard should provide all basic functionality
I found it odd that there's a menu button, but no app-switcher key on the keyboard. I find it strange that that core piece of functionality still requires the use of the touch screen.
Word processor should focus on keyboard
Just a bunch of stupid things that make it incredibly annoying to use and would never fly in a desktop processor.
-Ctrl+S should save
-Shift should be able to select
-Bullet indenting is horrid; should use tab
Dock-friendly SSH client is desperately needed
(Hear me out. I don't expect a full IDE at all, but a simple SSH client really is not too much to ask. Again, it works perfectly, just not at all designed for the dock.)
ConnectBot is ok, but it just fails if you have a full keyboard and want to use it as a simple SSH client. Shift acts as capslock, there is no way to do many shortcuts such as Ctrl+O (save in GNU Nano), and many characters like * can't be typed directly into the console.
That's what I've noticed so far. Hopefully you guys will think this is a good idea and chip in your opinions.
-notbryant.
I want to jump around in a document if possible.
I use the regular arrow keys way more than I do in Windows.
Also I'd like to see more Ctrl+combinations available.
notbryant said:
I feel this is unique enough to merit its own thread and I looked at the first 30 pages for anything similar and found nothing.
What do you think would make the dock more worth it? Not necessarily more of a netbook, because if you want a netbook then buy a netbook, but more along the lines of functionality that should be there or is already there but needs improving. This is not really a gripe session, more of a brainstorm and also helping to make suggestions to other people if a solution already exists/comes into existence. But do try to keep it reasonable; keep your expectations realistic of an Android-running device.
I'm mainly talking about Android, since as far as I know, no other OS is stable just yet, but hardware is also a determining factor. Also, since a lot of Android is the apps, I think it would be alright to list an app functionality that would be nice (i.e., a video player, an SSH client, etc.)
And hopefully it would be nice if we followed the format of
What: What it is
Why: Why you believe it is necessary.
I'll start with a few I've noticed (I run Prime 1.6 [I think] currently):
Keyboard should provide all basic functionality
I found it odd that there's a menu button, but no app-switcher key on the keyboard. I find it strange that that core piece of functionality still requires the use of the touch screen.
Word processor should focus on keyboard
Just a bunch of stupid things that make it incredibly annoying to use and would never fly in a desktop processor.
-Ctrl+S should save
-Shift should be able to select
-Bullet indenting is horrid; should use tab
Dock-friendly SSH client is desperately needed
(Hear me out. I don't expect a full IDE at all, but a simple SSH client really is not too much to ask. Again, it works perfectly, just not at all designed for the dock.)
ConnectBot is ok, but it just fails if you have a full keyboard and want to use it as a simple SSH client. Shift acts as capslock, there is no way to do many shortcuts such as Ctrl+O (save in GNU Nano), and many characters like * can't be typed directly into the console.
That's what I've noticed so far. Hopefully you guys will think this is a good idea and chip in your opinions.
-notbryant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alt+Tab works as an app switcher in the newer firmwares. They also added Shift+Arrow Keys to highlight text easier. This pretty much made the keyboard usable for me.
The more Windows shortcuts they implement the happier I will be.
Required dock features:
What: Crap load more battery. 11000mAh minimum.
Why: Useful
What: Programmable Hot Keys, menu hooks for any application.
Why: Speed. Touch is faster than mouse, hot keys would be faster than menu.
What: Hardware NIC port
Why: Sometimes wired wins over wireless.
What: Screen Orientation Controls (options - see Orientation Control app)
Why: Dock screws with orientation. Unscrew it.
What: Barrel charging vs ASUS 40 pin cable nightmare
Why: Fu*k proprietary charging.
I could think of more, but this is a start.
I'd love it if ctrl-w or ctrl-t in the Browser didn't sometimes "double-tap" and close (or open) two tabs at once. Maybe they should fix the dock keyboard problems before adding any more shortcuts. Though I would fully support and use more of the "standard" keyboard shortcuts if they implemented them.
Also, it would be nice if the apps that "lock" into portrait mode (I'm looking at YOU, ESPN, among others) could be "unlocked" when it's docked.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium
Bjd223 said:
Alt+Tab works as an app switcher in the newer firmwares. They also added Shift+Arrow Keys to highlight text easier. This pretty much made the keyboard usable for me.
The more Windows shortcuts they implement the happier I will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not know that, thanks for the info. Does it work the same way as the app switcher button on the screen? Also, isn't the only Alt key on the right of the spacebar? Maybe I'm just being picky, but I use my Thumb+Ring Finger for my traditional keyboard.
As for the Shift+Arrow keys, I just used it the other day in class running Prime 1.6 and Shift+Arrow didn't work for me in Polaris.
@Bob Smith42
I would like some hotkeys; There were 2 on my Eee netbook and I found those pretty useful, and on Android it would be more so. They should have done that instead of the Camera, Browser, and Settings buttons.
Wired seems a bit beyond the scope of an Android powered device, IMO.
I concur about proprietary charging.
notbryant said:
I did not know that, thanks for the info. Does it work the same way as the app switcher button on the screen? Also, isn't the only Alt key on the right of the spacebar? Maybe I'm just being picky, but I use my Thumb+Ring Finger for my traditional keyboard.
As for the Shift+Arrow keys, I just used it the other day in class running Prime 1.6 and Shift+Arrow didn't work for me in Polaris.
@Bob Smith42
I would like some hotkeys; There were 2 on my Eee netbook and I found those pretty useful, and on Android it would be more so. They should have done that instead of the Camera, Browser, and Settings buttons.
Wired seems a bit beyond the scope of an Android powered device, IMO.
I concur about proprietary charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah you have to use the right Alt which sucks for a little while til you get used to it. If the Alt and search keys were switched it would be better. If you root I think someone could easily remap the search key to alt also, but I am not 100% on this.
I am not sure if the shift+arrow keys thing is an OS thing or an application dependant thing. I do it in the email app primarily and never really tried it anywhere else yet.
For those wanting a wired ethernet port; one of the guys around here got a USB to ethernet adapter to work, but some applications don't use it correctly but I think someone will work it out. Not sure if you need root for it though.
The first thing we would need is the hotkeys for our devices, and other ways to use the keyboard. then we could worry about added functionality. does anybody know where one of tose lists could be found
found one that is being worked on
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1071739
What: Language switching (Alt+LShift)
Why: For those of us who are multi-lingual switching between languages also affects dictionary and spell check features in applications. Being able to do that with a keyboard switch rather than tapping ths screen and selecting from a menu would be more efficient.
Ability to swap functionality around a bit.
I'd love to be able to set the '<-' back button to ESCAPE (without using the root tricks to remap). Perhaps FUNCTION-'<-' is escape (or remapped to back)
More controllable key bindings
That whole top line of shortcuts should be more configurable. When using VNC/RDP, they'd be more use to me as standard windows function keys. Ability to quickly select them would be great.
The rest? Not too fussed, works great for everything else.
Asus were /really/ smart doing what they did. Hopefully they keep this standard (or even license the connector out).
Docking station variations
I'd still like to see variations of the keyboard. I might buy 2 with different functionality. Need the standard keyboard? Chuck the TF in and go. Doing a lot of remote work today? Drop it into the 'windows key compatibility' dock and use that.
Bigger/Heavier dock with bigger (and I mean monstrous!) keyboard.
One with RFID reader in/biometric scanners. (ok, getting niche here, but you're after what WE want!)
Keyboard dock that's another screen. TF drops into it, gets the extra battery life, but there's another display there, like the new Sony one appears to work. More screen real estate, on-screen keyboard if needed.
Game-board. stub joysticks, arcade quality fire buttons, nice trackpad area in middle. Would make an awesome portable MAME device.
Heck, can see a market for JUST a battery pack, no keys, trackpad, just a battery pack for the tablet screen.
Highend dock
Larger battery,
another few USB ports, maybe even a firewire port,
CD/DVD (if they get a linux kernal with the support compiled in).
Backlit keyboard
Turn it into a full on netbook. 250ish bucks.
Can't get over how cool a concept the docking is, sure there's a market for more flexibility. They just /really/ need to license it. Could be a long term money earner for them if there's others paying to make these things.
Oh, and whilst going off the point, might as well really go for it;
A new keyboard dock with (or a slot for) a HUGE HD(well, SSD preferred, power considerations really). Take the TF around, take some pics, small vids, drop into the dock, do some simple video work with a 200gb SSD to save to.
(and/or use that huge HD for some serious film/music/mame roms storage)
Something very important to me that I would like to see implemented is better text selection.
The cursors selection is good for touch screen, but it kinda defeats the point of having a touch pad.
I'd like to be able to select text with the touch pad cursor, just like you do on a regular PC with drag and drop...
It's really something mandatory for me as I copy paste very often between browsers, terminals and so on ..
Also a way to deactivate page scrolling with the touch pad, for example it's currently impossible to do a drag and drop of something on the screen , without triggering the scrolling of the page.
(usefull for cropping pictures in a web browser and such for example, or any other operation that requires drag and drop)
Alt+tab works ok in the latests firmwares, but it only works while being on the home screen, which is kinda a pain.
It's usefull to switch between applications, but it doesn't work that way.
Portrait
It would really smart if you had two connector sides on the tablet so you could choose between landscape (the present) or portrait mode if you want to use the Transformer for more serious writing assignments.
@Bjd223
I think things like shift-arrows are application dependent, which is why it's that much more of a disappointment that Polaris doesn't have it since it is supposed to be centered around manipulating text.
@Jyveafk
You should really try to use the format that I suggested; your post looks like a wall of text.
@Kumabjorn
If you really wanted that, a bluetooth keyboad might be more up your alley.
notbryant said:
@Bjd223
@Kumabjorn
If you really wanted that, a bluetooth keyboad might be more up your alley.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually have a BT keyboard as well, just not any stand for the Eee Pad yet. It would just be nice to carry it around as one unit and then take it out of the dock and reinsert it in portrait mode. This is after all a wish list, and I'm sure people from ASUS lurk around here.
Kumabjorn said:
What: Language switching (Alt+LShift)
Why: For those of us who are multi-lingual switching between languages also affects dictionary and spell check features in applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be there for Russian, only the shortcut is Ctrl+Space.
The way this works is quite tricky, though. First, you need to use the keyboard icon in notification area to switch to the keyboard to "ASUS Russian" (if needed, adding it as an option in Input Settings). After that, Ctrl+Space can be used to switch between that and English. I don't know if that is there for all non-English layouts, or only non-Latin ones, though.
Also, Ctrl+Shift will pop up the usual keyboard selector menu, which can then be navigated using arrow keys. Still too verbose, but at least you don't have to take your hands off the keys to tap the screen.
I don't ask for much, just a...
backlit keyboard...
Kumabjorn said:
It would really smart if you had two connector sides on the tablet so you could choose between landscape (the present) or portrait mode if you want to use the Transformer for more serious writing assignments.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, interesting. I think having a 'universal' connector, for keyboards and other things is viable, and if 'other' things to plug in, having a base/side port to 'plug' to could work well. For keyboards (and the rotating around view IS great for writing), and... other devices we've not thought of yet.
Here http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/issues/detail?id=459 you can find a patched version of connectbot ssh app with correct support for dock keys (control, tab etc).
I like it very much..
Kumabjorn said:
What: Language switching (Alt+LShift)
Why: For those of us who are multi-lingual switching between languages also affects dictionary and spell check features in applications. Being able to do that with a keyboard switch rather than tapping ths screen and selecting from a menu would be more efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spell check? MY transformer doesn't seem to do any spell checking at all when docked. Am I missing a setting? If not I vote for some type of spell check.

[Q] Questions before purchase about S Pen

I am looking at the Note 10.1 for purchase and I am trying to get information about handwriting recognition using the S Pen and saving what has been written to a .txt document or RTF doc or doc file. Searching for this answer on this forum and others has not helped - at least I have not found the answer. What I want to be sure that I can do is handwrite a document - for example an article for publication - and save the handwriting recognition text version and be able to use it then on a PC in software like Word or Notepad. Can this be done using the included Polaris Office app? What I have seen so far about the S Notes app is that it only saves to pdf or jpg files. Is that true?
Then somewhere I saw that files cannot be attached to emails sent from the Note 10.1 - is this true? If I installed an app like K9 Email on the Note 10.1 which has file attachment capabilities on other Android devices will I be able to attach the text files from the Note 10.1 that I have written using handwriting recognition (if txt files are possible using handwriting recognition)?
I am not interested (at least now) in annotating documents - I need to be able to create new text documents with the S Pen and be able to save and edit them as text both on the Note and then on a PC.
Thanks!
Hi 1776,
You can write straight into Polaris Office (or any other office app, google docs etc) using the handwriting recognition keyboard option and save into whatever format those apps support.
I've become an S Pen junkie over the last month for taking notes and docs for my work. A Note 10.1 a month ago, and a Note 2 phone (for easy noting on the move) this week.
I find the S Pen option ( Language and input | Samsung Keyboard Settings | Handwriting | Recognition type | Complete recognition) best for this (as opposed to 'Stroke recognition' option)
Good luck with it!
You can also save the files to a cloud service and retrieve them anywhere using this...
For that matter, you can even move your PCs My Documents folder to Dropbox, and use Dropsync on your tablet to do a completely automatic 2-way sync so that you can edit the files from the PC or at tablet at any time :thumbup:
Sent from my TI-82 using XDA Premium
Or switch to google docs and scratch the office suite altogether. Or use sNote and sync to Evernote.
Lots of options available.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app
Thanks to all! I knew I would get a fast response from this forum to answer my question. I now know from you that I can use the SPen to write into Polaris or an office suite or Google Docs and get my articles ready. There is a good price right now at Costco and I am going to take advantage of it.
Thanks again!
Sorry to bring this back up again - I went to Best Buy today and wanted to try the S Pen with Polaris Office. I opened Polaris Office and looked for the gear symbol to start handwriting recognition at the bottom of the keyboard next to the microphone symbol for voice recognition. It was not there. Only the microphone was there. I went into S Pen settings on the Note 10.1 and did not see much to set. A salesman came over and asked him how to get this display model to let me use the S Pen in Polaris Office and he said it cannot do that. He insisted the pen only works in S Note. I told him differently, explained what I expected to find and all of the more knowledgeable people than him (I did not say that part) that are on this forum say it works with Polaris and other apps. He tried and found nothing to get it to work.
So now I have a new question - does this now work with an update that perhaps their display did not have? He also tried it on the Note 8 that was on diplay and said it did not work.
You all say it works and I am sure it does. I would just like to see it do it before I plunk down almost 500 bucks.
What is needed to do to make it work? And if there was an update and the displays were not updated - would it then not work?
TIA!!!
Long press on the microphone button on the keyboard gives you a selection box. One of the choices switches the keyboard to pen entry.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2
FYI I found the default pen settings to be less than optimal for my writing style. Keep this in mind while trying it out. You'll likely customize it to your liking once you own it.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda app-developers app
Thanks once again. I went to a different Best Buy today and did as was described here and long pressed the mike key - and there was the button to start handwriting recognition. I worked fairly well. Thank you to bsaman who warned me about having to customize the settings to get it to write smoothly. In the store, words were split, wrong letters were put in, but I can see that with some adjustment it will work just fine and I test saved a doc handwritten in Polaris and saw in the file manager that it was saved as a .doc file which is what I need it to do.
One other question - every time my hand leaned on the glass when writing with the pen in the input box that was across the lower half of the screen, it brought up a new screen scrolling up from the bottom. I assume that this can be turned off?
The only thing I can think of is the Multi-window option bar that pops up when you touch the carret in the navbar. Don't know about disabling it though.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app
I went to Costco today and bought the Note 10.1 ($417 including a leather case) and now I have to start setting it up. Thanks to all!

[Q] Keyboard Dock macros

Hello,
I hope my question is not a duplication of previous topics, I've searched both google and here but can't seem to find a correct answer.
I've recently bought the oem keyboard dock for my Note 10.1 from Samsung and wasn't dissappointed. I'm using it besides for occassional typing spree, mainly for remote access to Windows/Linux.
The RD client for Android from Microsoft is great, ConnectBot does the job and I'm expecting soon a client for Android from NoMachine.
My only concern so far is that due to the limitations of the dock, I'm lacking some keys necessary for the full desktop experience (which is working perfectly fine).
So is there a way, via some program or otherways, to add for example Fkeys or other that are present on full layout keyboard?
For example map Ctrl + 1 to F1, Ctrl + 2 to F2, etc....
Also I would like to remap the Internet and Mail button to open respectivly Chrome (not it always open a question between the default browser and chrome and it looks like it's not saving the setting for using Chrome) and Gmail (now it opens only the default email client).
Thanks in advance.

Handwriting looks terrible on Xiaomi Pad 5 and OneNote - Workaround?

Hello together and thanks in advance for any answer!
So im kinda clueless on how to solve the following problem:
I got a Xiaomi Pad 5 (Global Version) and the original Xiaomi "Smart" Pen. I do a lot of handwritten notes in OneNote. And theres the problem, handwriting in the official OneNote App looks horrible. It seems like the pen correction is disabled in this app, but im not sure about that.
I tried every possible setting in OneNote, but none of them was helpful. So i tried to find a option in the developer settings to force every app to use the pen correction, but wasnt able to find one.
In every other app i tried, the handwriting looks just fine - even in the browser version of OneNote (which is a pain to use btw).
Maybe some of u got a good idea on how to solve this problem?
I know that this problem exists on every Pad 5. I had a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite before, the handwriting there was also kinda bad in OneNote, but by far not that horrible as i can remember.
I attached a sample picture. The upper line is written in the OneNote App, the lower line is written in the browser.
Did you solved it? I'm having the same problem

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