Transform Messy Scripts: Microsoft OneNote’s New Handwriting Smoothing Feature

OneNote has received a steady stream of improvements over the past year, as Microsoft moves to unify the Windows apps and roll out more cross-platform features. A handy feature for ink handwriting has now arrived in OneNote for Windows.

Microsoft is now testing the ability to straighten your ink handwriting in OneNote for Windows after you’re done writing. You can select written content in a note (either by tapping a line of text or with the Lasso Select tool), then select the new Straighten button. OneNote will then adjust the line spacing and other elements of your handwriting to make it more readable. The words won’t be converted into text with OCR, though—it’s just slightly cleaning up your writing.

Microsoft said in a blog post, “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.”

The feature currently does not support straightening individual words, tables, images, formulas, highlighter ink, or underlines. It also only works for languages with a Latin alphabet. Still, it’s useful for making your writing a bit easier to understand, especially if you want to share notes with other people.

The Straighten feature is currently only in the OneNote Beta Channel on Windows, in OneNote version 2404 (Build 17530.20000) or later. There’s no word yet on when the functionality could arrive in OneNote for Mac, the web app, or the mobile apps. It’s not coming to the older OneNote for Windows 10 application—Microsoft has been moving away from that application for over two years now and merging its features with the standard OneNote app.

There’s no estimated timeline for when the Straighten feature will roll out to everyone, but it will probably be in a few weeks at the earliest. Microsoft is also still testing a new Sticky Notes app for Windows 11 that is integrated with OneNote, as well as support for Loop components and a new multi-tap gesture for ink selection .

Source: Microsoft 365 Insider Blog