Believe it or not, the built-in Notes app on your iPhone and iPad can do more than just. OneNote for iPad isn’t just for note-taking. You can use its built-in inking features to handwrite notes or to create drawings and sketches. To draw in OneNote, you can use your finger or use a compatible stylus or pen that's paired with your iPad. To begin drawing or writing in OneNote for iPad, follow these steps. Write, draw, or highlight text.

More people than ever are bringing their iPads to work, and the quickest way to make the tablet ready for business it to outfit with Microsoft’s powerful productivity tool, OneNote. The time is never better, as a recent feature update brings OneNote for iPad up to par with its cross-platform cousins. Here are a few cool ways the app can make you more efficient around the office.

Scan whiteboards

Whiteboards are now as much a fixture of corporate conference rooms as speakerphones and glazed-over eyes. But, unless you can take notes with a stenographer’s speed, the products of your meetings and brainstorming sessions may never make it back to your desk. With OneNote for iPad’s scanning feature, you can easily capture the contents of the whiteboard.

Start with a new OneNote page, tap the Insert tab, then tap the camera icon to photograph the whiteboard. There’s no need to line up edges; OneNote will automatically crop and rotate the image, courtesy of Microsoft’s Office Lens technology. Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll see three scanning options: Whiteboard, Photo, and Document. Select the first one, and OneNote will enhance the image to make those colored-ink scribblings jump off the white background. Next, tap the check mark in the bottom right corner to save the image to One Note, so you can annotate and share it with your colleagues later.

Hand write notes

For many, iPads have replaced paper pads for capturing notes from meetings and presentations. But typing on the iOS keyboard is a tedious exercise for even the most fleet-fingered. Earlier this year, Microsoft brought relief by adding handwriting capability to OneNote for iPad.

To write notes using your finger or a stylus, tap the Draw tab on the OneNote ribbon and select a pen, marker, or highlighter, as well as ink color and thickness. If you’re using a stylus, you should also tap Palm Rejection from the ribbon and select the image that best resembles the way you hold a pen. This will prevent the iPad from mistaking your palm resting on the screen for digital input. From here, you can jot down notes, draw a draft of a flow-chart, or doodle in the margins of your meeting agenda while your coworker blathers on.

Annotate images

Say you get back from a meeting and you want to turn some of that whiteboard brainstorming into action items and share it with your colleagues. Or you get a screenshot of a webpage mockup that requires your feedback. Ordinarily, you’d have to create a whole new document or email message to convey your comments. But using OneNote for iPad’s drawing tools, you can just make notes directly on these images and forward them to the appropriate parties. Just open the note with the image, and tap the Draw tab to access the drawing tools. It saves you time, and the marked up files minimize any confusion over your instructions.

Search scanned documents, web clippings, and other images

Microsoft also recently added OCR to iPad for OneNote. This feature makes text in any images you’ve captured searchable. Now you’ll be able to search for specific content in a web clipping or a specific item in a scanned receipt.

To make sure an image can be searched, just add it to a notebook saved on OneDrive. Once it’s indexed, you’ll be able to search for it from any OneNote client.

Before you begin

• Make sure that you have the Apple Pencil model that works with your iPad.
• You might need to charge your Apple Pencil and pair your Apple Pencil with your iPad before you can use it.

Draw with Apple Pencil

Open an app, like the Notes app. With iPadOS, move the tool palette around the screen or minimize it so you have more space to draw and sketch. The tool palette has different tools, depending on the app you're using. Use the ruler tool to create straight lines, then rotate them with your fingers. Made a mistake? You can erase by object or even by pixel.

To draw in the Notes app:

1. Open Notes.
2. Tap to start a new note.
3. Start drawing with your Apple Pencil.

You can also start by tapping to open the tool palette. Choose from several drawing tools and colors, and switch to the eraser if you make a mistake. Double-tap the eraser to view erasing options on your iPad. When you draw, you can tilt your Apple Pencil to shade a line and press more firmly to darken the line. You can drag the tool palette to a different edge of the screen. Tap to auto-minimize the tool palette and see more options.

Learn more about drawing with the Notes app.

Drawing near the edge of the screen with your Apple Pencil won't activate Control Center, Notification Center, or Multitasking. You can draw anywhere on the screen without getting interrupted.

Write with Apple Pencil

Using Scribble With Onenote

You can write a note with your Apple Pencil in Notes and other apps. With iOS 14, you can write with your Apple Pencil in any text field.* You can convert your handwriting to text. And you can use a handwritten phone number, date, or address as if you had typed it.

Write in any text field with Scribble

You can use your iPad and Apple Pencil to write by hand in any text field, like the search field in Safari or a text field in Mail.* All handwriting and conversion to text happens on your iPad, keeping your writing private and secure.

You can learn how to delete, select, insert, and join words using Scribble by going to Settings > Apple Pencil and tapping Try Scribble.

Convert your handwritten notes to text

You can convert your handwriting* in two ways:

• You can write with the pen farthest from the ruler, which has an 'A' on it. Your handwriting will convert automatically to text as you write.
• If you already have some handwritten notes, you can select the notes and convert them to text:
  1. Double-tap or touch and hold a word you want to select. Select more words by sweeping your finger over them. You can triple-tap to select an entire line of words.
  2. Tap the selected words.
  3. In the menu that appears, tap Copy as Text.
     
  4. Paste the text elsewhere in the same document or in another app.

Use handwritten phone numbers, dates, addresses, and more

1. Tap a number, date, address, or other recognized data that you've written. It will have an underline.*
2. Choose what you want to do, like call the number or create an event.

Draw perfect shapes

You can perfect a lopsided circle or leaning square. Here's how:

1. Draw a shape by hand, like a circle, square, or star, using a single stroke.
2. When you finish the shape, pause with the tip of your Apple Pencil on the screen. The shape you drew will be replaced by a perfect one.

Double-tap Apple Pencil (2nd generation)

On an Apple Pencil (2nd generation), you can double-tap near the tip of your Apple Pencil to quickly switch back to the tool you used last. To change your settings for double-tap, go to Settings > Apple Pencil, then choose:

• Switch between current tool and eraser
• Switch between current tool and last used
• Show color palette
• Off

Double-tap works only in supported apps, like Notes.

Learn more

• Use Markup in apps like Mail, Messages, and Photos to add drawings, text, and shapes with your iPad and Apple Pencil. For example, you can add a signature to a PDF.
• Learn how to create an instant note from the Lock screen or pick up where you left off on your last note.

Ipad Use Scribble In Onenote

* This feature is available only in English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese with iPadOS 14 or later.