Handwriting shortcuts

Shortcuts for utilizing the Apple Pencil on iPad more often.

Use these shortcuts if you’re an Apple Pencil/iPad user and want to prompt yourself to take advantage of hand-written notes more often.

Use these to make and take notes using the Pencil in specific sections of the Notes app, access your notes later, copy the text out, and adjust any Pencil settings.

These were created pre-Text Recognition on iPad where I discovered Apple was transcribing hand-written notes in the Notes app before they added the feature in the next OS release to directly Copy handwritten-text out – I still find it easier to pull the data out using my shortcuts, however.

The Apple Pencil is one of the best parts of the iPad experience and yet can be hard to implement into a daily workflow without intentional use cases.

This collection provides a series of prompts for common hand-writing experiences you might encounter, making it easy to jump in and switch than letting it sit and forget about it.