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I hate it that there's such a large dichotomy between typing and handwriting. I hand-write stuff all the time. Not because I'm a doddering fossil or because I'
by nathanb 12y ago
I hate it that there's such a large dichotomy between typing and handwriting.
I hand-write stuff all the time. Not because I'm a doddering fossil or because I'm a luddite or anything like that...I find that hand-writing notes from class helps me remember them better, and hand-writing letters and cards gives a much more personal touch.
But then I have all these sheafs of dead trees that I have to deal with. I need to make sure I have my notebook if I think I'm going to take notes. And afterwards, if I think "I took a class...maybe three months ago? Four? How far back in this notebook was that? Is this even in the same notebook?" Nothing is searchable.
I've looked into Evernote, modnotebook, and a few other solutions (including a fancy smartpen-and-paper combo that's supposed to read and digitize my writing), none of which actually work for me. Sometimes it's just that my tiny, illegible scribblings are incomprehensible to OCR software, and sometimes it's that the "solution" involves changing my workflow in a way that makes it not work for me anymore.
Microsoft have tried to solve this problem a few times (Windows for Pen Computing, anybody? OneNote?). Others have taken a stab at it too. I'm not at all close to the right answer myself; I only know that everything I've seen so far has not been it.
I bet this is one of those problems that, if you could solve it in the right way, you would legitimately change the world.
- grimman 12y agoOne of the best things I did personally was to overhaul my shitty handwriting into something I'm actually happy with, and isn't just "how things panned out". I'm saying this because doing such a thing, in your case, could very well turn out to work towards making your handwriting tech compatible as well, thus eliminating that hurdle. Win-win, really. Edit: As a further advantage, I actively think of the way I write and incrementally improve upon certain letters for efficiency and legibility. Pardon me for tooting my horn so vigorously. XD
- godDLL 12y agoCould you please post an example of your handwriting?
- grimman 12y agoSure, here's a small sample: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19268997/20141218_013221.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19268997/20141218_013221...
- nathanb 12y agoI find all caps / block letters slower to write and harder to read. What made you decide to go with that approach?
- grimman 12y agoI think the term is small caps. :) In either case, I went for it when I was 15-16, so it's more than half a lifetime ago. The underlying reason was simply that my handwriting was absolutely terrible, and if notes were left for too long, even I couldn't decipher them. So... I saw a problem, and I fixed it. ;)
- allengeorge 12y agoI must have missed the memo - at what point did writing become equated with being a doddering fossil or luddite? :-) (Not that you were implying either)