Enter text using handwriting on the iPad with the Apple Scribble function.
(Image credit: Apple)
Handwriting on the iPad can be used to enter text through Apple Scribble. This method can be used in various apps, allowing you to scribble notes with your Apple pencil or just with your finger and transform the scrawl into text. It's super handy for filling in text fields, setting reminders and more, which is great for those who don't have a keyboard an don't want to fiddle with the on-screen keyboard.
It's easy to use, but Apple Scribble has a bunch of features you'll need to know about to improve the experience, including how to draw patterns to perform different functions (zig-zagging to delete, for example). Our guide to how to use Apple Scribble will explain many of the basic and advanced features so you can use handwriting on iPad it to its full potential.
Turn on Scribble in Settings > Apple Pencil. Below, tap Try Scribble. In the Handwrite tab, simply start writing in the box. Notice that you needn't stay within it; you can write bigger, or elsewhere on the screen.
After a few strokes, iPadOS will start to type, but you can carry on writing while it does so. In the Delete tab, see how scribbling across words removes them. A single vertical or horizontal zig-zag will do the trick.
In the Select tab, try selecting text either by drawing a plain horizontal line through it or a circle around it. Again, Scribble selects whole words, but you can drag the blue handles to add or subtract characters.
The Insert tab shows how you can tap and hold to insert text, but it's unnecessary: just tap to place the cursor, then write text to insert. As seen in Join, draw a vertical line to add or remove a space character.
Scribble doesn't need to 'learn' your handwriting, and works in any standard text input box. For example, write into Safari's URL/search field and tap a suggested hit. You can also write straight into text fields on web pages.
In iPadOS' Notes app, Scribble can be used in two ways (this may vary in third-party note-taking apps). In a note, tap the Markup pen icon at the top right and pick the new Handwriting ('A') pen.
Your handwritten text is editable and searchable. (If this is the first line, it also sets the note's title.) You can choose Copy as Text to add it to the iPadOS clipboard as ordinary text and paste it anywhere else.
Shape recognition is also new (and, unlike Scribble, also in iOS 14).
Roughly draw a square, circle, triangle or star, and keep your Pencil or finger held down. You'll see it pop into shape, and it can be selected and moved.
