To display OneNote's Drawing and Writing toolbar, shown in Figure 12.1, choose Toolbars from the View menu and choose Drawing and Writing Tools. Figure 12.1. The Drawing and Writing toolbar isn't displayed by default.There are several buttons you'll use on the Drawing and Writing toolbar, regardless of whether you're using OneNote on a desktop, Tablet PC, or laptop.
If you're using a Tablet PC, drawing with the pen is fairly easy and straightforward. Simply start drawing on the screen. OneNote can automatically recognize whether you're drawing or writing. If you'd prefer, you can also explicitly tell OneNote you're drawing and not writing. You might want to do that if you're drawing a picture similar to Figure 12.2. In this figure, a chemical equation, telling OneNote you're drawing prevents any confusion about the names of the elements being considered text. Figure 12.2. Sometimes, you might want letters and numbers treated as a drawing.When you're using OneNote on a laptop, you're always in selection mode. Even if you use click the pen icon on the toolbar and try to "write" with your mouse, OneNote still treats that writing as a drawing. On a Tablet PC, it's exactly the opposite. When you're using the Tablet PC with its pen, OneNote knows this and automatically switches to pen mode. In pen mode, you can create both handwriting and drawings. OneNote's handwriting recognition engine is smart enough to know most of the time whether you're writing or drawing. However, there might be some times when you want to ensure you're drawing. To tell OneNote you're drawing instead of writing, choose Pen Mode from the Tools menu. From the Pen Mode menu, choose Create Drawings Only. By default, the Pen Mode is set to Create Both Handwriting and Drawings. The Pen Mode menu selection is only available on a Tablet PC device, not on a desktop or laptop running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Figure 12.3 illustrates the difference between drawing and writing. Figure 12.3. Selecting drawings and writing produces different results.The top two lines, which are not selected, look identical. However, the bottom two lines were written in exactly the same way. When they are selected, you can see the difference. If you examine the drawing selection, you'll notice that the two lines are each their own selection. If you click the Convert Handwriting to Text button on the Drawing and Writing Toolbar, only the bottom selection is converted. |