Surface's nifty writing feature - an underrated gem

[Mellifluous]

I recently got a stylus for my RT Surface as I wanted more accuracy doing certain things. I'd also heard about how good using a capacitive pen is with the Pro, and wanted to see the limits of using a pen for the RT.

So far I'm pretty impressed.

Using the stylus with drawing apps like Fresh Paint is good, though obviously getting the level of responsiveness in terms of pressing the screen to get different levels of ink/paint is not the same. It's great for having fun, not so great I imagine for an artist who needs more precision and accuracy.

However, using the stylus to write rather than using the keyboard is very very good, and I'm finding I'm using it increasingly in cases where I'd use the keyboard. Not only is it great in One Note but you can use it to write letters in Word, write web addresses or to Google stuff. Its writing recognition in translating my quite awful handwriting is astonishing and only rarely do I have to correct it. And when I do so, it is so intuitive - deleting words and spaces between letters was a piece of cake to figure out, because the implementation all makes sense.

Does anyone else enjoy using their Surface in this way, or has anyone else discovered a fantastic feature of Surface that has changed the way they do things?

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks for pointing this out. I will explore this and I think an occasional inking capability on the RT platform would be an excellent idea.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I recently got a stylus for my RT Surface as I wanted more accuracy doing certain things. I'd also heard about how good using a capacitive pen is with the Pro, and wanted to see the limits of using a pen for the RT.

So far I'm pretty impressed.

Using the stylus with drawing apps like Fresh Paint is good, though obviously getting the level of responsiveness in terms of pressing the screen to get different levels of ink/paint is not the same. It's great for having fun, not so great I imagine for an artist who needs more precision and accuracy.

However, using the stylus to write rather than using the keyboard is very very good, and I'm finding I'm using it increasingly in cases where I'd use the keyboard. Not only is it great in One Note but you can use it to write letters in Word, write web addresses or to Google stuff. Its writing recognition in translating my quite awful handwriting is astonishing and only rarely do I have to correct it. And when I do so, it is so intuitive - deleting words and spaces between letters was a piece of cake to figure out, because the implementation all makes sense.

Does anyone else enjoy using their Surface in this way, or has anyone else discovered a fantastic feature of Surface that has changed the way they do things?

I'm interested to know what stylus you are using. I have tried a rubber-tipped capacitive stylus in apps like OneNote and the results were not good. Fresh Paint and its stylized paints are beautiful but hide the issue of low resolution of the capacitive sensors on the RT.

 

[rabilancia]

I'm interested to know what stylus you are using. ...

I recently picked up a "Jot Classic" and have been very pleased with it's function on my Surface RT--that's coming from a person that began using the Microsoft Tablet PC platform in the fall of 2002 and for the next 10 years.

I chose the "Jot Classic" over the "Jot Pro" not needing the magnetic feature. FWIW, I was able to find it for the best price at Walmart.com:
adonit - Walmart.com

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I recently picked up a "Jot Classic" and have been very pleased with it's function on my Surface RT--that's coming from a person that began using the Microsoft Tablet PC platform in the fall of 2002 and for the next 10 years.

I chose the "Jot Classic" over the "Jot Pro" not needing the magnetic feature. FWIW, I was able to find it for the best price at Walmart.com:
[URL="https://goto.walmart.com/c/1943169/612734/9383?sharedid=159229&subId1=UUwpUvbUpU2196232&subId2=vbwp&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-ng.do%3Fsearch_query%3DAdonit%26ic%3D16_0%26Find%3DFind%2522]adonit - Walmart.com[/URL]

Thank you for that! You're the 3rd person or so who is using the Adonit Jot with success. If I need to plunk down for that stylus to get a good stylus experience on the RT, then so be it. It's worth it in my opinion because the RT does so many other things so well.

 

[kbagrows]

Thanks for the opinions - need to go back and try this again now that I've upgraded to 8.1 I've been using the Jot Pro. Like another reader asked, can you please share the pen you've been using?

 

[berty6294]

The handwriting recognition is extremely good! I too have terrible handwriting and my Surface had no problem figuring out what I was saying. Even when I just scribble off the ends of my words my Surface still knew I was trying to say! My only complaint is that it can in some cases take a while for it to snap the word in where the scribbles are... but that's probably because they are literally scribbles its trying to decode lol

 

[Mellifluous]

The stylus I use is nothing special - it's by Port Designs and I purchased it in Tesco here in the UK. It's basically a pen with a soft rubber round tip... It actually looks like the stylus shown in a Microsoft guide about writing with the RT here

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/D/9/8D92AE1C-6CA4-44DF-8699-E7EFF7D480B5/3095_TakeNotesWithSurfaceWithWindowsRT_WSG.docx

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Thank you for that! You're the 3rd person or so who is using the Adonit Jot with success. If I need to plunk down for that stylus to get a good stylus experience on the RT, then so be it. It's worth it in my opinion because the RT does so many other things so well.

My purple Adonit Jot arrived today. Bought it at walmart.com for $15.99. Tried it out on the Surface RT.... in a word AMAZING!

It worked flawlessly in all the apps that I tried. Every app that exhibited poor results with the rubber/foam tip capacitive styli now work perfectly.

Capacitive stylus quality and app selection are the two issues I've had with the Surface. The Adonit Jot solves the stylus issue. Very pleased and highly recommend the Jot.