Copilot in OneNote Can Now Recognize Handwritten Text

Microsoft’s Copilot assistant is about to get more useful in OneNote for Windows. In a new update that’s now available for Office Insiders, the AI assistant is now capable of reading and analyzing handwritten text in addition to typed text.

“We released OneNote Copilot in November 2023, and initially this feature could only read and analyze typed text,” the Office team explained. “But now Copilot is able to analyze both typed text and handwritten (inked) notes in OneNote, both via the ribbon and from the canvas.”

Copilot in OneNote is only available with a Copilot Pro subscription, which is priced at $20/month for consumers, or via a Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscription for commercial customers. In OneNote, the AI assistant can summarize notes into bullet points, rewrite selected text, suggest ideas for a variety of topics, and more.

To test this new support for inked notes, you’ll need to be an Office Insider and have OneNote on Windows version 2404 (Build 17628.20006) or later. Copilot in OneNote is currently accessible in two places, and the most visible one is the Copilot button in the app’s ribbon that opens a Copilot side pane. Moreover, Copilot will appear in the dropdown menu after selecting any handwritten or typed notes.