Grouping Text Areas?

[flibbertigibbet007]

Here's an Idea Chris, and others. That you can't shoot this one down.
I have a major problem still with writing handwritten notes, I write kinda
in a weird way, where I may write one part of my sentance on one side of the
page, then the rest on the other side. I want to be able to group my text
areas, in groups, then be able to order them around.
|---------|
|1 |
| 4 2 |
|3 |
|---------|

So this way, when I convert my handwriting to text, it'll keep it in the
order I wanted it, and kinda de-confuse the way i had written it.
Maybe make a link tool, that you just draw a straight line from one text
area box to another thus forcing the connection in one note to automatically
convert all text in the order it was written then "de-confused". You can call
it the deconfuser, I give you permission.
-James

 

[Chris_Pratley \(MS\)]

James, I'm not trying to "shoot down" your ideas, believe me!

In this case, are you saying that you write things in this way, but when you
convert to text, you want onentoe to remember the _order_ you wrote them in,
not _where_ you wrote them?

Isn't this a little dangerous? Many people go back to notes to finish
sentences later on, and if we recognized and rearranged the notes in the
exact order (in time) everything was written in, we'd show a list of edits
rather than what people really wanted.

I guess I don't understand why you would arrange the notes one way when
handwriting and want a significantly different arrangment when recognizing
to text. Can you give me an example of what these notes look like? (not just
numbers, bur actual text) This is so I can understand better why you want
this.

Chris (MS)

 

[flibbertigibbet007]

Alrighty, heres a few images.
This is just a sample of how something I might write, might look.
www.jamesgockel.com/images/confuser1.jpg

this is how is converts to text
www.jamesgockel.com/images/confuser2.jpg

and this is how I could see a linking system work, where you just draw lines
from point to point, from where the end of the last line was to the begining
of the next. Then it could sort it out, or whatever it needs to do to get it
to be deconfused.
www.jamesgockel.com/images/confuser3.jpg

Its just a thought Chris.

PS. I don't mean to sound rude. I just type rude. Im not a mean person.
-James

 

[flibbertigibbet007]

Personally I like the grappling hook look of the lines, but thats just for
show. You could make some other kind of line tool.
-James

 

[Chris_Pratley \(MS\)]

This is a tough one since if you don't look at the words you have written
and imagine other words there (e.g. those two short bits on line 2 and line
3 being sub notes of the main line 1), combining them as you wish would be
a disaster. So what you're asking for is a non-default tool to combine text
in a way which is not going to be normal for most people.

I think probably the best way to fix this is using the keyboard, or TIP.
After you do the reco, if you click to place your insertion point (IP), then
use backspace and delete, you should be able to combine things pretty
quickly. That will work for all users and is probably going to be more
successful than a complex line drawing system that my experience tells me
will be error prone if we try to interpret these lines, and even if we did
do that accurately, most people will not be able to understand or use them
effectively without training.

OK, I guess I am kind of "shooting down" this idea.

But your other ideas were great!

Chris (MS)