seemingly random font size when converting handwriting to text

[rodberry]

I am using a tablet pc with onenote.
when I write on a page then click the 'convert handwriting to text' button,
the actual size of the font can become anything from 12 to 40 in size. It
seems to bear no relationship to the size of the original handwriting.

I have set the default text size in options to 14 but it makes no difference.

the font size seems to be random. any clues on how to deal with this? I can
easily select and sesize it but it does lessen the experience of using
onenote on the tablet whch is otherwise quite a blast.

I practically live inside this program lately.

thanks, Rod.

 

[Erik Sojka]

The size of the converted text will be roughly determined by the font
size of the handwritten text. This is by design. You can use the grid
lines of the stationery as a guide to see how large/small you should
write.

The default size in Tools | Options refers to the size of typed text.

I would submit that converting the handwriting at all lessens the ON
experience!! Keep the data as Ink. OneNote will be able to search it
and index it, and you don't have to go through the extra steps of
converting, etc. ON is designed to work with Ink in all aspects of its
operation. Keep your handwriting in Ink!

 

[Kevin]

This sounds like the "answer" to the problem I've been
seeing. As I write in OneNote on a tablet PC, I often see
the font size change at random - most frequently to 16.5.
This means that I have some extra cleanup steps every
time I try to convert the handwriting to text. It sounds
like this is the case of something I consider to be a bug
being alternately described as a "feature" by the
developer.

While I can appreciate that some users will want to
generate different font sizes by writing in different
sizes, I would like an option to turn off this dynamic
font sizing. Since I often compile notes to share with
colleagues and to use in reports, I HAVE to convert the
handwriting to text. Leaving it as ink is simply not an
option.

Interestingly, even though this is purported to be "by
design", it is apparently something that many of
Micosoft's own OneNote users are not aware of. At a
conference which featured Microsoft-sponsored product
presentations and a Microsoft vendor booth, I presented
this (which I view as a problem) to some of the reps. I
was eventually passed around through 5 different reps,
and none of them suggested that this was by design. All
of them looked at it as a problem, but they were at a
loss as to how to explain it. I should note that the
people with whom I spoke were the ones giving
presentations on OneNote. If THEY don't even know that
this is by design . . . sounds like a bug to me.

Kevin

 

[Patty MacDuffie]

I've seen this, and I agree, Kevin. My handwriting tends on the large size,
but I don't need my text to be.

 

[Erik Sojka]

Were these MS reps salesweasels or technical or even members of the
OneNote team? Were they there specifically to discuss OneNote? I know
in this day and age we expect public representatives of a company to
represent the entire company, but for a large corp such as Microsoft,
it's impossible to find one person knowledgable in all areas of all
products in all business units.

Having said that, the complaint of the different font sizes has been
mentioned here before. It's not something that can be fixed right away
but I know that various MS employees lurk here and they're aware of all
of the suggestions posted here. I still think it's by design and it
makes perfect sense to me.

As another workaround, remember that once you get used to the steps
involved, it's very quick and easy to select the text after conversion,
and apply a font size. It's a few taps on a Tablet, and even faster with
a keyboard:

- Ctrl-A to select text
- Ctrl-D to bring up the Font Task pane
- F6 to navigate to the Task Pane
- Tab, arrow, Enter to navigate within the Pane and to select and apply
font size.

 

[Kevin]

It appeared that most of the people with whom I spoke were there specifically
to demonstrate OneNote. The first person was a trainer who presented a
OneNote session. When he was unable to answer the question, he referred me to
a particular person at the Microsoft booth in the exhibit area. That person
was unavailable, but several other people who handled the OneNote demos took
a look at the "problem", and they were all stymied. The really strange thing
was all of the people acted as though they had never seen this issue occur
before.