Customize Handwriting Recognition in Windows Vista

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You can use the handwriting recognition personalization features by providing handwriting samples and turning on automatic learning.

If handwriting recognition generally works poorly for you, the best thing that you can do is to provide lots of handwriting samples through the Handwriting recognition personalization tool. When you provide handwriting samples in the Handwriting recognition personalization tool, the handwriting recognizer learns how you write characters and words, which can improve the accuracy of handwriting recognition for you.

Open the Handwriting recognition personalization tool by tapping the Start button Picture of the Start button, tapping All Programs, tapping Tablet PC, and then tapping Personalize Handwriting Recognition


Add words to the handwriting dictionary

You can greatly improve handwriting recognition for words such as proper names, acronyms, technical terms, and abbreviations by adding them to the handwriting dictionary.

To add a word to the handwriting dictionary

• Open Tablet PC Input Panel.
  
• To display the writing pad, tap the Writing Pad button.
  
• In the writing area, write the word that you want to add to the handwriting dictionary.
  
• If the word is not in the handwriting dictionary, it might be recognized incorrectly. Tap the recognized text.
  
• In the correction area, revise the text so that the word that you want to add to the dictionary appears.
• NoteMake sure that you spell the word correctly. If you add a misspelled word to the handwriting dictionary, it could degrade the quality of your handwriting recognition.
  
• Tap the Dictionary Tools icon , and then select Add to dictionary.

Improve general character recognition

Improve general character recognition. In the Handwriting Personalization main screen, choose "Target specific recognition errors," then "Characters with similar shapes." Enter the specific combinations of characters presented by the tool. Follow through each group, and when finished click "Update and Exit."

Train the recognition engine on your specific writing style. In the "Handwriting Personalization" main screen, choose "Teach the recognizer your handwriting style," then select from "Sentences" that will allow you to write a series of sentences, or "Numbers, symbols, and letters" to enable you to teach the recognition engine how you enter specific characters. Follow through each option and when finished click "Update and Exit." If at any point you wish to end your session, select "Save for later" and you can return and complete each group.

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Tips:

• During each session, make sure you are writing in your natural handwriting.
  
  
• If you have a compatible graphics tablet attached to your Vista computer, you can now use that to enter handwritten information.
  
  
• It may take a few minutes for the recognition engine to incorporate the writing samples into its database.
  
  
• The more handwriting samples you provide, the better the chances that it will improve handwriting recognition for you.
  
  
• You can provide samples for each section of the Handwriting recognition personalization tool as many times as you want because additional handwriting adds to the set of handwriting samples that is used to update the handwriting recognizer.
  
  
• Because it can be time-consuming, you don't have to write all of your samples at one time. You can save your handwriting samples and come back to provide more handwriting samples at any time.