Five ways to turn handwriting into digital notes with MyScript Notes (formerly Nebo)

Do you often take handwritten notes during meetings? Nothing quite matches the experience of writing by hand, right?

There’s one problem, though: Going back through your notes and digitizing them is such a hassle!

If you’ve got a tablet or convertible laptop, however, you’re in luck. MyScript Notes — the app formerly known as Nebo on iOS and Android — combines the freedom of handwriting with a powerful paperless workflow. It can recognize handwriting in 66 languages, turn notes into editable text, organize handwritten content, annotate PDFs, and even use AI to help you work with your notes.

On Windows, the app still carries the Nebo name. It remains fully functional and can sync compatible notes with MyScript Notes, although MyScript is now focusing new feature development on iOS and Android.

Today, we’ll share why we still think MyScript Notes is one of the most useful tools for handwriting conversion and show you five of our favorite features — plus a few newer additions worth knowing about.

MyScript Notes turns handwritten content into editable, searchable digital notes across dozens of languages.

The right device and stylus

MyScript Notes is available on iPad and iPhone, Android devices, and compatible Chromebooks. Windows users can continue to use Nebo, although the Windows version is now in maintenance mode rather than receiving the newest features.

You can type, write with a pen, draw, or mix input methods on the same page. That flexibility is one of the app’s strengths: sometimes a keyboard is fastest, while other times handwriting helps you think more deliberately.

The app works with both active and passive styluses. An active pen — such as an Apple Pencil or Samsung S Pen — generally gives you the smoothest experience because the device can distinguish pen input from touch more accurately. You can check MyScript’s current compatible device and pen guidance before choosing hardware.

Your notes can also move beyond the app. Depending on the content, you can copy or export text, images, PDFs, diagrams, and other material into the tools you already use.

1. From handwriting to text and back, instantly

How exactly does converting handwriting into text work?

Start by writing naturally with your stylus. MyScript’s handwriting engine recognizes your writing as you go, so you can turn handwritten content into editable digital text without retyping it from scratch.

The exact controls vary slightly by page type and device, so we no longer recommend memorizing one old “double-tap” workflow. Instead, select the handwritten content you want to work with and use the conversion options available in the current interface.

Once your handwriting has been converted, you can continue editing it digitally, copy it into another app, or keep the original ink alongside the converted text. That makes MyScript Notes useful both for quick capture and for producing clean, reusable notes later.

Write by hand first, then convert the content into editable text when you need it.

2. MyScript Notes speaks your language

If you work with languages other than English, you’ll want a handwriting-recognition tool that doesn’t hold you back.

MyScript Notes fits the bill: its handwriting recognition currently supports 66 languages. That broad language coverage is one of the reasons it remains especially interesting for translators, interpreters, and other multilingual professionals.

The app can also handle mixed-language notes in supported workflows — useful if, for example, you are taking notes primarily in French but dropping in English names, terminology, or phrases.

One distinction is worth knowing: handwriting recognition supports more languages than the app interface and its newer generative AI features. So if AI is an important part of your workflow, check whether your working language is supported there too.

Its multilingual handwriting recognition remains one of MyScript Notes’ standout features.

3. Easy editing

One of the best things about digital handwriting is that your notes don’t have to stay frozen on the page.

MyScript Notes still supports natural pen gestures for editing. You can scratch out content to erase it, select handwriting with the lasso, move or resize material, and reorganize a page without retyping everything.

The app has also evolved beyond the older split-and-merge gestures described in early Nebo versions. Current versions focus more broadly on selecting and manipulating handwritten, typed, drawn, and imported content on the page.

Search has improved too. You can search across typed text and recognized handwriting, making it much easier to find a name, term, or idea buried in an old notebook instead of flipping through page after page.

Edit and reorganize handwritten notes with gestures, selection tools, and searchable handwriting.

4. Diagrams

Flowcharts? Mind maps? Organizational charts? If there’s a concept in your head, it’s often easiest to get it down visually first.

MyScript Notes continues to be excellent for diagrams. You can sketch shapes and connectors by hand, clean them up digitally, reposition elements, and reuse the result elsewhere.

The app also supports “perfect shapes”: draw a line or shape and hold your pen briefly to turn it into a clean geometric form. That makes it much easier to create diagrams without losing the speed of sketching by hand.

And one of Nebo’s most useful tricks is still relevant: diagrams copied into PowerPoint can remain editable rather than becoming a flat screenshot. That can be handy for presentations, training materials, or visual glossaries.

5. Brainstorm freely with Boards

Ever started sketching out a mind map, only to realize that you’d reached the edge of the page?

The old Nebo article introduced the “freeform page” as a brand-new feature. That idea has matured into today’s Boards: flexible, zoomable canvases designed for brainstorming, visual thinking, and notes that don’t fit neatly into a traditional page.

Use the lasso to select content and move it around, resize it, copy it, or convert handwriting to text. Boards work well for mind maps, project planning, terminology clusters, workshop notes, and any other task where you want space to think visually.

Boards give you a flexible canvas for mind maps, brainstorming, and mixed handwritten and visual content.

Now what?

These five tips still just scratch the surface of what MyScript Notes can do.

The app has expanded significantly since the original Nebo 2.7 version of this article. A few newer features are especially worth highlighting:

·       PDF annotation: import PDFs, write or highlight directly on them, reorganize pages, and export the annotated result.

·       Cloud sync: keep compatible notes in sync using supported cloud services such as iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

·       Images: insert, annotate, rotate, and crop images inside your notes.

·       Math conversion: convert handwritten math and, in supported workflows, copy converted equations as LaTeX.

·       AI features: summarize or explain notes, chat about their content, and create study materials such as quizzes in supported languages.

The newer AI features are particularly interesting if you use handwriting for meeting notes, study, or interpreting preparation. After capturing your ideas by hand, you can ask the app to summarize or explain the content instead of manually rereading everything. As with any generative AI feature, check important outputs against your original notes.

The business model has changed too. Rather than the old “under $10” one-time price described in the original article, MyScript Notes now offers a free trial and paid options that may include subscriptions and lifetime access, depending on platform and region. Existing Nebo purchasers were given continuity of access when the app was renamed.

Want to explore the current version? Visit MyScript Notes. If you use Windows, you can still find information about Nebo there as well.

For language professionals, the appeal is much the same as before: you can keep the speed and freedom of handwriting while gaining the searchability, editability, portability, and now AI-assisted workflows of digital notes.

Want to learn more? Check out our Webinar Library.

First published in October 2020. Revised in August 2026.