Handwriting in Microsoft OneNote is one of the coolest ways of taking notes. Microsoft OneNote allows you to handwrite notes as well as sketch diagrams. These handwritten notes can be converted to text with ease using OneNote’s Ink to Text feature.
OneNote Ink to Text not working is a common problem encountered by many OneNote users. If the OneNote Ink to Text is not working or the OneNote Ink to Text is greyed out and your handwriting in OneNote is not being converted to text, this guide will help you fix the problem.
In this guide, we’ve recommended a couple of steps you should take to stop the Ink to Text is not supported in your language prompt from appearing on your screen whenever you want to convert handwritten notes to text.
Let’s look at the specifics.
Solution 1: Change the Language in OneNote
OneNote may not convert handwriting to text if the default language on your Windows isn’t the same as the language in OneNote. To get Microsoft OneNote ink to text to work properly, choose a language already installed on Windows. The language chosen should have the Handwriting option (more on that later).
Here’s how to change the language in OneNote:
Step 1: Open the OneNote Application.
Step 2: Click on the bulb icon in the top right corner of the app.
Step 3: Type “Set Language” in the search bar and hit enter.
Step 4: Select English (United States) or English (United Kingdom) or other languages that have the Handwriting option installed on your Windows from the list.
Step 5: Now click on the Lasso Select icon in the top left corner of the screen.
Step 6: Highlight your handwritten text using the Lasso Select feature as shown below.
Step 7: Click on the Ink to Text icon.
The error message should disappear. If you have one of these languages installed as well as the Handwriting option, OneNote ink to text should work properly. Your handwriting should be converted to text.
If the problem persists, take a look at the second solution. The second solution details how to check the default language on your Windows and how to add more languages.
Solution 2: Check Default Language on Your Windows
If the default language on Windows matches the language chosen in OneNote and the Handwriting option is also installed for the default language, you won’t have problems using the OneNote ink to text feature.
Follow these steps to check your default language.
Step 1: Click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Step 2: Click on settings.
Step 3: Go to Time & Language.
Step 4: Click on Language.
Step 5: You will see the default language (in this case, English (United States)) and other components like Handwriting, Display language, text-to-speech installed.
Step 6: Click on Add a language to add more languages.
Solution 3: Download Handwriting Option Associated with Your Language
If your default language does not have the Handwriting feature installed, OneNote ink to text might not work. You can install this feature by following these steps.
Step 1: Click the Windows icon in the bottom left corner of your screen.
Step 2: Click on settings.
Step 3: Go to Time & Language.
Step 4: Click on Language.
Step 5: Select the language without the Handwriting option.
Step 6: Click on Options.
Step 7: Download Handwriting.
Step 8: You might need to restart OneNote.
Final Thoughts
We’ve looked at why OneNote ink to text feature does not work and highlighted a couple of quick fixes that would help solve the problem. If the OneNote ink to text is not working, one of the fixes we’ve recommended should help you resolve the problem. We hope this helps.
