Livescribe smartpen users can now easily connect to OneNote

Computers and keyboards may have displaced pen and paper, but the basic human need for handwritten and hand-drawn expression has never really gone away.

While Microsoft OneNote already supports handwriting and drawing when used on a Tablet PC, those of us without that kind of hardware now have a highly portable and less expensive option for bringing digitally hand-crafted creations directly into OneNote.
 

Smartpens are wonderful devices that can record everything you write by hand (and everything you hear, such as in a lecture). With the new version of Livescribe Connect, users of Livescribe smartpens can now transfer pencasts of their handwritten notes and audio recordings directly to OneNote 2010, where such content becomes fully searchable, thanks to OneNote’s fantastic ability to search for text in handwriting, images, and even audio recordings.

“The marriage of pen, paper and OneNote opens a whole new way of capturing and organizing information,” says Microsoft Office senior director Jason Bunge. “Livescribe Connect improves digital note taking by making it simple for people to move handwritten notes and audio recordings to OneNote, so they can recall every meeting, lecture and discussion.”

Livescribe Connect is supported on Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. For more information about this new version, read this blog post from the folks at Livescribe.

— Michael C. Oldenburg