In this short tutorial video, I want to show you the power of the Scribble tool when combined with a Skriva stylus. It enables you to type text using your handwriting, which is great if you want to jot something down in a hurry. It’s also useful if you’re someone that finds typing a little bit harder, perhaps one of your students.

To check that Scribble is enabled, simply jump into the Settings app. On the left-hand side, you’re looking for Apple Pencil. In here, toggle Scribble on. One of the nice things about this feature is that there’s actually a short tutorial built into the Settings app. If I tap on “Try Scribble,” I get a few little guides and activities to get me used to this tool.

I know how it works, so I’m going to jump into the Pages app instead, but I’m going to do this by using my Skriva stylus. On the home screen, I’m going to pull down with one finger, and in the search box, I’m just going to handwrite the word “Pages” with my stylus. You can see straight away it’s converted that handwriting into typed text, and it’s found Pages for me. In fact, better still, it’s found the document I want, which is my rhyming Emoji worksheet.

On here, I’ve simply got four text boxes that are formatted in different font sizes. Because they’re text boxes, I can just use my stylus now, and I can start writing using my handwriting in those boxes. As you see, it will convert it word by word into typed text. You can see on the markup toolbar, I’ve now got a pen at the beginning with the letter “A” on it. This is the Scribble tool. No other tools will convert handwriting into text, but the Scribble tool will. So when I use that, all I have to do is start writing using my Skriva stylus anywhere I like, and it will convert that writing into text just like this.

If I make a mistake or change my mind, I can simply cross out the word just like on a piece of paper. Rather than it being scribbled out in my book and looking untidy, the Scribble tool will simply delete that word for me. And of course, I can use this anywhere, not just in text boxes. I could just start writing on a blank page in Pages. I could be in Safari, in the address bar. I could even be in the Notes app and just use it in there. It doesn’t just have to be single words; I can write whole sentences, punctuation, and everything like that, and the Scribble tool will turn it into text for me.