If you’re like me and you take tons of handwritten notes, whether it’s in a journal, on a post-it note, or maybe you’re jotting down a recipe on a napkin, you know the struggle of wanting to organize and digitize these notes for later use. With recent updates to AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, this process has become much easier. I’ll show you how to efficiently digitize your handwritten notes using the OpenAI app and also touch on some other tools and methods that might work for you. Let’s dive in!
If you’d prefer to watch this instead, check out the video below.
Step-by-Step Guide to Digitizing Notes
Step 1: Install the OpenAI App
What I highly suggest you do is grab the OpenAI app on your phone. It’s available for both Apple and Android devices. This app will make the whole process a lot simpler.
Make sure it’s the official app created by OpenAI.
Step 2: Take Pictures of Your Notes
The app is free and allows you to use your phone to take pictures. Take a picture of your handwritten notes one page at a time. Next, provide the app with a simple prompt, like asking it to transcribe the notes.
One page or picture at a time seems to work best right now, but that may change over time.
Step 3: Transcribe and Proofread
Once you’ve taken the picture and given the prompt, the app will transcribe your handwritten notes into digital text. The next step is to copy this text and paste it into your favorite note-taking system, whether that’s Obsidian, Roam, Evernote, or another application.
Make sure to proofread the digitized text if it’s important that it’s 100% correct. While the app does a fantastic job, it’s not perfect. Depending on the context, you might need to make some corrections.
Step 4: Organize Your Digital Notes
Depending on your use case—whether personal notes, recipes, or professional documents—you’ll want to ensure everything is correctly formatted and tagged.
Consider adding tags like “handwritten,” “notes,” or other relevant keywords. This makes it easier to find your notes later. For instance:
Recipe for Pancakes #HandwrittenNotesExperiment with Prompts
Sometimes a more specific prompt can work better. Instead of just asking to “transcribe notes,” try prompts like “transcribe meeting notes” or “transcribe recipe.”
