Handwriting search

Rectoly reads your handwriting into text on your device, so searching a paper or across papers finds what you wrote by hand. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Applies to Mendeley and Zotero editions Windows · Mac · iPad Partly included in the purchase

Turn it on

  1. Open Settings › General › Handwriting search.
  2. Check that Make handwriting searchable is on.
  3. Handwriting is read in the background: pages with handwriting are read soon after you write or open them. Pages read: N shows how far it has got.

Turning the switch off deletes everything that was read. Your handwriting itself stays.

What each system needs:

  • Mac · iPadiPadOS 27 or macOS 27 or later. On earlier versions the setting does not appear. Apple's handwriting recognition is used.
  • WindowsThe handwriting recognition built into Windows, for the language you write in. Settings shows Handwriting recognizers on this PC and a Check again button.

On Windows and Mac, handwriting search is included in the purchase. It is free during the 14-day trial and inside the sample paper. On iPad and iPhone it is free.

Find handwriting

  • In a paper: open search and type. A Handwriting section lists the matching lines.
  • Across papers: in Across papers, the Handwriting section lists matches from every paper on this device.
  • Press a result to go to that page. The matching line is outlined.

What is read

  • The handwriting in the papers on this device is read.
  • WindowsThat includes handwriting written on a tablet that reached this PC through Mendeley or Zotero. See Sharing handwriting between tablets and PCs.
  • Mac · iPadHandwriting in Reading Mode is read too. Its results show "Reading Mode handwriting · near p. N".
  • Nothing leaves the device: the recognition runs on the device itself.

Add the handwriting feature for your language Windows

Windows

If Settings says that no handwriting recognizer is installed, or that handwriting in a language cannot be read yet:

  1. Open Windows Settings › Time & language › Language & region.
  2. Next to the language, choose ⋯ › Language options, and install Handwriting.
    • On Windows 10: Settings › Time & Language › Language › the language › Options.
  3. In Rectoly, go to Settings › General › Handwriting search and choose Check again.

Some editions of Windows have no handwriting recognition at all; Settings then says so.

Updated September 20, 2026