Is Pen/Stylus Support Possible?

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#1

Why is pen/stylus support always ignored? Aside from the deceptive photo of the stylus that implies it’s finally available with 7.2.2?

Of course, the pen is the iconic instrument and universal symbol of writing. But that’s being exploited to waste time and send pen writers down the rabbit whole with lies. Not to mention it’s essential for drawing. Many prefer handwriting because it allows for a more organic and natural flow of thought and stream of consciousness.

Apparently, “We (LO) don’t have the technology”. So just be transparent and admit it instead of pretending there’s not enough demand. A very high percentage of laptops and tablets have this feature that’s rendered useless.

#2

You are talking to users here. To submit an enhancement request read How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki

1 Like
#3

And I guess we should also get rid of symbols with sheets of paper or depicting old-style feathers and don’t relate to desk-symbols as it could mislead users of laptops??

I’m aware of tl;dr but with your interpretation of pictures I’d suggest to go back to the command-line.

#6

EarnestAI,

Thanks, but I’m picking the brains of users here since LibreOffice clearly doesn’t have the technology. So it’s not a bug although it really bugs me and many others who may have figured out a solution. That’s what I’m seeking and I’m not a loyal LO cultist whose afraid to keep it real.

#10

I’m on Windows 10, if I look in Windows 10 settings I see there is Pen and Workspace Ink. The OS includes stylus support. Apparently, a stylus will work on Sticky Notes, presumably the text can be copied from there to Writer.

So it appears there is a potential workaround in Windows.

LibreOffice is available on other operating systems, maybe there is some sort of workaround there.

The real issues are:

  • Interpreting the pen track to text. This is a complex operation requiring a bigger, better resourced program than LibreOffice. It also needs a pane for corrections so text can be corrected while the handwriting is still visible.
  • A consistent interface to output the text to LO across operating systems
  • A royalty free license to connect to the interpretation programme

Handwriting to text is still very much a niche operation, I doubt that even 1 percent of users with touch screens use it.

Having recently bought a new laptop for my wife, I noticed that the proportion of laptops available for sale with touch screens has fallen since a couple of years ago. Possibly a flash in the pan?

Should LibreOffice put it’s limited resources into a possible niche product? Or wait until handwriting recognition has matured to a point where it is more mainstream and open source solutions become available?

From my point of view, I prefer improvements to the office functionality and bug fixes. Leave handwriting and speech recognition until it is just a plug in.

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#11

EarnestAI,

Thanks for your insightful answer. I agree with most of it but I believe it’s less niche and more common. Most have been conditioned that it has very limited practical use and value. However, most Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft devices are touchscreen and pen enabled. And of course MS Office 365 has pen support.

I’m running the Linux Zorin OS Pro 16 distro on my MS Surface Book 2 and really miss this feature. However, I’m willing to sacrifice and adapt to Libre Office, verses MS Office, for the increased privacy and security it offers. It’s a trade off but many of us want the best of both worlds even if that requires a subscription.

You and many others here are quite tech savvy. So please share any LO pen support solution you know of or may discover for my Linux Zorin MS Surface combination. Thanks.

#4

I use a laptop with touchscreen, so I can use a stylus to replace this other pointing device, misleadingly named by an animal.

While this is possible, there is neither OCR to detect letters* in writing, nor interpretation of impact/strength or angle for draw.

I know of no portable solution for this now.

As this is an office-solution organic and natural flow may not have been the first priority. Some people think of efficient time-saving Workflow for mail-merge, integration of generated charts from calc-data to letters*, extracting data to generate reports etc.

* Warning: I used the word letters twice. The interpretation should be completely different. Take care of the context!

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