Lasso Tool On Onenote

One feature often under-utilized in OneNote is the Lasso tool. On the Surface Pro, there are a few different ways to execute this feature since you have mouse, pen, and touch as options. See my video below for a demo, but here are the details:

If you don't like how OneNote selected your ink strokes, you can easily create a custom selection with the Lasso tool. Navigate to a page containing multiple ink strokes. Click Draw Lasso Select. Click outside of the ink strokes you want to select, and drag a circle around only the ink strokes you want to include in your selection. Note: if you do not see the Math tab on OneNote please update to the latest windows update. Click on draw and select a pen tool. Draw out your math problem using your Surface pen. After you draw your math problem, click on the lasso tool. Draw a circle around the math problem using the lasso tool. For tablet / touch screen, 'Tag-and-Hold' on 'Type' command until pop up a menu. Click 'Add to Quick Access Toolbar' will add the 'Type' command to QAT. General, we can add 'Type', 'Lasso Select', 'Eraser' and 'Drawing Tools' commands to QAT. The handwriting is on a PDF. So I followed a tutorial that said to send the PDF to OneNote (open the PDF, go to print, change printer to OneNote), and then in OneNote, use the lasso tool to select the handwritten text you want to convert. But the lasso tool won't select anything. I also tried converting the PDF to a jpeg and inserting that into.

The Ways

OneNote Desktop: Pen, Finger, or the Lasso Select button in the Draw toolbar. You can use the mouse to lasso or just select things with a basic square selector, but lasso is more precise (curves can go around other objects)

OneNote Modern UI app: Pen or Finger – no Lasso Select button (although Lasso options will show in the radial menu after you lasso something).

The Whys

OneNote Modern UI app: Lasso’ing items is great for moving things around, and once selected, items like handwriting can be resized or stretched. The lasso is more precise than a simple mouse drag selection because you can curve the selection around close objects that you don’t want to be a part of your selection.

OneNote Desktop app: In addition to the above, in the desktop app there a ton of additional things you can do to a selected item, especially when it’s handwriting. You can change the size and color of the ink, turn your handwriting into Text, rotate it, and much more.

Lasso Tool In Onenote

Here’s an old video where you can see the lasso in action, and hopefully get an idea about the practical use of it, especially when diagramming in OneNote.

How To Use Lasso Tool In Onenote