Editing MessagePad (section)

====User interface====
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Apple newton messagepad mixed note jk.jpg|right|thumbnail|Newton screen displaying a Note with text, "ink text", a sketch, & [[Vector graphics|vectorized]] shapes]] -->
Text could also be entered by tapping with the stylus on a small on-screen pop-up [[QWERTY]] [[virtual keyboard]], although more layouts were developed by users. Newton devices could also accept free-hand "Sketches", "Shapes", and "Ink Text", much like a desktop computer [[graphics tablet]]. With "Shapes", Newton could recognize that the user was attempting to draw a circle, a line, a [[polygon]], etc., and it would clean them up into perfect [[vector graphics|vector]] representations (with modifiable control points and defined vertices) of what the user was attempting to draw. "Shapes" and "Sketches" could be [[image scaling|scaled]] or deformed once drawn. "Ink text" captured the user's free-hand writing but allowed it to be treated somewhat like recognized text when manipulating for later editing purposes ("ink text" supported [[Line wrap and word wrap|word wrap]], could be formatted to be bold, italic, etc.).<ref name=":2">{{Cite magazine |last=Huang |first=Vernon |date=December 1995 |title=First Look: Newton OS 2.0 |url=http://www.pencomputing.com/developer/newton_20.html |url-status=live |magazine=Pen Computing Magazine |issue=7 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330084907/http://www.pencomputing.com/developer/newton_20.html |archive-date=March 30, 2022 |access-date=January 27, 2007}}</ref> At any time a user could also direct their Newton device to recognize selected "ink text" and turn it into recognized text (deferred recognition). A Newton note (or the notes attached to each contact in Names and each Dates calendar or to-do event) could contain any mix of interleaved text, Ink Text, Shapes, and Sketches.

While the Newton offered handwriting recognition training and would clean up sketches into vector shapes, both were unreliable and required much rewriting and redrawing. The most reliable application of the Newton was collecting and organizing address and phone numbers. While handwritten messages could be stored, they could not be easily filed, sorted or searched. While the technology was a probable cause for the failure of the device (which otherwise met or exceeded expectations), the technology has been instrumental in producing the future generation of handwriting software that realizes the potential and promise that began in the development of Newton-Apple's Ink Handwriting Recognition.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 27, 2017 |orig-date=December 6, 2007 |title=Ink: Handwriting Recognition |url=https://resources.oreilly.com/examples/9780596529529/-/blob/master/ink_handwriting_recognition.pdf |access-date=2023-09-19 |website=Supplemental Content for Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual by David Pogue |publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc. |language=en |via=GitLab}}</ref>