Convert to Shapes Button in the OneNote App

Another OneNote feature that is only available in the OneNote App is the Convert to Shapes button.

It that allows you to transform lightly sketched shapes that you draw in OneNote into precision-sharp shapes.

 

It’s pretty neat, but I rarely use it for business, but it can come in handy for sketching rough wireframes. (I haven’t come up with a personal home use myself, but I’d love to hear what you use it for!)

What’s funny is the first time I went to try it out I got it all wrong! Where’s what I did wrong:

In the Draw tab, I clicked on the “Draw with mouse or touch” button.

 

I drew three shapes on the screen.

Next I mistakenly clicked on the “Lasso Select” tool to turn my cursor into the crosshairs.

 

I mistakenly used the “Lasso Select” tool to draw circle around the three shapes to select them.

Finally I mistakenly clicked on the “Convert to Shapes” button over and over and wondered why the sloppy, sketched shapes didn’t convert to tidy, shapes.

 

After realizing my error, I performed the steps in the correct order. I  selected the “Draw with mouse or touch” button, then the “Convert to Shapes” button. (Notice buttons that are selected turn dark gray.)

 

This time I drew shapes below my original set of sloppy excuses for shapes. Notice how all sketches that resemble shapes transform into beautiful, polished shapes.

 

What I like about this feature is that you can draw unusual shapes and get interesting results!