Monstera's built-in text recognition reads printed text. For handwriting, you can send a box you draw to Azure Document Intelligence or to Claude, using your own key. The words come back as searchable, selectable text in the right place.
Steps
- Add a key first. See "Get and add keys for AI and online reading services". The provider bills you directly for what you send.
- In the rail, choose Tools. In the OCR group, choose Azure OCR (Send a box to Azure to recognise) or Claude OCR (Send a box to Claude to recognise).
- Drag a box around the handwriting. Only the area inside the box is sent.
To read a whole handwritten document without drawing boxes, use Export to Word or Export tables to Excel, and choose Handwritten or scanned. Every page you choose is sent, and the window says how many before you go on.
Good to know
- Azure OCR appears only when both the Azure Document Intelligence endpoint and key are stored (Settings, OCR page). Claude OCR appears only when an Anthropic key is stored (Settings, AI page).
- Azure deletes its copy of each area after reading it.
- If the key is missing or not accepted, or the service is busy, Monstera says so and nothing is changed.
- If your Anthropic account is out of credit, Monstera tells you to add credit in the Claude Console.
- Undo with Ctrl+Z.
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