Lenovo's awesome WRITEit is now live for ThinkPad stylus users

Back at CES we got an early look at WRITEit, Lenovo's forthcoming utility that lets you use a stylus in any text field in Windows. Currently, stylus support for Windows is limited to Modern apps on Windows tablets, which is fine for most uses, but it becomes less useful in traditional x86 applications due to the extra steps needed.

WRITEit solves this by detecting the stylus in text fields, including web browsers. It lets stylus users truly convert to that pen input method full-time with no compromises.

Even better, WRITEit improves the stylus experience, even in Modern apps. Here's why:

  • It hides the stylus input windows, which takes up significant space in Windows 8.1 
  • It provides auto-suggestions 
  • Prevents the digital keyboard from popping up 
  • Works in any text field on Windows 

The beta for WRITEit went live today, and it is an open to anyone. However, only a select few devices work with it for now, including:

  • ThinkPad Helix 
  • ThinkPad Yoga 
  • ThinkPad Tablet 10 

More Lenovo devices are expected to be added as the beta program expands and improves over the coming months. Lenovo told us they expected a finalized version sometime this spring, which seems doable.

Unfortunately for Surface users, this tool will not install on non-Lenovo hardware and Microsoft has failed to provide something similar to its users. However, we would not be surprised if some minor hacking by users can get this working, ahem, on any device with pen input. We'll be following that closely for any developments.

For now, if you are a lucky owner of one of those three devices, you can head to Lenovo's WRITEit page to get started. You can also watch their demo video to see it in action, in addition to our hands-on demo at CES.

Source: Lenovo WRITEit

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.