Patent ID: 6897851

Claim:
A method of entering formatted electronic ink data provided in association with a user on a handwriting system, the method comprising the steps of: positioning one or more pieces of writing medium to substantially overlay at least a portion of a digitizing surface associated with the handwriting system; physically entering handwritten data on the one or more pieces of writing medium using a stylus associated with the handwriting system such that, substantially simultaneous therewith, the electronic ink data representing the physically entered handwritten data is entered at the digitizing surface; wherein the one or more pieces of writing medium are configured to have a predefined format including one or more fields associated with the predefined format such that the electronic ink data entered at the digitizing surface is computer-parseable based on the one or more fields, and further wherein a field comprises a delimited area of the writing medium; and providing one or more user-specified indications to indicate that electronic ink data entered in association with the one or more user-specified indications is to be associated with the one or more fields, so as to permit a transition between the entry of electronic ink data in accordance with the one or more fields and entry of electronic ink data that is not associated with the one or more fields.