Rocketbook

It’d be easy to think this review might be about the new Hermes electric typewriter, the Rocketbook. Wouldn’t that be cool? For many TR readers, you’ve probably been wondering why I haven’t reviewed electric typewriters. I should! In fact, I recently ordered a couple from eBay. But that’s a sad tale for another post and why I’m considering dropping eBay from my recommend list.

If you’ve been a regular follower of One Typed Page, perhaps you saw a page from Kent Peterson (“Tales from a Rolltop Desk”) about an easy way to get typed pages into an editable text file for your computer.

It’s called a Rocketbook, which is really two things: a reusable paper-like notebook ($) and a smartphone app (free) that’s used for scanning and transcribing handwritten pages in their notebook. Not only does the Rocketbook app recognize handwriting, it recognizes typed pages!

To get typewritten pages into a text file, install the Rocketbook app (iOS or Android) on your smartphone, then download the free Rocketbook page template. Place a typed page within the borders of the template (you might need to trim), then aim the Rocketbook app at the page. It automatically recognizes the page, transcribes it to a text file and creates a PDF image, then emails these files or uploads to your cloud drive, like DropBox or Google. Super easy. Got multiple pages? Just keep snapping and when you’re done Rocketbook combines them in a single file.

If you plan on using Rocketbook often, do what Kent does: laminate the Rocketbook template, cut out the middle, then lay the template over your typed page. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Send! That’s three pages a day for your big project, then another snap for your One Typed Page submission.

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When I said Rocketbook can email OR send to your cloud drive, in fact, it can send to multiple destinations simultaneously. The template has seven icons on the bottom that correspond to where you want the file(s) to go. For example, I configured the Rocketbook icon to send to my email and the diamond icon to send to my Google Drive. Draw an X above an icon to select its corresponding destination. (You’ll need to choose, otherwise by default they’re all configured to send to your email account and you’ll get seven emails with identical attachments!) The destinations feature is great if you want to send a page to yourself and a copy to One Typed Page! (Just the PDF, please & thank you.) If you’re using a laminated template, use a whiteboard pen to make your destination selection.

Finally, since it’s a text file, Rocketbook creates carriage returns at the end of each typed line. Once you get the text into your favorite document application (Highland 2), you’ll need to do some adjusting by combining lines and adding returns.

That’s it! Easy. Grab the app. Download and laminate the template. Scan and send!

p.s. For lamination and photocopying, I go to my local FedEx Office.

Image Credit: Rocket / Jen Garcia / Creative Commons 2.0