4 Easy Ways to Turn Your Handwritten Convention Notes Into Digital Notes

There’s something about taking notes by hand during the convention that I really love. I think it helps me pay attention, and honestly there’s something satisfying about flipping back through a notebook filled with scriptures, illustrations, and little thoughts that encouraged me.

The one problem is that handwritten notes can be surprisingly hard to find later. A couple of years go by and suddenly I’m trying to remember which notebook had that explanation of Philippians 4:6 I wanted to send to a friend. I know I wrote it down somewhere… I just have no idea where.

I don’t think you have to choose between handwritten notes and digital ones. I’ve been trying to do both, and it’s worked out really well. So here are four simple ways I’ve been preserving my convention notes so I can actually find them again later.

1. Scan Your Notebook Into a PDF

This is probably the easiest option if your main goal is simply making sure your notes are preserved.

Scan each page using an app like Adobe Scan, Microsoft Lens, Apple Notes, or Google Drive, then combine everything into one PDF. I try to give mine a name I’ll actually recognize later, something like 2026 Pursue Peace Convention Notes, and then save it somewhere that’s backed up, whether that’s iCloud, Google Drive, or whatever cloud storage you already use.

If your scanning app lets you add bookmarks or page thumbnails, I’d recommend taking a few extra minutes to do that too. I usually make one for each day or symposium. It doesn’t take long, and it makes jumping back to a specific talk so much easier months later.

2. Turn Your Notes Into Searchable Text

I love handwriting my notes, but I’ll be honest, searching through three years of notebooks trying to find one point isn’t nearly as enjoyable.

A lot of scanning apps have something called OCR (Optical Character Recognition), which recognizes your handwriting and turns it into searchable text. Apple Notes, OneNote, Adobe Scan, and Google Drive all have some version of it.

You don’t have to retype your entire notebook, either. Simply copy the text it recognizes into a digital note, maybe even into JW Library if that’s where you keep your personal research.

I like adding a heading for each talk while I’m organizing everything. It only takes another minute, but it makes finding a specific point much easier later. I also keep the scanned page alongside the typed text so I still have my original handwritten notes.

Then six months later, instead of wondering which notebook has that point on patience or Philippians 4:6, I just search for it.

3. Let Your Phone Do the Typing

Some days, typing out pages of convention notes just isn’t happening for me – it takes a long time, I get a hand cramp – its a whole ordeal! On those days I’ll open the voice recorder or the dictation feature on my phone and simply talk through or read my notes instead.

I’ll mention the main points in my own words, read the scriptures that stood out to me, and explain why a particular illustration meant so much. If your phone supports speech-to-text, it’ll even turn everything into typed notes while you talk.

I don’t worry about making it sound polished. The goal is simply to capture the encouragement while it’s still fresh in my mind. Honestly, I’ve found that talking through a subject sometimes helps me remember it even better than typing it.

4. Turn it into a little Summary

You can also keep your handwritten notes exactly the way they are and create a short digital summary for each talk instead. Include the talk title, the speaker, the main scriptures, three to five keywords, and one sentence that tells you the main point. It only takes a few minutes after each session, but it give you a quick way to peek back into each talk and what you learned or enjoyed about it.

The best method is always the one you’ll actually use! And I’m still figuring out which of these I like best, if I’m being honest. I also don’t think you have to digitize every single page perfectly or finish everything the week after the convention. Even choosing one of these methods will make your notes much easier to revisit throughout the year.

The convention gives us so many encouraging thoughts in just a few days that it’s impossible to hold onto every one of them. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy keeping notes in the first place. Digitizing them is simply another way of taking care of something that’s already precious to me.

And the best part is this. Six months from now, when you suddenly remember a scripture or an illustration you wanted to read again, there’s a good chance you’ll actually be able to find it!