First, pair your Surface Pen with your Surface Pro. You can do this manually too. Now, to open Cortana, hold down the top button pen for a second or so, then enter your question. Assuming you’re ...

The concept is simple, even if the technology behind it is complicated: You write with a pen on paper, plug the pen into a computer, and have everything you’ve written converted into digital text.

Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. is a senior editor and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 ...