A Free Text area is typically a large handwriting area where users write paragraphs of text in joined up handwriting. It is generally used for capturing things like notes, statements, reports and things where it is not appropriate to use Check Boxes or Comb Boxes.

Free Text areas usually have a lower recognition accuracy than Check Boxes or Comb Boxes because joined up handwriting is more difficult to interpret than individual characters. However, for long writing areas it is not appropriate to expect the user to write in individual characters.

Tip 1: Free Text areas do not require writing lines to work however it is a good idea to provide them so users can keep their handwriting in straight lines. If a user ignores the lines provided then this will not affect the recognition performance.

Tip 2: Free Text areas always require a lexical resource for best performance. The most common english words are included in the Text lexicon.

There are two types of Free Text area available:

• Standard Cursive Text Field
  This is a good general purpose free text field that includes letters, numbers, punctuation and the Text lexicon containing the most common english words.
• Custom Cursive Text Field
  This field can be used when the standard field requires customisation. For example, if you need additional lexical data (e.g. additional technical words) then you can add additional lexicons to your field.