The very first time you log in, SandDune walks you through this with a short guided flow — a welcome, your first upload, and a small tour. You can follow it (recommended) or tap Skip for now on any step. This page describes the same process from the dashboard, which is how you'll do it every day after.
Before you start
- Use a photo of a single page — one page per note. A multi-page spread works best as two notes.
- JPEG and PNG images are supported. Large photos are compressed automatically.
- Good, even light and a mostly flat page make a real difference to transcription quality.
Steps
- From the dashboard, tap Transcribe a new note.
- (Optional) Give the note a Title. You can always add or change it later.
- Set the Date Written — the day you actually wrote the page, not today's date. It defaults to today, so if you're uploading an older page, change it. This date is what your calendar, streaks, and Timelines are built on.
- (Optional) Pick one or more Notebooks to file the note into. See Notebooks.
- Tap the upload area and choose or take your photo.
- Tap Transcribe.
SandDune scans the page — you'll see the words appear as it reads. When it finishes, the note saves itself and opens in the Note Viewer, with your transcribed lines glowing briefly over the handwriting.
That's it. No save button, no filing. One transcription from your monthly allowance is used per page (see Usage limits).
If something goes wrong
- Nothing to read — if the photo has no readable text (a blank page, a photo of your cat), nothing is saved and you can try another image.
- Transcription failed mid-scan — you'll get a Try again option. A retry runs a fresh transcription, which uses another unit from your allowance.
- Save failed after transcribing — retrying the save doesn't re-run the transcription and doesn't use another unit.
- Limit reached — you'll see a notice with when you can transcribe again, and an upgrade link. See Usage limits.
Next: explore the Note Viewer.