methods and apparatus implementing a technique for processing handwritten marks made on a machine - readable tablet . the technique includes providing multiple regions for input on the tablet ; receiving from a user handwritten marks made in a current region of the plurality of regions ; receiving from the user an indication that the current region is complete and thereupon selecting a different one of the plurality of regions as the current region in which to receive handwritten marks made by the user , whereby marks are received in a sequence of at least two regions ; and representing the handwritten input as the aggregate of the marks written in the sequence of regions in a writing direction , the marks in different input regions having positions with respect to each other defined by a logical concatenation of the regions on the sequence of regions . the input can be arbitrarily - long markings of any kind .