A system includes an operator interface that includes a screen on which a ladder logic diagram is displayed. The system also includes an input device that may be used to draw a hand-drawn ladder logic component in the ladder logic diagram on the screen. Additionally, the system includes memory circuitry that stores ladder logic programming code and processing circuitry that executes the ladder logic programming code. The ladder logic programming code executed by the processing circuitry includes a recognition module to recognize the hand-drawn ladder logic component and a conversion module to convert the recognized hand-drawn ladder logic component to a standard graphical format and to a standard programming object.