aha! InkWriter 2.0 for Windows Quick Reference

This Quick Reference is the printed pocket guide that shipped with aha! InkWriter 2.0 for Windows, the pen-based word processor from aha! software corporation, and carries a © 1993, 1994 aha! software corporation copyright.¹ aha! software announced the release and shipment of InkWriter for Windows on June 10, 1994, describing it as the only word processor for your handwriting.² The guide's opening "Key Points" summarize the program's core pen gestures — writing and drawing naturally, marking up, and editing electronic ink, with multi-level undo and redo for correcting mistakes.¹

aha! software had introduced InkWriter a year earlier, announcing it on June 14, 1993 as the first product in its InkProcessor product line.³ The company described InkWriter as the first product to let users of pen-based computers, personal communicators, and personal digital assistants edit and search handwritten words in the form of electronic ink without first translating them into computer text.³ The software was built on aha!'s patent-pending SmartInk technology, which automatically recognized whether a user was writing paragraphs, making lists, marking up, drawing, or editing and handled each appropriately, and the initial release ran on GO Corp.'s PenPoint operating system at a $249 suggested retail price.³

InkWriter for Windows carried a $199 suggested list price, with a $149 introductory price for direct orders placed before August 1, 1994.² Unlike most handwriting-recognition software, it supported "deferred recognition," letting users translate their writing at a later, more convenient time rather than correcting mis-recognized words as they wrote, and it drew its recognition either from Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing or from other software such as that from Communication Intelligence Corporation.² With aha!'s InkFinder technology, users could search through a mixture of text and electronic ink to find words even when they were displayed in the user's original handwriting.²

aha! extended InkWriter beyond Windows over the following year: on September 28, 1994 it announced a version for Sony's Magic Link and other Magic Cap-based personal communicators,⁴ and on October 10, 1994 Fujitsu announced it would ship a 30-day evaluation version of InkWriter with its Stylistic 500 tablet computer.⁵ The Magic Cap version began shipping directly from Sony on June 1, 1995.⁶ On April 8, 1996, Microsoft Corporation announced a definitive agreement to acquire aha! software corporation, which it described as a leading developer of electronic-ink note-taking and editing software for mobile computers and communicators.⁷

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes