aha! InkWriter at a Glance Quick Reference Guide
A truly revolutionary product, aha! inkWriter allowed you to work with handwritten text as if you were using a word processor. You could hand write paragraphs, create bullet lists, highlight text, add and delete words, and even sketch and clean up drawings.
This is an original internal draft of a quick start guide for the PenPoint version of InkWriter. The document was found in a maquette for the aha! InkWriter 2.0 for Windows packaging (see here).
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Artifact Details
aha! InkWriter at a Glance Quick Reference Guide
aha! software corporation
United States
English
1993
Saddled-stitched black and white printed paper document.
Approx. 6" x 9"
d99945f5bb7f05d4
1995
Donation
Gift of Greg Stikeleather, Founder and CEO, aha! software corporation
2020-07-12
Organizations
People
History
aha! InkWriter at a Glance is the quick-reference guide for aha! InkWriter, copyrighted in 1993 by aha! software corporation of Mountain View, California.1 It condenses the application's gesture-based editing — the taps, cross-outs, carets, circles, and flicks used to select, delete, join, and reformat handwritten words and drawings — into a single at-a-glance card.2 For fuller procedures it directs the reader to the companion InkWriter Handbook.3 This copy documents version 1.01 of InkWriter for the PenPoint operating system, running on the 386/486 and Hobbit processor families.4
aha! software announced InkWriter, its first product and the initial entry in its InkProcessor product line, on June 14, 1993.5 The program was the first to let users of pen-based computers, personal communicators, and PDAs edit and search handwritten words as electronic ink without first translating them into computer text — a capability built on the company's patent-pending SmartInk technology.5 The initial release ran on the PenPoint operating system from Go Corporation, on both the 386/486 and Hobbit families of microprocessors, the Hobbit being the low-power RISC chip used in the AT&T/EO Personal Communicators.5 InkWriter carried a suggested retail price of $249 and was scheduled to ship in July 1993, with an introductory price of $199 for orders placed before August 15.5 The company, founded in early 1991 and based in Mountain View, was led by president and CEO Greg Stikeleather.5
In October 1993, aha! was one of the top five PenPoint independent software vendors featured on the AT&T/EO nationwide solutions roadshow, a six-city seminar tour showcasing applications for the EO Personal Communicator.6
aha! released InkWriter for Windows on June 10, 1994, at a suggested list price of $199.7 In September 1994 it announced InkWriter for Sony's Magic Link and other Magic Cap-based personal communicators, priced at $129 and sold directly by Sony,8 and shipped that Magic Cap version in June 1995.9 In October 1994, Fujitsu announced it would ship a version of InkWriter with its Stylistic 500 tablet computer.10 In January 1995, InkWriter was named a Mobility Award nominee in the systems software category by Mobile Computing Insights.11
On April 8, 1996, Microsoft signed a definitive agreement to acquire aha! software corporation, citing the company's approach of manipulating handwriting in its ink form rather than relying on handwriting recognition.12
AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes
Footnotes
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter at a Glance Quick Reference Guide (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter at a Glance Quick Reference Guide (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter at a Glance Quick Reference Guide (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! InkWriter Application Disk Version 1.01 (PenPoint 386/486 and Hobbit) (image scan), 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! software Delivers on Promise of Electronic ink — Does for Pen What Word Processor Did for Typewriter, June 14, 1993
- EO Inc., AT&T/EO and Top Five Independent Software Vendors Begin Nationwide Roadshow to Demonstrate Effective Real World Software Solutions for Mobile Computing, October 12, 1993
- aha! software corporation, aha! software Releases InkWriter for Windows, June 10, 1994
- aha! software corporation, aha! Releases Critically-acclaimed InkWriter Software for Sony Magic Link Personal Comunicator, September 28, 1994
- aha! software corporation, aha! software Ships its InkWriter Application for Magic Cap-based Personal Communicators, June 1, 1995
- aha! software corporation, aha!'s Acclaimed InkWriter Notetaking Software to Ship with Fujitsu's New Advanced Mobile Computer, October 10, 1994
- Mobile Computing Insights Inc., Mobile Computing Insights Announces Mobility Award Nominees, January 18, 1995
- Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft to Acquire aha! software, April 8, 1996
Oral History
Connections
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