aha InkWriter Handbook (PenPoint)

This Handbook is the printed user manual that shipped with the PenPoint version of aha! InkWriter, the pen-based word processor from aha! software corporation, whose cover bills it as offering "the simplicity of pen and paper, the power of word processing."¹ aha! software announced InkWriter on June 14, 1993, releasing it as the company's first product and the initial entry in its InkProcessor product line.² 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.²

InkWriter let users write and draw as easily as with pencil and paper: handwritten words could be erased, highlighted, italicized, or made bold with a few strokes of the pen, and when words were deleted or moved the remaining text "rewrapped" to fit the page.² The Handbook's cover demonstrates these gestures with a handwritten note that rewraps as words are crossed out, translates into neat computer text, and turns rough sketches into polished drawings.¹ The initial release ran on GO Corp.'s PenPoint operating system 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.²

InkWriter and the InkProcessor line were 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.² The product carried a $249 suggested retail price and was scheduled to ship in July 1993, with a $199 introductory price for orders placed before August 15, 1993.² aha! software, led by president and CEO Greg Stikeleather, was founded in early 1991 and was privately held and based in Mountain View, California.² The Handbook's back cover gives the company's address as 1685 Plymouth Street, Mountain View, California 94043.³

aha! extended InkWriter beyond PenPoint the following year, announcing aha! InkWriter for Windows on June 10, 1994 at a $199 suggested list price.⁴ 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.⁵

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes