14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft Research has updated InkSeine, a project designed to let Tablet PC users search from ink, to work on the next iteration of the Windows client. The prototype now works with not only Windows XP and Windows Vista, but also Windows 7. The update, which takes InkSeine up to version 1.2.1720.0, went live on the OfficeLabs auto-updater at the end of the past week. In addition to Windows 7 support, Microsoft indicated that it managed to increase inking performance. The result is faster drawings snapping because of the evolution of ink stroke capturing and rendering capabilities. Microsoft promised that the difference in user experience related to speed would be nothing short of dramatic on UMPCs, including Samsung Q1 series and OQO Model 02.
Additional improvements include: “Hide / Show the Arc - the arc with all your pens and other tools on it now has a small +/- symbol on it. Just tap it to hide or show the tool arc. Tool Ring in task tray - the InkSeine Tool Ring now resides in the system task tray. For the many people who run the "ScrollControl.exe" application separately from InkSeine, this will make it easier to manage. Print margins bug fixed. Printing from InkSeine now always scales the page correctly so that the entire page will be visible on the printout; previously InkSeine would sometimes clip off the margins. File loading bug fixed. We fixed an obscure bug that on rare occasions would cause opening of certain InkSeine files to fail,” revealed Ken Hinckley of Microsoft Research.
The update also adds new page view options as well as new scrolling capabilities. InkSeine Beta 1.2.1720.0 delivers a greater level of flexibility when it comes down to displaying content. This because the prototype is now capable of fitting a page to the screen real estate space available. The additional scrolling options go hand in hand with the page viewing evolution. Scrolling the pen on the InkSeine tool ring will allow users to scroll the page up and down, and even from one page to another. Of course, there is no scrolling bar.
“I had really wanted to get custom pen and highlighter colors (and thicknesses) into this build, but we didn't make it. We believe there are a lot of subtle issues with supporting that well, and we didn't want to include a half-hearted attempt just to check off a new feature. But this is a new capability that I'm desperate to add myself,” Hinckley added. “There's also a couple basic usability requests that we didn't get to, such as having both Personal Search and Web Search available as top-level options in the context menu which appears after lasso selecting an ink phrase. I have a particular solution in mind for that which we didn't have time to complete.”
InkSeine Beta is available for download here.