Ink Search Tool for Tablet PCs & UMPCs Updated!! (Beta 2 release)

I’ve made many significant improvements and bug fixes to the Ink Search Tool, and publicly released Beta 2 today!  This release is much faster, and has many new features – Including Desktop Search! WooHoo!

For those unfamiliar with the Ink Search tool, this is a Tablet PC application that lets you write (‘ink’) search terms on your screen rather than typing or using the Tablet Input Panel (TIP).  A more general background can be found here.

Now for the good stuff….  New in this release:

  • Much faster with a lighter footprint
  • Full Windows Vista support (as well as Win XP)
  • Enhanced GUI updates (Very Vista / Office 2007 look, even on Windows XP)
  • Ability to search Google Maps
  • Google Desktop Search!!!
  • Wikipedia Search
  • Slight tweaking in the handwriting recognition
  • And of course, regular Google Search is still in here too

All of the new searches are enabled with a button called, More Searches, selecting that will give you a drop down with the additional searches.  Note: If you do not have Google Desktop Search (GDS) Installed, you will not see the Search Desktop option.

One really cool feature with searching Google Maps is that once you set your default location (via Google) you can enter a business name or type (ex: Computer Stores) and the search will show you the closest matches on the map.  Very neat!

Get the FREE Download Here

(Please uninstall Beta 1 first if you have it installed)

I’ll be adding some additional features soon!!  Keep Watching!

As always, I’d love to hear your input, feedback, and feature requests. Please get in touch here.

9 thoughts on “Ink Search Tool for Tablet PCs & UMPCs Updated!! (Beta 2 release)

  1. Here are a few suggestions/requests:

    -Allow the program to run from the tray to allow it to open up immediately

    -Make the program close down to tray after completing a search

    -Incorporate Vista’s search; e.g. when you click search, either the Start Menu pops up with your search query entered into the text box, or a seach window pops up with your current search query entered

    -Make the ink recognition faster; it currently takes a few seconds after you’ve stopped writing to recognize it

    -Allow custom searches like IE7 does

    -Allow the default search to be changed

    -Make the splash screen optional

    Thanks for the program!

  2. wow! I just found out about this and I’m definitely excited to try it out when I get a chance. Is there a reason why recognition is slow? Aren’t you just using the writing recognition already implemented in Windows?

    Even though I haven’t tried it yet, if this program doesn’t use the tray yet, that would be my first request. Thanks in advance 🙂

  3. Steve,

    Recognition is near real time on all the systems I’ve tried it on. The only time I’ve noticed problems is if you write really large text – the recognition engine seems to ignore that (probably thinks it is a drawing and not text)

    Try it out and let me know what you think.

  4. thanks Ed, this is great.

    I second the motion on this feature:

    -Incorporate Vista’s search; e.g. when you click search, either the Start Menu pops up with your search query entered into the text box, or a seach window pops up with your current search query entered

    I have added you to TabletWiki. will you have a permanent URL for the most current version?

    Same question for

    Ink Blog Plugin for Windows Live Writer

    http://tabletwiki.com/TabletWiki/index.php?title=Software_Utility#Search

  5. Wayne, thanks for stopping by and for the feedback. I do not have a permanent URL for the latest builds, but will work on that for next release.

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