InkSeine is one of the projects featured on the new Microsoft Office Labs web site. There are some cool prototypes available there, so I recommend you swing by to check them out, and to learn more about Office Labs. We're honored that Office Labs invited the InkSeine Team to participate in this launch.

If you are new to InkSeine, welcome to the fold! Check out the Twelve Days of InkSeine to see some of the ways that you can use InkSeine to take notes, illustrate ideas, and gather information on your tablet.

This InkSeine update (version 1.1.425.0) is primarily a maintenance release to address a few easy-to-fix bugs. However, we also have our new rotation feature working, so we decided to include that as well. We'll look to tackle many more of the requests and ideas that we've received in future releases.

Our AutoUpdate feature (thanks to Office Labs!) is also now ready to go. If you run InkSeine on your Tablet PC while connected to the internet, you won't even have to grab the download for this update. You'll see an invitation to upgrade to the new version the next time you exit InkSeine (see details below).  UPDATE: I may have spoken too soon; it seems that our AutoUpdate will only get applied to subsequent releases, after this one. If you don't see the AutoUpdate invitation, just uninstall InkSeine, head over to the InkSeine download link, and install it the old-fashioned way. We'll try some more stuff tomorrow to see if maybe we can get AutoUpdate working.

InkSeine Version 1.1.425.0 Release Notes

• Rotation and Reflection: InkSeine now supports rotation of any lasso selection. Just grab the little green rotation handle and spin away. You can also reflect the selection in any direction by grabbing a resize handle and dragging it through the opposite side of the selection.
  
  
  

• Antialiased Page Thumbnails: It's now much easier to recognize pages from their thumbnails. Note: If you load an InkSeine note from a previous version, the page thumbnails only update when you make a change to a page. For example, draw an ink stroke and then erase it to force the page thumbnail to refresh, and you will see the improved version. Here's a comparison showing the improvement, with the old version on the left and the new version on the right:
  
  
  
  
• Search for & Open OneNote sections. Previous builds of InkSeine only handled OneNote pages that were saved into individual .one files. InkSeine now returns OneNote sections with its search results, and you can open them and insert hyperlinks to them in your InkSeine notes.
  
  
  
  
• File association fixed: The association for InkSeine files (.iks extension) now installs correctly. InkSeine files have a little notebook icon, and when you Open them from file folders or shortcuts on your desktop, they now will launch InkSeine.
  
  
• Saves the last Pen and Highlighter: InkSeine remembers which pen and highlighter you were using so they are ready to go when you next launch InkSeine, or open another note.
  
  
• Performance improvements, particularly while dragging selections.
  
  
• Improved Stroke Eraser: It no longer leaves "debris" on the screen on occasion.
  
  
• Tool Ring bug fix: The Tool Ring will no longer activate the camera or the close icon if you happen to end your pen stroke over them while circling-to-scroll or while using the tool ring as a flickpad on Vista.
  
  
• AutoUpdate server is online! With the launch of the Microsoft Office Labs site, the Office Labs AutoUpdate server is also now online. We're very grateful to Office Labs for helping us to offer this service for InkSeine.
  
  
• To get updates, your computer must be on the internet. Start InkSeine and make sure that it has been running for a few minutes. When you exit, you will be prompted to install the update (build 1.1.425.0). Note: Make sure that "Automatically check for updates" is checked in the upper-right corner of the InkSeine options dialog. You can open the options from the check-mark menu. You may disable checks for automatic updates by unchecking this option, or by opting out during your initial installation of InkSeine.
  
  
• Alternatively, you may install the new release of InkSeine manually. Uninstall InkSeine, and then download and install the new build.
  
  
• UPDATE: Raman says that AutoUpdate may not yet fire for this release because of the way our installer was configured on our last external release. But it should allow us to auto-deploy subsequent releases. If you don't see the invitation to upgrade, uninstall InkSeine, grab the InkSeine download, and install it the old-fashioned way.

Thanks and be sure to let us know if you find any bugs, or if you have any ideas for improvements and new features. You can also discuss InkSeine and ask questions in the GottaBeMobile forum for InkSeine, or visit their general forums if you have questions about Tablet PC hardware, software, or just want to see some great tips about using your Tablet PC.

-- The InkSeine Team