Microsoft is making the experimental Software Journal a full-fledged Windows app. Journal is now available to download for free.
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Microsoft Journal is available for free download.
©Microsoft
This week, Microsoft released Journal, a former Microsoft Garage project, as a fully-fledged app for Windows. The software is a note-taking app designed for touchscreen pen input.
Gesture input and drawings
With Microsoft Journal (available here for free in the Microsoft Store), users can capture handwritten notes digitally. In addition to handwriting, drawings can also be entered via the app. The software also supports different gestures. Words, for example, are deleted with a strike-through movement. Circle a word or phrase with the stylus to highlight it.
Microsoft collects user statistics
Garage is Microsoft’s brand for more experimental products. Journal comes from this area. In order to improve the app and finally be able to offer it as a full Windows software, Microsoft says it has evaluated user statistics. For example, the group was able to determine that the majority of the files processed in the app were PDFs. The statistics also gave insight into the preferred selection tools – the instant lasso and the pen tip. However, Microsoft emphasizes that the user statistics recorded were not about the document content. According to its own statements, Microsoft does not know the content of the files edited by the users.
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