SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard For Dummies

Introducing Ink Aware Applications

There are two main digital ink applications on SMART Board interactive whiteboards: SMART Ink and Ink Aware. SMART Ink is pretty new — it came out in 2012 — so if you have SMART software earlier than that, you’re probably going to use Ink Aware. (See the next section for more info on SMART Ink.)

You’re probably very familiar with using Microsoft Office applications, like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Here’s some great news: SMART Technologies created Ink Aware, a feature that enables SMART Board interactive whiteboards to be integrated with a number of applications. So, when you write or draw on your interactive whiteboard in digital ink, your notes become embedded in the particular software file, such as Excel or Word, instead of being just an external note created on top of the files.

Microsoft Office applications interact very well with SMART software. You edit Office files using your finger, whiteboard pens, and drawing tools. The cool thing about this is that you can save the file, and your notes and drawing will be there the next time you need the file with your presentation.

Now that you understand this important application, you need some hands-on practice. Pick the Office application that you use most frequently for lessons or presentations, and jump to one of the following sections.

To see which software is Ink Aware on your computer, ...