Surface Pro 3 Pen Button Customization

Anonymous
2014-06-21T18:20:54+00:00

I am a previous owner of a Surface Pro 2, and loved the capability it provided of customizing the button commands per program through the Wacom drivers. As a new owner of the surface Pro 3, I a very disappointed to discover that the same functionality is not available in the N-trig driver options. As an artist, the primary use of my surface is for drawing inside of programs like Adobe Photoshop. Not being able to customize the button functions on the new pen is detrimental to my efficiency as a digital artist. Without the ease of having quick access to specific commands through the pen buttons, I am forced to either dig through the menus and submenus of the program to execute a simple command, or connect a keyboard to use hotkeys. One of the greatest features of the surface is the ability to draw inside of photoshop as if it were a paper notebook, freeing me from my desktop work space and removing the requirement of the mouse and keyboard. Without the customization of these pen buttons, I lose that freedom.

I spoke to a Microsoft support tech this morning who informed me that "hopefully" in the next month or two, this feature will be added to the pen drivers. While this is a new product, and I understand that some features are still in development, this feature is crucial in the workflow of any artist using this device. I already own a desktop computer and a laptop; so again, the primary function of the Surface Pro 3 for me is drawing inside of programs like Photoshop without the need for a mouse and keyboard. 

I don't know if any Microsoft representatives read these discussions, but if there is a way I could be included in any sort of pre-release developmental versions of drivers that introduce this capability, I would love to be a part of it and am happy to provide feedback from an artist's perspective. 

Thanks for reading.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-07-08T13:02:59+00:00

    I couldn't resist it anymore. I've been patiently waiting for any word of the Surface Pro 4, but with my 6 year old Dell schitzing out on me and the rumors of a 2016 SP4 release I had to bite the bullet. I went out and got a 128gb Surface 3 (not pro). Even though it's on the weaker side, it allows me to do essential sketching and everyday browsing and file handling to last me until the SP4. I have to say though that overall it's a pretty neat device and very enjoyable to use (despite some clunkiness with Windows 8). I've only used it for about 5 days so far but it's made me feel more confident about wanting to go for an SP4 once/if it comes out. But the buttons. The friggin pen buttons.. drive me mad. It's pretty much the only issue I have with it, and I can't comprehend why it's limited like this. 

    It feels so unnecessary, clunky, unintuitive and clumsy to have to tap the screen while holding the pen button just to get it to right click (not allowing for hover clicks). And the fact that the second button is set to an eraser function rather than for instance middle click is completely beyond me. It means you can't just middle button click tabs to close them and middle button click links to be opened in new tabs which I do ALL THE TIME when doing simple browsing on a pc. And it means that Maya and most 3d software are completely nonoperational without plugging in a mouse. Why? WHY?? I never use the fuffin eraser button. (Though I understand that some people might?)

    Not being able to swap the button functions and map them to whatever you want just makes me sad. It's such a good device, and I do see myself doing my full fledged personal artwork on the SP4 when it comes out.. But as I draw on the S3 I often find myself squeezing the pen in my fist as hard as I can much in the same way I sometimes squeeze my game controller after too many failed attempts.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-12T08:38:12+00:00

    The Radial menu is with the program you are using.  What it does is that within the program it will change what the pen button function does.  The button is still giving the same command, just that the program re-directs it to a different function when you select a menu option.  That is only within that program.

    In theory, Microsoft can actually do the same thing for the whole system.  Let's keep that quiet, shall we?  They might mis-program a button to play music.

    That is a trick that has been done ever since personal computers came out.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-06-12T07:03:42+00:00

    Almost a year has passed since this post, but I picked up an SP3 last week and this is still my number one issue with it: The pen buttons don't work how they should work, making (for example) Blender impossible to use without an external mouse - Somewhat defeating the object.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-06-08T19:05:05+00:00

    What you guys said. 

    I need programmable buttons for working in Photoshop.

    The functionality to set specific actions is clearly already there (eg. One Note). How hard can it be?

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-06-05T13:56:56+00:00

    See the link http://ahkscript.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7589 for an AutoHotkey script that allows the state of the two barrel buttons to be detected when the pen is tapped against the Surface. This allows the barrel buttons be programmed to suit, within limits. (Windows still, by default traps a long press with the bottom button pressed and turns it into a right click. but this can be turned off in the touch or mouse settings somewhere.) Likely, though, only experienced AutoHotkey programmers should work with this script.

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