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
    2015-02-20T02:40:02+00:00

    Glad to help. :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-26T21:47:12+00:00

    the pen does do this.  double click the purple button and it will take a screenshot for you to snip and put into onenote

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-27T11:03:24+00:00

    The problem is, the Surface Pro 3 Pen is a gadget for OneNote and some Microsoft Apps, and is not a standard like a mouse or  pen digitalizers. I'm desperate and angry for thi.

    When you see the promotional videos, with happy people painting with photoshop you imagine that the Surface is like a Cintiq Companion but it is not true because Wacom offers drivers to configure ALL the buttons of his pens. And the most important for me is the function CONTEXTUAL-MENU (left-button in mouse). It is essential. And many programs uses it for someting more to copy or paste. 

    Actually you can open the contextual-menu pressing the screen during a second but for me this is an exotic system to access to imformation. It is not useful in many proffessional software.

    I see the alternative solutions like Radialmenu but... Repeat... I want to access to CONTEXTUAL-MENU with the LEFT-BUTTON!

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-02-28T02:47:28+00:00

    I agree 100%. This kind of basic functionality is just expected nowadays. And there's no excuse in my mind for not being able to customize every pen button (out of the box & w/ just Windows 8.1).

    Most input devices - Wacom, Logitech, etc. - let you customize every button to whatever you want it to be. Why not the Surface Pro 3?

    Microsoft, this is just a big step backward, & in one of your flagship products. Moreover you could easily correct it.

    -John

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-03-20T16:42:54+00:00

    I'm not a graphics artist but I do take notes and simply using the top to erase things works just like a... hmmm... PENCIL.  Since when is having to roll the stylus around to find a button to push to erase something any where close to natural?

    For this reason I still use my Surface Pro 2 and gave the Surface Pro 3 to charity.

    I think they really missed the boat on this.

    John

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