Did anyone else get asked to fill out that survey all about the Surface pen? It had questions about what we use the buttons for. It was almost like it was made without undertsanding that you can't map the buttons.
Surface Pro 3 Pen Button Customization
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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Anonymous
2014-11-12T18:15:17+00:00 -
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Anonymous
2014-11-07T08:11:48+00:00 This issue demonstrates a real lack of foresight for Microsoft. Perhaps they should actually have some artists help guide the Surface project directly. I'm very enthustitic about this product and want to see MS deliver on every aspect. I want to buy another in the future. Not see the end of another line of products which should be more successful
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Anonymous
2014-11-03T22:15:59+00:00 Well considering it's been 4 months since my original post, and the Surface Hub app didn't give us what we have been wanting, it might bring some awareness to this issue if people start tweeting @surface. Here's what I originally tweeted 4 months ago, and their official response: https://twitter.com/jakeinmotion/status/529394208075812864
Twitter might bring some attention to this issue. Worth a shot anyway. I'm still completely dumbfounded that such a critical feature present in a previous model was taken away in the Surface Pro 3.
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Anonymous
2014-11-03T21:52:15+00:00 Totally agree. I have been trying to use my surface with c4d and lack of button customization makes it very difficult.