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.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

171 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-03T03:51:28+00:00

    There are some autohotkey scripts that allow remapping of the SP3 pen buttons, as well as my Radial menu app that allows for it as well - http://radialmenu.weebly.com

    This is almost true, but your application will only allow three options for the surface side buttons. Those options are mapping the buttons to either be a right click (one already is so it doesn't make sense), a middle click (could potentially be useful but what's the point?), or the radial menu (which, by the way is a fantastic piece of work. I contributed to you project because it is so awesome!). Is there any way to extend the options to provide the same level of customization options? Why not let the buttons themselves launch actions that your radial menu can do (i.e. Toggle, press, spin, swipe, macro, launch/run, open location)? That is what everyone is really looking for anyways.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-02T03:57:55+00:00

    Just thought I'd share this with the folks here. It is NOT a complete solution, but it does allow me to do some of the things I wanted to do.

    http://surfaceproartist.com/blog/2014/10/18/radial-menu-isnt-just-for-wacom-anymore

    http://radialmenu.weebly.com/features.html

    -Mike

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-02T03:50:54+00:00

    Bumping this thread for info. Many people want this side button functionality. Is this a confirmed thing or not?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2014-12-01T14:22:50+00:00

    As much as I am loathed to pay for something that I think should be included it makes that much of a difference to my use of the Surface I'd be willing to pay a 3rd party to write some software (or even find time to write something myself) but would that breach warranty?

    That won't breach warranty as far as I know .

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2014-12-01T12:18:46+00:00

    As much as I am loathed to pay for something that I think should be included it makes that much of a difference to my use of the Surface I'd be willing to pay a 3rd party to write some software (or even find time to write something myself) but would that breach warranty?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments