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
    2014-09-16T07:41:09+00:00

    Just to keep hammering the point, because it can't be hammered enough from an artist/ architect's point of view... the frustration for me (and I predict lots of others) is that we had this functionality with our earlier Surface Pros, so we've gone backwards. And in every way the Surface Pro 3 is a far superior animal except... KABOOM! Workflow Destroyed! Makes me cry.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-09-15T03:52:21+00:00

    As a long-time Wacom user I expected the SP3's pen buttons to work at least a little like the way they work on every other device that comes with an active stylus.

    I realise the digitiser in the SP3 is N-Trig, not Wacom, but it still has the same buttons as a Bamboo or Intuos stylus, and they're effectively unavailable for general use.

    Right-click should be able to work while the pen is hovering, and the other button should be middle-click (also while hovering) by default or able to be set to return a double-click.

    Without being able to right-click normally or middle-click at all, many applications are hobbled or rendered unusable - and those buttons on the pen barrel are just sitting there, teasing at the SP3's untapped potential.

    Is there an update for the pen functionality planned? Is there a third-party way to remap the pen's buttons for right-click and middle-click? Is there an alternative device driver for the pen? Is the user community going to have to write a replacement driver? I'm prepared to do it myself if I have to, but we really shouldn't have to.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-07T17:03:55+00:00

    I have run into this same problem.

    I'm really confused how poorly the Surface pro 3 is being supported by Microsoft.

    For being a device targeted at power users, it sure seems like my hands are tied by oversimplification way too often.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-09-06T20:10:42+00:00

    Agreed. Agreed. Agreed! I NEED the use of at least 1 custom macro on the pen. I already spoke to N-trig about giving the users some kind of GUI to allow for customization of the pen in a new driver release. They just said "thank you, we value your input." Honestly didn't seem like that was going anywhere. Maybe MS could pressure N-trig to roll out a driver that meets our needs? The software is what is hindering my SP3 right now.....so sad for such a beautifully endowed piece of hardware.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-09-03T18:03:03+00:00

    Very informative. I just hope at least some of this gets adressed as it would make this device ALOT better.

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