After the latest Office update PowerPoint get locked in ink mode

Anonymous

after my recent office update, PowerPoint is locked in ink mode and I can't use my pen to do anything but to draw. It's so annoying I can't even select anything with my surface pen in order to re-size the text or change text color. and when I use my finger it only moves the cursor, it won't let me select. what should I do?

[Original Title: power point ink]

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Anonymous

UPDATE 4/8:

We have started to roll out the change that also adds the Select button to the Draw tab (#1 in my original email below), so if you want to continue to use your pen to ink by default you can do that, and now use that button to use the pen for selection temporarily. Of course if you want to use the pen to select by default, the preference we added in the Options dialog and detailed below allows you to do that.

UPDATE 3/15:

I wanted to let everyone know that in the update to Office that started rolling out to Insiders today, you will find a new preference in the Options dialog to allow you to make the pen select instead of ink by default. Enabling this preference will make the pen function exactly like it did before, plus you can use the options on the Draw tab if you do decide you want to ink. If you are an Office Insider (which anyone can join), you should get this update within the next day or so. If you are not an Office Insider, it may take another week or two to reach you.

This is a per-app preference, so you can enable selection by default in Excel for instance while leaving ink as the default in Word and PowerPoint, or you can switch all three. To access this preference select File > Options, and then in the Options dialog select Advanced and check ‘Use pen to select and interact with content by default’ in the new Pen section.

We’ll be releasing the second piece (#1 below), which is the ability to toggle on pen selection via the Draw tab for those that only want to use the pen to select occasionally, with the next monthly update.

Thanks again to all of you for your feedback, and we hope this change addresses your concerns.

ORIGINAL:

I wanted to first thank all of you for your feedback both here, and on our UserVoice site. We’ve heard you loud and clear, and as a result we are actively working on two changes:

For people that want to use the pen as a precise pointer temporarily, we will introduce the ability to do that via a button on the Draw tab. This will keep the new default of having the pen ink on the document canvas, but give the ability to use the pen to do selection when needed.
For people that want or need to use the pen like a mouse by default, we will also add a new preference to the Options dialog that will allow you to restore the previous behavior. If you want to ink, that will be easier than before because you’ll be able to just tap a pen on the Draw tab and start inking, but you will be able to set your default behavior to be that the pen selects, just like it was before the update.

We are actively working on making these changes so that we can get them out to you as soon as possible. Note that you may see #2 (the preference in the Options dialog) appear first, because we are prioritizing getting that change to you based on your feedback.

I will keep this post updated with the latest status, or you can follow along at one (or all) of the three relevant UserVoice topics: Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

In addition, if you’d like to get these changes even before they are officially released to everyone, please consider joining our Office Insidersprogram. It’s a great way to preview the upcoming changes and help provide us with feedback early.

Thanks again,

Dan

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196 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-02-24T02:23:01+00:00

Yes, please reverse this or provide an option to turn it on or off. The SP4 screen is small and the excel cells become tiny when viewing larger sheets. Using the pen as a mouse pointer was great, right click worked well. Now the pen is basically useless unless you want to draw something which I personally never do.

This is a terrible update and a shocking surprize. I also spent hours trying to figure out what happened.

Wow! Thinking of returning the SP4 now for a larger screen.

Please do a workaround or whatever while we wait for an update!

Update: Downgraded to Office 2013 with updates turned off. Staying there until MS comes to it's senses. Seriously!
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Anonymous

2016-02-24T02:19:15+00:00

THis really needs to be a preference set by users! Bring back the former behaviour ASAP!!!
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Anonymous

2016-02-24T01:02:20+00:00

The Surface pen is supposed to be more than just a pen on paper. I can buy a pen for pennies. I bought Surface in hopes of doing away with typing and using mice. The pen is far more useful in Excel as a pointing device than my finger, mouse or up down arrows. Using my fingers to control Excel is like eating spaghetti with your hands. The changes you have made have reduced the Surface pen to a gimmicky device worthy of a free iPhone and Droid app, please make your product fully compatible with the pen.
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Anonymous

2016-02-23T23:10:55+00:00
Mr. Parish,

Several reasons of why this new change needs to be optional:

Functionality - those of use who have used a stylus over a certain period of time (5 yrs for me) have become so accustomed to its use that it has replaced the mouse in the work environment. This new change takes away a perfectly functional tool, and forces us to use our imprecise finger tips instead.

UNProductivity - It doesn't make sense. Maybe in PowerPoint where the functionality is more concern on using the sheets as editable canvases, it does not make sense for WORD/EXCEL/ACCESS/ where dragging text around and scaling images, buttons, and comboboxes requires a finer touch of a pointer and keyboard.

Redundancy - Microsoft has a tendency to: CHANGE good working tools first; WAIT for complaints later; ACT much later. Remember how annoying it was to open two instances of Excel in a small screen? - You had to disable DDE association or go around changing the registry to be able to open multiple windows.. It took you guys waaay too long to get it right. However, I was pleased with what you guys had in this latest version. UNTIL this new update.

Mr. Parish, I hope I somewhat managed to help prove a point that many others are trying to make here.

Please bring sexy (in our workflow) back :)
I also use the pen but for me, I have a serious disease that makes my hands shake and trying to highlight text or do other such activities with my fingers is near impossible. The stylus allowed me to narrow the selection that my fingers could not make and allowed me to work around my handicap,. You have now effectively taken that away from me. Why in the world would you make this a default option and then not give people a way to turn it off. Plus the feature may be great for PPT but it's far less for Word or Excel so making it the default for those two programs is ridiculous.

Also your instruction to back out the last changes do not work and are difficult to understand. Why don't you create a Fix It For Me routine to help people instead of making their lives harder?
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