Do a Job · Everyday · 3 min
Set up your pen's buttons
Make the side button and the eraser end do something useful, and try your pen to see what it tells the program.
A pen works with a mouse and keyboard as well as in touch mode. Its side button and its eraser end can be set to do something useful, in Settings, Pen. Its tip draws as it always did.
What a browser can know about a pen
A browser doesn’t say whether a pen is an Apple Pencil, a Surface Pen or a Wacom: it only reports what the pen does (how hard it presses, whether it tilts or hovers, and which buttons it has). So the program watches the pen and says what it has seen, for example a pen with pressure, tilt, hover, a side button and an eraser end, and chooses to suit. If it guesses wrong, choose the Kind of pen yourself.
What the buttons can do
- Side button: hold to move the sheet (hold it and drag the pen to pan), Undo, Redo, go back to the last tool, finish the shape, or leave it as your computer has it (usually a right-click menu).
- Eraser end: rub out marks (drag over marks to select them, lift to remove them all in one step that one Undo brings back), or Undo.
- Automatic chooses from what the pen has been seen to do: a side button holds to move the sheet and an eraser end rubs out; a pen without them is left alone. The first time a button does something, a message says so and where to change it.
Scan your pen
The first time a pen is seen and nothing is known about it, a message says so: we can’t tell what your pen can do yet. Press Scan my pen (it’s also in Settings, Pen and the command palette). On the pad, do each step: hold the pen above the screen, draw pressing lightly and then hard, tilt it, hold its side button, and touch with the other end. Each is ticked the moment it’s seen, and a step your pen can’t do is skipped, which is remembered too. Save what it found keeps it, and Automatic then sets the side button and eraser end to suit. If the scan says your browser is reporting a finger or a mouse, the pen's own features can’t reach the program through that browser: try the latest Chrome, Edge or Safari. Nothing leaves your computer.
Try your pen
Settings, Pen has a pad to draw on that shows live what your pen reports: its type, pressure, tilt, twist, which button is down and whether it hovers. Press each button on it to see what it sends. Copy what it reports puts the details on the clipboard, which is what to send if a pen does something unexpected.