Can I have the inking feature in Edge work automatically with my surface pen?

Hello Wesley,

Welcome! Your voice is very important in the Microsoft community.

According to the description, I understand that you want the inking feature in Edge work automatically with my surface pen. I'm here to help.

To resolve this, I suggested the following steps:

1. Pair your surface pen with Surface GO 3. (Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Add device > Bluetooth.)

2.Go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Pen & Windows Ink.

• Ensure "Ignore touch input when using the pen" is enabled to prevent accidental touch interference.
• Adjust pen pressure sensitivity and button shortcuts to customize your experience.

For detailed information please visit this link: How to use your Surface Pen - Microsoft Support

3. Use the Eraser feature -If your Surface Pen has an eraser on the back, it should automatically switch to erasing when used.

I hope this information helps you solve your problem. If this helps you with your question, mark it as helpful or unhelpful so that it can be useful to others.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Best regards,

Shelby_7891 | Microsoft Community Moderator

Thank you for the information.

Perhaps I need to be a little more explicit.

I am mostly dealing with PDF forms.

So when I'm filling out the form, I don't want to be in inking mode. I'm filling out the forms with keyboard, mouse, trackpad, etc

If I do want to do some markup on the document using my stylus, I have to first select the stylus tool in the toolbar before I can do it.

What I would like to know, is there a way to set it up so that when the stylus touches the tablet, it automatically shifts to inking mode. And conversely, when my surface pen eraser touches the tablet, it automatically switches to erasing mode.

Hello Wesley,

Here I'm suggested you some steps please try this:

1. Go to Pen & Windows Ink: Navigate to Bluetooth & devices > Pen & Windows Ink.
2. Customize Pen Behavior:
   • Enable "Use the top of the pen to erase ink" if you want your Surface Pen to automatically switch to erasing mode when touching the screen.
   • Adjust pen shortcuts to define how different buttons on your stylus and Surface Pen function.

I hope this information helps you solve your problem. If this helps you with your question, mark it as helpful or unhelpful so that it can be useful to others.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Best regards,

Shelby_7891 | Microsoft Community Moderator

Again, thank you for the reply, but that is not what I am asking.

I have a form fillable pdf open in Edge

None of the inking tools are selected and the toolbar looks like this.

If I want to ink, I need to select one of the tools here.

so, for example, if I want to use my surface pen to draw a box on the PDF I first have to select the draw tool via cursor.

otherwise the surface pen acts like a cursor.

What I want to know is, since Edge, the Surface Go 3 and the Surface pen are all Microsoft products, is there a way to set it up so that when the tip...

of the stylus pen touches the pdf in edge, the "Draw" tool is auto selected

I have used other PDF editors, where it is smart enough to know that if I am using a stylus to auto select "DRAW" mode. For example, Xodo.

AND...

if I use the other end of my stylus pen

it will autoselect the erase tool

Hopefully, that is clear what I am looking for.

Hello Wesley,

Welcome! Your voice is very important in the Microsoft community.

I would like to inform you that Microsoft Edge does support inking on PDFs, there isn't an automatic way to have the "Draw" tool selected the moment the Surface Pen touches the document. However, you can manually enable inking mode by selecting the "Draw" button in the toolbar when viewing a PDF in Edge.

As a valued customer, I request you to write feedback regarding this concern on Our Feedback hub. Here is the link for that: Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support

I hope this information helps you solve your problem. If this helps your issue, mark it as useful or useless so that it can be useful to others.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Best regards,

Shelby_7891 | Microsoft Community Moderator