Surface pen inconsistent while working in excel

Question

Hello,  I use my surface pro 4 to take notes during our weekly meetings. We have an excel spreadsheet with all of our projects listed. I take notes directly on the spreadsheet using my surface pen with excel mobile.

Now, sometimes my pen works, and sometimes it doesn't. i select the draw tab, and try and annotate, but instead excel treats my pen like a mouse and selects cells or highlights them or whatever. ill tap around with the pen, maybe tap file, then back to the draw tab, and sometimes it will work letting me draw some read lines.. then all of a sudden it will just go back to treating the pen as a mouse.. this is very frustrating and its causing me to not pay attention a lot because im fiddling with excel trying to get it to draw. is there something i'm missing? i'm literally just trying to draw on the spreadsheet, it shouldn't be this finicky. my co-workers with their ipad pro's can draw on their spreadsheets just fine..

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Answer 1

In this case, let's try to start Excel in safe mode to check if the issue have is caused by third party programs or add-ins. To do this, in the search box type: excel.exe /s and press Enter.

If the the pen works fine with Excel in safe mode, try disabling the add-ins for the application and check the result. To do this:

1. Click on the File tab.
2. Go to Options.
3. Click Add-ins.
4. In the Manage section, select COM Add-ins and click on Go.
5. Now uncheck the Add-ins and click on Ok.

If the issue persists after doing the steps above, we suggest that you repair the Office application and check if it would resolve the issue.

Kindly update us with the results.

Answer 2

Hi, thanks for the reply, I have a Surface pro 4 core m3 model, and i'm using my old surface pro 3 pen.

My OS is Windows 10 version  1703 build: 15063.483

I haven't made any changes to my device other then updating Windows/drivers regularly. The only substantial applications I have installed are AutoCAD 2016, Sketchbook pro, Sketchup 2017, Photoshop CS6, and the Microsoft office suite.

Also, the pen works fine in all other applications.

Answer 3

Hi Andrew,

This issue may occur when the device's driver is outdated or corrupted. To isolate your concern, we'd like to ask the following questions:

• What is the make and model of your device?
• Which Windows version and build are you using? Type winver in the search bar and press Enter to find out.
• Have you made any recent changes on your device prior to the issue?
• What have you done so far to resolve the issue?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you update the device's driver by following the steps provided in this article and check if it works.

We look forward to your response.