Annotating on Microsoft Powerpoint 2016

Question

Hi,

We have updated our version of office to 2016, and fully updated it.  We have a mixture of operating systems, Windows 10, and Windows 7 (32 and 64).  This was not an issue with Office 2010.

When trying to annotate on a tablet, using powerpoint and a tablet pen, the pen randomly spikes upwards with vertical lines.  This makes the powerpoint presentation unusable. This only occurs in Powerpoint and not when annotating other Windows apps like MS Paint. 

A repair off Office does not resolve the issue, and Office is fully updated, as is Windows.  We have also tried a variety of tablet drivers to no avail.  As it ONLY occurs in Powerpoint 2016 I can only assume the issue is with Powerpoint 2016.

I would appreciate some assistance as this is a very frustrating problem for my users trying to teach.

Thank you

Vicky

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.  Reinstalling Office 2016 in the prescribed manner did not resolve the issue.

I have looked at other forums where users describe this issue, and believe I have resolved the issue by installing Powerpoint 2013.

Kind regards

Vicky

Answer 2

Thank you for that information. Could you also please confirm if you have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Office suite on your computer? If not, please do so and tell us the results. Please take note to restart the computer before reinstalling the Office suite.

Please respond to this thread to let me know how the issue progresses. Similarly, if you have more questions, please inform me by replying to this post.

Answer 3

I can see another few users describe the same issue.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-powerpoint/random-horizontal-lines-when-annotating-powerpoint/983ceed0-cfbf-4d1a-a017-28b3638b5bc3?page=3

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/random-lines-while-using-surface-pen-in-powerpoint/23de7c10-2c59-4d63-b702-c84dc7360667

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/random-horizontal-lines-appearing-when-annotating/4d6bde6f-9e07-43f2-98f6-ba504729b779

Answer 4

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 6 16.0.4266.1001

Microsoft Windows 10 Education 10.0.17763

Answer 5

Hi Vicky, 

When we tried to replicate the concern on our end using the PowerPoint Version 1910 (Build 12130.20344), it seems that we are unable to get the same results as yours. 

Could you please provide us which build and version of Office you are using? To get this information, you may follow the steps on this link.

Also, kindly provide us the specifications of your device together with the build and version of Windows you are using. To get this, click the Start menu and type About your PC and then select the first results. For build and version of the Windows, click the Start menu and type winver and then hit Enter.

A video of the specific concern is another way for us to have a better overview of the exact issue. This way, we'll be able to capture how you annotate using the pen in the PowerPoint. Also, it can help us easily follow on how you do it if we need to reproduce the problem on our end. We suggest that you save the video on your OneDrive and share the link with us by replying to the private message that we’ve sent to you together with the needed information above. Here's the articlefor your reference. To get into your inbox, click your profile name on this thread and then select View private messages. 

For any results, please let us know by replying to this thread, and we will get back to you as soon as we can if further assistance is needed.