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Pen tool updates: palm rejection, highlighter, lasso tool, and drawing presets

  • 3 November 2020
  • 50 replies
  • 6134 views

We want to give remote teams the solution as simple and intuitive as a physical whiteboard. That is why today we are launching enhanced stylus support on touch devices.

It is ideal for those who prefer sketching their ideas by hand, or need a quick and easy way to explain their ideas visually to drive initial team alignment.


Here are the new cool features we’ve added to our Pen tool:

  • Palm rejection allowing you sketch ideas quickly and naturally on touch devices without leaving unwanted marks
  • Three drawing presets letting you switch between saved colors and pen thickness to speed up work
  • Highlighter enabling you to annotate boards and facilitate meetings in a more visual and engaging way
  • Lasso tool helping select and move hand-drawn objects on the board easily

Visit Help Center to learn more, and let us know what you think about these updates! :point_down_tone2:

P.S. Palm rejection was one of the top requested updates in the Community – thanks everyone for your thoughts and feedback that helped us ship this feature. 

50 replies

Kiron Bondale
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Awesome @Lena Shenkarenko - I know a few folks who wanted that highlighting feature! I also like the lasso - must be the cowboy in me!

Kiron

Kiron D. Bondale, PMP, PMI-ACP, PSM II, ICP-ACC, DASSM, DAC, DAVSC, PMI-RMP
J

I signed up to the Community to say THANK YOU for this update. I was fairly light user but think these features (especially pam rejection) will unblock me from becoming a power user. Drawing presets and highlighter are great too.

Lena Shenkarenko
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Hahaha @Kiron Bondale – loving the cowboy in you 🤠
@Jeremy Olson Thank you so much for your feedback 🙌 Our team couldn't be happier

R

The new highlighter feature (and the whole new pen setup) works wonderfully and really makes Miro great for me and my team. 

The one issue I just encountered when I exported a highlighted .pdf using the “vector” setting is that the highlights don’t register as highlights (they don’t show up semi-opaque, or translucent.)

Just wanted to put that out to see if anyone else encountered that or if the developers knew about it. Maybe I did something wrong or it requires a lower-resolution export...

 

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

Hey @Ryan Wagner,

The new highlighter feature (and the whole new pen setup) works wonderfully and really makes Miro great for me and my team. 

Thanks for the feedback, so great to hear that! 
 

The one issue I just encountered when I exported a highlighted .pdf using the “vector” setting is that the highlights don’t register as highlights (they don’t show up semi-opaque, or translucent.)

Looks like a bug, we’ll check it, thanks for flagging this up.

A
Userlevel 1

Hello. Android app still doesn’t have palm rejection, it was more convenient to draw in a browser, because there I had no accidental dots and lines. Device: Galaxy Tab S7+, S Pen (original).

A
Userlevel 2

No palm rejection for Android? :( 

J
Userlevel 1

Hello. Android app still doesn’t have palm rejection, it was more convenient to draw in a browser, because there I had no accidental dots and lines. Device: Galaxy Tab S7+, S Pen (original).

Thanks for the idea - I tried the Android app on my Samsung today and it’s completely unusable.  Worst whiteboarding app I’ve ever tried with a stylus.  I just tried the web version on Android and it works exactly as you would hope the Android app would for a stylus.  Not a great experience being a web page but the app is pointless so it’s the only option if you have to use Miro with others.

A
Userlevel 2

All true. I have tried to use stylus in Miro app on my Samsung Tab7s plus - unusable. Worst experience I have ever had with a stylus 

P

Agree. The lack of palm rejection on android makes it unusable.

A

I admit, I had seen the messages about the updated pencil tool, and was excited to try it out.

Sorry, this is still a dud on Android (S6 tablet). We don’t even need palm rejection, just give us an option to disable drawing by your finger and only allow the stylus to use the pen tool.

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

Hi @Artem Sazonov @Alexei Kiselev @Jonathan Whiteman @Patrick Farrell @Adrian Irwin!
Thanks for the feedback about the issue on Android tablets, we’re investigating it and hope to release a fix soon.

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

@Ryan Wagner Hi!

The one issue I just encountered when I exported a highlighted .pdf using the “vector” setting is that the highlights don’t register as highlights (they don’t show up semi-opaque, or translucent.)

This issue is fixed 🙌

R

@Tolya Filippov You guys are the best. Thanks.

Max Harper
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

@Lena Shenkarenko 

Pretty good updates. Getting almost usable for me. I have a Wacom tablet and stylus and look forward to addition of a few last feature needs before the tool becomes something I reach for reliably.  
 

I imagine iPad/android tablet users don’t quite share this issue as the ergonomics and interface are different enough... 

 

But I also discovered a client who’s team of graphic recorder/facilitators have similar Wacom-on-PC needs.  
 

The main challenge for me now is hot keys that allow my non-stylus hand to productively support and speed up the tool/setting switches in the pen/highlighter/eraser eraser usage. 


feature request: 

- We need hot keys for every tool in the pen tray- (Pen, Eraser, highlighter, color/size(3) )

- and keys for navigating within that toolset (e.g. tab or arrow keys to cycle through items/colors within the pen/eraser/highlighter set. 
 

bug fix

​​​​​​​The current hot keys, E and P work fine for evoking the opening of the combined pen/hl/eraser tool tray… but once the tray is opened switching between the tools no longer works (unless you press H or V to reset tool focus context).  Steps to reproduce: 1) press E, 2) press P and notice the tool selected stays on eraser  

 

Think visually. Work brilliantly. || visualthinking.tools || Creators of 'PowerPack', 'Clusterizer' and 'Totally Random' Miro Apps: || max@refractivestrategy.com || Support Community Miro Plug-In Creation: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/refractive
Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

Hi @Max Harper, 
 

feature request: 

- We need hot keys for every tool in the pen tray- (Pen, Eraser, highlighter, color/size(3) )

- and keys for navigating within that toolset (e.g. tab or arrow keys to cycle through items/colors within the pen/eraser/highlighter set. 

Thanks for the feedback, we’ll discuss it with the team!

 

The current hot keys, E and P work fine for evoking the opening of the combined pen/hl/eraser tool tray… but once the tray is opened switching between the tools no longer works (unless you press H or V to reset tool focus context).  Steps to reproduce: 1) press E, 2) press P and notice the tool selected stays on eraser  

This should be fixed, I’ve just checked it, works fine.

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

Hey @Artem Sazonov @Alexei Kiselev @Jonathan Whiteman @Patrick Farrell @Adrian Irwin 👋

We’ve made a prototype where Palm rejection on Android should work. To turn this on, you need to open this link on your Android tablet—it should redirect you to the dashboard in the app. 
https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71931.2

The prototype will be turned off automatically if you restart the app. If you’re using Miro in a browser, you’ll need to open this link to turn the prototype off: https://miro.com/clearClientVersion

Please share your feedback if it works fine or not, thanks!

A
Userlevel 2

Hi @Tolya Filippov ! I am so happy to see so much improvement! It is almost ideal, although there is one thing yet which other users might not be experiencing or consider insignificant. The palm does not leave any marks now, but when it touches the screen prior to the pen, the canvas may “jerk” a bit, so I need to put my hand with the pen really carefully. But I am not sure if it is an issue at all, it would be nice to hear other guys as well. 

Thank you for the fix! 

A

@Tolya Filippov 

I have the same feedback as @Alexei Kiselev, the palm rejection for the pen tool definitely works, but:

  • If I have my palm on the screen;
  • And I lower the pen to start drawing -- but before it actually touches the screen, there is a point that the tablet starts to pick up the pen;
  • The view jumps down and to the right (I am right handed).
  • Before the pen touches the screen, I can use it scroll, but only up and down, not left to right.
  • After the pen touches the screen, it works as expected, just not where you wanted it.
  • Tried it using just my left thumb to hold the tablet, same result.

I haven’t used an iPad+Pencil, but Wacom type tablets can pick up the stylus quite a ways from the surface of the device.

Still, looks like we’re really close, keep up the good work!

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

@Adrian Irwin Could you please make a video of this behavior? 

R

I’m having no issues with an active stylus (not the Apple Pencil) and an iPad. It has been fantastic.

I am hoping at some point (and I don’t know how or if this could be implemented, or if I am asking for too many options) that a setting for a “regular” stylus could be selected. It happens too often that my team in the field drops and breaks their active stylus and have to resort to a regular, rubber or mesh tip stylus. 

Currently, they would be unable to annotate anything if that happened…

Otherwise, it has been a fantastic update.

A

@Adrian Irwin Could you please make a video of this behavior? 

https://youtu.be/7QiBFiKVT4M

@Alexei Kiselev Is this the same sort of behaviour you experienced as well?

A
Userlevel 2

@Tolya Filippov Looks like it

J
Userlevel 1

Hey @Artem Sazonov @Alexei Kiselev @Jonathan Whiteman @Patrick Farrell @Adrian Irwin 👋

We’ve made a prototype where Palm rejection on Android should work. To turn this on, you need to open this link on your Android tablet—it should redirect you to the dashboard in the app. 
https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71931.2

The prototype will be turned off automatically if you restart the app. If you’re using Miro in a browser, you’ll need to open this link to turn the prototype off: https://miro.com/clearClientVersion

Please share your feedback if it works fine or not, thanks!

Unfortunately I can’t get this to work - I get an error with the link in the Miro app (NoSuchKey error - I am signed up on the beta program as the key specifies beta/app but it didn’t make any difference).  It sounds like it’s working better for others but it’s still an un-useable app on a Samsung S3 with an s-pen from what I can tell.  Also, it has this weird behaviour where if I switch apps for any reason and return to Miro it reloads the app and forgets the board I was in.  It’s just too hard to use it and with other options like Jamboard, OneNote, etc. I won’t be using Miro unless a customer forces me to and then I’ll use it on Windows 10 or in the web and stick to old school keyboard and mouse.  Thanks for trying but I’m out until Miro on Android works.

Tolya Filippov
Rank
Userlevel 5

@Alexei Kiselev @Adrian Irwin Thank you very much for the feedback, here’s the improved prototype: palm rejection works and the issue you described is fixed. Please check it out and share your feedback:

https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71669.2

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