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

  • 3 November 2020
  • 50 replies
  • 5961 views

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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

Userlevel 4

@Jonathan Whiteman Hi, thanks for the feedback!

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). 

The prototype was turned off at that moment.

You can try out an updated prototype with this link: https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71669.2 

it should redirect you to the dashboard in the app. The prototype will be turned off automatically if you restart the app.
 

 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

Thanks for flagging this out, we’ll look into this issue.

Userlevel 2

@Tolya Filippov HI! I have tried, but Miro is not loading again (I have dedcribed the issue earlier, and apparently this one is not fixed). Frankly, I am tired of deinstalling and reinstalling the app every other time. But ok, i will do it again and try later. Thank you! 

Userlevel 2

@Tolya Filippov Hello! So, the update. I have deinstalled and then reinstalled the app. Then followed the link - and all I got was an error notification “no such key exists” 

@Tolya Filippov Hello! So, the update. I have deinstalled and then reinstalled the app. Then followed the link - and all I got was an error notification “no such key exists” 

The link is malformed, try this one: https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71669.2

The link @Tolya Filippov put in has some extra junk characters at the end, like so: https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71669.2%C2%A0, see the %C2%A0 bit?

Anyways, palm rejection appears to work! I just did a quick test, but so far, so good. Great work!

Userlevel 4

The link @Tolya Filippov put in has some extra junk characters at the end, like so: https://miro.com/app/dashboard/?clientVersion=2.71669.2%C2%A0, see the %C2%A0 bit?

@Adrian Irwin Thanks for flagging this out, for some reason it pasted these junk symbols, I edited the initial post.

Anyways, palm rejection appears to work! I just did a quick test, but so far, so good. Great work!

Great, thanks for the feedback!

Userlevel 2

@Adrian Irwin Thank you! It worked. Yes, palm rejection is perfect now. However, still overshadowed by frequent app failure to start and subsequent reinstallation. It happens way too often, and not only to me - yesterday my student had to reinstall Miro on his new Ipad righ in the lesson, and he says it occurs all the time. Looking forwad to that fix as well!

@Adrian Irwin Thank you! It worked. Yes, palm rejection is perfect now. However, still overshadowed by frequent app failure to start and subsequent reinstallation. It happens way too often, and not only to me - yesterday my student had to reinstall Miro on his new Ipad righ in the lesson, and he says it occurs all the time. Looking forwad to that fix as well!

That's rough, can't say I've had the same troubles.

FYI-The latest Android beta test link works very well.  It is still a pain to have to use that link to launch the beta version, but so far so good!

FYI-The latest Android beta test link works very well.  It is still a pain to have to use that link to launch the beta version, but so far so good!

@Tolya Filippov Any kind of an ETA on when these fixes will be rolled out?

Userlevel 4

@Adrian Irwin @Austin Lambert @Alexei Kiselev @Patrick Farrell @Jonathan Whiteman 
Hey guys, we’ve released the latest version of palm rejection for Android devices and it should work fine!
Feel free to share your feedback.

Userlevel 2

@Tolya Filippov Thank you! Everything works perfectly well!

@Adrian Irwin @Austin Lambert @Alexei Kiselev @Patrick Farrell @Jonathan Whiteman 
Hey guys, we’ve released the latest version of palm rejection for Android devices and it should work fine!
Feel free to share your feedback.

@Tolya Filippov

Do I need a special version or setting to use this? I'm using the app on Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, and it still detects the palm, and moves the sheet around.

I tried the beta link too, it gives a no such version error on the app.

Userlevel 4

Do I need a special version or setting to use this? I'm using the app on Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, and it still detects the palm, and moves the sheet around.

I tried the beta link too, it gives a no such version error on the app.

Hi @Aditya B.

Could you please reinstall the app, it should help if for some reason you use the previous version of the prototype. If the problem persists please send a video of it so we could scrutinize the problem and help.

Auto-Fading of the highlighting tool would be super useful. 

@AlexanderIsUnique I think as an option for presentations that could be a useful tool. I need the highlights to remain for exporting, so that would make a lot of problems for me personally.

Not sure if this is a bug, but the highlighter tool lays color over other objects (like hand drawings or widgets.  But if you select it manually you can send to back; ideal behavior would be if it was a back layer by default and perhaps a long press would enable selection in order to undo?   

The highlighter tool is next to useless with sticky notes. If I highlight something, I want the text to be highlighted, even if I move the sticky note. Each highlight is its own object right now, which means I need to group everything together and it’s several extra steps. 

When I’m synthesizing notes from interview sessions, I don’t want to group each highlight to a sticky note just so I can move the sticky notes around without losing what the highlights are meant to accentuate.

Hi,

I still have the same issueu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QiBFiKVT4M on my tab s7 with s pen.

Any updates on this?

 

Hi @Tolya Filippov  - I got a message in LinkedIn from you (or someone pretending to be you), asking for help to troubleshoot this.  In our last LinkedIn last exchange, you gave me an .apk to install on my Samsung Tab S7+ for testing, but first I want to confirm that it was really you who I’ve been communicating with.  Can you please confirm here that your LinkedIn account hasn’t been hacked in some way?  Thanks!  Quito Banogon

Userlevel 4

Hey @Quito Banogon! Thanks for clarifying! Yes, it’s really me, and we’re exploring how to improve palm rejection behavior on Android tablets :)

@Lena Shenkarenko

 


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. 
 

 

 

Yes! I’d even take multiple pressings of P cycling between the three pen presets. I map “P” to one of the buttons on my stylus (E to the other), so this would save a TON of time. @Tolya Filippov 

I have tried to read the comments but might have missed it. 

When using my pen on iPad I would like to disable writing with fingers. (like in any drawing tools) i get dotts and doodles all over

Are there any updates for better Apple pen support coming up?

Would love the highlighter pen to:

1) have straight-line functionality (maybe while holding shift) for occasions when using mouse or trackpad, like smart drawing mode

2) have its blend mode set to e.g. darken or multiply rather than normal so that it doesn’t obscure the thing it is highlighting

please, thanks!

Love the highlighter tool but agree with the above comment - the option to highlight in a straight line when using a mouse would be a great enhancement!

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