Windows 11 ink to text anywhere not working SOLVED

[Loki@99]

Hi,

I don't recall when it was introduced but Windows 11 has a ink to text on any text area feature now which isn't working on PDFXCE.

Steps to reproduce
1. Create Sticky note
2. Write inside the popup note with stylus

Expected behavior
Convert ink to text.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/27/23934589/microsoft-windows-11-windows-ink-anywhere

Current behavior

Thanks for investigating,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

I am struggling to set things up to reproduce this. "ink anywhere" seems to work in native windows menus, like the settings area, but does not want to work in any other apps, including the Editor. None of the settings I have seen and tested seem to have an effect (including every option in the windows ink menu), and just to be doubly sure, I also tried installing the latest windows preview build, incase there was a bug in the live release.

Is there something else I need to do to enable this for non-windows apps, as I cannot seem to get the configuration right to begin reproducing the issue.

Kind regards,

[Loki@99]

Thanks for checking.

Well, I don't know how I got that ink anywhere feature working on PDFXCE.
I didn't setup anything.

My device OS is latest stable Windows 11 release.

Maybe the feature is being rolled out for not all users now.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

Perhaps you are right there, I swear I've used this in the past, I just cant recall if it was on this device or perhaps one from a family member.. In any case, I have forwarded this to the Dev team and our testers, hopefully one of them can reproduce the issue. I will keep trying as well in the meantime.

Kind regards,

[Loki@99]

There are 2 other issues with that feature

1. Issue when moving the popup note position with stylus

Drag action performed with stylus

2. It is triggered on area which shouldn't allow text input

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

Thank you for those notes, I have added these to the ticket that was made on this topic:

RT#7035: Bug: Windows "Ink Anywhere" feature errors in Editor.

Kind regards,

[Loki@99]

Hi,

I found an other issue in More Colors dialog box

Action performed with stylus - Drag the icon to lower the 100% value

Thanks for adding this to the ticket,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

Thank you for the note, I have added it to the ticket as well.

Kind regards,

[Loki@99]

Hi,

As an additional note, it also causes an issue with the Crop Pages dialog box

Drag to crop action with stylus

Thanks for passing this as well,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

Thank you for this Loki, Out of curiosity, do you encounter these same issues in any other applications with similarly "close together" buttons. For example, in a web browser, when trying to drag a button from the favorites bar which is directly below the address bar? I am curious to know if this is perhaps just an "allowance area" around detected text entry boxes which windows is enforcing.

While the Dev team is looking into these items, and will hopefully have workarounds for is un time, but I am personally interested to know if it is something caused by Microsoft's implementation of their feature, instead of our own UI issues.

Kind regards,

[Loki@99]

Hi Daniel,

I am personally interested to know if it is something caused by Microsoft's implementation of their feature, instead of our own UI issues

You're right. I didn't think about that and just found that issues I reported are reproducible with Microsoft Word

Issue 1 - Ink Anywhere shouldn't be invoked here

Issue 2 - Slider issue

In this regard, maybe the fix is to disable that feature as it's causing many issues with stylus. I mean until Microsoft fix these bugs

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Loki@99

Thank you for checking, I have added this as a note to our Ticket. If there is a workaround we can offer, I'm sure the Dev team will find it, but knowing that this is likely something on MS's implementation could help us figure out where to look and see what, if anything, we can do.

For now, you are certainly correct, disabling this option through windows will likely be the best solution to avoid the issue in all applications. It may also be helpful if you could report the same to Microsoft directly.

Kind regards,