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On a touch-enabled device, draw with your finger, a digital pen, or a mouse.

Available inking features depend on the type of device you're using and which version of Office you're using.

Please start by choosing your version of Office:

If your device is touch-enabled, the Draw tab is turned on automatically. Otherwise, turn it on by selecting File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Draw.

Write, draw, or highlight text

The new pen set is customizable and portable. You define the pens you want to have, and they are then available in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

  1. On the Draw tab of the Ribbon, tap a pen to select it.

    The Drawing Tools tab of the Word ribbon.

    In Word, you must be in Print layout to draw with ink. If the Draw tab is grayed out so that you can't select a pen, go the View tab and select Print Layout.

    In Outlook, first tap the body of the message and insert a drawing canvas The Drawing Canvas button.; then you can select a pen to draw with.

  2. Tap again to open the menu of Thickness and Color options for the pen. Select your preferred size and color.

    • There are five pen thickness settings ranging from .25 mm to 3.5 mm. Select a thickness or use the plus or minus sign to make your pen thicker or thinner.

    • Sixteen solid colors are available on the menu, with more available when you tap More Colors.

    • Eight effects are also available: Rainbow, Galaxy, Lava, Ocean, Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

    Color and thickness options for a pen in the Office pen gallery on the Draw tab
  3. A Pencil texture is also available:

    When you draw with the Pencil texture while using a supported digital stylus, you can tilt the stylus to get a "shading" effect, just like you would get with a real pencil.

    You can draw in ink with three different textures: a pencil, a pen, or a highlighter
  4. On the touch screen, begin writing or drawing.

    Once you have drawn an ink shape, it behaves like any shape that you are used to working with in Office. You can select the shape, then you can move or copy it, change its color, pivot its position, and so on.

  5. To stop inking and select your annotations, press the Esc key.

Convert ink to text or shapes

Word or Excel: See Convert ink to shapes in Office

PowerPoint: See Convert ink to text or shapes in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365.

More features

Select a heading below to open it and see the detailed instructions.

  1. Under Draw > Tools, tap the Eraser.

    (In PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, you can choose from different sizes of erasers. Word has three eraser options. Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.)

    PowerPoint for Office 2019 has four erasers for digital ink.
  2. With your pen or finger, drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

    With the Segment Eraser in PowerPoint, you can simply tap a segment of ink or drag across it to remove it (rather than having to thoroughly wipe away the entire segment). Dragging across segments is an easy way to erase several at once.

Some active pens, such as the Surface pen, have an eraser that you can also use to erase digital ink.

All apps include a Draw tool on the Draw tab of the Ribbon for switching between inking mode and selection mode.

There is also an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office. or Lasso button from the Pen gallery for specifically for selecting objects drawn with ink. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects and you only want to select an ink object.

Applies only to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel:

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink, use the Lasso Select tool. (This tool can't select non-ink objects—that is, shapes, pictures, etc.)

  1. Under Draw > Tools on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office. or Lasso button from the Pen gallery.

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to draw a circle around the part of the drawing or word that you want to select. A faded, dashed selection region appears around it, and when you're done, the portion you lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, change its color, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

In both Excel and PowerPoint, with a digital pen, you can select an area without even tapping the selection tool on the ribbon. Use the supported digital pen button to Lasso Select ink without visiting the ribbon. Then you can use the pen to move, resize, or rotate the ink object.

Surface pen, with callouts for eraser, tip, and right-click button

  1. On the File menu, select Options, and then select Advanced.

  2. In the Pen section, select the box next to Use pen to select and interact with content by default.

This setting only applies to the app in which you make it, so, for example, you can have automatic inking turned on in Visio and turned off in Word.

Feature name

Description

See

Ink Editor

Use touch or a digital pen with Windows digital ink to edit documents

Edit your document with natural gestures

Ink to Text or Shape

Convert an ink drawing to standard text or a standard Office graphic shape

PowerPoint logo

Convert ink to shapes or text

Ink to Shape

Convert an ink drawing to a standard Office graphic shape

     

Convert ink to shapes

Ink to Math

Use touch or a digital pen to write a complex math equation, and then convert it to text

  PowerPoint logo

Write, insert, or change an equation

Ink Replay

Replay a series of inking actions on a slide

  PowerPoint logo  

Replay your ink strokes in Office

Ruler

Draw straight lines in ink, or align a set of objects

PowerPoint logo

Draw straight lines or align things with the ruler

Draw with ink in a notebook

Hand-write notes and draw or sketch pictures

OneNote for Windows 10: Write notes and draw in OneNote

OneNote OneNote 2016, 2013, 2010, or 2007: Draw and sketch notes on a page

OneNote for Mac: Draw and annotate with ink

Language support

See which languages are supported by Ink Editor (in Word) and the ink-to-text converter (in PowerPoint)

Languages supported for ink-to-text conversion

Draw with Touch.

If your device is touch-enabled, the Draw tab is turned on automatically. Otherwise, turn it on by selecting File > Options > Customize Ribbon > Draw.

Write, draw, or highlight text

The new pen set is customizable and portable. You define the pens you want to have, and they are then available in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

  1. On the Draw tab of the Ribbon, tap a pen to select it.

    Pens and highlighters on the Draw tab in Office 2019

    In Word, you must be in Print layout to draw with ink. If the Draw tab is grayed out so that you can't select a pen, go the View tab and select Print Layout.

  2. Tap again to open the menu of Thickness and Color options for the pen. Select your preferred size and color.

    • There are five pen thickness settings ranging from .25 mm to 3.5 mm. Select a thickness or use the plus or minus sign to make your pen thicker or thinner.

    • Sixteen solid colors are available on the menu, with more available when you tap More Colors.

    Color and thickness options for a pen in the Office pen gallery on the Draw tab
  3. A Pencil texture is also available:

    When you draw with the Pencil texture while using a supported digital stylus, you can tilt the stylus to get a "shading" effect, just like you would get with a real pencil.

    You can draw in ink with three different textures: a pencil, a pen, or a highlighter
  4. On the touch screen, begin writing or drawing.

    Once you have drawn an ink shape, it behaves like any shape that you are used to working with in Office. You can select the shape, then you can move or copy it, change its color, pivot its position, and so on.

  5. To stop inking and select your annotations, either to modify or move them, pick Select The Select button on the Draw tab in PowerPoint on the Draw tab.

Convert ink to text or shapes

See Convert ink to text or shapes in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365.

More features

Select a heading below to open it and see the detailed instructions.

  1. Under Draw > Tools, tap the Eraser.

    (In PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, you can choose from four erasers. Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.)

    PowerPoint for Office 2019 has four erasers for digital ink.
  2. With your pen or finger, drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

    With the Segment Eraser in PowerPoint, you can simply tap a segment of ink or drag across it to remove it (rather than having to thoroughly wipe away the entire segment). Dragging across segments is an easy way to erase several at once.

Some active pens, such as the Surface pen, have an eraser that you can also use to erase digital ink.

When you've been drawing with ink, you can use Stop Inking The Stop Inking button changes the mouse pointer back to a regular selection tool. on the Draw tab to change the mouse pointer back to a standard selection tool The Select button on the Draw tab in PowerPoint. The selection tool can select digital ink drawings and any other kind of objects.

PowerPoint and Excel also have an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office. specifically for selecting objects drawn with ink. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects and you only want to select an ink object.

Applies only to PowerPoint and Excel:

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink, use the Lasso Select tool. (This tool can't select non-ink objects—that is, shapes, pictures, etc.)

  1. Under Draw > Tools on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office..

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to draw a circle around the part of the drawing or word that you want to select. A faded, dashed selection region appears around it, and when you're done, the portion you lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, change its color, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

In both Excel and PowerPoint, with a digital pen, you can select an area without even tapping the selection tool on the ribbon. Use the supported digital pen button to Lasso Select ink without visiting the ribbon. Then you can use the pen to move, resize, or rotate the ink object.

Surface pen, with callouts for eraser, tip, and right-click button

  1. Select File > Options > Advanced.

  2. In the Pen section, select the box next to Use pen to select and interact with content by default.

This setting only applies to the app in which you make it. So, for example, you can have automatic inking turned on in Visio and turned off in Word.

Feature name

Description

See

Ink Editor

Use touch or a digital pen with Windows digital ink to edit documents

Edit your document with natural gestures

Ink to Shape

Convert an ink drawing to a standard Office graphic shape

PowerPoint logo      

Convert ink to shapes

Ink to Math

Use touch or a digital pen to write a complex math equation, and then convert it to text

  PowerPoint logo

Write, insert, or change an equation

Ruler

Draw straight lines in ink, or align a set of objects

PowerPoint logo

Draw straight lines or align things with the ruler

Find the drawing tools

Go to the Review tab and select Start Inking to display the Ink Tools and Pens tab.

Shows the Start Inking button on the Review tab in Office

Write or draw

  1. Under Ink Tools >Pens choose Pen.

  2. To change the ink color and stroke width, point to the color and width (0.35mm - 0.5mm) you want.

    Shows Pen style options in Office

  3. On the touch screen, begin writing or drawing.

Highlight text

  1. Under Ink Tools, on the Pens tab, click Highlighter, and then pick a highlight color.

    Shows Highlighter button in Ink Tools

  2. Point and drag your pen or finger over the text that you want to highlight.

    You can highlight text in Excel, Word, and Outlook, but PowerPoint doesn't support highlighting text.

Delete whole written words or ink drawings

  1. Under Ink Tools, on the Pens tab, click the arrow below Eraser, and then pick an eraser size.

    Shows Eraser button in Ink Tools in Office

  2. With your pen or finger, select the word or ink drawing that you want to erase.

Drawing in OneNote

If you're using OneNote and want to draw, see these other articles:

OneNote for Windows 10: Write notes and draw in OneNote 

OneNote OneNote: Draw and sketch notes on a page

Extra features in PowerPoint

Select parts of an ink drawing or written words (PowerPoint only)

To select part of a drawing or some written words, use the Lasso tool. (You cannot use the Lasso tool to select non-ink objects (shapes, pictures, etc.).

  1. Under Ink Tools, on the Pens tab, click Lasso Select.

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to draw a circle around the part of the drawing or word that you want to select. A faded, dashed selection region appears around it, and when you're done, the portion you lassoed will be selected.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

Delete parts of an ink drawing or parts of written words (PowerPoint only)

  1. Under Ink Tools, on the Pens tab, click the arrow below Eraser, and then pick an eraser size.

    Shows Eraser button in Ink Tools in Office
  2. With your pen or finger, select parts of the ink drawing or text that you want to erase.

Convert ink drawings to shapes (PowerPoint only)

You can convert ink drawings on a touch screen into common shapes.

  1. Under Ink Tools > Pens, select Convert to Shapes.

  2. With a pen or your finger, draw a shape on the slide, and PowerPoint automatically converts your drawing to the shape that looks most like it.

    To stop converting shapes, click Convert to Shapes again.

Which shapes can PowerPoint convert?

When you create an ink drawing, PowerPoint can convert it to the shape that is most like it.

Ink drawing

Corresponding shape

Rectangle

A rectangle drawn with ink

Rectangle

Square

Rectangle with all sides equal

Diamond

Diamond

Parallelogram

Parallelogram

Trapezoid

Trapezoid

Irregular quadrilateral

Closed freeform shape with four sides

Regular pentagon

Pentagon with all sides equal

Regular hexagon

Hexagon with all sides equal

Ellipse

A ink drawing of an ellipse

Ellipse

Circle

Ellipse with shape height and width equal

A normal circle

Single-headed arrow

Arrow

Double-headed arrow

An ink drawing of a double-headed arrow

Double arrow

Arrows connecting two shapes

A line connecting two shapes

Arrow connectors

Right triangle

Triangle with right angle

A normal right triangle

Equilateral triangle

A ink drawing of an equilateral triangle

Triangle with all sides equal

A normal equilateral triangle

Isosceles triangle

A ink drawing of a isosceles triangle

Triangle with two equal sides

A normal isosceles triangle

Irregular triangle

A ink drawing of a scalene triangle

Closed freeform with three sides.

For more information about using Office with Windows touch devices, see the following:

Write, draw, or highlight text

This is a subscriber-only feature On the Mac, these features are only available in Microsoft 365 and Office 2019 for Mac.

  1. On the Draw tab of the Ribbon, tap a pen to select it.

    Pens and highlighters on the Draw tab in Office 365 for Mac
  2. Tap again to open the menu of Thickness and Color options for the pen. Select your preferred size and color.

    • There are five pen thickness settings ranging from .25 mm to 3.5 mm. Select a thickness to make your pen thicker or thinner.

    • Sixteen solid colors are available on the menu, with more available when you tap More Colors.

    • Eight effects are also available: Rainbow, Galaxy, Lava, Ocean, Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

  3. A Pencil texture is also available:

    When you draw with the Pencil texture while using a supported digital stylus, you can tilt the stylus to get a "shading" effect, just like you would get with a real pencil.

    Office 365 subscribers can draw in ink with three different textures: a pencil, a pen, or a highlighter
  4. Once you have drawn an ink shape, it behaves like any shape that you are used to working with in Office. You can select the shape, then you can move or copy it, change its color, pivot its position, and so on.

  5. To stop inking and select your annotations, press the Esc key.

Touch drawing with a trackpad

Rather than drawing ink with your mouse, you can draw on a trackpad with your finger. See Use your trackpad for "touch" drawing for more information.

Erase ink

  1. Under Draw > Tools, tap the Eraser

    (In PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 for Mac, you can choose from different sizes of erasers. Word has three eraser options (version 16.28 or newer). Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.)

    On the Mac, PowerPoint for Office 365 has four erasers for digital ink.
  2. With your mouse, pen, or finger, drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

Additional procedures

Select a heading below to open it and see the detailed instructions.

PowerPoint and Excel also have an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office. specifically for selecting objects drawn with ink. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects and you only want to select an ink object.

Applies only to PowerPoint and Excel:

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink, use the Lasso Select tool. (This tool can't select non-ink objects—that is, shapes, pictures, etc.)

  1. Under Draw > Tools on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select The Lasso Select button on the Draw tab in Office..

  2. With your mouse, pen, or finger, drag to draw a circle around the part of the drawing or word that you want to select. A faded, dashed selection region appears around it, and when you're done, the portion you lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, change its color, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

  1. On the PowerPoint, Word, or Excel menu, select Preferences > Authoring and Proofing Tools > General.

  2. In the Pen section, clear the box next to Use pen to select and interact with content by default.

This setting only applies to the current app. So, for example, you can have automatic inking turned on in Excel and turned off in Word.

Basic inking tools

Word for iOS, Excel for iOS, and PowerPoint for iOS all come with basic inking options on the Draw tab: a selection tool, a draw-with-touch tool, a stroke eraser, pens, multiple ink colors, and ink thickness options:

Basic inking tools on the Draw tab for Office iOS apps

If you're working in OneNote on your iPad, see Handwrite, draw, and sketch.

Draw or write

By default, Draw with Mouse or Touch (or "Inking mode") is turned on when you are using a mobile device. Just tap the Draw tab, select a pen , and you can begin drawing ink on a slide.

To change the settings on a pen:

  1. Tap again to open the menu of thickness and color options for the pen. Select your preferred size and color:

    • There are five pen thickness settings ranging from .25 mm to 3.5 mm. Select a thickness or use the plus or minus sign to make your pen thicker or thinner.

    • Sixteen solid colors are available on the menu, with more available when you tap More Ink Colors.

    • (For Microsoft 365 subscribers only) Eight effects are also available: Rainbow, Galaxy, Lava, Ocean, Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

    Ink colors and effects for drawing with ink in Office on iOS

    A Pencil texture is now available:

    The pen gallery in Office for iPad and iPhone includes a pencil texture

    The Apple Pencil is sensitive to pressure, which allows you to vary line thickness. It's also sensitive to tilt, which allows you to create shading, as you can with a tilted lead pencil.

  2. On the touch screen, begin writing or drawing.

    Once you have drawn an ink shape, it behaves like any shape that you are used to working with in Office. You can select the shape, then you can move or copy it, change its color, pivot its position, and so on.

  3. To stop inking and select your annotations, either to modify or move them, turn off Draw with Touch on the Draw tab. Turning off this feature also keeps you from making accidental ink marks when your hand touches the screen.

Watch a video overview of the inking features in iPhone and iPad:

Your browser does not support video. Install Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, or Internet Explorer 9.

2:47

Select

On an iOS device, Inking mode is turned on when you have selected a pen or highlighter on the Draw tab. Otherwise, you are in Select mode, and you can tap to select an object.

(If you're using an Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro device, you can make Select mode the default by going to app settings.)

PowerPoint and Excel have an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, specifically for selecting objects drawn with ink. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects on a slide and you only want to select an ink object.

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink in PowerPoint or Excel, use the Lasso Select tool:

  1. On the Draw tab on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select .

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to encircle the ink that you want to select.

    A faded, dashed selection region appears as you drag, and when you're done, the portion you've lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, copy it, delete it, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

Erase

  1. On the Draw tab, tap the Eraser

    Word has three erasers to choose from—a stroke eraser, a small eraser, or a medium eraser. Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.

    PowerPoint has those three erasers plus one more: With the Segment Eraser, you can simply tap a segment of ink or drag across it to remove it (rather than having to thoroughly wipe away the entire segment). Dragging across segments is an easy way to erase several at once.

  2. Drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

Switch tools with the new Apple Pencil

This is a subscriber-only feature This feature is available only to Microsoft 365 Subscribers for Windows desktop clients.

Office for iOS supports the 2nd-generation Apple Pencil and its double-tap gesture. By default, the double-tap gesture switches from the current tool to the eraser, but the System settings on your device allow you to choose a different behavior for this gesture. This feature is available to Microsoft 365 subscribers in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on iPad version 2.22.19020201 and later.

Turn off automatic inking

  1. Open the Settings app from the home screen of your iOS device.

  2. Scroll through the list of apps at the bottom of the Settings page to find your Microsoft 365 app, and tap to open its Settings.

  3. In the app settings on the right side, at the bottom under Draw and Annotate, toggle Apple Pencil Always Draws Ink.

In an application's Settings you can can toggle automatic inking off or on.

For more information, see Turn off automatic inking on iOS.

Convert ink drawings to standard shapes in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, you can convert ink drawings on a touch screen into common shapes:

  1. Ensure that Draw with Mouse or Touch Draw with Mouse or Touch is turned on.

  2. Tap Ink to Shapes

  3. With a pen or your finger, draw a shape on the slide. When you finish drawing, PowerPoint automatically converts your drawing to the shape that looks most like it.

    To stop converting shapes, tap Ink to Shapes again.

Basic inking tools

Word for Android, Excel for Android, and PowerPoint for Android all come with basic inking options on the Draw tab: a selection tool, a draw-with-touch tool, a stroke eraser, pens, ink colors and a color wheel, and ink thickness options:

Basic inking tools on the Draw tab in Office mobile apps

Draw or write

By default, Draw with Mouse or Touch (or "Inking mode") is turned on when you are using a mobile device. Just tap the Draw tab, select a pen , and you can begin drawing ink on a slide.

Select

On an Android device, Inking mode is turned on when you have selected a pen or highlighter on the Draw tab. Otherwise, you are in Select mode, and you can tap to select an object.

PowerPoint and Excel have an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, specifically for selecting ink drawings. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects and you only want to select an ink object.

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink in PowerPoint or Excel, use the Lasso Select tool.

  1. On the Draw tab on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select .

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to encircle the ink that you want to select.

    A faded, dashed selection region appears as you drag, and when you're done, the portion you've lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, copy it, delete it, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

Erase

  1. On the Draw tab, tap the Eraser.

    (In PowerPoint, you can choose from three erasers—a stroke eraser, or a small or medium eraser. Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.)

  2. Drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

Some active pens, such as the Surface pen, have an eraser that you can also use to erase digital ink without having to select an eraser from the Ribbon.

Convert ink drawings to standard shapes in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, you can convert ink drawings on a touch screen into common shapes:

  1. Ensure that Draw with Mouse or Touch Draw with Mouse or Touch is turned on.

  2. Tap Ink to Shapes

  3. With a pen or your finger, draw a shape on the slide. When you finish drawing, PowerPoint automatically converts your drawing to the shape that looks most like it.

    To stop converting shapes, tap Ink to Shapes again.

Annotate with ink while showing a presentation

In PowerPoint, you can add ink markings to a slide while you are presenting:

Ink Tools available in Slide Show view.

Basic inking tools

Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile all come with basic inking options on the Draw tab: a selection tool, a draw-with-touch tool, a stroke eraser, pens, multiple ink colors, and ink thickness options:

Basic tools on the Draw tab in Office Mobile for Windows 10

If you're working in OneNote for Windows 10, see Write notes and draw in OneNote for Windows 10.

Draw or write

By default, Draw with Touch (or "Inking mode") is turned on when you are using a mobile device. Just tap the Draw tab, select a pen The Pen selector on the Draw tab, and you can begin drawing ink on a slide.

The Draw tab in Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile for Windows 10 is similar to the desktop versions of each app. Before you can use the drawing features, be sure to update to the latest version of Windows 10. To do this, select the Windows button in the lower-left corner of your screen, and select Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Click Check for updates to get the latest updates.

To change the settings on a pen:

  1. Tap again to open the menu of thickness and color options for the pen. Select your preferred size and color:

    • There are five pen thickness settings ranging from .25 mm to 3.5 mm. Select a thickness or use the plus or minus sign to make your pen thicker or thinner.

    • Sixteen solid colors are available on the menu, with more available when you tap More Ink Colors.

    • Eight effects are also available: Rainbow, Galaxy, Lava, Ocean, Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

    Ink colors and effects for drawing with ink in Office on Windows Mobile
  2. On the touch screen, begin writing or drawing.

    Once you have drawn an ink shape, it behaves like any shape that you are used to working with in Office. You can select the shape, then you can move or copy it, change its color, pivot its position, and so on.

  3. To stop inking and select your annotations, either to modify or move them, turn off Draw with Touch on the Draw tab. Turning off this feature also keeps you from making accidental ink marks when your hand touches the screen.

Select

Inking mode is turned on when you have selected a pen or highlighter on the Draw tab. Otherwise, you are in Select mode, and you can tap to select an object.

PowerPoint Mobile and Excel Mobile also have an ink selection tool, Lasso Select, , specifically for selecting objects drawn with ink. It's most useful when you have a mixture of standard and ink objects and you only want to select an ink object.

To select part of a drawing or words written in ink in PowerPoint or Excel:

  1. On the Draw tab on the Ribbon, tap Lasso Select .

  2. With your pen or finger, drag to encircle the ink that you want to select.

    A faded, dashed selection region appears as you drag, and when you're done, the portion you've lassoed is selected. Then you can manipulate that object as you wish: move it, copy it, delete it, and so on.

    Shows portion of a drawing selected by Lasso Tool in PowerPoint

Erase

  1. On the Draw tab, tap the Eraser.

    (In PowerPoint, you can choose from three erasers—a stroke eraser, or a small or medium eraser. Tap the down arrow on the Eraser button to pick the eraser that you want.)

  2. Drag the eraser over the ink you want to remove.

Convert ink drawings to standard shapes in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint, you can convert ink drawings on a touch screen into common shapes:

  1. Ensure that Draw with Mouse or Touch Draw with Mouse or Touch is turned on.

  2. Tap Ink to Shapes

  3. With a pen or your finger, draw a shape on the slide. When you finish drawing, PowerPoint automatically converts your drawing to the shape that looks most like it.

    To stop converting shapes, tap Ink to Shapes again.

Open the Draw tab on Windows 10 Mobile phones

Here's how to see the Draw tab in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 10 Mobile phones.

  1. Select the More button in the lower-right corner of the screen.

  2. Pick the Draw tab.

    Shows the Draw tab selected in Office Mobile.

Write, draw, or highlight text in PowerPoint

  1. On the Draw tab of the ribbon tap a pen to select it.

    The customize pen menu in PowerPoint for the web

  2. If you want to customize the pen tap the drop arrow next to the pen on the ribbon and select the thickness, and color, you want.

The Draw menu lets you have two separate pens available, plus a highlighter.

Stop inking

After you've drawn what you want, you can stop inking and return to selection mode by pressing the Esc key.

Erase ink

Select the eraser from the pens gallery on the Draw tab, then swipe your cursor across the ink you want to erase. This is a stroke eraser, which means it will erase entire ink strokes at a time.

See Also

Languages supported for ink-to-text conversion

Turn off automatic inking on Windows or iOS

Meet the new pen toolbox in Microsoft 365

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