Use of Stylus with DOCViewer

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

This idea is applicable to any 2-in-1 / hybrid device with stylus capacity eg Chromebook, Surface Pro 4, Yoga, ASUS etc.

Microsoft's recent education event (May 2017) highlighted the increasing opportunities for schools to invest in low cost 2-in-1 hybrids running Windows 10. Since then at least 5 new devices have been released - 5 Budget Windows Hybrids 2-in-1 Tablets and Laptops for Schools – Colour My Learning . Many schools, including our own, are now looking at these as viable alternatives to 1-1 iPads.

The potential of inking is huge, not just in the hands of students but for teachers and marking.

Canvas has just released DOCViewer in Beta. As yet it is not possible to annotate work inline using the stylus (at least on my Surface Pro).

We would love to see inking/hand-written/stylus based annotations being available for those using Canvas via the browser.

This idea has been added to our product plan for Q1 2019 and will influence development within Canvas. Follow this idea to receive updates as they are available.

:smileyinfo: Adding this idea to our product plan means we will be working on it, but it does not guarantee that it will be developed exactly as defined by the idea, or that it will be added to the production environment.

Read more about the feature idea process:

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16291-canvas-release-notes-2019-02-16 .

139 Comments
RobDitto
Community Champion

 @GideonWilliams , check at the top - your idea's been picked to work on this quarter! Congratulations, and here's hoping it materializes as a feature.

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Huzzah!

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Woke up this morning to this - https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16291-canvas-release-notes-2019-02-16 

Stunning news and one that could have significant impact! Now to try it out.......

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team
This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas 

For more information, please read through the Canvas Release Notes (2019-02-16) .

dhallstone86
Community Novice

I discovered this whole issue since our college is closed today and when i got frustrated once again with trying to do comments, i found this and realized it wasn't just my surface pro pen.  (An apple person has told me over and over again it must be my pen since it works well for him. )  I hope this update is the answer. Smiley Happy

locke
Community Novice

It works on my school's Canvas with my Surface Pro and my Stylus in Chrome (my browser of choice)!!!

I'm very thankful to the 267 people who voted for this, to Canvas for getting it implemented, and to you (Gideon Williams) for posting the idea a couple of months before I encountered it when I went to grade homework in Fall 2017!

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

Just in time to complete the homework grading then :O)

I cannot get it to work for the moment and did not think it would be ready until Feb 16th. If you have time to post a quick screencast/video I would be very grateful indeed.

gharbor
Community Participant

So I'm a little confused? I saw this in the production release for Feb 16th, so I went to Beta to see if the new functionality was working there but Beta's Stylus functionality in SpeedGrade has not changed??

My assumption here is that once working you should be able to use a stylus to do free form writing on documents directly through the browser with a pen enabled device. (Rather than having to go through an App)

Please let me know if I'm missing something here.

Thanks,

Grant

GideonWilliams
Community Champion

I have been told that it will be available directly on 16th Feb - it will not go on to beta - some sort of Magic wizardry?