Disable Apple Pencil automatic drawing

Way late to the party here, but for those who come here looking - like I did and didn't find the answer. Go into settings, scroll to the app you are using, in my case it was keynote, and then select 'Select and scroll with Apple Pencil' :)

Yes, it has. But note that the option is NOT something available in the app when using it. You must go to Settings, scroll down to the app (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and select there whether to use the pencil for drawing or navigating.

As was just posted, this has been corrected in the latest update of all three keynotes, numbers, and pages. On the SETTINGS page, under the subsections for each one (KEYNOTE, NUMBERS, and PAGES) is the following option:

”SELECT AND SCROLL WITH THE APPLE PENCIL” tab.

Activate this tab! Problem solved.

You can deactivate the auto smart annotations in the settings app by activating the so called “select and scroll”. This works for numbers as for pages etc.

Draw and annotate in Pages on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Select and Scroll with Apple Pencil

You can use Apple Pencil to select objects and scroll in your document. Go to Settings > Pages, then turn on Select and Scroll with Apple Pencil.

You can still insert a drawing by tapping the + in the upper right corner. Then the photo/img icon and the scribble line “drawing” button.

cheers! I’m so glad I found that!

Go to the iPad Settings then select the Numbers Settings and turn ON “Select and Scroll with Apple Pencil” This will now let you select and scroll.

Pages and keynote also have this option in their settings.

(I am using an iPad 11 with Apple pencil second generation and all current updates. The Numbers version is 4.3 (6091).).

it would be more convenient to have a button right on the menu bar to switch modes. I have filed this as a suggestion.

For example, Microsoft office applications for iOS let you switch between selection and drawing/annotation right from the Draw menu bar. That is a more convenient place to have the mode switch.

The fixed it! Go to Settings > Numbers > and toggle “Select and Scroll with Apple Pencil”

Hello, there! I don’t know if you’ve found your answers along the way or not, but I did.

You can go to Settings > Numbers > Scroll and Select with Apple Pencil.

It should do you justice (I do recommend that you update to the latest version of both iOS and the app first)

Hope this helps you!

I’ve found a solution! Simp,y go to settings > keynote (or pages or numbers) > toggle select and scroll with Apple Pencil.

Hope this helps!

These are volunteer user to user support communities supplied by Apple.

No one who responds here works for Apple or has any way to contact the responsible and cognizant Apple employees.

We are all users here, just like you.

So, the are other limited ways to contact Apple directly.

The Apple product feedback pages (that Apple DOES read and compile) or a direct call to Apple, which, willl unfortunately, result in a more complex and longer process that, at this early stage in this iWorks app issue, result in a similar answer that I have already given others here with the same concern.

And that answer is there is no current or new update fix for this Apple Pencil navigation/drawing issue in all of the iWork apps on iOS.

If you think you'll get better technical assistance directly from Apple, you can certainly try and use their contact number here and get in touch with on-call technical support and set-up a technical support registration number for your iOS iWork issue with them.

https://www.apple.com/contact/

Good Luck to You!

I’m sure you probably found the answer to this but for everyone else trying to figure this out... I just went into settings, keynote, and then turned on “select and scroll with Apple Pencil” this seems to have disabled the automatic drawing in keynote... Hope this helps :)

Send your feedback here.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/pages_ios.html

https://www.apple.com/feedback/numbers_ios.html

https://www.apple.com/feedback/keynote_ios.html

Cognizant Apple employees read ALL feedback generated from all of the various feedback pages and transfers the data to the proper and responsible Apple teams and personnel , but NO Apple employees will ever respond with any type of direct, individual replies from the feedback you post.

Good Luck to You

I couldn’t agree more! I use the pencil 95% of the time for navigation. I probably navigate more with the pencil than with my fingers. Occasionally I use the pencil for writing comments on pdf documents.

Apple tried to remove the pencil navigation functionality in ios 9.3 betas, but later added it again, due to a huge number of users complaining about this.

Please all of you who who don’t like this, give feedback to Apple. You can do this via the More menu in Numbers itself (last menu item “Send feedback), and via negative ratings in the App Store. I noticed that currently already 160 users responded to the OP as having the same question/problem. If we don’t let this know to Apple, we might be stuck with this behavior!

A good solution for Apple to solve this, would be to use the PDFExpert approach, where pencil writing/drawing functionality on PDFs has to be explicitly activated before drawing, and deactivated when you are done drawing/writing.

I FOUND A WAY - This problem with the automatic drawing that activates as soon as you open Pages has been plaguing me too since it started. While this automatic drawing may be useful to some, it is obvious that it is a severe nuisance to many. I use Pages and Notes a lot, so I was amazed that we were all being forced to live with it. Well, maybe there will be a fix in the future but what if not? At any rate, I stumbled over a way to fix this thing, although you have to do it every time you use Pages before you start typing:

Find the little circle at the bottom right of the page, the one used for checking off items. Click on it. Immediately it will add your "first" circle to your text and the Keyboard will appear. ONCE THE KEYBOARD IS ON YOUR SCREEN, you are FREE FROM THE AUTOMATIC DRAWING. You can now delete the circle marker and start typing away with confidence. HOWEVER, be careful because as soon as you disappear the keyboard you will automatically be back on the Drawing Pencil. This is not a permanent fix but it will do until we get one from Apple....I can't believe they're so stupid not to see this horrendous flaw. Hope this helps.

The issue. Has been fixed with the latest update out a couple of days ago.

We here are almost all just users trying to help each other understand the tools Apple provides. If you want to let Apple know they should provide different tools, please use their formal feedback vehicle at https://www.apple.com/feedback/