Back in January 2023, Microsoft added a new feature to OneNote for Windows called Draw and Hold. It was designed to let people who wanted to use digital handwriting for creating neater-looking shapes in the app. This week, the company announced that members of the Microsoft 365 Insider program can test out the addition of Draw and Hold to the Word for Windows app as well.
In a blog post, Microsoft stated that adding Draw and Hold to Word was based on demand from many users who wanted the feature in OneNote to be available for the word-processing app as well.
As with the OneNote version of this feature, Draw and Hold in Word for Windows lets owners trace a line, arrow, or shape on the screen with a digital pen and a touchscreen. Once that"s done, users should keep the pen in place for a brief moment. They should see the digital shape turn on screen to a neater-looking version. You can then put the cursor on it and drag it if you want to resize the shape or rotate it.
This feature supports the creation of the following shapes in Word for Windows, and it actually adds two more shapes that were not included when the feature was added to OneNote over a year ago.
- Circle
- Ellipse
- Triangle
- Square
- Rectangle
- Rhombus
- Trapezoid
- Pentagon
- Hexagon
- Heart (New)
- Star (New)
Members of the Microsoft 365 Insider program can try out the new Draw and Hold feature in Word for Windows if they are running Version 2406 (Build 17726.20016) or later.
Insider members who use Word and who also use Apple"s iPhone or iPad products got a chance to try out another feature in July that allowed them to open and convert their Word documents over to PDF files in a much faster way.