Selecting Ink and Actions

Journal makes it easy to work with ink and content you’ve added to your page. You can select items by:

Using the Instant Lasso
Tapping items with your finger
Tapping Cues that appear next to recognized ink
With your mouse, right click to initially select, then left click to expand or move

When items are selected you can take actions on them, such as:

Moving them with your pen or finger
Copying
Deleting
Sharing

Journal makes it easy to work with ink and content you’ve added to your page.

Select content with instant lasso

Draw a circle around ink you want to select. The shape of the selection needs to be circular, and what you select must have been on the page for at least 1 second (allowing you to circle items deliberately like a bulleted list).

If you intended to draw a circle instead of selecting, in the menu that appears you can tap Keep Ink to restore the shape you drew, or use Undo from the Ink Toolbar.

You can select any item with instant lasso that have been on the page for longer than a second. This allows you to write and circle items, like numbering a list, without accidentally invoking the lasso unintentionally.

Select ink with your finger or the right mouse button

Action	Description
Tap to select	Use your finger to tap on any ink to select it, or right-click using your mouse. By default, a single word is selected.
Expand your selection	Keep tapping with your finger or left-click with your mouse. Selection will expand with each tap: word -> line -> paragraph -> entire page.
Select multiple items	After making an initial selection, hold the CTRL key while you left click with your mouse or tap with your finger to select any ink or images on the same page.
Clear a selection	Tap a blank part of the page.

Select using your pen

Action	Description
Tap to select with your pen	Hold the side button while you tap ink or an image to select.
Expand your selection	Continue to hold the side button and tap the same item again to grow the selection. Selection will expand with each tap: word -> line -> paragraph -> entire page.
Select multiple items	Continue to hold the side button and tap to select any ink or images on the same page.
Clear a selection	Tap a blank part of the page

Select using a cue

When recognized ink is detected there will be a Cue on the edge of the page. You can tap the Cue to quickly select the recognized content associated with the Cue.

Example cues you might see:

heading
List
Drawing

An image of a partial journal page showing a selected list cue

Actions on selected content

After selecting content, move it by dragging it with your finger or pen on or across different pages, or perform an action using the toolbar:

Partial capture of Microsoft Journal with a heading cue and associated ink selected. The selection context menu is visible.

Action		Description
Copy		Copies ink and other selected content to the clipboard, which allows you to paste it within Journal or any other app that supports ink.
Copy as Text		Copies ink to the clipboard as text, which allows you to paste the result into any app.
Cut		Cut your content from the page to the clipboard so that it can be pasted later.
Share		Shares a copy of the selected content via email. Only available to Microsoft 365 work and school users that are signed in.
Filter		Sets the Side Panel to the Cards tab and adds a filter matching the type of the selected content. You can, for example, tap the filter button after selecting a heading cue to create an instant table of contents in the Side Panel.
Delete		Deletes content from the page

Select content with instant lasso

Select ink with your finger or the right mouse button

Select using your pen

Select using a cue

Actions on selected content

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