What turned me back to the viewer

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Flex
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What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

Hey all,

First to say thanks to the team for the excellent products, been using the viewer for years and can't live without it (even have it pinned on the start :p ). I have seen a couple of days ago that it got actually "repalced" by the editor, which also featured a free version so I jumped right away. After using for several days tho I'm back to the viewer, sharing negatives only so they can be considered as future implementations:
1. Does not remember open documents - I work mostly with a subset of (about 15) documents and always have them opened and in logical order - single click and everything is where I left it. I found no way to do that in the editor, tho I might have overlooked something. Tried using pinned documents, but it is just not it. Same way I use browsers, but with 3 times the amount of pages :)

2. Find (ctrl+f one): I expect whenever I press the shortcut and start to type, hit enter and to see the result. With the viewer this is the case, and all programs practically work like that (or forces you to close the find window). With the editor, however, more often than not, the small find window actually opened from the previous search had just closed, I typed something somewhere and when I press enter I add something to the document to my surprise. It create inconsistency and I always have to check out the find state, close, reopen its window in order to be able to search. Moreover the F3/shift+F3, the standard hotkeys for next/previous does not work, enter works for next, but when you click on the document it loses focus and you have to activate find window again to search for next

3. Text selection process. Working with documents with lot of block diagrams which I need to copy from turned out to be surprisingly painful in editor, compared to the viewer. The viewer is able to select all box contents by just walking with the mouse over it - editor requires a precise rectangle just outside the box and encapsulating it completely. Viewer is selecting only the box text, that includes tables where I can select a single column, or single cell contents - Editor does some wild selections of texts on the other end of the page pretty much all the time - probably internally something overlaps, making selecting a single box to select 5 more around and end up with useless mess instead of what I want, still viewer handled that with ease.

That said, Editor's ability to split screen is wonderful, but had to give it up.

I hope you don't take that as a bashing, but an improvement requests :)

And a really low priority requests:
R1: Ability to fully load the document - having abundance of memory I like having the documents completely loaded so I don't have to wait the hdd to spin up every time I do search and then annoy me while it is working (I have noted Editor is taking much less memory)

R2: Ability to open a "copy" of a document without actually opening it - something much like the split screen on the Editor, but with a new tab. I currently have 6 copies of a single document, just because I need to follow stuff around, if I'm able to "duplicate" a tab that will the more elegant solution, besides, it will not be another 500mb ram consumed.

Thanks for listening :)
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

No response yet, so I will offer a few suggestions:
  1. Remember last session is something that I miss, though not something I use often.
  2. The new Find behaviour I can live with. I think one would soon get used to it, and always hide the find dialogue after performing a search. One could also use the Find Panel (Ctrl Shift F)
  3. Not easy to satisfy everyone here. Much will depend on what kind of documents users work with.
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Flex
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

Yeah I'm sure I can learn to live with the find (the panel is not an option due to size constraints - the document's huge amount of small boxes make me use fit width to see anything), but it is slowing me down and the thing is the viewer is already good enough so I have pretty much nothing to lose by switching back and enjoying its flawless operation. The post was done to point what has taken a step back from the viewer (imho) and if people in charge agree on - to improve.

The #3 is a bigger problem tbh - I find it faster to retype the data than trying to copy it with the editor and then manually cleaning all the garbage it copied along the way. Surely happens with more specialized document types - one containing boxes and tables and the general text blob won't be affected, however I can't think of a situation the viewer's way will perform worse than editor, it seems to be equally great in all cases. There must have been a reason it is done like that in the editor, I just can't see it.
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi guys,

Thanks for the posts - I'll answer each point in turn:
1. Does not remember open documents...
This has not yet been implemented in the Editor, but should be available for either build 308 or 309. I don't have confirmation on which of the two it will be yet, so I'm afraid that I can't be more precise.
2. Find (ctrl+f one):...
I'm not seeing this here, the Find feature, using Ctrl + F does exactly as you're requesting for me, so please make sure that you have the latest build by downloading and running the following installer:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVE3.zip
3. Text selection process...
Could you send one of these documents to test here? I don't believe that I'm seeing the same thing, but it's hard to tell without seeing a sample.
I hope you don't take that as a bashing, but an improvement requests :)
Not at all, we're always happy to hear feedback. Without user feedback, we wouldn't be able to improve our products to meet the needs of our users :)

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
Flex
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

Thanks a bunch for the reply :)

1. Nice to know it is coming :)

2. I'm using the current 3.0.307.2 version, let me describe it in more detail:
- pressing Ctrl+f brings the box, you can type in and hit enter to show the first result, or several times to get to the place I want
- I copy something from the document, the small find box on the other end of the 2nd monitor stays unnoticed
- I switch to the development environment to do something, then switch back to the pdf to do the next search
I either:
a) Press ctrl+f and type something and hit enter, which results in the previously left opened search box closing and enter just scrolls 1 page down to my surprise or
b) Press ctrl+f and paste something I'm looking for, which results in a new object of text being created on the same page :)

What I'm thinking
- either permanent search box like in the viewer
- or ctrl+f when document is on focus and find box is open to focus the find box
- or ctrl+f always gets the cursor in the find box, no matter what, and ESC works for closing the find box

3. Sadly, I'm under NDA for these documents, but can share pictures instead :)

Case 1: I drag rectangle just outside the box:
Image
Selection results in:
Continue with from
H1 flow successfully!
Edit: ahahah this line actually even makes sense :D

Case 2: I select from the very first word inside, the C:
Image
That results in:
Continue with from firm names list
H1 flow
And for reference, same thing selected with the viewer:
Image

This is one of the less colorful examples, there are tons of cases it selects stuff both left and right and the resulted copy-paste is innovative. The real fun is trying to select a column from a table and ending up with a mix of it and the one on the right :D
Needless to say, this document's structure is pain, I don't know what pdf actually consists of, but it surely has an overlapping objects, that hit some soft spot in the editor :)
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Flex,

No worries, glad to help :)
2. I'm using the current 3.0.307.2 version, let me describe it in more detail:
- pressing Ctrl+f brings the box, you can type in and hit enter to show the first result, or several times to get to the place I want...
The Dev. Team has told me that they plan to add the Find panel back to the toolbar, so I suspect that you will see that resolved when it's added back.
. Sadly, I'm under NDA for these documents, but can share pictures instead...
I undestand - I will forward this to the Dev. Team, but please be aware that it may be that they cannot troubleshoot this without the document itself. If you could provide any other samples that aren't confidential, it would greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
Flex
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

Hey Will, good thing with the editor is that it actually... well... edit pdf :D I mean I can cut part of a page and send it to you to have fun with and not very much violate the NDA. Still, prefer not posting on the forum, is there an email I can send to?

ps: Dev team earned a beer for the find panel decision :)
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hi Flex,

Careful with the beer promises - we will make sure you keep them :P

And you can send the file to support@pdf-xchange.com with a link bank to this forum topic.

Regards,
Stefan
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Flex,

Thanks for sending that in to us - I've reproduced the issue and it's hard to say why this is happening. It may be a case of changing some settings, but more than likely there is an issue with our implementation of text selection, so I'll talk to the Dev. Team and will get back to you.

As Stefan said, be careful with the beer offers..... we will take you up on it and just might out drink you ;)

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
Flex
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

NOT scared of beer drinking, challenge accepted :mrgreen:
You guys have a surprisingly active and cool support team, its a pleasure reporting issues here :D
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Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team »

Hi Flex.
3. Text selection process. Working with documents with lot of block diagrams which I need to copy from turned out to be surprisingly painful in editor, compared to the viewer. The viewer is able to select all box contents by just walking with the mouse over it - editor requires a precise rectangle just outside the box and encapsulating it completely. Viewer is selecting only the box text, that includes tables where I can select a single column, or single cell contents - Editor does some wild selections of texts on the other end of the page pretty much all the time - probably internally something overlaps, making selecting a single box to select 5 more around and end up with useless mess instead of what I want, still viewer handled that with ease.
In the future we can add option to change editor's text selection behavior like in viewer..

Best
Regards.
Vasyl Yaremyn
Tracker Software Products
Project Developer

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Flex
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Flex »

Appreciate that - and if I'm allowed to make a suggestion - when/if you decide to implement it - keep editor's blueish selection rectangle to get best of both worlds - sometimes viewer selection is hard to see what you actually block select (alt+selection) when the selected text spans over the height of the screen (i.e. long column)
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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Flex,

Vasyl has asked me to make a ticket out for this, so I'll include that last bit in there too.
NOT scared of beer drinking, challenge accepted :mrgreen:
You guys have a surprisingly active and cool support team, its a pleasure reporting issues here :D
Good! It's a date then :lol: Thanks for the kind words too, I won't deny that we're pretty awesome 8)

Cheers,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Re: What turned me back to the viewer

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Thanks Flex,

I received your file by email and have added it to the ticket: RT#2361: FR: option to make editor's text selection behavior like viewer (internal only).

Regards
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
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