Is it possible to use PDF-XChange Editor as a PDF File Explorer?

[Impress]

I often have folders with 10-100 PDF files in them. Sometimes the folders have other types of files too... sometimes not.

Is there any way to use PDF-XChange Editor as a PDF File Explorer? By that, I mean that I want to be able to open a single PDF file, and then if I want to see the next PDF file in the same folder I could hit a "next" button (and similar for "previous")?

Thanks so much.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

In Windows File Explorer, in the View ribbon, you can turn on the "Preview pane".

The preview pane shows up at the right side of the window. You can make it smaller or larger by dragging its left border.

For most file types there is a default preview handler.

In case you have fully installed PDF-XChange Editor, it will act as preview handler for PDF-files.

When you move the mouse pointer into the lower part of the preview pane, you will see a toolbar with navigation and zoom buttons.

To go to a previous or next PDF in the list, just use the UP or DOWN cursor keys on your keyboard.

Is this a useful solution for you?

Kind regards.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for that Willy,

I can't think of anything better to say.

[Impress]

In Windows File Explorer, in the View ribbon...
...

Is this a useful solution for you?

Thanks so much Willy. I don't use Microsoft's File Explorer, so that may not work for me. Regardless, I sincerely appreciate your attempt to help.

I'm going to see if it's possible to use PDF-XChange Editor within my file manager, but since my file manager already has a PDF preview function, I'm not sure if I'll gain much by using PDF-XChange within it.

My desire is to use the full size PDF-XChange Editor to quickly go through many files in a folder. That way, I get the full-size render of the PDF file (instead of just a preview pane) and all the amazing functionality of PDF-XChange Editor.

[Impress]

Thanks for that Willy,

I can't think of anything better to say.

Hi Paul,

I'm not sure if you have the time to read every message in the forums, so I just wanted to let you know that I replied to Willy above.

Would it be possible to add the functionality I desire as a feature request to PDF-XChange Editor?

I'm thinking the implementation would be fairly simple: Create a keyboard shortcut and/or toolbar button to open the next file in the current folder (and another shortcut/button to go to the previous file). That should do it!

[david king]

The following is a simple way to explore the PDF files in a folder using the PDF-XChange Editor:

1. Open the folder containing the PDF files in the Windows File Explorer. (If the folder contains file types other than PDF, sort the files by Type so the PDF files are listed contiguously, allowing multiple PDF files to be selected in step 2 by selecting the first file and last file while holding the Shift key down.)

2. Select the multiple PDF files you wish to explore.

4. Right click on the file selection and select the "Open in PDF-XChange Editor" item from the context menu. Alternatively, drag-and-drop the file selection to an open instance of the Editor. This step will open the selected PDF files in separate tabs in the Editor.

5. Use ctrl-Tab to advance through the document tabs in the Editor. Use ctrl-Right arrow to advance through individual pages of the current document. To go in the reverse direction, add the Shift key to these commands.

I saw little impact to the memory usage when large numbers of PDF files were being explored this way and only a short blip in CPU usage when the multiple files were being opened and closed in the Editor.

[Impress]

The following is a simple way to explore the PDF files in a folder using the PDF-XChange Editor:

1. Open the folder containing the PDF files in the Windows File Explorer. (If the folder contains file types other than PDF, sort the files by Type so the PDF files are listed contiguously, allowing multiple PDF files to be selected in step 2 by selecting the first file and last file while holding the Shift key down.)

2. Select the multiple PDF files you wish to explore.

4. Right click on the file selection and select the "Open in PDF-XChange Editor" item from the context menu. Alternatively, drag-and-drop the file selection to an open instance of the Editor. This step will open the selected PDF files in separate tabs in the Editor.

5. Use ctrl-Tab to advance through the document tabs in the Editor. Use ctrl-Right arrow to advance through individual pages of the current document. To go in the reverse direction, add the Shift key to these commands.

I saw little impact to the memory usage when large numbers of PDF files were being explored this way and only a short blip in CPU usage when the multiple files were being opened and closed in the Editor.

Thank you for your ideas David!

I don't want to sound ungrateful at all, because I am sincerely grateful for your help and Willy's help above.

I can think of a few times where the techniques you and Willy mentioned will likely be useful, and I'll try them in those situations.

The most common situation I find, however, is when I load a PDF and - after looking at it for a couple minutes - I discover it is the wrong file. Currently, I have to go back to my file manager and load another file into PDF-XChange Editor (or use the open dialog box and guess which file to load). It would be so convenient to be able to just press "next file" to view the next file in the folder from within PDF-XChange Editor. And if that's also the wrong file, just press the "next file" button (or keyboard shortcut) again.

What makes this functionality even more desirable is this common scenario:
1. You have 5 (or so) files loaded in PDF-XChange Editor that you need to reference.
2. You realize that just 1 of the files is the wrong file, perhaps the 3rd file, but the other 4 files are the correct files.
3. Now, if you load a bunch more files into PDF-XChange Editor to find the correct file for tab #3, the application's tab bar is going to get real confusing and hard to manage. Instead, it would be so helpful to just be able to press next/previous to find the correct file for that one tab.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, Impress

These are excellent points, but they are also the reason which we offer a preview handler in Windows explorer. Ideally, you would use the Windows explorer for the purposes which it is designed, (browsing and opening the appropriate file). I will forward this request to our Dev team for their consideration, but I expect that for the reason above, unless we see very significant demand for this, it will not be implemented.

Kind regards,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

I do not know if it can help anything further, but also from within the "Open Files" dialog-box in PDF-XChange Editor itself, you have a button "Show the preview pane" (in the menu-bar, at the right side).

The "Open Files" dialog-box can be maximized (if you like) by a double-click in the title-bar. To reduce it to its original size, double-click again in the title-bar. Once the dialog-box is maximized and the preview pane is turned on, you can enlarge the preview pane by dragging its left border to the left.
Identical to what happens in Windows Explorer, you will see a small toolbar (with navigation and zoom-buttons) in the preview pane, when you go down with the mouse-pointer. The arrow-keys on the keyboard can be used for going from one PDF to the other.
When you find the right PDF, just click the Open-button.

Best regards.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]