pencil tool on tablet PC

[marshall]

I tried the pencil tool on my tablet PC with the digitizer pen. Everytime I lift the pen, a box is formed so that the next "stroke" moves the box.
This prevents me from making mathematical comments with the pen.
For example, the first stroke to make the letter x works fine, but I can't make the second stroke without selecting the pencil again. (even though the tool bar says Keep tool selected.) I am using PDF X Change viewer in Vista Business operating system. The pen is set so that a single click selects an item, instead of a double click. Fixing this problem would make PDF X change viewer tremendously useful during presentations (e.g. as a math teacher, like me).

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi Marshall,

Tablet PC's are not something we had specifically targeted initially - but looks like we will have to broaden our 'horizons' - will get back to you once we have made some progress on this.

Thanks for the feedback.

[cadcoke3]

I will add my recommendation to support tablet input as well.

I haven't tried the viewer with a tablet yet, but that is definitely something I want to set up for our company once the features in the current version are stable.

The ability to just pick up a pen and write on the screen is very desirable for us because we deal with architectural type drawings. Corrections are often graphical, and it is certainly much easier to sketch with a stylus than with a mouse. You can even write text, and not have to go through the extra steps of changing to the typewriter tool.

[mbetrafa]

Hello,
I have just found out this program. I am happy... But for pen it needs that small modification. It would be better if it had that continous writing/drawing property, since we cannot draw everything in one step. Then you can take notes on your pdf files.Since I don't have a tablet PC for taking notes on pdf files by hand, I may buy a graphic tablet running on USB port of a standard PC. Please do this modification as soon as possible...
Thank you for this software and thank you in advance for that pen modification...

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi,

Please see this topic as some work arounds and comments on forthcoming features maybe of interest.

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/forum/v ... php?t=3643

[quant]

I also moved to tablet, and the pencil tool is, ehm ... useless
These are my suggestions that would increase the usability of pencil tool immensely:

1.
if one has selected "Keep tool selected", it should still keep writting and not selecting if you point close to (or over) object you just wrote. At the moment, it's impossible to write text with pencil tool. This was already mentioned by the starter of this thread.

2.
there should be some way to select how long should program waits until annother annotation is created. I would welcome if this could be set to infinite as well, i.e. what you write would still be a single annotation no matter how long you wait between lifting up your pencil and starting writting again. One would finish annotation by pressing Esc, or similarly to polygon tool by right-clicking and choosing "finish", "end" or whatever.

3.
Because with pencil tool you can create disjoint objects, it should be also possible to JOIN/GROUP existing pencil annotations on the same page. This would be fantastic. At the moment, when I type some mathematical formula on several lines, it creates dozens of annotations, which should be really just one (this is related to point #2). If at later time I want to correct the formula or add some info, I would still like it to be only single annotation.

4.
smoothing. This is also another absolute must, see for example how Adobe does it. At the moment, the pencil tool is jagged and very ugly.

Thanks a lot for your considerations.

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Hidden parameter to control time after which new ink will be created already exist.
You can change it manual by creating DWORD TimeForNewObject value into the registry by path
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Annots.Defaults.Pencil

Value of this key should be time (in milliseconds) after which new ink annotation will start. Default value is 1000 (i.e. 1 second).

But, please note, since into nearest build annotation will have more than one defaults, registry path for this option can be changed.

[quant]

nice, it works, so we can tick #2 ...

Please, try to work on #1, it's really hard to write something as that cross appears as soon as I lift the pen and try to carry on handwritting ...

Thanks for your continuing support

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

will try to improve ink tool, and your #4 is in develop now. we hope to introduce smoothing of inks into the next build.

[quant]

Hidden parameter to control time after which new ink will be created already exist.
You can change it manual by creating DWORD TimeForNewObject value into the registry by path
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Annots.Defaults.Pencil

Value of this key should be time (in milliseconds) after which new ink annotation will start. Default value is 1000 (i.e. 1 second).

But, please note, since into nearest build annotation will have more than one defaults, registry path for this option can be changed.

has this
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Annots.Defaults.Pencil
been updated?

Thanks

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Yes, it was moved into
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Tools.Pencil.TimeForNewObject

[quant]

it works, but the pen tool is still unusable for handwriting.

When lifting the pen and starting writting again very fast close to the point where I lifted the pen (natural when handwriting) the pen changes to cross with arrows which means it stops writting or it attempts to move the object written so far, or it considers it as a double click and tries to add a comment etc which then means the TimeForNewObject is not honoured ... there is no way to handwrite the word "This".
Would it be possible for you to test your program on a tablet pc? You'd see what I'm talking about ...

I think what is needed, is to NOT TRY TO DO ANYTHING ELSE than writing when within the TimeForNewObject.

Thanks

[nehmsch]

will try to improve ink tool, and your #4 is in develop now. we hope to introduce smoothing of inks into the next build.

I run PDFXchange Viewer FREE Version 2.0 Build 42.7.

In this Version the #4 "Smoothing lines from pencil tool" seems to be introduce. Now is my problem: If i write a very small scripture, then i get unreadable lines, because the smoothing makes straight lines or long curves.

Question: Exist there a registry value for the amount of smoothing?

Thanks for the great software!

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Question: Exist there a registry value for the amount of smoothing?

No, not for now, I'm afraid.

[nehmsch]

I guess ther is no way to switch of the smoothing?

[John - Tracker Supp]

See Edit Menu -> Preferences - Rendering options
Cheers

[nehmsch]

See Edit Menu -> Preferences - Rendering options
Cheers

Sorry, i'm running a german version: can you exactly specify the right option?

[John - Tracker Supp]

See the menu option :

Bearbeiten -> Grundeinstellungen -> darstellung ..

Or something very similar

[nehmsch]

Thank you John for the quick answers.

I have change the Language to English, but the three options Rendering - Smooth line art / Smooth text / Smooth images dont have the requested effect, even if i restart my computer. I guess this options have affect to the pdf-content, not to the pencil tool.

I hope you have another work around?

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi,

Sorry - that was I believe the last possibility, for now at least.

[nehmsch]

I'm sorry, but this should not be the end of this topic.

Could you include in one of the following builds a possibility to switch of the smoothing for the pencil tool or something similar to solve the problem, that i describe befor?

At present the pencil tool is'nt practicable for small scripture or drawing (e.g. if i annotate something between two lines of text).

Thanks a lot for your encouragement!

[John - Tracker Supp]

I did say for now ...

This is not possible before Version 3 at the earliest which is due in the spring.

Thanks for your patience.