PDF XChange Forum

I've just installed 7.0.323.0 . . . and, it sucks!

Let's ignore the fact that Tracker is just (!) rolling out a "ribbon" user interface a decade after it was "cool." Not that that's a good thing: I'm using Office 2007 and still don't particularly care for it.

The major problem is: It doesn't work! You can't seem to minimize the ribbon or its tabs; rather, "Home" (for instance) must stay open always. Also, I couldn't find any way to make a "Quick Acces Toolbar" (a la Office 2007), so that I could effectively ignore the Ribbon most of the time, while still being able to access those tools and functions which I most need and use.

So, while using the "Customize Toolbar" option, I've been dragging and dropping little icons of things that I don't or rarely use into . . . nowhere . . . into dead space. Where do they go? I don't know. Somewhere. They just disappear. Or -- even better -- as you're dragging, if you happen to cross another menu tab even in the slightest of instance, it will open . . . which can be disorienting. Hopefully, you won't unclick the item and have it fall into that Tab -- whichever Tab -- that the ribbon just quickly switched to while you were dragging the toolbar.

By the way, as you're selecting one of those tools to dispose of, make sure that you watch out for one of those little toolbars with its own hidden menu (marked by a tiny downwards-facing triangle in the lower righthand corner). Even though you click and hold, it will sometimes (read: most times) automatically open up the menu contents (if any). And, as you're dragging, if you come close to any other of those little tools with hidden menus, well -- I'm warning you right now -- you should expect a psychedelic kaleidescope of effects that not even the stoniest "Stoner" from the 1970's has seen. Very disorienting!

Some commands don't appear where they should, for example, "Text Box." I wanted to add "Text Box" to the Home tab of the Ribbon. Now, in the Comments TAB, there is indeed the "Text Box" command. But, when you try to customize, it's not there. I went: CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS > COMMANDS TAB > COMMENTS > . . . nothing. There is no "Text Box" command that could then be dragged onto the Home Tab menu. Eventually, I searched ALL COMMANDS and found it there.

And, while we're on the topic of dragging and dropping: The CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS/COMMANDS states, "To add a command on a toolbar, or menu, drag the command from the Commands list, and drop it on the desired target." Hmm, sounds easy, don't it? Except, whenever I tried to drag a command into the wide-open area of dead space on the right -- you got it -- nothing happened! In fact, PDF Xchange wouldn't allow it to happen. Instead, you get a black "no symbol." Thanks for the malleability, guys!

The "Home Tab" only seems to allow three -- and, only three -- sections: "Tools," "View," and "Comment." So, even though OCR appears under the "Convert" tab, I had to settle for putting it in with all the "Comment" tools in my modified and customized "Home Tab," because (well) that's just the way it was going to have to be. PDF XChange 7 is nothing, if not rigidly customized (if that makes sense to anyone).

I haven't even started on how cluttered and bloated PDF XChange now appears with a tab open all the time. Not to mention the unnecessary duplication, like: "Next View/Back View" both in the Home Tab, which can't be minimized, and in the bottom toolbar whenever a document is open. The same goes for the "Zoom" function, which appears both when a document is open and in the (uncloseable) Home Tab above. You can remove one or the other, though, through the customization apparatus.

So, after an hour of messing around with something with which I shouldn't have had to, wasting my time, I've arrived at some kind of medium -- not a happy one, but something. You can see an image of it below.

This is a disaster.

mwidunn wrote:The major problem is: It doesn't work! You can't seem to minimize the ribbon or its tabs; rather, "Home" (for instance) must stay open always.

Did you notice the little arrow pointing above, on the very right, in the same height as the ribbon titles?

mwidunn wrote:Also, I couldn't find any way to make a "Quick Acces Toolbar" (a la Office 2007), so that I could effectively ignore the Ribbon most of the time, while still being able to access those tools and functions which I most need and use.

What's wrong with the Quick Access toolbar from your screenshot?

mwidunn wrote:Some commands don't appear where they should, for example, "Text Box." I wanted to add "Text Box" to the Home tab of the Ribbon. Now, in the Comments TAB, there is indeed the "Text Box" command. But, when you try to customize, it's not there. I went: CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS > COMMANDS TAB > COMMENTS > . . . nothing. There is no "Text Box" command that could then be dragged onto the Home Tab menu. Eventually, I searched ALL COMMANDS and found it there.

Ok, it's in Tools, but go to "All commands" and type "Text Box" in the search field on the right (This is how I found it in Tools)

mwidunn wrote:So, after an hour of messing around with something with which I shouldn't have had to, wasting my time, I've arrived at some kind of medium -- not a happy one, but something. You can see an image of it below.

You noticed, that you can switch back to the toolbar interface with the button in the titlebar right in your screenshot?

mwidunn wrote:PDF XChange 7: What were they thinking?

They were thinking: "Let's create the most customizable application in the world, ever".

This is how I use v.7:


Enjoy!

We have already answered as to why we have finally capitulated and added the Ribbon UI and I dont propose to repeat that again in this post or multiple times every time a user voices an objection or dislike, suffice to say that you still have the Classic UI as an option.

It would have been far easier for us to just move to the Ribbon and leave it at that - the ability to use either the old Classic option or the Ribbon has meant literally 1000's of hours of extra development and complication - but as BigMike and David.P (thank you both for your comments) have rightly stated we are trying to make the application as versatile as possible in terms of the UI, you as a user choose to utilise - is it perfect and 100% as we want it yet? No, but we will continue (as always) to listen and adapt as feedback comes in and time allows us to develop to the best possible UI we can.

There is a new build released today which fixes many of the issues reported and we will issue further builds in January/February and on - building on that.

It is as always very easy to complain and rant - but I assure you constructive and polite criticism is not only easier on the blood pressure - but illicit's a far more positive outcome for the user from those reading and in a position to effect changes based on those comments.

Hi mwidunn.

You can't seem to minimize the ribbon or its tabs; rather, "Home" (for instance) must stay open always.

Hope I understand you correctly: but you are able to minimize the Ribbon pane just by clicking on:

Also, I couldn't find any way to make a "Quick Acces Toolbar" (a la Office 2007)

No special way is required to do it. Just open the "Customize Toolbars" dialog, find the necessary command item and drag-n-drop it to QAccess bar where you want: - can you do it in the same way as I have ? or do you have any trouble with it? Please let us know...

So, while using the "Customize Toolbar" option, I've been dragging and dropping little icons of things that I don't or rarely use into . . . nowhere . . . into dead space. Where do they go? I don't know. Somewhere. They just disappear.

Yes, possibly it may look strange when you're trying to drop a command on to just an empty grey area that is outside of any group of commands (group of commands - toolbar in other terms), like this: but you're still able to drop your command to any existing group(toolbar): So it looks that you have tried to drop items in the 'wrong' area. Also, for sure you are able to create your own group(toolbar) by the button on "Customize Toolbars/Toolbars" tab and then put it on to any ribbon-tab and the fill using drag-n-grop commands.

that the ribbon just quickly switched to while you were dragging the toolbar.

We have already fixed this issue in the new build 323.1 - please try the latest release..

By the way, as you're selecting one of those tools to dispose of, make sure that you watch out for one of those little toolbars with its own hidden menu (marked by a tiny downwards-facing triangle in the lower righthand corner). Even though you click and hold, it will sometimes (read: most times) automatically open up the menu contents (if any). And, as you're dragging, if you come close to any other of those little tools with hidden menus, well -- I'm warning you right now -- you should expect a psychedelic kaleidescope of effects that not even the stoniest "Stoner" from the 1970's has seen. Very disorienting!

Yes, it seems you are right. We will think what we can do. Thanks.

Some commands don't appear where they should, for example, "Text Box." I wanted to add "Text Box" to the Home tab of the Ribbon. Now, in the Comments TAB, there is indeed the "Text Box" command. But, when you try to customize, it's not there. I went: CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS > COMMANDS TAB > COMMENTS > . . . nothing. There is no "Text Box" command that could then be dragged onto the Home Tab menu. Eventually, I searched ALL COMMANDS and found it there.

Yes, I agree that perhaps the commands are not grouped well. But you can always use the find-command feature - its very useful:

And, while we're on the topic of dragging and dropping: The CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS/COMMANDS states, "To add a command on a toolbar, or menu, drag the command from the Commands list, and drop it on the desired target." Hmm, sounds easy, don't it? Except, whenever I tried to drag a command into the wide-open area of dead space on the right -- you got it -- nothing happened! In fact, PDF Xchange wouldn't allow it to happen. Instead, you get a black "no symbol." Thanks for the malleability, guys!

We have some ideas how we can improve this. It seems we must allow the dropping of the new command items to that 'wrong' area. Maybe with auto-adding before a new Untitled group(toolbar) as a destination for a command-item that you dropping.

The "Home Tab" only seems to allow three -- and, only three -- sections: "Tools," "View," and "Comment."

It sounds strange to me because by default it contains 6 groups and I'm able to add other groups, remove some or reorder all of them: What is wrong for you with this? Please provide a detailed (step-by-step) description of how to reproduce your problem?

... Not to mention the unnecessary duplication, like: "Next View/Back View" both in the Home Tab, which can't be minimized, and in the bottom toolbar whenever a document is open. The same goes for the "Zoom" function, which appears both when a document is open and in the (uncloseable) Home Tab above. You can remove one or the other, though, through the customization apparatus.

Some useful (i.e. - used very often for many users) commands are duplicated in different places because all of them can be easily hidden by switching between tabs or by hiding any corresponding "unnecessary" tab or by minimizing the entire Ribbon (as I described at the beginning). For example: We try not to duplicate commands too often but sometimes its required by typical (not special) scenarios of usage. Additionally, regarding the "Next View/Back View" - by default these commands allow you to navigate through all documents, not just in the context of an active document. For example, you may open and then close a document("Next View/Back View" commands at the bottom will disappear for sure) and then you are able to return back to the recently closed document by clicking on the corresponding "duplicate" of the "Back View" button on the QAccess bar or View tab..

Best
Regards.

Here is a way to use AutoHotkey to show, pin, or minimize the ribbon by pressing F2.

Thanks for sharing this mikeyww!

Cheers,
Stefan