[Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities  SOLVED

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daniel_lutz
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[Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by daniel_lutz »

Hello Support,

the following feature wish is more long-term but perhaps quite helpful. In a competitor product called FlexiPDF (wherein PDF X Editor is much better) I have seen a feature that I found very practical and that brings the idea of virtual text boxes that came with the new version even further forward. There you can set up a link between text boxes (I don't know if it is recognized automatically, or by doing the linking yourself). This is useful e.g. for multi-column text where each column is its own text box. If you (assuming you don't currently have an RTL language) link them they behave like one text box. This means that if you e.g. change text in the left column so that at the end a part of the text falls out of the frame, it is simply appended to the following column at the beginning. It behaves like a word processor like when yo are in textbox 1 and pres CTRL+A then both (linked) textbox content is selected and so on.. I think it's quite nice and with the already extensive editing possibilities it would certainly be a nice extension of the possibilities.

Best Regards
Daniel
Best regards
Daniel

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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello Daniel,
I would like to clarify on exactly what you are suggesting here.
To me it sounds like you want the ability to have two separate text columns act as one. Whereas in contrast, currently they would act as independent objects in cases like this:
DMKB18August22.png
DMKB18August22.png (39.11 KiB) Viewed 3311 times
As you can see, the two text boxes have a line dividing them despite an extreme proximity.
In cases like this, you would have ctrl+A select everything in both text boxes?
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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daniel_lutz
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by daniel_lutz »

Hello, Support,

under the following link I made a screencast of this function. First the behavior in the PDF Editor. There, each column is viewed and edited individually. Then the function in FlexiPDF. The tool is called Text Connection Tool and you select 2-n text boxes in their logical order. Then select the text editing tool and the two text boxes behave like one. I write some text in the cast below and as soon as the end is reached it changes to the next text box. If I pressed CTRL+A the content of both text boxes would be selected. This would be similar to a word processing program.

That's what I meant.

Regards Daniel
Best regards
Daniel

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Will - Tracker Supp
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for that - I'm not sure that this is something that we can feasilby implement due to specification restrictions, but I'm not certain of that. Essentially the PDF Spec. doesn't provide any mechanism for linking text blocks as the PDF format is entirely coordinate based, it doesn't follow any logical flow like e.g. a Word document. However, I'll pass this to the development team to look at and have final say.

Cheers,
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Thank you.

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Will Travaglini
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities  SOLVED

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Great news! This is already being worked on and should be released within the next few builds :D
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Thank you.

Best regards

Will Travaglini
Tracker Support (Europe)
Tracker Software Products Ltd.
http://www.tracker-software.com
daniel_lutz
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by daniel_lutz »

That's good to hear and I look forward to it. Of course, this linking is a temporary thing and should only take place in edit mode. One can be curious.

Best regards
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Daniel

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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi Daniel,

I'll pass that along so the devs. are aware. Unfortunately I'm not privvy to the exact details of the implementation at the moment though.

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
daniel_lutz
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by daniel_lutz »

There are any changes in one of the next releases?
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: [Feature Request] link text boxes to exchanged possibilities

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello Daniel

I am afraid that we do not have a specific timeline on this yet as it is a complex feature to develop. Know that we are still working on it for now however.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
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