I'd like to suggest an option in the open file dialog and command line options to request that a file is opened as read-only, so that other applications can still modify it while it is open in PDF Editor.
XChange Editor should monitor the file and show a notification (maybe at the top of the document as is done for PDF errors etc.) if the file is changed by another application to allow a user to reload the file.
Upon selecting an editing/annotation tool the application could ask whether the user wants to switch to read/write mode.
Rationale behind this is that PDFs that are generated by other applications need to be closed each time they need to be updated. With this new mode an unnecessary close/open cycle is avoided. This behavior is present in most text editors and office applications (when using shared docs), so users should be familiar with it.
This would be a great productivity enhancement, especially with a command line option to open as read-only:
Current behavior:
- Try to generate PDF
- Find out it is blocked
- Focus PDF Editor
- find PDF tab
- Close Tab
- Switch to other application
- try again to generate new version
- switch to PDF Editor
- Open PDF
- Generate PDF
- switch to PDF editor
- find PDF tab
- click reload button