Clicking on a bookmark or go to page resets horizontal position

[martixy]

I have a bunch of PDFs that have very different page sizes. Problem is, usually the default horizontal position ends up being with half of the content(or more) out of view.

And when I click on a bookmark or use the Go To Page function I end up having to scroll everything back into view again.

Is there a way to avoid this? A setting to remember horizontal scroll position?

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello martixy,

If you set up your links or e.g. bookmarks to point to a specific page - you have the options to specify the desired view to which your bookmark should point:

Regards,
Stefan

[martixy]

TL;DR: See last paragraph, the rest is context for the issue.

Many things to unpack here:
1. This does not address the problem with "Go To Page".
2. You are asking me to potentially change thousands of links and bookmarks across hundreds of documents manually. This is not going to happen.

3. When I turn on the link creation tool, I can't turn it off. I have to restart the program. This may be a bug?
4. Changing the link to go to a named destination frequently freezes the program. This is definitely a bug. I can reliably reproduce the behaviour: I had created a named destination as you suggested. However when I go to edit that action, delete the named destination and switch to "Use Page Number" and click OK, the program freezes.

5. Even so, none of this helps the issue. For context, I view most documents in two-page continuous mode. Lets take the following view:

This is what happens when I go to page 70:

This is what happens when I go to page 71:

I know for a fact that the program is able remember horizontal scroll position, because there is an option in Preferences -> Page Display to "Restore the last used page layout and zoom settings, [...]" or when restoring a session, both of which successfully restore horizontal scroll position.

So can I request a feature, maybe a toggle, to retain the current horizontal scroll position when executing the Go to page action, whether via the Go to Page tool (ID: cmd.view.goto.page) or via the Go to a Page in the Document action, which can be attached to links or bookmarks - similar to the "Forbid the change of the current Zoom factor, during the execution of 'Go to Destination' actions [...]" option found in Preferences -> Page Display.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello Martixy,

The "Go to page" action has a zoom function within itself, This will be what is causing the zoom level to change when you go to a specific page.

If you edit these so the zoom level is set to inherit, or your desired zoom percentage, the issue should go away. another item to look at is the Position options directly above zoom:

These are often static values, and will pan the document left or right depending on where they are intended to point to, the Editor tries to place this point in the upper left corner of the document window when these links are clicked, again, setting them to inherit should prevent this issue.

Finally, you are able to "forbid changes to the zoom factor" for all go to destination functions from the editor preferences itself, however this option will not have any effect on the position settings mentioned above, only the zoom settings.

Kind regards,

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Regarding the other points in your post,

The link creation tool, much like the other tools, cannot be disabled by selecting it again, you must instead select a different tool, such as the hand or edit tools. You can also disable "keep selected" from the format tab when this tool is selected, this will then revert back to the hand tool after placing a single link automatically.

I am still testing the named destination bug you mentioned earlier, but so far cannot reproduce it, could I ask you to send me some screenshots depicting the steps you take there so I can see what happens then?

[martixy]

Re the first response:
1. I am talking about the "Go To Page" command, more precisely command ID cmd.view.goto.page.
2. I have said nothing about zoom levels changing.
3. The position options only help on odd pages in two page view. I can't set a negative offset for even pages. And which page is even can change depending on the "Show cover page" setting.
4. No way I'm going through hundreds of documents and editing thousands of links, even without the above issues.
5. The setting from your last screenshot is irrelevant to the topic (though much appreciated otherwise). I just want a new, similar setting that says "forbid changes to scroll position" or something like that. See the last paragraph of my previous post for a more rigorous statement again.

In my screenshots note the horizontal scroll position. I want that to stay the same. I want the horizontal scroll bar to not move when going to another page.

Re the second response:
1. Ah, understood. It's a bit unintuitive that it's another mode of the program, but understandable.
2. I have something better for you than a screenshot: A video.

[David.P]

Hi @all,

unwanted horizontal scrolling or jumping of the page is a serious problem that has been discussed on the forum for years.

The only reason I haven't commented about it recently is because I use 4K monitors almost everywhere, and basically always work in single page view mode, where the problem is absent.

In other modes, especially in continuous page view, unwanted horizontal scrolling can still be a major issue, as described for example here:
Problem with zoom option "Fit Visible"

Possible solutions had been summarized five years ago here:
Continuous page view, and Find/Search occurrence positioning

Thanks very much to the Tracker team for considering to resolve this,

Best regards
David

[martixy]

Well, if this has been in for years and still hasn't been fixed, then you've just destroyed all hope of ever seeing a fix.

As for any workarounds - Fit Visible is inactive for me. Because of two-page view it seems, which appears the most reasonable way to read a book on a high-res widescreen (e.g. 1440p and 4K).

The newer thread mentions consistency, but the most popular reader out there (adobe) does not handle jumping around like PDFX does. It actually preserves the horizontal position.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello Martixy,

Indeed consistency is a large part of the issue, Adobe most definitely affects horizontal scroll when going through bookmarks, search results and the like. Unfortunately this is not something that we can change at this point in time. Fundamentally searching or bookmarks work the same way, they point to a specific X,Y position in the document on Page Z. We have to respect these coordinates and the Editor will try to display them as close as possible.

Using David's "Varying page sizes" example, what happens if we prevent horizontal zoom from happening, and the search result or bookmark points off the side of the viewing area?

Unfortunately, as some of you have suspected for these past few years, development on this item has been indefinitely held. We are not completely rejecting it, as we do see the worth in this function, but it is unlikely to be implemented at this junction.

Kind regards,

[martixy]

I'll talk about adobe, because that's the only one I have, besides PDFX.
I will grant that changing position does also affect scroll.

The difference in how adobe handles it is that the pages are fit based on the largest page the program has seen yet, not the entirety of the document. And the fit resets every time the zoom level is changed. Meaning if you have a large page, but its not visible anymore, and you change the zoom, the scroll bar disappears. This causes the current go-to algorithm of both programs to work reasonably. So actually achieving consistency with adobe would be HUGE.

Admittedly, I do not have knowledge of other PDF readers, and adobe might be an outlier, but you cannot claim consistency with adobe at least.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello Martixy,

Thank you for the example there, I had not encountered this situation in adobe yet, however I will mention it to the dev team for you incase there is something we can do.

Kind regards,

[Toygun]

I have the same problem with some PDFs (If I choose two-page continuous mode, page scrolls right or left when I click on "go to links").

I solved this problem by resizing all pages (same size as the others) that were larger than the others.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi, Toygun

Glad to hear you were able to resolve the issue on your own there. I hope your workaround can help some others who may encounter this issue.

Kind regards,