PDF XChange Forum

Hi, I have just moved from Tools 4 to Tools 6 and must say it is quite a new way of thinking.

I normally use the merge feature to produce a report from a number of pdfs. In Tools 4 at the file selection stage I could choose the pages to be included from each file in turn.

It appears in Tools 6 that all pages are included by default and then you are presented with the proposed merged document (Edit Document List) whereupon you can select the unwanted pages to be removed. This causes me a problem with "weeding" the pages.
1. The list is very long to find the unwanted pages
2.The content of the pages not easily identifiable as presented, especially if the files to be merged have a similar visual layout

Suggestions
1. Provide the facility to choose the pages to be ignored at the file selection stage (maybe in the extended file dialog?)
2. The Edit Document List could be filtered so that you can see the pages being merged on a donor document by document.

My personal preference is option Suggestion 1.

The documents I produce often reach the 200-300 page mark and I am afraid it appears to me currently that Tools 4 handles the file selection better than Tools 6. Perhaps it is just familiarity.

On a different note, Tools 6 dismisses itself after the merge but Tools 4 allowed the facility to go back and forth through the options which was handy if the merge did not go as expected as it remembered the file list and you did not have to go through the rigmarole of selecting all of the files again.

I look forward to your comments

Red

Hello Red,

Thanks for your comments.
Indeed the new PDF Tools works differently, and we are happy to hear all feedback!
I will pass this along to the lead developer for the PDF Tools, and will post back here as soon as I have his comments!

Regards,
Stefan

He Red.

1. Provide the facility to choose the pages to be ignored at the file selection stage (maybe in the extended file dialog?)

Yes, probably its good to have option to select necessary input pages range in Extended Files Dialog (named as "Choose Files"). Or we can add such option to easily filter pages range in "Manual Split/Merge Dialog". We will think more about it..

2.The content of the pages not easily identifiable as presented, especially if the files to be merged have a similar visual layout

In the future, in "Manual Split/Merge Dialog", we will try to add something like additional unique visual marks for documents and its pages. It might be a simple colored tags for example.

2. The Edit Document List could be filtered so that you can see the pages being merged on a donor document by document.

Sorry, its not clear for us. Please explain more..

On a different note, Tools 6 dismisses itself after the merge but Tools 4 allowed the facility to go back and forth through the options which was handy if the merge did not go as expected as it remembered the file list and you did not have to go through the rigmarole of selecting all of the files again.

Its impossible to have 'Back' feature for tool-runtime in V6. We can add other solution for your case - new feature that may keep input files list (once specified by you) between sessions.

Thanks for suggestions.
Cheers.

I am experiencing similar frustrations with PDFTools V6 and I am wondering if I am missing something.

I am trying to merge specific pages from two documents. Having used PDFTools V4 for some time, I have become accustomed to using the PAGES RANGE dialogue box for selecting pages. However, this does not appear to work - I still end up with ALL pages from the document.

The only way I can find to get the desired result is to eliminate unwanted pages through the MANUAL SPLIT/MERGE DOCUMENTS dialogue. This is counter-intuitive, particularly with a large document. (Awkward and prone to error.) SELECT PAGES / PAGES RANGE just does not seem to work. Have I missed something?

I would also add that the inability of PDFTools V6 to allow PREVIOUS/NEXT navigation in the Split/Merge tool and the loss of "remembered" input files list makes it very difficult to use. I have had to revert back to PDFTools V4 Split/Merge.

Hello Popkiss,

Thanks for your input.
We do have a ticket for the page ranges not working:
#3772: PDF Tools 319.0: Split/Merge page ranges not working
But I am afraid that it is not yet marked as resolved.

Appreciate your feedback for that same tool not remembering your input, not allowing back/forward - will check with my colleagues to see the status on that as well!

Regards,
Stefan

Hi, Popkiss.

The issue:
#3772: PDF Tools 319.0: Split/Merge page ranges not working
- will be fixed in new build as well. Sorry for this inconvenience..

Cheers.

Appreciate your efforts - look forward to the Fix. Thx!