Typewriter Text Box

[Thales41]

When I create a Typewriter note PDF-Xchange sometimes creates it with a box around it. So I go in and force the box width to 0pt and it disappears. However... Sometimes when I edit it, or copy/paste it the box comes back with 1pt width.

Is there any way to once and forevermore drive a stake through these boxes and force them all to be 0pt? Whenever I think I've done so by saving a default style or some such, they always eventually seem to recur eventually.

Thanks.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi, Thales41

Thank you for the report, Could I ask what version of our software you have running currently? I recall a bug similar to what you are reporting here in a previous build, but have not seen any reports of that behavior in quite a while not, certainly not in the latest version.

For reference, the current release is 351.0, so please do update first to ensure that this issue is not already fixed, and let me know if it helps.

Kind regards,

[Thales41]

Well, I had ver 341, so I downloaded and installed from your web site. Now it says I have ver 322.1 dated 2018. I seem to have gone waaay backwards.

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer/download?fileid=446

Searching elsewhere on your web site I found another location and installed from there which provided ver 351. As I only have the trouble intermittently and unpredictably I can't say if this will fix it or not, but I'll try it for awhile. The little testing I've done seems to be ok, but I cannot say that with any confidence yet.

Thanks.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hi, Thales41

No worries, I will keep an eye over here and look forward to your followup. Hopefully everything is fixed, but do not hesitate to let us know if you find an issue.

Kind regards,

[Thales41]

Still have the problem. I just stumbled across text that I had entered on a PDF earlier, and I edited it a bit. At that point the box reappeared. It could be eliminated by resetting it to 0pt width.

But why oh why is there not a global setting where I could tell the program that forever more I do not want boxes?

FWIW.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Maybe you should try to resolve the problem as follows:
- create a Typewriter comment with some text in it
- make sure to set the Border Width = 0 pt
- now, select the Typewriter comment (you should see a dotted and colored rectangle around it)
- then, a right-mouse-click should show up a menu
- in that menu, click "Style Tools" > "Make Current Properties Default"

[Thales41]

Been there, done that - multiple times. And as I said, the text in question was proper but in editing it the PDF software "helped" me by changing it. It did not change any of the other text entries, only the one I was editing. And had I started typing in a new entry it would have been with the proper default settings.

My suggestion is simply that you put in a global setting option so one doesn't have to argue with it on individual text entries. An option that says always boxes, never boxes or let me do it on a case by case basis.

FWIW.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

The "Make Current Properties Default"-option is just for that purpose, to set whether or not you like to have a border yes or no for all the Typewriter text boxes you are going to create in the future.

If I understand it correctly, the phenomenon you have is that sometimes when you edit a typewriter text box, the border becomes visible while it was not visible before. There must be some explanation for that. The question is what you are exactly doing when that happens.

Kind regards.

[Thales41]

Re: There must be some explanation for that. The question is what you are exactly doing when that happens.

I've told you, but you just cannot believe it. I open a PDF, decide to edit the text slightly, and when I finish editing it the box is present. Despite the default style saying don't do that. Nothing more to it than that. And plainly it is not setting a "global" style as after the edit it's only that one text that shows a box. If it were global it would force that box on all the other texts.

I agree there must be an explanation, and "obscure bug" is what comes to my mind as someone who's done programming for nearly 50 years.

Anyhow, I don't actually expect you guys to do anything but though you would want to know. Or not. It's much easier to blame the user.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hi,

No one is blaming the user. I am just trying to find the manner to reproduce the problem.
Myself I am not able to (using PDF-XChange Editor V9.0.351.0), despite I have been trying multiple things.
Once this is possible, I am sure the people of Tracker Software will do everything they can to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

Can you please provide us with a sample PDF where you were able to reproduce the problem ?
So, a document where you have a few Typewriter text boxes with no border and one (or more) where you have made some small corrections (Edit) and their border has come back. Maybe it only happens in special circumstances, with specific properties.

Thanks.

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi Thales41.

Well, I had ver 341, so I downloaded and installed from your web site. Now it says I have ver 322.1 dated 2018. I seem to have gone waaay backwards.

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/produc ... fileid=446

This url you provided is for downloading the now discontinued PDF-XChange Viewer application, the PDF-XChange Editor is its successor and the application intended for PDF-editing. I recommend you use the new one that is full featured and always is up to date. The proper webpage to download the new app is: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/produc ... nge-editor

According to your initial problem: we couldn't reproduce an issue you described. But we are able to reproduce another seemingly incorrect (yet intended) behavior that might confuse you:
1. Create new typewriter comment, type some text, set the 0-border and click somewhere outside of comment to finish the creation.
2. Single-click on the newly created comment and copy+paste it - new pasted comment will be with 0-border as well
3. BUT if you double-click the comment - it starts the text editing mode(instead of just selecting the whole comment) and if you select all text, click outside to stop text editing and then paste the copied text (note: your clipboard contains the plain text, not the whole comment-object) - then new comment will be pasted with the default(!!) properties (with red border, probably with other font).
Can you confirm that specific scenario?

Best
Regards.

[Thales41]

1. Create new typewriter comment, type some text, set the 0-border and click somewhere outside of comment to finish the creation.
2. Single-click on the newly created comment and copy+paste it - new pasted comment will be with 0-border as well
3. BUT if you double-click the comment - it starts the text editing mode(instead of just selecting the whole comment) and if you select all text, click outside to stop text editing and then paste the copied text (note: your clipboard contains the plain text, not the whole comment-object) - then new comment will be pasted with the default(!!) properties (with red border, probably with other font).
Can you confirm that specific scenario?

I don't see that happen even when I follow your instructions above. More to the point, I've never used the "select all" menu item as I didn't even know it existed. Moreover my default is set to be without the box. For what it's worth, when I copy/paste some text block, it always shows up with the correct font and with no border. The border only shows up if I then edit the new block and then when I exit the block the red border appears. And I have not been able to create any replicable sequence that produces this, but rather it just seems to randomly occur sometimes. (I know how unhelpful that is.)

Wow! Scratch that. I can replicate a similar error with some probability of success. These are my steps:
1) If I'm in the "Select Text" mode or "Typewriter Tool" mode I click on a text block,
2) and then I mouse over it to highlight some or all of the text and copy it,
3) then I mouse elsewhere on the sheet and "paste" I'm getting the red box more often than not.
4) but note this is not my default. My "default style" I've set repeatedly is without the box.

Note that this is unrelated to how I normally work. It's just something I played around with that was akin to what you suggested might invoke the box. Normally copy/paste works properly, and it's after editing that the box shows up.

I'm curious why you think this is the intended behavior? It violates my default style setting and changes the style that is obviously applied to the source block I'm copying.

More confusion. Anyhow, that's all I know.

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

3) then I mouse elsewhere on the sheet and "paste" I'm getting the red box more often than not.

Please note: when you paste the plain text to the page then the TextBox-annotation is created. But not the TypeWriter-annotation. Just other type of annotation is created when you paste the plain text. That is reason as I see. And if you have customized the default style for the TypeWriter-annotations - it doesn't affect the default style for TextBox-annotations. Because each type of annotation has own default style.

As a proof: when you have pasted the previously copied plain text - just select a newly added annotation and choose the 'Properties' item from its context menu:

- here you may see that new annotation is a *TextBox*.

But when you just select the existing TypeWriter-annotation and copy+paste it and then look to its properties you will see that:

So each type of annotation has own default(current) style an you may see it here:

[Thales41]

And if you have customized the default style for the TypeWriter-annotations - it doesn't affect the default style for TextBox-annotations. Because each type of annotation has own default style.

Hmm... So you're implying that if I set TextBox defaults the same as TypeWriter defaults then I never have to deal with the red box again? In a quick test that does seem to work. I'll have to use it a week to two to fully trust it, but... it makes sense.

Thanks for the help. I really do appreciate it.

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]