pdf reader: suggestions for improvement

Dear All,

The pdf reader (a very nice piece of software) makes it a pain to go to the
next/prev page for two reasons:

1) lack of dedicated button. There has been a few posts about that. What
strikes me is that there are two buttons (select and the full screen button)
that have currently exactly the same function: to switch from full screen to
windowed mode and back. So we have one spare button.

In principle one could use the select button to display the next page (short
click) and the previous one (long click).

However, as suggested previously, FBreader uses nicely the zoom button to go
forward/backward. This is being used for the zoom feature in the pdf reader,
but honestly, how often to do change the zoom while reading a pdf file? Once.
So the best suggestion is to use the select button to pop-up a zoom chooser
and the zoom button to scroll down/go to the next page.

Finally, when scrolling down (or up) a page with the D-pad, doesn't it make
sense to switch to the next page if one is already a the bottom of a page?

2) When displaying the next/prev page, please keep the horizontal position so
that one does not have to adjust the centering at each page change.

With these two modifications, the pdf reader program would much easier and
faster to use.

Thanks.

Damien

On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 03:09:10PM +0100, Damien Challet wrote:
> The pdf reader (a very nice piece of software) makes it a pain to go to the
> next/prev page for two reasons:
>
> 1) lack of dedicated button. There has been a few posts about that. What
> strikes me is that there are two buttons (select and the full screen button)
> that have currently exactly the same function: to switch from full screen to
> windowed mode and back. So we have one spare button.
>
> In principle one could use the select button to display the next page (short
> click) and the previous one (long click).

The Back button might be a better fit for going to the previous page.

> However, as suggested previously, FBreader uses nicely the zoom button to go
> forward/backward. This is being used for the zoom feature in the pdf reader,
> but honestly, how often to do change the zoom while reading a pdf file? Once.
> So the best suggestion is to use the select button to pop-up a zoom chooser
> and the zoom button to scroll down/go to the next page.
>
> Finally, when scrolling down (or up) a page with the D-pad, doesn't it make
> sense to switch to the next page if one is already a the bottom of a page?

Or better yet -- support the "continous" mode that Acrobat Reader and
Evince have and show parts of both pages at the same time.


Marius Gedminas
--
We have an advanced scalable groupware communication environment (email)
-- Alan Cox

I share this concern, if not all the proposed solutions. :-)


> On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 03:09:10PM +0100, Damien Challet wrote:
>> The pdf reader (a very nice piece of software) makes it a pain to go to the
>> next/prev page for two reasons:
>>
>> 1) lack of dedicated button. There has been a few posts about that. What
>> strikes me is that there are two buttons (select and the full screen button)
>> that have currently exactly the same function: to switch from full screen to
>> windowed mode and back. So we have one spare button.
>>
>> In principle one could use the select button to display the next page (short
>> click) and the previous one (long click).

Marius Gedminas wrote:
> The Back button might be a better fit for going to the previous page.

That's a great idea! Select to go the next page, and Back to go to the
previous. It sounds just perfect.


>> However, as suggested previously, FBreader uses nicely the zoom button to go
>> forward/backward. This is being used for the zoom feature in the pdf reader,
>> but honestly, how often to do change the zoom while reading a pdf file? Once.
>> So the best suggestion is to use the select button to pop-up a zoom chooser
>> and the zoom button to scroll down/go to the next page.
>>
>> Finally, when scrolling down (or up) a page with the D-pad, doesn't it make
>> sense to switch to the next page if one is already a the bottom of a page?

NO! Please don't! Please please don't! Pretty please? :-)

It's really annoying when scrolling around a page with the arrow keys, one
finds himself on the next or previous page without wanting it.

Much better having dedicated keys, and using them.

Did I already say please don't? ;-)


> Or better yet -- support the "continous" mode that Acrobat Reader and
> Evince have and show parts of both pages at the same time.

No problem in continuous mode, of course. Unfortunately, KPDF exhibits this
exact behavior even when *not* in continuous mode, and that's *mightily*
annoying.

I opened a bug in the KDE bug tracker for this problem, and it's slowly
building consensus.


>> 2) When displaying the next/prev page, please keep the horizontal position so
>> that one does not have to adjust the centering at each page change.

I second this one too.


>> With these two modifications, the pdf reader program would much easier and
>> faster to use.

Definitely.


--
Nicola Larosa - http://www.tekNico.net/

Looking good on paper is the first resort of those who want to appear to
acknowledge some public concern without making any significant change.
That's usually politicians, command-and-control business leaders and PR
flacks. Real leaders know that looking good on paper means nothing unless
it's the result of determined actions, not a replacement for them.
-- Carmine Coyote, May 2006

> >> Finally, when scrolling down (or up) a page with the D-pad, doesn't it
> >> make sense to switch to the next page if one is already a the bottom of
> >> a page?
>
> NO! Please don't! Please please don't! Pretty please? :-)
>
> It's really annoying when scrolling around a page with the arrow keys, one
> finds himself on the next or previous page without wanting it.
>
> Much better having dedicated keys, and using them.
>
> Did I already say please don't? ;-)

Fair point. This part of my proposal was put forward if the developer did not
want to change the function of a single button.