Automatic recto

[Nemo]

Generally the PDFs I print are quite large and I want to print them double-sided BUT I want the first page of each chapter to always be printed verso. This is so that after printing I can insert a cardboard divider (tab) at the start of each chapter.

Generally the start of a chapter corresponds to a high level bookmark, so it would be really useful if there were an option, when printing, to automatically add blank pages where necessary to ensure that pages pointed to by high level bookmarks always printed verso.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hi, Nemo

Unfortunately there is no way to automatically add these in when printing from the Editor, however you could certainly accomplish this with our PDF-Tools batch processing utility. You could Create a Custom Tool, which would split the document by top level bookmarks, insert empty pages before page 1 of each file, then merge the document back together before printing.

Kind regards,

[Nemo]

The thing is that whether or not a blank page needs to be inserted depends on whether the page pointed to by each high-level bookmark would be an even-numbered or odd numbered page. If it would be an odd numbered page, and so print recto, you don't want to insert a blank. It is only if it would be an even-numbered page that you need to insert a blank to make it odd-numbered.

So it sounds as though if I used the method you propose I would have to look at each section separately and note the number of pages and then decide whether to insert a blank.

I can see that this could work but I'm looking for something simpler if possible.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hi, Nemo

Understood, It does seem like it could be helpful, however the only ways this could work is in the specific case that you have top level bookmarks in the exact locations needed for us to begin with this, as there is no method of detecting where a "chapter" starts in PDF. As such, I can say with a strong degree of confidence that unless we see a large demand for this item, it will likely not be seeing implementation.

For the aforementioned reasons, I will not be creating a feature request ticket on this item at the moment. If more users come along to support this function, I will discuss it at greater length with the Development team to see how viable it truly is.

Kind regards,

[Nemo]

Hi Daniel

People use different words to refer to different parts of an organised PDF document - e.g. chapter, section, part - but I think that if someone has (a) a bookmarked PDF and they (b) want to produce a hard copy and (c) want to insert tabbed dividers into the hardcopy, they are nearly always going to want to insert the tabs in the same position as the high-level bookmarks. This is because a tabbed divider in a hardcopy serves the same function as a high-level bookmark in a softcopy - i.e. it provides a way to quickly jump to the start of a set of pages which are in a logical group - chapter, section, part: call it what you will.

But I take you general point that any decision on an enhancement would depend on demand.

Incidentally I have now found a way of doing what I want, as follows:

If I right-click on the first high-level bookmark and go to Sections - Print, and click Print (making sure the double-sided printer preference is selected) it will print all the pages in that "section" - i.e. all the pages from that high-level bookmark up to (but not including) the page pointed to by the next same-level bookmark.

I can then go to the next high-level bookmark and do the same, etc.

Doing a separate print for each section means that, of course, the first page of each section will be printed recto.

The PDF documents I need to do this for typically have only 5 or 6 sections so doing it this way is a reasonable solution for me (though I can see that if you have say 20 sections it would not be such a good solution).

Incidentally I am very impressed that PDF X-Change Editor has this concept of "sections" - i.e. that you can do a group operation on all the pages from a bookmark up to (but not including) the next page pointed to by a bookmark of the same level. "sections" in this sense is obviously the way everyone thinks about logical divisions in a document but, as far as I know, no other PDF software allows you to do this.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]