[Bug] Flatten comments in the version 10

[mimimi]

PDF-XChange Editor Plus v10 is removing comments when we use the “Flatten comments” tool.
We will see the comment icon is still there, but the content is gone.
We could use the “Flatten comments” in the version 9. However we can NOT use it from the version 10.

On the version 10:

On the version 9:

It does the same whether we flatten one or multiple comments using the comments pane or if we use the Comments tab > Flatten dialog.

Would you fix the bug?
Thank you.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello mimimi,

Are you suere you were flattening the comments in V9.5?
As the pop-up window is an attribute of annotations, and when an annotation is flattened - this pop-up window, and it's content are lost, and this should have been the same in V9.5.

Can you please send me a sample document that you have flattened the annotations and still have the pop-ups?

Kind regards,
Stefan

[LukeinNY]

Version_9.5.368.0.pdf

(5.38 KiB) Downloaded 80 times

Version_10.0.1.pdf

(5.35 KiB) Downloaded 57 times

Same operation performed on both versions but on version 10.0.1 when flattening the sticky notes the text is removed.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LukeinNY

The Version 9 document you sent was not flattened, it was still a comment. Flatting it, even in previous versions, will remove the popup for sticky notes, much the same as it will clear the popup note for any other comment (highlight, measurements, etc.) can have a popup note, and all popups are removed by flattening. I am afraid that this is intended, and always has been..

Kind regards,

[LukeinNY]

Is there a way to retrieve the notes that were made in the popups after flattening? In Version 9 when we press flatten the popups remain and everything else is flattened. This is the use case we use it for. Is there another way to achieve this?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LukeinNY

I am afraid not, flatting removes the popups by converting the comments to base content, which cannot have popups. I have to ask, are you certain that you we using the "flatten comments" command in the past? I only ask because I cannot find any old version of our software which does offer this handling... neither the version you mention, nor even a build over 5 years old.

If you need to maintain the flyouts, you should ideally just, not flatten the comments in the first place.

Kind regards,

[mimimi]

Hello

We tested it version 9.5.368.0 and 10.1.1.381.
The comments are NOT removed after we use the “Flatten comments” on the version 9.5.368.0.
However they are removed after we use the “Flatten comments” on the version 10.1.1.381.
We tried it on some version 10. The results are same.

All our users are facing same issue.
Would you check it?

Thank you,
mimimi

[mimimi]

The test files are attached.

Version9.5.368.0.pdf

(7.45 KiB) Downloaded 65 times

The file is run the Flatten comments by the Version9.5.368.0.

Version10.0.1.371.pdf

(6.86 KiB) Downloaded 34 times

The file is run the Flatten comments by the Version10.0.1.371.

[rakunavi]

Hello mimimi,

As far as I have opened the your attachment created by build 368 ("Version9.5.368.0.pdf"), the comments are not flattened and exist as comments. I suggest you investigate the cause after checking the display results in other PDF applications such as Acrobat as well.

Also, I don't know if this will help you, but I assume you are using Japanese. As I posted in the forum for translators, currently, "flatten" and "collapse" are translated into the same Japanese word (折りたたむ). I am always concerned that these translations may mislead users.

However, currently, "flatten" and "collapse" are translated into the same Japanese word (折りたたむ), making it difficult to distinguish between the following two menus in the comment pane, for example.

• Flatten Selected Comments (選択コメントを折りたたむ)
• Collapse All (すべて折りたたむ)

The former is an operation that significantly changes the structure of the PDF document by flattening comments, whereas the latter only changes the display of the tree in the comment pane and does not affect the file. The current situation where completely different functions are displayed with similar menu titles is very dangerous. If you translate "flatten"(統合する) and "collapse"(折りたたむ) so that the difference between them can be understood and the translation is consistent throughout the application, you need to improve the indicated sections (from Report_No_091.png to Report_No_101.png).

Since the translations in these items are the same from build 368 to build 381 and nothing has changed (i.e., the suggestions have been ignored by translators), I suspect that in your case it is due to something else. However, just in case, I made this comment for your reference.

May you find a solution soon.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

[LukeinNY]

When I flatten sticky notes I select the option Left as Is for Non-Printable. We flatten stamps and everything else, but the non printable parts, the sticky notes, we leave. This has been working in Version 9, but not 10.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, LukeinNY

The option to ignore "non-printable" comments, does rely on the comment being flagged as "non-printable". These sticky note are indeed printable, which would be why they are affected despite that setting being enabled. If you wish to use that to prevent them from being flattened, you will need to select the sticky notes before flattening, and set them all to non-printable:

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hello Daniel,

I found an error in the Japanese translation of the Flatten Annotations dialog. The "Non-Printable" option that was discussed in this topic has been translated as 'Comment (コメント)' in Japanese. This means that Japanese UI users cannot understand the meaning at all. Although it is irregular, it is essential to understand this topic, so I propose to improve the Japanese translation in this sub-forum.

=======================================

  Language : Japanese
  ISO Code : ja-JP
  Updated : 06 Sep 2023 UTC
  File name: Strings.ja-JP.xcl

-----------------------------------------------
sID or CtrlID : fao.l.optComment
Original : Non-Printable:
Localized (Current) : コメント：
Localized (Proposed revised translation) :
印刷不可：
印刷不可コメント：
Attached reference image (Current) : Report_No_211.png
-----------------------------------------------

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

Thank you for pointing that out, I have forwarded it to our translations manager, She will ensure that our translator sees this needs some review.

Kind regards,

[LukeinNY]

Is there a way to make all sticky notes non printable by default either through a preference in PDF-exchange or a reg edit?

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello LukeinNY,

You can create a style for the sticky notes and set the default for that style to be non-printable - so that when you later use it - you can be sure your sticky notes won't clog the printed result.

If there are no other comments in your file, and only sticky notes - you can also tell the Editor to not print mark-ups in the print preview dialogue:

If you need to print other annotations, but do not want pop-up notes - please make sure that you have turned OFF these two options:

If you already have a large file with many sticky notes (and other annotations) in it - then maybe running some JS which would make these annotations non printable could also help:

Code: Select all

annots = this.getAnnots();
for (var i = 0; i <annots.length; i++){
  if (annots[i].type == "Text"){
    annots[i].print = false;
  }
}

To start the JS console - press Ctrl + J, then copy paste the above code in there, and hit the green triangle to execute it.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan,

You can create a style for the sticky notes and set the default for that style to be non-printable - so that when you later use it - you can be sure your sticky notes won't clog the printed result.

It seems to me that what can be specified as the default for a style is limited to what appears in the properties of the Comment Styles Palette, so the setting for printable/non-printable seems to be out of scope. I have actually tried, but cannot specify it as a default. It would be helpful for LukeinNY if you could provide more details on how to do this.

• 

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello rakunavi,

You are correct! I assumed that this option would be available in the comments styles palette - so indeed you can not set Printable to false as default!

However the print preview settings should allow you to not print notes even when they are printable, and if that is not sufficient for LukeinNY - then the JS will certainly help!

I do apologise for not verifying my initial suggestion of making the printable setting default when it can not really be set that way!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Stefan, thank you for your reply.

Sorry for always pointing out all the details.

Other than the method you mentioned, you might be able to prepare a layer that is set to non-printable in advance and set it as default temporarily only when you add a sticky note.

• 

It may not be much different from selecting individual items and setting them as non-printable, though.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello rakunavi,

Thanks for the suggestion!
Another thing that comes to mind is to open the comments pane, group all comments by type, select all the sticky note ones - and then mass adjust their "Printable" property to No.

Kind regards,
Stefan