Highlighting creating empty comment boxes

[kaprivi]

As of recently, when I highlight text using Xchange editor, the highlight displays in another PDF reader (pdf expert, on my iPad), with an empty comment box, as in the attached image.

As you can see from the same image, this behaviour is not replicated in highlighting using another PDF editor (ABBYY Finereader).

I do not want these comment boxes to be visible, and I do not think that I experienced this behaviour before from PDF Xchange editor. I don't think that I made any change to my settings (though I cannot rule this out). I updated to build No.386 of version 10.3.0 quite recently and it is possible that this change occurred at the same time.

Is there a setting /preference that I can adjust to stop a comment box from being inserted at the same time as I highlight? Or has some change been made to the highlighting functionality?

I am also attaching the PDF file that I created to demonstrate this behaviour.

Thank you very much for your excellent product.

demo file.pdf

5631.jpg

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi, kaprivi

there is an option to include the text in the popup or not:

image.png

but with it off these are empty and that is expected. When I open your PDF in Adobe, or other apps it looks the same as in our Editor. I do believe the PDF is correctly created and that the app you are using (pdf expert, on my iPad) is not behaving the right way.

[kaprivi]

Thanks for the prompt reply Paul. Strange that this features only with the PDF-Xchange highlight all the same.

I'll get on to Readdle / PDF Expert and see if they can shed any light, and post back here in case anyone else is experiencing this.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[kaprivi]

As I said I would, I went to Readdle / PDF Expert with this problem, and they were extremely helpful. They have identified the issue as lying with PDF-XChange's (recent) creation of an empty XML body when text is highlighted.

I sent them a demo PDF (attached to this post), which shows that the issue seems to have crept in between build 381 and 386.

Highlighting_demo (1).pdf

Readdle's explanation is set out below.

I can't attach the video they sent me which makes the issue very clear, but I've uploaded it to the link below

]https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KQCZt ... sp=sharing

They have confirmed to me that they are happy for me to share this information with you on the forum.

I hope that this is helpful (which is the spirit in which this message is sent). I find your product extraordinarily good, and I hope that this helps to keep it on that path!

Thank you.

Explanation from Readdle
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to clarify that we have checked the PDF file structure and would like to provide you with some details. PDF-Xchange creates an empty XML body in the annotations. Our application sees it, and therefore displays the Note — it shows what is written and how it is written in the PDF file.

You can check the video attached and send it to PDF-Xchange to give them the results of our research.

Annotations created by PDF-Xchange have the /RC attribute, which is responsible for Note. And it is empty. If it is empty, then it does not need to be created:

There isn't a strict standard that prohibits the creation of an empty XML body in PDF annotations, but it's generally considered good practice to avoid creating unnecessary or empty elements.

You can transfer this information to PDF-Xchange as this should be fixed on their side.
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Maybe the option "Automatically open pop-ups for newly created Text Markup comments", in File > Preferences > Commenting, has been turned on ?
.

PDF-XChange Editor - Preferences.png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, all

I do wonder if what Willy mentioned could have an effect, since the act of opening the container should of course, create it.
In any case, I have forwarded this topic, and specifically Readdle's reply, to one of our Developers in charge of this area for review, if there is something we can resolve based on that feedback, he will be able to find it.
RT#6985: Bug: comments created with empty RC field.

Kind regards,

[kaprivi]

Thanks Dan and Willy.

Nothing so straightforward as Willy's suggestion, I'm afraid: had checked that. Same options are checked by me in build 381 and 386, but this behaviour is seen only in the more recent version.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, kaprivi

Thank you for verifying that. this is already noted in the ticket, so I will refrain from updating it again, but know that the team is now looking into this and hopefully will be able to provide a solution in an upcoming release.

Kind regards,

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

We made some investigations, and it looks like it is PDF Expert's issue, not the PDF-XChange.
They incorrectly add that mark for an existing comment, when the /RC entry in the annotation dictionary is not empty while the /Contents entry is empty or not present.
You better report that issue to the PDF Expert developers.

[kaprivi]

Ok Ivan, thanks for investigating. I will go back to Readdle / PDF Expert with this explanation and post any further reply here.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[kaprivi]

I went back to Readdle / PDF Expert, and this is the message which I've received in response, which I pass on for your information.

Thanks to Ivan and others for their work in investigating this.

; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our additional research confirms that we are currently using only the /RC attribute for Note display, and it would be good to also consider the /Contents attribute in addition to /RC. Thanks for highlighting it! We will be implementing improvements on this matter.

In addition, we have also observed that empty XML bodies in annotations do not appear to add value to the document structure. So, this presents an opportunity for us both to enhance our software.
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, kaprivi

Thank you for passing that along, I will make sure Ivan sees it as well.

Kind regards,

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Unfortunately that 'empty' XML is required to store the default text style as this annotation type does not have /DS entry by the specification.