Feature Request to prevent tapping a comment from being selected even if the exclusive mode is disabled

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

Dragging a document by touch allows the user to freely pan the display area of the page view, even if the hand tool is disabled. This is the most basic operation, along with zooming in and out by pinching. However, if there happens to be a comment at the location you touch while trying to drag, you will unintentionally select and move that comment. In the first place, just by looking at the page, we cannot determine whether what we see there is a comment or base content.

When the exclusive mode is enabled, tapping on a comment does not select it and dragging does not move it, regardless of whether the Hand tool or the Comment tool is enabled. However, when the exclusive mode is enabled, the tooltip does not appear when operated with a stylus or mouse, and double-clicking on a comment does not open a pop-up note. These are all behaviors that the exclusive mode intentionally causes. If you enable exclusive mode just because you don't want to select a comment with a tap, the effect on other operations is too great. However, that does not mean that it is very practical to enable the exclusive mode when performing touch operations and disable it when performing stylus or mouse operations.

Note that disabling the 'Allow Draw with a Finger Touch' option in the 'Commenting' category of the 'Preferences' dialog does not prevent selection by tap or movement of comments by drag.

I just want to pan by dragging or zoom in/out by pinching, but it is very tiring to touch the screen while always being careful whether the hand tool is active or not, or whether the exclusive mode is active or not.

The request for the comment tool to be activated by double-tapping, which I reported in the following topic, was based on the same purpose.

• Comment tool responds to double-tap even if 'Allow Draw with a Finger Touch' option is disabled
  https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?t=40842

When dragging and pinching by touch, there is a difference in ease of operation between being careful not to double-tap and operating without worrying about anything. It is indeed unfortunate that it was rejected by the developer for the following reason.

Our devs told me that there is no reason to turn that feature off - as double tap is not used for anything else in that configuration - so there's no harm to leave it working like this.

If you mainly use a stylus, you will be able to concentrate more on writing if you can limit touch operations to the minimum necessary in the settings. In this regard, other touch-friendly PDF software offers more detailed options for touch operations than PDF-XChange Editor. For example, Drawboard PDF offers the following options, all of which I have disabled.

• 

  Drawboard PDF 5.39.17.0

I hope that PDF-XChange Editor will offer more options for touch operation.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor Plus Version: 10.1.2 build 382
- OS Version: Windows 11 Home 23H2 Build 22631.2428
- PC Model: Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL, HP All-in-One 22-c0xx

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

Your use case example of a Stylus/hand tool switch on the other hand would in itself circumvent the largest issue you have reported here, selection and mouseover popups. Exclusive mode is a "tool specific" toggle, so it can be on for the hand tool alone, without enabling it for other tools.

(see above) This means that if the stylus is set to use the pencil or eraser, you would get the best of both worlds, the Hand can be used for "friction free" panning through the document, and the stylus can be used to select/open any existing comments, as well as add new annotations without interfering with the settings on the hand tool.

I will pass this up the chain and see what will be done, thought I cannot make any promises at this time.
I hope the above helps you to get around the issue for now.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hello Daniel, thank you for your reply.

I already know about the "Automatically switch to Pencil or Eraser tool with Stylus" option. However, this option switches between the pencil tool and the eraser tool, and does not automatically switch to the Handtool when a comment tool other than the pencil tool is used. Therefore, you should always enable exclusive mode for all comment tools to avoid unintentional selection by tapping.

Also, even if you are using the Pencil tool and it is automatically switched to Hand tool, you cannot prevent unintentional selection by tapping unless you turn on the exclusive mode in Hand tool.

In any case, as already mentioned, the consequences of having exclusive mode always enabled are significant, and other conveniences are greatly impaired. I hope that the day will come when the options will be enhanced so that it will not be necessary to do so.

Please give my best regards to the developers.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

I understand, and the Dev team has been made aware of the request, I cannot promise any changes however, and so these options were simply there to help minimize the issue in the meantime. I do see how you could encounter issues with these options if you are not exclusively commenting with the pencil/eraser tools.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hello all,

The request in this topic remains one of the four major improvement requests (*) I most want to see in PDF-XChange Editor, but you can avoid unintended object movement by using the free software TouchSwitch to disable the touch panel as needed.
(*) Please see the Signatures section of my post for more information.

• TouchSwitch (Described in Japanese)
  https://www.vector.co.jp/soft/winnt/hardware/se506146.html
• Here is the link to the download zip file.
  https://ftp.vector.co.jp/68/96/2935/TouchSwitch_V1009c.zip

To my knowledge, TouchSwitch is the only such software that works reliably. The included documentation is written in Japanese, but the UI is all in English, so you should be able to figure out how to use it without reading the documentation.

The touch panel can be enabled/disabled either by using shortcut keys or by double-tapping a specific window on the screen. Although it is quite inconvenient to switch every time you perform a touch operation, it is still better to use such software than to manually enable/disable the touch panel using the device manager.

• 

  TouchSwitch configuration dialog

TouchSwitch is what you see in the upper left corner and in the task tray in the verification video below. In the video, after drawing a line appropriately, pinch operation is performed by touch to change the magnification. If disabling the touch panel, you will notice that the pinch operation does not respond.

• 

  This is a GIF animation. Click to play.

If the touch panel is disabled using TouchSwitch, it is of course only possible to draw with the stylus, and at the same time, it is no longer possible to freely change the magnification or display area using touch operation. However, if you can accept that the magnification and display position are fixed, you can concentrate on drawing as much as you want without worrying about unintended object movement.

Currently, in PDF-XChange Editor, comments can be selected by touch in comment selection mode, but this behavior cannot be changed at all even if you want to avoid it, so when changing the display magnification or display area by touch, you have to carefully look for a place other than where the comment exists. However, it is impossible to tell at a glance whether it is the base content or a comment on the screen, so in the end we have no choice but to leave our luck to chance and touch. If you don't want to take a chance, you must give up on PDF-XChange Editor and use other software such as Drawboard PDF, or use TouchSwitch at the cost of inconvenience.

If the hand tool or each comment tool is used in exclusive mode, comments are not selected by touch operation, but the user must always be aware of the current mode of operation, and users who want to devote themselves to writing documents will naturally have a low appreciation for a program that assumes such operation.

I still often use Drawboard PDF because I want to concentrate on drawing, but I hope the developers will hear our voices someday. When drawing with a pen on real paper, it is impossible for the drawn line to move unintentionally. I hope it is the same for PDF-XChange Editor. It may be a dream that will never come true, but I hope that one day PDF-XChange Editor will be the first choice for writing handwritten documents on a blank page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message.

Best regards,
rakunavi

- PDF-XChange Editor PRO Version: 10.5.0 build 393
- OS Version: Windows 11 Pro / Home 24H2 Build 26100.2894
- PC Model: GMKtec Nucbox M7 Pro with HUION Kamvas Pro 19 / Lenovo IdeaPad C340-15IWL

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

I am happy to hear that you do have a workaround. At this time I am very sorry to say this item has been rejected for the foreseeable future. At the very least, it will be reconsidered in time, but I cannot make any promises for when exactly that will happen, or if it will result in any changes at that time.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for taking the time to let us know the results of your review.
I hope that in the future there will be a stylus lover among your developers.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]