Nominclature Conflict: Stamp vs. stamp

[PHK]

Fortunately, PDF-XCE has two sightly different approaches to copying page areas for subsequent pasting onto other pages: there is the 'Stamp' and there is the 'stamp.' You don't see the difference? Well, sometimes we are a bit cavalier when it comes to applying an initial capital to a word or not. In this case, it matters.

First, there is the 'Stamp Tool.'

image.png

If we use that, we add a Stamp to the 'Stamps Palette' after we capture a page area or an entire page, name the Stamp, and select the Target Collection. That Stamp is then saved as long as the user likes and is retrievable from the Stamps Palette and applied elsewhere, either once or multiple times both now and as long as the named Stamp is preserved.

But a 'stamp' is slightly different. Here, we do not use the 'Stamp Tool,' rather we create a stamp from the current selection by first selecting an area using the 'Select Page Region' tool

image(2).png

and then using the 'New Stamp from Selection...' tool.

image(1).png

But unlike the Stamp Tool, this selection does not get added to the Stamps Palette or named; after an area (up to a full page) is selected the user can Copy (or Cut, for that matter) the selection and it will be stored in the Windows clipboard. From there, users have a few options on how they want to paste the selection, unlike with the selection from the 'Stamps Palette,' there is only one. However, this 'stamp' is not permanently saved; it is in the volatile Windows clipboard environment and everyone knows what can happen to that.

Another difference is that one can select a rather large area of the source page to make a Stamp for the Stamps Palette but only a smallish selection area with the New Stamp from Selection tool. This is probably constrained by how much data can be transferred from the app to the Windows clipboard.

Both ways are very useful in their own ways and I have no problem with that. However, it seems to me that there is ample scope for confusion when these two different tools have very similar names. I think the Stamp-to-Stamps Palette is correctly named and should have its initial 'S' capitalized but perhaps the other should have a distinctly different name. Maybe something like 'Patch' or other.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, PHK

My apologies but you have lost me... The "Stamp tool" is the function which allows you to place a stamp from the stamps palette on the page, it is not a creation function.

As such I would interpret this as a bug report, given the intent of the other tools you mentioned, however, In my testing the new stamp from selection does add items to the stamps palette as intended in either case. Are you sure you were using the "Select page region" and "New Stamp from selection" functions together, or were you perhaps simply copying the selected page region with Ctrl+C?

image.png

Beyond that, the consideration of a Capital vs lowercase "S" is simply the difference between "Title Case", and "Sentence case" being used in the title and descriptions of those tools.

Kind regards,

[PHK]

... Are you sure you were using the "Select page region" and "New Stamp from selection" functions together, or were you perhaps simply copying the selected page region with Ctrl+C?
...

Yes, that is exactly what I was doing. My apologies to the forum for mis-stating the problem. There was a time gap between when I was experiencing this and when I wrote up the post and I was confused by the multiple ways the word "Stamp" is used in the app. Maybe I'm not alone.

However, I do not think that completely guts my proposition.

If I create a new Stamp from the clipboard regardless of whether the selection was done by the Snapshot tool or copied from a Selected region, I am directed to name the new Stamp and assign it to a Target Collection. When I apply that Stamp to a new destination, an entry in the Comments panel will appear representing that Stamp.

When I use 'Select page region' and 'Paste as Stamp' (not 'New Stamp from Selection' as I wrote a few days ago) and the selection is pasted onto the destination page, a new Comment is added to the Comments panel and is designated as a Stamp and it acts like a Stamp on the page but it is not added to the Stamps Palette. That is fine with me because I do not necessarily want everything added to the Stamps Palette nor do I want to go through the Stamp-naming process particularly for one-time pastes.

In summary, there are Stamps that can be created and stored in the Stamps Palette, on the one hand, and there are Stamps that are created and stored in the volatile Windows clipboard, on the other. Both varieties appear undifferentiated in the Comments panel. I am suggesting that "Stamps" should not be the word describing both.

Again, I am sorry to have confused things with my original post's poor wordsmithing.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, PHK

Thank you for the clarification, that is certainly a very different report from what was originally stated. However, once again, I am afraid that I do not see the problem here?

In the case of using the "create stamp from ...X" functions, you are "Creating" a stamp express to add it to your stamp palette, by directly using the palette's own functions.

When using "Paste as Stamp" that inherently has the implication that you are simply "pasting" a one time copy of it into the document, it does not and should not in any way imply that you are adding something to the stamps palette.

I don't see the issue here, nor any case for difference of "nomenclature" as you say. They are both "Stamps" through and through. The difference is that one feature is intended to "Create" a permanently accessible and re-usable comment item in our stamp palette UI, while the other is a simple one-off "Paste" operation, just the same as copy/pasting items in MS Word or notepad would be.

Kind regards,

[Mathew]

First, there is the 'Stamp Tool.
...
If we use that, we add a Stamp to the 'Stamps Palette' after we capture a page area or an entire page, name the Stamp, and select the Target Collection.
...
we create a stamp from the current selection by first selecting an area using the 'Select Page Region' tool
image(2).png
and then using the 'New Stamp from Selection...' tool....
But unlike the Stamp Tool, this selection does not get added to the Stamps Palette or named;

Not clear: Both of the above methods add a stamp to the stamps palette. In fact there are at least 5 ways to add a stamp to the pallete:

image(1).png

The way to not add to the stamps palette is to:

1. copy the selected items to the clipboard and
2. use "Paste as Stamp":
   image.png

This is a fantastic tool that I use all the time (ok, once or twice a day.) It's incredibly useful for overlaying parts of CAD drawings, because the stamp can be resized and rotated as needed, and the opacity can be changed.

Before this tool became available, I always had a "temp" collection packed full of one-time-use stamps. The only thing that would make it even more useful is if there was a way to change the colors in that one-time-use stamp...

[PHK]

I agree and I use stamps to the clipboard and to the Stamps Palette "all the time", too. I am only suggesting clarifying the nominclature to assist users in understanding the distinctions. This might be particularly helpful to those who do not use these "all the time." But it's not my product, I am only a user; I defer to the wisdom of HQ in rejecting my suggestions.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, PHK

I am sorry to say that the suggestion to change the wording on these items is not at this time a priority and has in turn been rejected.

While their JS help on these forums is greatly appreciated; Mathew does not work for PDF-XChange. However their post here does aptly summarize the situation and use case of these menu items.

Kind regards,

[PHK]

...
I am sorry to say that the suggestion to change the wording on these items is not at this time a priority and has in turn been rejected.

I thought I made it clear that I got that.

...

However their post here does aptly summarize the situation and use case of these menu items.

...

I got that, too. As I posted earlier, I agree with the functionality discussion and I greatly appreciate these tools. Bleating over.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[PHK]

This subject has continued to vex me. But I think I have come up with some private nominclature that helps me manage my use thereof: there are Ghost stamps and there are Zombie stamps.

As the scientific community knows, single Ghosts are generally confined to a single dwelling but they have relative freedom of movement or switchable unrestrained visibility throughout that dwelling but they are generally exclusively associated with a particular dwelling. Ghosts are ephemeral, weightless, lacking in tangible substance. Zombies, on the other hand, are not generally found in dwellings, have freedom of movement (subject to the time of day), but generally reside in specific underground vaults when not on duty. Zombies, unlike Ghosts, have substantial physical presences, have unlimited strength, and depend on physical devestation rather than the psychological damage available to Ghosts.

So, the long-established PDF Stamps are like Zombies in that they are created using the Save as Stamp tool which requires the user to give the Stamp a name and selection of a Category (~underground vault) into which the Stamp will reside in the Stamps Palette (~underground vault), until awakened and called-up for duty in documents (~the daytime World). They have their own individual content/properties that includes everything (images, shapes, and text) of the selected region.

The newer stamps that do not live in the Stamps Palette and are created in a slightly different way, that it is simply saving [Ctrl-S] user-selected content without naming them or assigning a destination as they are saved by default, not in the Stamps Palette (like the Zombie Stamps) but as stamps only in the active document file. Furthermore, the saving process does not have the unsubtle meat-ax approach of saving all the content of the selected region that the Zombie Stamp has; rather the user can selectively save any content elements (images, shapes or text) from the Content panel.

Both the Ghost stamp and the Zombie stamp can be flattened (~killed) in the same way in an active document (~above ground). But the Zombie stamp will live on in the Stamps Pallete (~underground vault) until deleted (~killed) by the user (~Sorcerer) for future use. Both can leave traces of their content as Xfroms (~stains on wallpaper) in the document that can be moved and/or deleted (~wiped off with magic potions).

I am not making a judgments that one is 'better' than the other; they both have their uses available to the PDFXCE user (~Sorcerer). For single-use applications, particularly where not all the region content is required, the Ghost stamp probably works best. For multiple-use applications, the Zombie tool usually is the better choice as you can always call it up from the Stamps Palette.

This framework is useful to my twisted mentality and unlikely to appeal to other users but I thought I would share it anyway.

[Mathew]

A very enjoyable read! Thanks for that @FringePhil.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello again

A very good read indeed, I enjoy the "Gamification" of anything in such a way, and I am glad to hear you were able to find a helpful analogy to help you remember!

Kind regards,