May I ask for a new functionality: laser pointer? SOLVED

[giano]

Hello,
I recently bought coz I often use PDF-XChange Editor for presentations, and it works very well. However, I really miss one feature: a laser pointer tool, similar to what Drawboard or other presentation software provides.

During presentations, a laser pointer is very useful for drawing the audience’s attention to specific content without permanently marking up the document. It is more convenient than using the pen tool or temporary highlights.

Would it be possible to add such a functionality in future versions of PDF-XChange Editor? I believe many users who use the software for teaching, training, or business presentations would find this feature extremely valuable.

Actually, current tool of Free Hight can be enhanced to satisfy this requirement: Just allow user to config the disappearance time. (e.g., 3 seconds)

Thank you very much for considering this request!

[rakunavi]

Hello giano,

I would like to add my vote to your feature request.

The functionality itself is undoubtedly beneficial, but if it leads more users to adopt PDF-XChange Editor as a presentation tool, it will increase opportunities for the software to gain recognition. Presentations vary widely in scale, but one thing is certain: during the presentation, the audience's eyes are focused on the screen. It's common for audiences to naturally take an interest in the tools the presenter uses. Refining the UI/UX in full-screen mode, starting with the laser pointer tool, not only improves user experience but also serves as an effective sales tool.

Considering these sales benefits as well, I believe the advantages fully justify the development costs.
I sincerely hope a sophisticated laser pointer tool emerges that will make audiences take notice.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello,

I can certainly pass along the idea,

In the meantime, a possible workaround to accomplish this need semi-manually. If you have any spare buttons on your presentation remote, you could bind one of them to Ctrl_Z, to effectively "undo" any markups which you have drawn, shortly after drawing them. it would of course not be quite as smooth as an some implementations of a presentation laser tool I have seen, but it may fill the niche while this is under review.

I wish I could offer a promise for implementation, or a timeline, but even with large demand, these days it is difficult to estimate what will be prioritized, even internally.

Here is the ticket created to investigate this option:
RT#7623: FR: Presentation Laser tool.
Scratch that, I just found an older one, and I have merged the new ticket into that one:
RT#6858: FR: Laser pointer (and other presentation mode options)

Kind regards,

[Mathew]

A JavaScript workaround could be to use the stamp tool with an interval to watch the cursor location:

I saw this post and got off on a tangent and came up with the attached stamps. They need my stampUtils to be installed also, to function. Put in %APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Stamps

laserPts.pdf

There are four types:

image.png

When you place the stamp, it will offer a color option, then start moving the placed stamp wherever the cursor is. In "presentation" mode, it will hide the regular cursor so you only see the "laser" stamp. To cancel showing the "laser pointer" hold down Ctrl & Shift.

image(1).png

"Pulse" I got a bit crazy and it pulsates in size:

laserPointer.gif

Limitation
There's a serious downside: It adds thousands of undos because the script is changing the position of a stamp every ~30 milliseconds. When you cancel using Ctrl+Shift, it deletes the stamp, so nothing is actually changed in the document. Ctrl+Shift is a bit of a weird key combination to cancel something, but I don't think there's a way to know if any other keys are being pressed, so it's the best I could think of.

[giano]

Addition with similar functionality in other software tools.

img.gif

[giano]

Hi Mathew,

Thank you for the workaround. From a practical point, it would be more efficient to have some delay of the marks, instead of being just a pointer. Like the gif I attached above.

A JavaScript workaround could be to use the stamp tool with an interval to watch the cursor location:

I saw this post and got off on a tangent and came up with the attached stamps. They need my stampUtils to be installed also, to function. Put in %APPDATA%\Tracker Software\PDFXEditor\3.0\Stamps
laserPts.pdf

There are four types: image.png

When you place the stamp, it will offer a color option, then start moving the placed stamp wherever the cursor is. In "presentation" mode, it will hide the regular cursor so you only see the "laser" stamp. To cancel showing the "laser pointer" hold down Ctrl & Shift.
image(1).png

"Pulse" I got a bit crazy and it pulsates in size:
laserPointer.gif

Limitation
There's a serious downside: It adds thousands of undos because the script is changing the position of a stamp every ~30 milliseconds. When you cancel using Ctrl+Shift, it deletes the stamp, so nothing is actually changed in the document. Ctrl+Shift is a bit of a weird key combination to cancel something, but I don't think there's a way to know if any other keys are being pressed, so it's the best I could think of.

[Mathew]

Hi Mathew,

Thank you for the workaround. From a practical point, it would be more efficient to have some delay of the marks, instead of being just a pointer. Like the gif I attached above.

Giano,

That looks a lot like the pencil tool. If a script deletes the most recent pencil marks after a set amount of time would that work?

[giano]

Hi Mathew,

Thank you for the workaround. From a practical point, it would be more efficient to have some delay of the marks, instead of being just a pointer. Like the gif I attached above.

Giano,

That looks a lot like the pencil tool. If a script deletes the most recent pencil marks after a set amount of time would that work?

Hi Mathew,

I would suggest Free Hight. Yes, I think if a script is able to automatically delete the marks of free highlight (better to be able to config the time to delete), it would be a perfect workaround. Pencil is too thin and it's mostly used to write instead of highlighting.

Thanks!

[giano]

Forgot the gif.

gif.gif

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

[Mathew]

Hi Mathew,

I would suggest Free Hight. Yes, I think if a script is able to automatically delete the marks of free highlight (better to be able to config the time to delete), it would be a perfect workaround. Pencil is too thin and it's mostly used to write instead of highlighting.

Thanks!

Hi Giano,

Could you give this a try and let me know if you run into bugs? Detailed information about installation is here: viewtopic.php?p=196006#p196006

Download and extract the zip file to your JavaScripts folder

vanishingAnnots v0.2.zip

Select the "Vanishing Markups" button in the Add-on Tools to start. Select the tool again to end.

The "Fade Effect" adds quite a lot of undo steps, but it looks a bit more fancy

vanishing.gif

[Mathew]

[edit] I found that when enabling "presentation mode", it always activates the hand tool , and I couldn't find an easy way to select another tool because all menus are gone. Maybe there's a way around this (?)

In the mean time, I added a few options to the tool I'm making:

image.png

• enable presentation mode from the tool dialog,
• holding down SHIFT will temporarily halt deleting markups - it will resume deleting immediately once SHIFT is released,
• a popup menu that will show if you hold down CTRL key to preserve the most recent markup, or enable different tools:
  image(1).png

Unzip and copy to javascripts folder:

vanishingAnnots v0.4.zip

[giano]

Hi Mathew,

This is awesome! For now I haven't found any bugs.

Thank you for the excellent work!

[Mathew]

hope you find it useful.

I ran into a couple of bugs that I’m trying to figure out: if I forget and leave the tool running then go to another document, the CTRL menu keeps showing up; and I think it made PXCE crash one time but haven’t reproduced.

[giano]

Hi Mathew,

Yes, it's very useful. By the way, is it possible to make it automatically enabled very time after the document is opened?

[Mathew]

Hi Mathew,

Yes, it's very useful. By the way, is it possible to make it automatically enabled very time after the document is opened?

Giano,

You could add a script to the document startup scripts (Document Properties… > JavaScript > Add…)

The following script checks that vanishingAnnots is installed, and then sets a timeout to open the dialog 0.5 seconds after the document is loaded - if it's not already running:

Code: Select all

("object" === typeof vanishingAnnots) && app.timeOut && app.timeOut(500).then(() => !vanishingAnnots.active && vanishingAnnots.on(this))

[giano]

Hi Mathew,

So this is document specific? For every document I'm gonna open, I have to add this start-up script. Am I understanding it correctly?

Thanks!

Hi Mathew,

Yes, it's very useful. By the way, is it possible to make it automatically enabled very time after the document is opened?

Giano,

You could add a script to the document startup scripts (Document Properties… > JavaScript > Add…)

The following script checks that vanishingAnnots is installed, and then sets a timeout to open the dialog 0.5 seconds after the document is loaded - if it's not already running:

Code: Select all

("object" === typeof vanishingAnnots) && app.timeOut && app.timeOut(500).then(() => !vanishingAnnots.active && vanishingAnnots.on(this))

[Mathew]

That approach is document specific, yes. Are you looking for a way to have the tool running for any document that is opened?

I have figured out a way to do that, but it's a bit unlike any of the other tools in the application. Generally one picks a tool to use in each document.