Shortcut key for the search pane

[Jezz]

Hi, is there any way I can set a shortcut key for giving focus to the search pane, when the search pane is already visible?

Currently the CTRL-Shift-F shortcut will cause the search pane to appear or disappear. But I'd like a way to simply give the focus (ie. the cursor) to the search pane's field, when the pane is already there. That way, when I'm browsing through a PDF document and the focus is on the document itself, I can quickly hit the shortcut combo to get the cursor over onto the search pane, then type in my new search words etc, without needing to reach for the mouse. If the pane is not visible, then this shortcut should make it appear, but if it's already visible, then the same shortcut should simply give cursor focus to the pane. (And then perhaps hitting ESC would cause the pane to disappear when the pane has the focus).

Adobe Reader already does this when using CTRL-Shift-F - it's behaviour is a little different to PDF-XChange Viewer in this regard - and it's a functionality I'm quite used to and (IMHO) think makes better sense than the way PDF-XChange Viewer does it. So I would like to kindly request changing the way CTRL-Shift-F works in this regard. As things currently are, I have to always reach for my mouse to put the cursor into the pane, or else do a double-tap of CTRL-Shift-F to hide-then-restore the pane, which is a bit of a nuisance.

Cheers,
Jeremy

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Jeremy,

I've created a feature request ticket in our internal system:
#1410: Viewer FR: Change the behaviour for "Show/Hide Full Search Pane" shortcut.

It needs to be considered now by our project leader, but if approved we will let you know here in this topic.

Best,
Stefan

[Jezz]

Super, thanks a lot!

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

If I have understood this issue correctly it is fixed in the latest build.

[Jezz]

Yup, that does the trick!

However, this brings to my attention another little annoyance I have with the search pane...

If I resize the search pane by dragging it out horizontally (which I prefer to do, as it's too narrow by default to be of any practical use) - and then I make the search pane go away (eg. click the X in the top corner of the search pane, or hit CTRL-Shift-F a second time to make it disappear) - and then I close PDF-XChange Viewer, and then start it up again - and then open the search pane again (CTRL-Shift-F) - the size of the search pane has now gone back to its default, much-too-small width!

PDF-XChange Viewer should remember the last width I had the search pane set to before I closed it, and it should re-open the search pane the next time at the same width.

And, really, the default width should be wider than it is in the first place - it's so narrow, you can hardly see any text in there. But that's a separate issue. I'd be happy just to see PDF-XChange Viewer remembering whatever width I had last set it to. That makes the most sense, as it's then up to each user to decide how wide they prefer to have it.

Can this little niggle be addressed in a future release please?

Thanks!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Jezz,

if you select "Restore the last used view of document..." in the preferences (Edit --Preferences --> Page Display --> Initial View --> ) and if you leave the search pane open when you close the Viewer it will start next time at the size you last used.

Similarly if you re-size the search pane, close it (not the Viewer) and open it again it will remember the size.

Closing the search pane and then the Viewer resets the size to the default. We will add changing this to the wish list and I'm told there is a good chance we'll get this into V3 in September.

hth

[Jezz]

Thanks Paul. Actually I've found that enabling "Restore the last used view of document..." has no effect at all on this. In other words, even if I do NOT have that setting checked, and I then leave the search pane open when I close the Viewer, it will still start next time at the size I last used (which is nice).

Likewise, as you wrote, if I resize the search pane, then close the pane and open it again, it reopens at the size I had left it at (also nice). The "Restore..." setting again has no bearing on this.

It's just the issue of closing the pane, then closing the Viewer, then restarting the Viewer and reopening the pane, that results in the pane being reset to its smaller size (and the "Restore the last used..." setting has no effect on that either!). So I'm glad you're able to wishlist this and hopefully have it addressed with v3!

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Jezz,

indeed you are right - checked or unchecked the size is remembered so I stand corrected. Actually I should say sit corrected since I'm at my desk but that just doesn't sound right...

It's looking good that this will in fact work that way in V3.