Can't save document

[mash_inc]

If someone opens a PDF that I currently work on (with PDF-XCV), prevents that I can save my changes.
I expected that the second user can open the document only in "read only" mode (like in Word).
With the current behavior my only chance is to save the document under a different name, which is ugly because I later must check the original document for changes and also may need to merge the document changes.

Steps to reproduce:
1) Open a PDF with PDF-XCV
2) Add some annotations, or stamps
3) Open the same file with another instance of PDF-XCV or with Acrobat or Acrobat Reader
4) Try to save your changes in the first instance of PDF-XC
5) You will run into the error message:

Can't save XY document. An error occurred during saving the file XY.pdf.
Error [Operating System]: The process cannot access the file, because it is beeing used by another process.

- It does not matter who opens the PDF first.
- It does not matter if the file is located on a Windows- or Linux-server or on the local computer
- It does not matter if you open the file from different computers or from the same computer
- It does not matter what operating system you use (XP, Vista, Win 7 or Win 8)
- It happens with version 3.0 (Build 280) and with 2.5 (Build 195)

Thanks in advance

Best regards

Tino

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Tino,

I asked one of my colleagues from the dev team to take a look and here's his reply:

When opening a file our Viewer/Editor will open it in read-only mode, but we require that file should not be changed, so other application can open it as well (Also only in read-only mode). This is the default behaviour for almost all Windows applications (including Acrobat), so I don't think that we will change it.
As I remember the Viewer already has a non-blocking mode, when it creates a copy of file and opens that. But it is designed mainly for people who use some tools (like LaTeX) to generate PDF and then use our Viewer to check the resulting PDF.

Best,
Stefan

[mash_inc]

Hello Stefan,

thanks for your quick reply.

In my opinion, this is not the default behavior for almost all windows applications, nor is it a good behavior.

Just take a look at the Microsoft Office tools (e.g. Word or Excel) or almost all other office tools on the market.
The first user can open the file in ReadWrite mode while all other users will get a message, that the file is already open for writing and than they can decide if they want to open it in ReadOnly mode. Other applications like Notepad, UltraEdit or Notepad++ simply don't care about read/write access and the last one wins (also not very smart).

Our users spend alot of time with revising documents and adding dozens of annotations and in the end they can't write their changes back to the original only because another user is viewing the same document. This is even the case if the other user has only read permission for the file.

The only chance is to save the file under a different name or export the annotations to a file, and than come back later to merge the changes in the original document.
This is very annoying in the usual workflow and results in duplicate files in most cases.

Compared to Acrobat, PDF-XC is better and faster in most of the cases, why not also in this case?

Best regards
Tino

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for your comments Tino,

We will discuss those internally and will post back here if there are any further news.

Best,
Stefan

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi, Tino.

The "Open Read-Only" option - I think it is good idea, thanks. We can add it in the near future into our new version V3 (PXF-XC Editor)..
Also we planning to add in new version the "Open Non-Blocked" option - it will make the hidden, internal copy of document before opening, for simple read/write access.
And we will investigate how to get more info for question "Who locked my file ?!"...

Best
Regards.

[mash_inc]

Hi Vasyl,

The way how Tracker handles customer requests and suggestions is really exemplary.
Two thumbs up!

It is good to hear that you work on the "ReadOnly" and "None Blocking Option". Both features will be very useful for us.

Hopefully the final release of the new PDFXC will be released soon.

Best regards

Tino

[John - Tracker Supp]

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Tino,

And I've just added this ticket to our internal system:
#1799: Editor 3.0.300: FR Add "Open Read-Only" option
So that we can add this feature in a timely manner.

Best,
Stefan