copy style palette

[bledford]

when creating different styles for comment tools, is there a way to copy the custom styles from one user to another (like with stamp files)? We are experimenting with exporting comments into an xml file. Creating reports will be much cleaner if all styles are the same from all users.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello bledford,

You can use the "Edit -> Export all settings to data file" and "Edit -> Import all settings from data file" to do the respective export/import operations.

Regards,
Stefan

[bledford]

Thank you Stefan,

That was too easy.

BTW. When exporting comments out to xml. It would be nice in future releases to have the Measurement Values (contents) created as numbers. It's just a pain to parse the text field.

Thanks again,

[bledford]

We have noticed that when you export all settings(including the palette) , then import the setting for another user, the comments have the author of the original user the created the comments.

1. is there a way to edit the export file prior to importing?
2. is it possible with the sdk to create a script that would export and import the comment pallet?
3. any other ideas?

Thanks,

Bob

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Bob,

Indeed an annotation is copied with everything - including author name - so that if e.g. two people annotate the same PDF file - they can then exchange just the .fdf and load the other person's comments, and be able to differentiate which comment was placed by whom.
The .fdf / .xfdf files containing the annotations are xml files, thought editing them in between exporting and reimporting them in another file can not be done on the fly by our products.

You should also be able to change the author information for any annotation using JavaScript.

Regards,
Stefan

[bledford]

Stefan,

I think we are talking about two different things. If you export the comments from a PDF, we get a fdf / .xfdf file. which is an xml file that we can import or export to other users. No problem with this. What I'm talking about is the exporting of the annotation palette that is included in the "Export all setting to a data file" which is a .dat file. I tried to look at the .dat file but could not as it appears to be in PDF format that is password protected. I want to come up with a universal pallet that I can distribute to all users that has there name as the author.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi Bob,

Ahh apologies - indeed I was thinking of a different thing.
The Export all settings option is mostly intended for transferring one's settings between machines - so the username being copied as well is normally fine.
If you need to deploy all the settings to a lot of users - you can do so with a single settings file, and then just update
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Registration\Name to the specific username you need for that particular windows account.

Kind Regards,
Stefan

[bledford]

thank you, well give it a try.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

[bledford]

I'm having numerous request to be able to combine style palettes from multiple users. If we export all data settings and import them into another users system, they lose all of their style palettes. Is there a way to combine the palettes? I see no way through the user interface. Is there a way to modify the .dat file prior to import? Could a script be created using the sdk?

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Hi, bledford.

You may use our PDF-viewer ActiveX SDK to do it.

1. On machine of UserA launch:

"PDFXCview.exe /exportp "UserASettings.dat"

2. On machine of UserB:

Using our ActiveX control you may create your own simple app. that will:

2.1
OleVariant src("<filepath-to-UserASettings.dat>")
pdfViewer.LoadSettings(src); // load all settings from dat-file to ActiveX control

2.2
OleVariant dst("HKCU\Software\TempABC")
pdfViewer.SaveSettings(dst); // export all UserA-settings to temporary "HKCU\Software\TempABC" location in system's registry

2.3
programmatically open "HKCU\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Commenting" location and replace(or merge) its content by corresponding content from "HKCU\Software\TempABC\Commenting".

Structure of "Commenting" key is:

Code: Select all

Commenting
    <CommentType1>  
         Styles
            0001
            0002
            ...
            000N 
    <CommentType2>  
         Styles
            0001
            0002
            ...
            000N
... 

HTH.

[bledford]

Well it took a little time, but I got it work. I need to clean up the registry merge a bit but the mechanics works. Thanks for the solution.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]