On Saturday 2010 December 11, at 19:24 , Jason Grout wrote: > I recently got a Bamboo pen tablet and started using Skim to write > notes > on pdf files using the freehand annotation tool. As pointed out in an > earlier mailing list thread [1], Skim has some design choices that > make > this very frustrating, namely that: > > 1. in freehand annotation mode, putting the pen down on a stroke > you've > drawn selects and moves the stroke instead of drawing another > stroke, and > > 2. the last stroke written is always selected (so blue boxes keep > appearing over the last thing wrote as you are writing). > > I've made a github clone of Skim and taken care of these two issues > with > two small patches [2]. Using my patched version, it is very natural > and > easy to write freehand notes on a PDF file. I just thought I'd post > here in case anyone else is interested in using these patches or the > patched version.
Since summer 2009, I've been using tablets with skim, thanks to the very welcomed feature added to fullscreen mode [see thread http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=23053657 ] The fullscreen mode was a nice solution to some software design constraints, if I've understood correctly the problem. This, until version 1.3.5. Unfortunately, a couple of bug fixes fixed what actually were to me not bugs but a features: Don't provide <Apple>-+ <Apple>-- magnification key bundings in presentation mode (bug fixed in 1.3.8). Don't show PDF previews in presentation mode (bug fixed in the 1.3.6). This issue has been partially discussed in http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=26473501 . As said, about zooming in presentation mode, in the message of November 3, 2010 by Christiaan Hofman "As I said, it is disabled by design. If it was working in the past that was a bug, and we won't reinstate bugs." My full gratitude to him, for the nice software made available, but maybe sometimes the definition of bug might be re- analyzed. To me some bugs might have been features, but of course I am not qualified to talk about software design. The reasons I define them as features and not bugs will be shown below. One of the basic reasons is that without apple-+ and apple- is almost impossible to freehand annotate A4 pdf papers (which is necessary to be done in presentation mode, by design). Anyway, the solution I've found was to keep skim-1.3.5 (last working version) with its bugs, which is better than nothing. Now I will try this patched version, but I am usually afraid of forks: I would rather prefer the features to be available without patching. Also, the idea of switching to presentation mode to have freehand scribbling features made sense to me, and I would rather prefer that choice. Probably re- introducing keyboard zooming in presentation mode might break the software design, but accomodate these needs (maybe, with a hidden preference). But if two different versions (e.g., one with tablet support and the other without) are necessary, the questions are: Is there a way to have two different versions of Skim running on the same computer? Is it possible to keep two different preference profiles (for example, one with automatical updates, the other not) in the same account? Now I come back to describe how I've been making use of the very good features available in presentation mode, thanks to the tablet support added to skim since summer 2009. I other words, I will advertise my use of skim with tablets, and try to convince that some bugs might be considered features. I've been giving lectures and seminars (mathematical tipics), worked on document, and used the tablet features in presentation mode as follows: - for a real-time presentation (lecture or seminar): handwriting over the pdf slides (arrows, highlighting, simple diagrams,...) interacting with the audience. - for freehand annotating a pdf document (typically, a students assignment or a thesis draft, with handwritten comments), proof reading, etc. Beside the freehand drawing feature, I've found two features/bugs quite useful, in presentation mode: The first is that, until version 1.3.5, it was possible to have PDF preview tooltips. The bug has been then fixed in 1.3.6. Well, maybe it was a bug, but it is possible to resize and reshape the tooltip window (hidden preferences SKToolTipHeight and SKToolTipWidth), and to add hyperlinks in the presentation PDF document (LaTeX hyperref package) pointing to previous theorems, definitions, remarks, figures... Then, hovering over the reference number \ref{...} has the nice effect of visually (and dynamically) recalling what the theorem/definition/remark was about, by previewing the referred statement in a new tooltip window. It is a very useful and appreciated effect. The second, and more important, is that, until version 1.3.7, it was possible to zoom in and out the document in presentation mode, with the <Apple>-+ <Apple>-- magnification key bindings (bug fixed in 1.3.8, no dreams). This feature is really necessary when the geometry of the document to be shown is not the one of the screen, such as an A4 or letter paper. Examples are a thesis, an article, and so on. The possibility of showing and highlighting it during the seminar/lecture, and scribbling on it during the proofreading or while just reading and annotating it, is really useful. Thank you very much, Davide ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Oracle to DB2 Conversion Guide: Learn learn about native support for PL/SQL, new data types, scalar functions, improved concurrency, built-in packages, OCI, SQL*Plus, data movement tools, best practices and more. http://p.sf.net/sfu/oracle-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ Skim-app-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/skim-app-users
