Pdf viewer bug? Why show only half the doc?

Features
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Hi everyone :grinning:

I'm finally making the switch from OneNote (and Windows, for that matter) to Open Source. I've been a long time admirer of Joplin, but didn't want to switch until I was ready to leave Windows for good. That time is now. Win 10 will be phased out soon and it's now or never. Jumping to Linux at long last. Thanks to Joplin. Literally couldn't do it otherwise.

I'm very impressed with Joplin so far. Not only with the app but with the community. I'm glad to be here and will no doubt be posting from time to time with questions, ideas and suggestions coming from the perspective of users who aren't programmers or in the IT field or bloggers or what not but more along the lines of students, admin and business types, etc looking for an Open Source solution.

I'll keep this initial post limited to one issue - also future posts won't waffle on!

The main issue is .pdf viewing

Imagine my horror then delight when I found that while 'print to .pdf' might not be possible in Joplin, there is something even better!! Something Microsoft was never able to do and which OneNote users like me have been wanting for years but thought was impossible. An inline pdf viewer!!! Incredible!!!

Which is why the newb user, me, asks himself, "how on earth can this flagship feature (imho) not be front and center!"

This is my experience using OneNote as a student, employee, manager, personal organizer for everything from taxes to record keeping: Pdf storage and viewing is part of the main reason people like me all over the world have stayed faithful to OneNote for more than two decades. Quite simply, it's the only that lets you store dozens, hundreds (thousands?) of pdf's somewhere other than a random folder somewhere. This is a game changer.

To date it's been the only real solution which lets us organize pdfs, text docs, csv's etc which all otherwise have to live in an arbitrary folder somewhere (which probably get deleted otherwise, because you might only use them once a year, like tax docs). The best OneNote users can do is print a .pdf to OneNote, which is great. The images are of poor quality - but at least they are there. Big enough to view and sight whatever needs to be sighted without zooming around. And the file is stored safely nearby, so you can always get to it if necessary. I happen to like Joplin's storage system better, so I'm not saying we need an cut and pastable doc in the note as OneNote has.

As for other file types:

  • OneNote can insert spreadsheets into a note, which is handy (but probably not used a whole lot, so no requests here)
  • Joplin can already insert images, so that's checked off the list.
  • What's left? Full .pdf insertion/viewing!!

 

So first things first:

Currently the.pdf viewer stops scaling at an arbitrary value, ie it never gets wide as necessary for reading small text. Of course you can zoom within the viewer itself, which is great, but these documents are often made in such a way that the whole needs to be viewed at once and zooming around just confuses things, like tax docs, flow charts, etc

This issue has been requested on the Joplin forum by several users, and there have been at least one git issue opened to resolve it

This git issue claims to have solved it:

 

I would like to submit that as Joplin is a note taking app, ie users are expecting an 'endlessly scrolling note' in which to enter text, images, etc. If this is true, the decision to limit the height or width of a pdf doesn't fit the use case.

Many users, like me, expect a.pdf to be viewed at full printed size, both vertically and horizontally if allowed by the screen. So

After some more back and forth in the github dialogue referenced prior where user laurent22 commented along the same lines as I am, namely that OneNote shows these full size for a reason. Code contributor gitstart seems to agree and suggests a potential fix, namely: Desktop: fixes #7932: PDF preview Pane does not show the whole first page. by gitstart · Pull Request #8192 · laurent22/joplin · GitHub

But this issue and conversation stops there, nothing was ever implemented. Once again, the following discourse is only one, that shows this is an important feature: How to resize the PDF Preview Pane? - #3 by Erdbeerquark

I would like to formally request that the community consider pdf funcntioning as important part of Joplin as a whole and consider implementing changes along the lines here suggested, ie making full size pdf viewing possible in some form or another.

I think I could probably find more threads in support of this idea, but this post is long enough! I look forward to hearing what others think about this and hopefully getting some traction towards changing this behavior. Great to meet you all!

2 Likes
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I don't have much to say about the PDF viewing, but as far as printing to PDF, have you tried exporting a note to PDF?

In the desktop app, right click on a note title in the Note List pane.

The select Export -> PDF

It took me a while to find this but for me it works very well when I need a PDF version of a note.

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Thanks but I'm referencing a OneNote feature that lets you drag and drop a file (Word doc, jpeg image, etc) into your note. OneNote will insert it as images or an attachment or both. Much better than keeping things in a folder somewhere. Not only do you have the images open and ready for viewing when it's time, you have the file there as well, for future use if needed.

To be clear, a 5 page pdf will be inserted as 5 equally large images. This is a fantastic way of referencing .pdfs' because you don't have to open them in a separate window or browser. But the image quality isn't as good as the original. Still it's legible, and has been my go to for years.

I may have seen a Joplin plugin called 'Hot Folder' or something that aims to do something similar, but I think it might only work with images. In any case, I'm looking for a way to reference many pdf's in an easy to browse format. Bank statements, Tax docs, booklets on tax filing etc. It all adds up to lots and lots of text that needs to be frequently referenced and which is very difficult to locate when closed up in folders somewhere.

The Joplin approach could be even better in that it allows for the actual pdf to be viewed in its original clarity. Scrolling down through pages isn't a problem - you have to scroll regardless to view many pages. But I can't get my head around why Joplin cuts off the pdf halfway - at least vertically this is the case. As stated in my OP, there is a work-around for Mac, but it's a no go for Windows. I'm switching to Linux so my hope is it will work there too.