Praise: PDF "open in" feature

A place to discuss Bookends for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.
Lyriel
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:58 am

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by Lyriel »

Hi Serge,

Thank you for your help with this. I have a feeling the problem lies with GoodNotes/Notability since you must have enabled all of the necessary code in Bookend for iOS if people can do the edit-in-place thing with PDFExpert. I posted in this thread because I just wanted to make 100% sure I wasn’t missing something that had been enabled already that would allow it to work with Goodnotes which is the app I use for a lot of my work on my iPad and which has nicer annotation tools if I’m doing a lot of note-taking.

I had never tried PDFExpert before but I downloaded it last night to have a comparison app that had been shown to work. For clarity, I use iCloud to sync my bookends libraries between my computer and my iPad and I’m running the latest non-beta software on both.

The edit-in-place behaviour* only works with the following workflow: Files App > Bookends Folder > long press pdf > Share > Copy to PDF Expert. As soon as I close the PDF in PDF Expert the changes are visible in Bookends without having to sync the PDF back to my Bookends folder or attach a new file to the reference.

From both the Bookends App and the Files App I can see an option in the share menu to “Open in Goodnotes”, and to “Copy to PDFExpert” but choosing either of these options causes the PDF to be duplicated and so the PDF has to be replaced manually with the annotated version. The same is true if I choose any app that appears as a little square icon in the share sheet.

If this is all working as intended then that’s absolutely ok, the Bookends for iOS app is already incredible, I just want to be sure I’m not missing anything.


*i.e. sharing a pdf in my Bookends library to another app without duplicating the file or having to overwrite/reattach my edited version when I’m finished using the Edit-In-Place feature in iOS.
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by Serge »

I see both options from PDF Expert: Open In and Copy.
BOT PDF Share.jpeg
BOT PDF Share.jpeg (103.06 KiB) Viewed 10386 times
"Importing from an external app" section also mentions "Copy to GoodNotes" and "Open in GoodNotes".
But if you see that "Open in GoodNotes" from Files.app causes the PDF to be duplicated please contact GoodNotes support.

Also please try to look at "More" and "Edit Actions..." in the iOS Share Sheet, maybe there are some hidden options for "Open in" for some of installed apps.
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by iandol »

Hi Serge, "Open in PDF Expert" used to work for me, but at least after upgrade to iOS14 I cannot get this option any more? Can any one else confirm?

I've searched in "More..." at the end of the upper icon line and also "Edit Actions..." and cannot find this option. The PDF Expert icon copies the PDF by default at the moment...
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by Serge »

Yes, I see "Copy to PDF Expert" option only, but PDF Viewer still allows open in place. So, this time it looks it's not iOS bug, but maybe PDF Expert has changed something. Could you please write to their support.
Lyriel
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 10:58 am

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by Lyriel »

I think iOS 14 has a new way of doing this, but I only discovered it by accident.

Steps:
1) In Bookends for iOS, open the attachment and tap share
2) In the horizontal row of icons, long press on the app you want to share to
3) Choose “Open In”* rather than “Share”**
4) Scribble over your pdf to your heart’s content. When you go back to bookends all of your annotations will be there without having to send the pdf back and attach it and delete the old one.

Tested with Bookends for iOS and the free version of PDFExpert.


*Not all apps will have an “Open In” option, but I think that’s down to the other app devs rather than Bookends.

**Some apps are showing an “Open In” option as well as a “Share” option, but pressing “Open In” creates an additional copy (Notability is guilty of this) so I think those devs haven’t implemented “Open In” properly.
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by iandol »

Hi Lyriel, yes, this solves the problem, a long-press gives a menu, thanks for the tip!. This is much more logical to be honest, having lots of icons for each action was not sensible...

Indeed, it would be great if we could have a long-press menu for the Attachment icon in Bookends itself that would allow us to open in an external app directly. Currently we open the Bookends PDF viewer, then Share, then select a menu of options for what to do with annotations, then finally get the PDF into the external app...
Serge
Posts: 339
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 1:09 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by Serge »

iandol wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 7:05 pm Indeed, it would be great if we could have a long-press menu for the Attachment icon in Bookends itself that would allow us to open in an external app directly. Currently we open the Bookends PDF viewer, then Share, then select a menu of options for what to do with annotations, then finally get the PDF into the external app...
I think it's a good suggestion! We can add a new "Share" option to the pdf thumbnail actions menu, it still one more tap to select the app from the list, but no need to open the Bookends PDF viewer itself.
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by iandol »

Thanks for the consideration Serge, yes the pdf thumbnail action menu would be a great place for this 8) !
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by iandol »

This now works great in the new version, thanks !!!! 8)
thalls
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2020 1:30 am

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by thalls »

This process works great for using my favorite PDF reader for reading PDF's on my iPad. But PDF expert seems to lose some functionality in the process.

This leaves me with two options, but not the best of both.
1. If I choose "copy to" the Apple Pencil drawing tools in PDF expert are available, so I can write notes in the margin or underline or highlight with my Apple Pencil. But the changes are not saved to the version of PDF that is stored in the Bookends database. Instead I get a new copy of the PDF with my annotations made with the Pencil.
2. If I choose "open in", the Apple Pencil drawing tools appear greyed out and they don't work. So the only way to annotate the PDF is with a keyboard, which I find cumbersome. But annotations do show up in the version that is kept in Bookends.

So I wonder, if I want to take this up with someone, do I take it up with Sonny Software, or with Readdle, or with Apple? I would love to get full functionality.
doclrb
Posts: 67
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 3:52 pm

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by doclrb »

DerangedChef wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2020 7:38 pm
doclrb wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 4:13 pm This sounds great. Would you pls provide a bit more detail as to the workflow or commands utilized.
TY
Les
doclrb
- setup Bookends to use iCloud for attachments (there are instructions for this on sonnysoftware's web page and in the user manual)
- on Bookends iOS, open the detail view of a reference that has a PDF attachment
- then touch the PDF thumbnail or the little paper-clip icon -> The PDF opens in Bookends' editor
- touch the "share" icon, and in the popup dialog choose "Share", then "open in PDF Expert (or your fave PDF editor app)" (iOS 12 / 13)
- happily annotate in the other app

Hope this helps.
-S
Thanks so much!

doclrb
doclrb
Les R. Becker, Ph.D., MS.MEdL, NRP, CHSE
lesrbecker2@gmail.com
thalls
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2020 1:30 am

Re: Praise: PDF "open in" feature

Post by thalls »

Further use has shown me that some PDF's open in PDF expert and in the Bookends PDF reader with the highlighter and pen functions working. Others, as described above, do not. I can't figure out what the difference between them is.
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