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Restore PDF viewer features (iOS)


jcwacky
Go to solution Solved by jcwacky,

Idea

The PDF viewer in version 10 is inferior to the previous one.

There is no way to search within the PDF - the old app had a "find" icon that allowed you to do this.

The old version allowed you to very quickly "scrub" through all the pages of the PDF by sliding your finger across the page thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. This feature isn't in the new app.

Please confirm you are planning on restoring these features? 

I scan all my docments into Evernote and with the removal of these features efficiently navigating PDF files has become near impossible.

Thanks

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With the new upgrade there is no longer search within an open pdf?   This is a complete deal breaker for me.  100% the most used function.  I work in medicine and have over 3000 pdf journal articles.  I can search for a drug and narrow down PDFs, then search for dosing info within the pdf on the fly, in real-time on a conference call.  I would actually pay to roll back a version. Cutting and pasting within the pdf was critical to how I spend my day.  

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Hi guys, I'm really desperate. Searching the PDFs was the only REASON why I pay the subscription. It is an indispensable and wonderful feature, because it has been removed?

And then I wonder, do we only regret this feature? There should be a riot of all premium and non-premium users.

Why did they take it off? So Evernote becomes a very common notes app that doesn't deserve money unfortunately ...

Do you know if there is any news?

Thanks a lot

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Not just that, copying something from a PDF also isn't working any longer. 

You now have to download the file first. 

It gets worse, Evernote doesn't offer any save dialog there and auto-saves the file to a newly created folder in iCloud (Files app). 

Only there, in the Files app, you can copy something out of the PDF.

Since attachment search and editing is one of the premium features, how can it be that Evernote's iOS app now doesn't fully support its own advertised capabilities and that the iOS Files app is needed for basic interaction like copying text from a PDF?   

 

IMG_4BAA152F9A67-1.jpeg?v=de41e848480cb3

 

Lack of search and the copy issue are related to basic file interactions, so I posted here, but also made a separate request:

 

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I couldn't agree more!  This is a step backwards with how PDFs are displayed and how to navigate between pages (especially that page numbers of the PDF are no longer displayed).  This has made my use of Evernote nearly impossible.  :(   The previous way of displaying a PDF file (95% or more of my notes) was vastly superior.  Thanks!

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In Short my findings, 1st about search:

Search will find text inside of pdf files. I have searched the Text „Mundlöcher“ (which is a rare word from miners vocabulary), and it was found and marked inside of a pdf by the general search function of EN iOS 10. So no in-document Search, but Search in documents is working.

image.thumb.jpeg.2f53b0345d198d41e5a3a6509002943d.jpeg

 

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Second on miniature pages for a quick review. This is available, but only in edit / annotation view, not in reading mode. I don’t think this is as it should be, but I could only discover it there.

To get there, open the note with a pdf inside. Type on the blue „edit“ button at the bottom of the page, and then above the soft keyboard on the „a“ in a Circle, that stands for the pdf annotation mode. It takes a few seconds, then the pdf opens in annotation Mode.

Now you can use the arrow at the left side of the screen to show the thumbnail pages. As I said, not ideal, but that’s how it is with EN 10.0.2.

image.thumb.jpeg.0b9341f4b06620905f8dd9afbc187fe6.jpeg

 

image.thumb.jpeg.83c0e849cd95a1ad2b67fdf2745e9beb.jpeg

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Third about copying text from a pdf. This is not solved, the only way I found is to export the pdf to the files app, and open it there.

I found out that now I have a new EVERNOTE folder in my files app, obviously to open all files there that are needed for functions that EN does not have. IMHO it makes completely no sense to have an intelligent storage like EN, and a folder to be able to perform simple task like copying text OUTSIDE of this app. This folder will look like a mess after a few weeks of usage.

Not what I expect when I decide to use EN as my second brain ! And a massive roadblock in many workflows !

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5 minutes ago, Chris_W said:

@PinkElephant Yes, but that's not what this thread is about. If you have a 200 page PDF and need all occurrences of a word, searching within the PDF and then jumping to the correct page worked before and is gone now.

I am here not discussing what makes sense or not - I just say how far from my own testing the current release supports basic functions like search, text grabbing, etc. 

IMHO we are currently missing key functions, and can only hope to get them delivered by future updates.

I have started today to issue a new support ticket on any bad or missing function that I encounter. Will be a busy start into the week tomorrow for support, sorry guys.

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2 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

Third about copying text from a pdf. This is not solved, the only way I found is to export the pdf to the files app, and open it there.

I found out that now I have a new EVERNOTE folder in my files app, obviously to open all files there that are needed for functions that EN does not have. IMHO it makes completely no sense to have an intelligent storage like EN, and a folder to be able to perform simple task like copying text OUTSIDE of this app. This folder will look like a mess after a few weeks of usage.

Not what I expect when I decide to use EN as my second brain ! And a massive roadblock in many workflows !

No sh*t ;) 

I couldn't believe it before posting this as a new feature request. I bet that one would have a hard time finding any other sort of notes or documents app that doesn't have the capability to copy text.  

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1 hour ago, Chris_W said:

Relatedly, you also can't copy text from PDF files now, you have to download it to an iCloud folder first.

I'm able to copy text from ocr'd pdfsIMG_3770.thumb.jpeg.f10cf3ce6b3ee018c34247688a1bfeeb.jpeg

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4 minutes ago, DTLow said:

I'm able to copy text from ocr'd pdfs

Not here. I just printed this thread to PDF on Mac and obviously text selection works on Mac and also in other apps on iOS (PDF Expert, PDF Viewer, iOS Files app). No text selection in Evernote iOS. I also don't have any PDFs at all that are lacking a text layer, so this can't be it

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The pdf I used for testing was created from a web site using the print-to-pdf function. In the files app I can see it is full of selectable text.

For comparison I now tried a new pdf created by my ScannerPro app, OCRed by this same app. I made sure the OCR is done by waiting it to close, then choose the text (not the picture, which I can toggle) and copy it to another app. It got copied, perfect quality, did not miss a word.

Then I send the pdf to EN. When I search for a word, it is found, the OCR exists in EN as well.

But it is by no means possible to copy an element of text inside of EN, not with the finger, not by tapping, not with the Apple Pencil. When I send it to the files app, I can select text as I wish.

@DTLow Maybe it depends on how the pdf was done and treated by EN! How was the pdf created, how was it OCRed (by EN ?), in which EN function can you select and copy text from it ?

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7 minutes ago, PinkElephant said:

in which EN function can you select and copy text from it

In my screenshot I'm using Evernote's in-app pdf viewer on my iPad

The  pdf was ocr'd by an external app   
The text is also searchable in Evernote/IOS

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Hmmmm - it seems it works on some PDFs, but on many, it doesn’t.

All PDFs I tested it on were searchable, although in the second one, the word found by search was not marked, as in the first one. But from both selecting and then copying text was not possible.

Weird ...

My expectation would be that it is possible to grab text from any OCRed pdf without leaving EN.

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I‘ve tried a dozen PDFs - no copy/paste possible. I did the test side-by-side with the „old“ version of EN on my iPhone -> no issues at all on iPhone with copy/paste on these PDFs, while on iPad („new“ EN) no chance to select any text.

My personal „missing feature list“ is getting longer and longer...

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On 9/21/2020 at 8:49 AM, justinvg said:

With the new upgrade there is no longer search within an open pdf?   This is a complete deal breaker for me.  100% the most used function.  I work in medicine and have over 3000 pdf journal articles.  I can search for a drug and narrow down PDFs, then search for dosing info within the pdf on the fly, in real-time on a conference call.  I would actually pay to roll back a version. Cutting and pasting within the pdf was critical to how I spend my day.  

I second that. It is maybe my most used feature of Evernote. I hope it’s coming back because it is almost impossible to find anything in huge PDF files.

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For me, lacking search inside a PDF is almost a dealbreaker.

I rely on EN's search capabilities on the go, specially PDFs, specially non-OCR'd PDFs. EN's hability to store any document and find anything inside any document/image is what sets it apart, IMO.

Shipping an update on a mobile system with a broken search (not to mention broken share and clipping functions) is very disappointing.

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I completely agree. In the old pdf viewer (MacOs) it was easy to navigate multiple pdf's in the same note easily by just using the arrow buttons. Up and down to switch between documents, left and right to browse within one document. I used this feature multiple times each day for research, preparing for meetings etcetera. For me this is the main missing feature in the new Evernote version. PLEASE bring this feature back, even if it means there will be differences between Evernote clients.

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