Ask user to save as if any modifications were made

[katy mith]

Track whether any modifications were made to a document, e.g. form fields changed or annotations added/removed, and ask user to save those before closing a tab or the application.

[Benjamin Eltzner (b-eltzner)]

Hi,
to save annotations, you have to save the file with annotations using the "Save as..." option rather than the "Save copy..." option. Please note that earlier versions including 0.3.7 are affected by this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/qpdfview/+bug/1133257 so you should pick a new name when saving a file. If you tried this procedure and annotations are still discarded, please write again.

[Adam Reichold (adamreichold)]

Hello Katy,

This behavior is intentional, i.e. annotations are saved only if you
explicitly use the "save as" function from the file menu or tool bar.
(In version 0.3.7, it is probably called "save copy", I am not sure at
the moment. Those functions were separated into "save copy" and "save
as" later on.) If you use this to save a new file, it should contain
your annotations and they should be visible using other viewers.

Going forward: From your problem description, I would infer turning this
into a feature request for the program to ask if you want to save the
document if any modifications, i.e. adding or removing annotations, were
made. (If manually saving them works as expected, that is. Could you
please try that out first and report back in?)

Best regards, Adam.

Am 27.08.2013 19:25, schrieb katy mith:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am using qpdfview 0.37 and just found that when I create annotations
> these are not saved automatically when I close qpdfview. I also noticed
> that these annotations are not present when try to view the same pdf
> file using another pdf viewer... help please.
>
> Note : I am using Ubuntu 13.04 64x
>
> thansk
>
> ** Affects: qpdfview
> Importance: Undecided
> Status: New
>

[Adam Reichold (adamreichold)]

Sorry for the lag with respect to comment #1, my network connection is a bit shaky at the moment. Bus as Benjamin and me said, please try manually saving first. Then we can discuss how to improve the usability of annotations...

[Adam Reichold (adamreichold)]

Since there is no further feedback on this issue and we have no information saying otherwise, I'll assume for now that manually saving annotations using "Save as" works and will turn this into a wishlist bug for asking the user to save any modifications made...

[Adam Reichold (adamreichold)]

There is now a first implementation (pessimistic about modifications and without visual indication) linked to this bug report. Please test and report here.

[guinevere (guinevere-nell)]

Using version 0.4.3, which I downloaded thinking it was the latest version - maybe it was when I downloaded it, using Ubuntu, I have filled my document with annotations and ALL EXCEPT ONE seem to be lost (did someone use a scalar variable instead of an array??)

I have now lost about 12 hours of work! Do you ever test your software before releasing it to the public??

You could have greyed out the annotation option, but instead as a user of the software I of course assumed that since they were there, they worked, as one tends to assume. So I have now just wasted about 12 hours of time adding annotations to a document (page proofs for a book) and now they are all lost and I will need to re-do them.

This is extremely unprofessional and disappointing. How can I maintain faith in the open source community when you release software that has features that simply do not work as advertised, despie seeming to the entire time you are using them (until you close and re-open a document)?

[Adam Reichold (adamreichold)]

Hello guinevere,

your accusation of a lack of professionalism is frankly quite funny since this is all spare time work and not done as a profession with even the preamble of the license stating that this is free software and comes without any warranty whatsoever. And yes we do test our software as our limited spare time permits but would of course be glad about any help our users can provide in this regard.

But concerning the actual problem of not saving annotations, you either have triggered a genuine bug which you should then try to isolate and so that we can reproduce and fix it or you have mixed up the two different save operations where "Save copy" decidedly saves an unmodified document and "Save as..." persistently stores modifications such as added annotations (as documented in the online help).

In any case, it would have been much more professional and less rude to try to work with us on the problem instead of just shouting at us, yet transferring no useful information whatsoever while doing so.

Regards, Adam.