Angus Leeming wrote:
Paul A. Rubin wrote:
Hi,
A common problem for those of us trapped on Planet Redmond (and using
Acrobat Reader to view PDFs) is that View->PDF and View->PDF (xxx) will
fail if Reader is already open. The PDF file is output, but Reader
claims not to be able to find the file.
On the other hand, File->Export->Custom with the command "acrord32
$$FName" (which I've added to my preferences file) works fine even if
Reader is already open. The PDF version of the document displays in the
already open instance of Reader.
There must be some difference in the way acrord32 is being called, but
it's not visible from the user's perspective. Would it make sense to
alter, in some future version, View->PDF to use the file export
approach? Or would this cause problems either on other platforms or for
people who use other viewers?
The problem is that acrord "locks" the file when it opens it, making it
impossible for anyone else to change it. Asger posted some sample code to
use acrord's API to interact with it programmatically:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=lyx-devel&m=111899480112904
I understand the locking part (I think) but am not sure how it relates.
If acrord is not running when I do View->PDF, I see my doc. While
it's open in acrord, I can edit it but can't view the edits (neither
View->PDF nor View->Update->PDF affects the locked copy acrord is
showing). Ergo, I have to close the copy in acrord in order to view the
changes. I assume that Asger's solution attempts to get acrord to
accept the updated version, but that's not actually what I was talking
about. (Probably means I was unclear.)
The problem I run into is that I have *something else* open in acrord.
Most common scenario: I'm working on a beamer presentation and have the
beamer user guide open. Either I have to close the user guide or I have
to use custom export to see my work in progress. Since custom export
will let me view my doc while keeping the user guide open, I'm thinking
View->PDF should be able to do the same thing the same way (?).
Custom export doesn't solve the problem of document updates -- I have to
close the previous copy in acrord before I can view the updates, same as
with View->PDF. So Asger's solution might be best, if it can be
implemented, but the custom export approach is better than nothing
because it lets me have *other* PDFs open while I view a LyX doc.
I've some ideas on how to proceed:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=lyx-devel&m=111929482404328
but it's not a high priority for me ;-)
Now *that* I understand. :-)
-- Paul
