[Skim-app-users] Single page, zoom to fit, and arrow keys

[Alan Harper (lists)]

Something changed a few versions ago in Skim, and it has been annoying me.
I’m finally reporting this (v. 1.4.28).

It used to be that when you displayed a document as Single page, zoom to
fit, there was a small narrow band of gray above and below each page, and
the up/down arrow keys would always work to flip to the next or previous
page.

Now, sometimes the page is displayed with a narrow gray band only above or
below, and a little bit of the page cut off at the other end (bottom or
top, respectively). In this situation, you need to push the up/down arrow
key once or twice to get the gray band to the “correct” end of the page
display before the arrow key will skip to the next page.

Most annoyingly, if you scroll down to the next page using the down arrow
key you now have to hit the up arrow key twice to move on the current page,
and it is only the 3d push of the up arrow key that moves you to the
previous page.

A

[Christiaan Hofman]

Something changed a few versions ago in Skim, and it has been annoying me. I’m finally reporting this (v. 1.4.28).
It used to be that when you displayed a document as Single page, zoom to fit, there was a small narrow band of gray above and below each page, and the up/down arrow keys would always work to flip to the next or previous page.
Now, sometimes the page is displayed with a narrow gray band only above or below, and a little bit of the page cut off at the other end (bottom or top, respectively). In this situation, you need to push the up/down arrow key once or twice to get the gray band to the “correct” end of the page display before the arrow key will skip to the next page.
Most annoyingly, if you scroll down to the next page using the down arrow key you now have to hit the up arrow key twice to move on the current page, and it is only the 3d push of the up arrow key that moves you to the previous page.
A
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Alan Harper

I cannot reproduce this on 10.12.4. Do you have this OS version?

Also, are you talking about Zoom to Fit, or Automatically resize? (Zoom to Fit is not a setting, it is a one-time zoom action).

Unfortunately, how the page is laid out, in particular when zoomed to fit or automatically resized, is done by Apple’s code. We don’t influence it. Also, ion 10.12, Apple’s code does the handling of the arrows keys to scroll. On 10.12 that basically does the right thing, and Apple has made it impossible to override it because I have no idea anymore how they lay out scrolling views anymore (they changed that fundamentally in 10.12.)

So I’m afraid you have to live with this. The only thing you can do is file a bug report with Apple and hope they will fix this in future OS updates (note that this is about PDFView in Apple’s PDFKit, not particularly about Skim).

Christiaan

[Alan Harper (lists)]

Hi Christiaan

I was afraid that you were going to say what you said. Whatever is
happening is complicated—I get slightly different behavior on different
screens, different machines, and also depending on the aspect ratio of the
pdf page displayed. It used to be that Zoom to Fit + Single Page + Page
Breaks made the display just big enough that there was at least a little
gray on all 4 sides, and the next up arrow or down arrow would always take
you to the next page. Now, depending on I don’t know what, sometimes Zoom
to Fit leaves a little of the page extending beyond the screen on the
right, or below, or above. Or, sometimes it does have a little gray on
every side, but seemingly “not enough”, as the arrow key will move the page
display just a tiny bit, and the *next* arrow key will flip the page.

Thanks for reminding me of Automatically Resize—it doesn’t solve the
problem 100%, but it is a marked improvement.

Good luck with Apple. I won’t file a bug report—if I say “This 3d party
program has a bug, which the author says is due to Apple’s code, 
” they
won’t even finish reading the report, let alone try to identify and fix the
bug. <Sigh!>

A

[Christiaan Hofman]

Post by Alan Harper (lists)
Hi Christiaan
I was afraid that you were going to say what you said. Whatever is happening is complicated—I get slightly different behavior on different screens, different machines, and also depending on the aspect ratio of the pdf page displayed. It used to be that Zoom to Fit + Single Page + Page Breaks made the display just big enough that there was at least a little gray on all 4 sides, and the next up arrow or down arrow would always take you to the next page. Now, depending on I don’t know what, sometimes Zoom to Fit leaves a little of the page extending beyond the screen on the right, or below, or above. Or, sometimes it does have a little gray on every side, but seemingly “not enough”, as the arrow key will move the page display just a tiny bit, and the next arrow key will flip the page.
Thanks for reminding me of Automatically Resize—it doesn’t solve the problem 100%, but it is a marked improvement.
Good luck with Apple. I won’t file a bug report—if I say “This 3d party program has a bug, which the author says is due to Apple’s code, 
” they won’t even finish reading the report, let alone try to identify and fix the bug. <Sigh!>
A

Y0ou can just mention it in general. If you have 10.12. It should not matter that it is in a third party app, because everything (setting the zoom level to fit, key handling, and scrolling) is left to Apple’s code. Also it’s all in stock Apple views with stock Apple handling, without overrides. So that it’s embedded in a third party app should be irrelevant. BTW, “zoom to fit” is exactly the same as “automatically resize” twice.

Christiaan

[Alan Harper (lists)]

I keep forgetting to say, yes, I am on 10.12.4. Thanks for the insight.