Version: (using KDE KDE 4.0.0) Installed from: Compiled From Sources OS: Linux Selecting text to copy in Okular currently requires the user to select the "Text Selection" tool from the menu first, before they can select and copy any text. I think it would feel more natural if Okular automatically recognised when there was text under the cursor and switched to text selection mode. The idea is taken from Evince (gnome 2.20), which implements this feature for text and images. The use case here is that I have a report which I am writing open in OpenOffice Writer and a number of PDFs of background reading and research open in Okular windows, I often switch between them to copy a single quotation, phrase or reference from the PDF to the report in Writer.
Although it would be nice to select one word on double click on it.
+1 SumatraPDF (OpenSource) for windows behaves the same. http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/ This intelligent behavior is really useful if you have to go trough a pdf, copying some text sections and then move to another place in the pdf. Some more usability suggestions for the selection tool: - using the right mouse button activates the another selection tool (many possibilities: text-selection if browse tool is active, rectangle-selection if text-selection is active, ...) - The shift, alt and crtl keys should be used to switch the selection tool as long as they are pressed. By the way: The table selection tool is a really cool feature I never saw in another pdf viewer!
There are two ways we could improve usability regarding text selection: - Make the "Text Selection Tool" the default choice for the button in the toolbar instead of (Rectangle) "Selection" (easy). - Default to selecting text rather than starting in Browse tool mode, or make it automatic (harder). See also Bug 306886 in this context.
(In reply to Henrik Fehlauer from comment #3) > There are two ways we could improve usability regarding text selection: > - Make the "Text Selection Tool" the default choice for the button in the > toolbar instead of (Rectangle) "Selection" (easy). > - Default to selecting text rather than starting in Browse tool mode, or > make it automatic (harder). See also Bug 306886 in this context. I recently created a review request for the second approach (easy variant, defaulting to text selection mode): https://phabricator.kde.org/D9336 In the end, it's always somehow a "matter of taste" which mode is "best", so I created that also to receive feedback on what others think and will certainly not be offended in case another decision is taken in the end...
@michaelweghorn: Ahh, sorry. I definitely noticed that, but somehow it's still on my list of things to review. I'll try to get back to you once I find the time.
(In reply to Henrik Fehlauer from comment #5) > @michaelweghorn: Ahh, sorry. I definitely noticed that, but somehow it's > still on my list of things to review. I'll try to get back to you once I > find the time. Thank you for the reply. It's not urgent in my opinion. One way or the other, I think it would be good to provide the user with a default choice where the most important things "just work" without having to switch between different modes (since quite some people are confused about this and/or don't even know there are different modes at all...).
(In reply to Henrik Fehlauer from comment #3) > There are two ways we could improve usability regarding text selection: > - Make the "Text Selection Tool" the default choice for the button in the > toolbar instead of (Rectangle) "Selection" (easy). At least this is done with https://phabricator.kde.org/D21622
I am searching for a bug report where it is suggested that the “Browse” tool should be less stupid and be able to select text when the user clearly tries to do that. I think there was another report about this, but I can find only this one. I extended the title a bit, to mention mouse modes. :)
*** Bug 453614 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***