Bluebeam PDF Revu

[kostasls]

Frank this toolset is a great help for me
if you have more tricks like that would love to get them

Thanks again for your helpful post!

[Frank]

I'm glad to help someone

I also learned that the "Did you know?" box in PDF Revu is really useful sometimes.
In most programs such tips are senseless, but in PDF Revu some of their tips contain interesting informations, like duplicating a markup to every page, compressing the PDF file, ungrouping pen annotations. Just things which aren't self-evident.

I also thought about customizing the start screen which is saved in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bluebeam Software\Redline\StartPage"
I thought about removing the not needed right column (with the Bluebeam insider and "Getting started", "Directories", ... tabs) and replace it with a list of my frequently used documents. Sadly I'm not that skilled regarding HTML coding and don't know how to do it the best way. Because adding the hyperlinks for each file manually each time is a bit cumbersome.
I also thought about adding something like the open dialog to the start page, sadly I only read that you don't have file access through HTML. But I think PDF Revu uses the IE plugin to display the start page, and thus supports Active X which has the Filesystem object. But well, then it ends for me, because I can't code VBscript, Javascript nor something else like Ajax which could be helpful for this and I also haven't found a similar project in the web.
Maybe I will still add my recent documents to the start page sometime in the future

[MiPe]

I'm glad to help someone

I also learned that the "Did you know?" box in PDF Revu is really useful sometimes.
In most programs such tips are senseless, but in PDF Revu some of their tips contain interesting informations, like duplicating a markup to every page, compressing the PDF file, ungrouping pen annotations. Just things which aren't self-evident.

I also thought about customizing the start screen which is saved in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Bluebeam Software\Redline\StartPage"
I thought about removing the not needed right column (with the Bluebeam insider and "Getting started", "Directories", ... tabs) and replace it with a list of my frequently used documents. Sadly I'm not that skilled regarding HTML coding and don't know how to do it the best way. Because adding the hyperlinks for each file manually each time is a bit cumbersome.
I also thought about adding something like the open dialog to the start page, sadly I only read that you don't have file access through HTML. But I think PDF Revu uses the IE plugin to display the start page, and thus supports Active X which has the Filesystem object. But well, then it ends for me, because I can't code VBscript, Javascript nor something else like Ajax which could be helpful for this and I also haven't found a similar project in the web.
Maybe I will still add my recent documents to the start page sometime in the future

Frank, disregarding their cost as a factor, why I would want to choose in pure technical sense Revu over Acrobat 9 Pro?

[Frank]

Frank, disregarding their cost as a factor, why I would want to choose in pure technical sense Revu over Acrobat 9 Pro?

First a few links where Bluebeam compares their PDF Revu with Acrobat:

• The Acrobat Alternative
• Bluebeam vs. Adobe

And now my opinion:
For me it's easier to read PDF's on Revu than on Acrobat, because it has the more user friendly GUI, a nice navigation/zoom tool which works like a charm with a tablet PC.
It also gives me a much better pen interaction. Smooth curves, pressure sensitivity, automatically recognizes the eraser on the other side of the pen, lasso tool, you can create your custom pens/highlighter and many other tools, like such plotted functions.
A lot of this isn't possible in Acrobat. The GUI is not really tablet PC friendly, you always have to search for tools you need, you don't have toolsets, custom tools and all those nice gimmicks and the pen implementation is useless. You can't write naturally in Acrobat. According to a post on Gottabemobile and a user comment you can buy a Plug-In for Acrobat which gives you smooth inking:

This plugin gives you smooth inking… it’s not using the built-in inking of Acrobat. You can try it for free on their website… Still, $69 is steep…

I haven't tried it, so I don't know it, but if you want to keep Acrobat you should give this Plug-In a try.

Still I much prefer PDF Revu. It just gives me the necessary tools and features which allows me to use it as a note taking application and PDF reader.

I only think you need Acrobat if you need something like the touch up tools and need to OCR your PDF file.
Most of the rest does PDF Revu also, just better and more, especially for a tablet PC user.
I don't even have the Acrobat Reader installed any longer on my tablet, because I like to do everything PDF related with PDF Revu.

[Carter]

Hi,

sorry, I have not read the recent posts of this thread, I have difficult tests next week!

PDF Revu is driving me mad! E.G. I have a annotated pdf file which is 85mb now.
It takes a at least 2 minutes to save it, and sometimes it crashes, and I cannot do a recovery, you can imagine how I feel!

Of course, I am not doing anything else besides office, and 4GB Ram should be enough.

Any help?

[Frank]

Hi,

sorry, I have not read the recent posts of this thread, I have difficult tests next week!

PDF Revu is driving me mad! E.G. I have a annotated pdf file which is 85mb now.
It takes a at least 2 minutes to save it, and sometimes it crashes, and I cannot do a recovery, you can imagine how I feel!

Of course, I am not doing anything else besides office, and 4GB Ram should be enough.

Any help?

Flatten the markups and split the file after a few chapters.
I don't know what exactly you are doing with PDF Revu, but when I use it for note taking, for which it was generally not designed, then I split the file after around 60 MB, depending on the chapters, else it takes too long to save
But for me the recovery worked every time I needed it.
For one lecture I currently have 3 files (57MB (70 Pages), 60MB (62 Pages) and the last, currently active with 20MB), whereas I combine them after this semester again, to get a single PDF file.

[MiPe]

First a few links where Bluebeam compares their PDF Revu with Acrobat:

• The Acrobat Alternative
• Bluebeam vs. Adobe

And now my opinion:
For me it's easier to read PDF's on Revu than on Acrobat, because it has the more user friendly GUI, a nice navigation/zoom tool which works like a charm with a tablet PC.
It also gives me a much better pen interaction. Smooth curves, pressure sensitivity, automatically recognizes the eraser on the other side of the pen, lasso tool, you can create your custom pens/highlighter and many other tools, like such plotted functions.
A lot of this isn't possible in Acrobat. The GUI is not really tablet PC friendly, you always have to search for tools you need, you don't have toolsets, custom tools and all those nice gimmicks and the pen implementation is useless. You can't write naturally in Acrobat. According to a post on Gottabemobile and a user comment you can buy a Plug-In for Acrobat which gives you smooth inking:

I haven't tried it, so I don't know it, but if you want to keep Acrobat you should give this Plug-In a try.

Still I much prefer PDF Revu. It just gives me the necessary tools and features which allows me to use it as a note taking application and PDF reader.

I only think you need Acrobat if you need something like the touch up tools and need to OCR your PDF file.
Most of the rest does PDF Revu also, just better and more, especially for a tablet PC user.
I don't even have the Acrobat Reader installed any longer on my tablet, because I like to do everything PDF related with PDF Revu.

Hey, thanks Frank for the link. It seems that you are a Tablet-celebrity on more sites than just this one. (Read your comment on Acrobat).

[Carter]

Flatten the markups and split the file after a few chapters.
I don't know what exactly you are doing with PDF Revu, but when I use it for note taking, for which it was generally not designed, then I split the file after around 60 MB, depending on the chapters, else it takes too long to save
But for me the recovery worked every time I needed it.
For one lecture I currently have 3 files (57MB (70 Pages), 60MB (62 Pages) and the last, currently active with 20MB), whereas I combine them

after this semester again, to get a single PDF file.

Hi, ok, so can I use the original flattening settings? Or do I have to alter them?

I use pdf revu for this:
all my lectures come with pdf files with the slides of the professor. I use revu to annotate the slides.
One file has 350 pages, which are all "customized" by me!
Ok, I wanted to have one file, instead of too many, but this seems not to work...

Ok, how do I split my big file, without loosing my bookmarks?

[Frank]

Hi, ok, so can I use the original flattening settings? Or do I have to alter them?

I use pdf revu for this:
all my lectures come with pdf files with the slides of the professor. I use revu to annotate the slides.
One file has 350 pages, which are all "customized" by me!
Ok, I wanted to have one file, instead of too many, but this seems not to work...

Ok, how do I split my big file, without loosing my bookmarks?

I don't know what the original settings are. But I would activate the check box "Allow Markup Recovery", so that you can unflatten and hence edit them later again. And then just select the markup types you want to flatten (normally all)
Later, when you want to edit an already flattened markup, just view the page, open the flatten dialog again, select "selected pages" and click unflatten, edit the markup and flatten it again (just make sure that the "Allow Markup Recovery" is checked again)

I don't know a solution to split a PDF and maintain the bookmarks. I did a short google search and on the first page was a free tool which could be useful: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfmerge/
Maybe you give it a try and report the results

It's also possible that after the flattening you don't have to split your document. It may still need a lot of time to save it, but maybe it does not crash any longer and is a tad faster.

edit
PS: When you've flattened the markups with the option "Allow Markup Recovery" and you save the PDF document with a different PDF viewer like Acrobat later, then the recovery informations get lost and you can't unflatten them again.

[leaftye]

The only way I've split a pdf while maintaining bookmarks is to make a complete copy, then delete the pages I don't need.