Menu bar in annotation editing mode

hyong-gu
edited January 3, 2024
When editing a pdf file on the Zotero iPad app, touching the screen once will show/hide the menubar and inconveniently alters the positioning of the pdf screen.

I would like to suggest either of these two changes:
1) keeping the pdf screen fixed so that tapping on the screen does not change how the pdf is shown (no slight adjustment of the positioning) or
2) making the editing tools show up on the menu bar itself, which in my opinion is very much possible given the ample space in the menu bar.
3) added one more solution in the comment sections after receiving response from zotero staff
  • dstillman
    The point of hiding the toolbar is to give you a full-screen view — it changes the size of the viewport, so the PDF has to shift. If you're not zoomed all the way in it might just shift up/down, but that's because the page is centered in the available space, and the available space changed.

    But you can dock the annotation toolbar on top of the main toolbar if you prefer it there, and then tapping the screen will just show/hide the status bar and page scrubber and the PDF will only shift the height of the status bar. (On a recent iPhone, the annotation toolbar is always below the notch/Dynamic Island, so the PDF won't shift at all.)
  • hyong-gu
    edited January 2, 2024
    @dstillman
    Thank you so much for your response. I understand the intention of the design. Let me make a different suggestion to illustrate the inconvenience I am experiencing.

    Every time I am reading a paper on my iPad, I frequently tap on the screen with my palm accidentally, which deactivates the full-screen view.

    In the current version of the Zotero app, the user must tap once to activate, and also to deactivate.

    I suggest making a slight modification to the interface so that full screen mode is deactivated ONLY by pressing a new button on the annotation toolbar. Unless the user presses this "deactivate full screen (and thus show the menu bar)" button, nothing will happen even if they accidentally/intentionally taps on the view port.

    Personally I would find this added functionality really valuable as it would make annotating papers on iPad Zotero app a dominant choice over using GoodNotes. I think this is a pretty cost efficient alternative to having a palm-rejection feature on GoodNotes.

    Thanks for your consideration!
  • warwickmm
    This sounds related:

    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/448888
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