qpdfview

2 open instances of qpdfview

Asked by Erick Paquin

Hi guys,

To me, qpdfview is the best pdf viewer for linux hands down. The single best feature I like about it is that it can "remember" where I was and then pick up from there when I reopen the document. Brilliant.

One thing that I need to perform often though is compare 2 pdf's side-by-side, which so far I haven't been able to do with qpdfview. The version I have on my system is 0.4.14. The problem here is that I can't seem to be able to simply open 2 instances of the program at the same time. If I could, I could simply open 2 instances and divide them side-by-side on my screen to compare files.

Basically any feature that would enable me to compare 2 pdf's side by side would be great. Perhaps I'm just missing something here or need a newer version?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

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qpdfview Edit question
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Solved by:
Adam Reichold
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Best Adam Reichold (adamreichold) said : 		#1

Hello Erick,

I think there are two options that you can do: Beginning with version 0.4.18, qpdfview does support splitting views horizontally and vertically via the tab context menu. This is explicitly intended to read two documents side by side and by default the two views scroll synchronously (this can be disabled via the "synchronize split views" setting).

The other option that should be available already with 0.4.14 is to start qpdfview without the "--unique" command line parameters. The default desktop file does set this parameter, but it also defines a desktop action called "non-unique instance" to launch a new independent instance. (For example, with Unity, KDE or GNOME Shell this should be available in the context menu of the launcher icon.)

(The latter option does interact with restoring tabs though, i.e. the instances are not fully independent by default and act on the same set of stored tabs. You can use the "--instance" parameters (or the "Choose instance" desktop action) to explicitly name the instances so that they will store their tabs independently.)

Regards,
Adam

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Erick Paquin (pking) said : 		#2

Thanks for the tips Adam, removing the --unique parameter worked like a charm! I've now reset qpdfview as my default viewer! Made my day!

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Erick Paquin (pking) said : 		#3

Thanks Adam Reichold, that solved my question.