Acrobat/Reader - Synchronized Scrolling Two (Or More) PDF Documents




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Update (11/01/2017): A FREE demo version of this tool is now available here.
It can be used to test it out, but it only contains the "Scroll Down" command.

Another New Feature: You can now easily align the viewing position of all the open files with the active one.

New Feature:  The tool can now scroll any number of open files, not just two, as requested.

Comparing PDF documents side by side is a common DTP task in Acrobat or Reader, but the problem is you can't scroll two documents at the same time, so keeping them aligned can be difficult and time consuming.
That is the reason I've developed this new script which allows you to keep your documents in perfect alignment while you review them.

You can select the scrolling offset (in points) and then scroll both documents up, down, to the left, to the right, or skip pages forwards or backwards, all in perfect sync.

The windows themselves can be arranged at whatever configuration you find most comfortable, and can even be placed on different monitors.

IMPORTANT: This script does not allow you to synchronize the scrolling of the files using the mouse or the keyboard arrows directly. It only works through the buttons that it adds to the interface of the application.

After installing the script, the new scrolling options are available under a new sub-menu under the Window menu, as well as under the Tools menu (or toolbar, for easy access):

(click to enlarge)




And after using the Scroll Down option, the documents have simultaneously scrolled and now look like this:
(click to enlarge)


For more information about this tool, you can contact me directly.

14 comments:

Thomas said...

Will this work with more than two pdfs? Say ten?
I have ten scanned questionnaires I want to sync scroll so I can compare answers to questions easily.
Thanks!

Gilad D. (try67) said...

Hi Thomas,

For the moment the script can only handle 2 files, but actually I don't see any reason not to extend it to work with all the currently open files. Expect an update soon!

Gilad D. (try67) said...

UPDATE: The tool can now handle any number of files, not just two...

Tim Pritchard said...

Windows only? Or will this script work with OS X versions of Acrobat as well? I suppose extending the functionality to OS X's Preview app would be asking too much, correct?

Thanks in advance.

Tim Pritchard said...

Will this script work with OS X versions of Acrobat as well? And would it be extensible to Preview app in OS X?

Thanks in advance.

Gilad D. (try67) said...

Hi Tim,

The tool works with both Windows and Mac versions of Acrobat/Reader, but not with Preview.

Unknown said...

Hi,

The scrolling plug-in allows two PDF windows to be synched, and an offset can be set, but we don't know if it can handle drift. If we have for example 2 documents, English and translation in French (translation results to be always longer than the source), as the English and French scroll, the English eventually starts moving ahead faster (because shorter); is it possible to update the offset while scrolling down, to keep the longer PDF in synch with the shorter one, or is this a feature you could add in the future?

thanks a lot!

Gilad D. (try67) said...

Hi Federico,

No, at the moment it's not possible. Both files are scrolled at the same time to the same location... But what you're describing is interesting and I will consider implementing it.

Unknown said...

I second what Frederico said - I often have to compare an old scanned book edition with the newly set text, and having a control of the "drift scale" would be a great enhancement!

Gilad D. (try67) said...

To everyone who expressed an interest: I did some in depth testing and the script already does what was requested! You can scroll one file down or up and then click on of the sync scroll buttons and the offset you created between the files will be preserved.

You can use the new Align Files feature to get all files aligned exactly like the current file you're viewing.

Richard said...

Hi. Would it be possible to see a video of the synced scrolling of multiple PDF docs?

Thanks in advance.

Richard said...

Hi

The descriptions mentioned above sound useful to me. I would be even more persuaded if I could see short video of 2 or 3 pdfs being scrolled in sync.

Thanks

Richard said...

Hi

I am interested in the feature description in the comment so far. Would it be possible to see a video of 3 pdfs being scrolled synchronously?

Thanks

Gilad D. (try67) said...

@Richard

I will post a video of it in action later on.

(Sorry about the delay in replying. The comment was stuck in a hidden moderation queue.)